Thriving – the Boston Children’s Hospital Pediatric Health Blog – posted a piece today on peanut allergies – “A potential breakthrough for peanut allergy treatment.”
Peanut allergies are growing at an alarming pace in the United States. A recent study shows the number of reported peanut allergies tripled in just over a decade. Thriving informs their readers “because allergic reactions to peanuts tend to be the most severe—80 to 95 percent of all food allergy deaths are peanut or tree nut related—the trend is a serious cause for concern.”
Today Thriving reviewed a small pilot study published by the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. The study was conducted by researchers from Boston Children’s Hospital’s Division of Allergy and Immunology and Harvard Medical School using patients with the most severe peanut/tree nut allergies. Thriving notes, “The study shows that by combining a powerful anti-allergy medication and a methodical desensitization process, Boston Children’s researchers may be on their way to creating the next best thing to a cure for peanut allergy.”
According to Thriving, “By the time the year-long study had concluded, 12 of the 13 participants were tolerating up to 20 peanuts a day without receiving any additional medication, apart from the occasional anti-histamine. (One participant left the study during the fifteenth week, because of persistent nausea and vomiting.) ”
This is promising news for those who live with peanut/tree nut allergies.
If you are interested in the details you can read the Thriving post here.
UPTON DAILY 