[Food] Peanut Allergy Cured in 80% of Kids in Trial

[Eriol]

Wow that looks like a spam/clickbait headline, but it appears true:
Peanut allergy cured in majority of children in immunotherapy trial

Aussie researchers make major breakthrough for peanut allergy - Autoplay warning on this one!

2nd one there has autoplay video, but it's about the story, and it's from in-country and an interview with the doctor who ran the trial, so kinda worth it. 48 kids in the trial, randomized (so 24-ish got the real treatment), and this is 4 years later. 82% success rate according to the articles, with 4% getting better on the placebo.

From the summaries, it appears that they gave yogurt (Lactobacillus rhamnosus bacteria) with minute and then ever-increasing amounts of the protein to those who could tolerate it, until they were 100% OK. And it persists as time goes on.

This is related-to a study that was the topic of a Healthcare Triage episode where it was shown that if you take groups of kids where some have a peanut sensitivity, and feed half of them peanuts, and keep it away from the other half, almost all of the kids fed peanuts do NOT end up with an allergy, and many of those who had a sensitivity are fine too, while keeping it away from kids who didn't have a sensitivity (or who did) will give them an allergy. Same general idea, but no yogurt, and a higher number of people in the trial.


This is amazing for at least two reasons IMO:

1. Less allergies mean better quality of life for the kids for the rest of their lives. This will save them both tonnes of stress over their lives, not to mention money NOT having to buy alternatives, or even keeping an EpiPen around all the time. The mother in the video mentions some of this too. Overall, better quality of life with no expense either! Win-win!
2. How does this possibly help eliminate other allergies? Success in one area could have knock-on effects elsewhere. Hell, the whole auto-immune field could potentially be affected by this, which is BEYOND huge. Any case of successfully re-programming the immune system to not go nuts (Zing!) on things that it shouldn't is awesome. Diabetes, many forms (if not all) of arthritis, asthma, MS, and a number of others are all auto-immune. If you can tell the immune system to "chill" without impairing its effectiveness against actual disease, that's amazing. At its extreme end, could you even program the immune system to not respond to a newly-transplanted organ? And if one end of the scale, why not the other? Some are training immune systems to fight cancer through genetic research. Awesome, keep at it, but if we can master the mechanisms of the immune system, maybe even less-invasive and more precise methods can be used for the same (or better) ends.

So this is great. I hope the results are reproducible on a large scale. Even if it only helps 75-80% of people with such an allergy, that's still a massive number of people. And combine that with the "don't stay away, eat everything!" advice for expectant and new mothers, food and environmental allergies could be on the decline, which is great.

 

[Dave]

Allergies like this only started when we started treating our kids like little porcelain dolls and not allowing them to get dirty or take risks. We wrapped them in bubble wrap and their immune systems were never introduced to enough germs to build a defense.

 

[Bubble181]

Allergies like this only started when we started treating our kids like little porcelain dolls and not allowing them to get dirty or take risks. We wrapped them in bubble wrap and their immune systems were never introduced to enough germs to build a defense.

While I absolutely agree such things only really started to explode on the scene after we got convinced by the cleaning industry kids should grow up in a germ-free house and all that crap, saying it "only started" then is like saying autism didn't exist before the 1950s. It's BS. People still had the same issues, but either just learned to cope, simply weren't confronted with their allergen all that often, or they simply were "sickly" or died.

 

[Dave]

The CDC has only documented 13 deaths from peanut allergies between 1996 and 2006. 13. This is another case of a solution in search of a problem.

 

[Gared]

The CDC has only documented 13 deaths from peanut allergies between 1996 and 2006. 13. This is another case of a solution in search of a problem.

Sure, there've only been 13 documented deaths from peanut allergies, but what about all of the side effects? Peanut butter is still one of the lowest-cost sources of protein and fiber for low-income families in the US. However, thanks to the fact that there are kids with severe peanut allergies, peanut butter has been banned in schools (not all of them) across the country to help protect those kids. Now, I'm all for protecting people - but wouldn't it be great it we could help people (even 75% - 80% of people) with a severe peanut allergy by treating the person with the allergy, instead of isolating them from their allergen by restricting what everyone who may come in contact with that person is allowed to eat/bring to school?

 

[Eriol]

The CDC has only documented 13 deaths from peanut allergies between 1996 and 2006. 13. This is another case of a solution in search of a problem.

0.6% of your population apparently has this allergy, which is 323.1M * 0.006 = 1.9386Million people. (population is from google)

So close enough to 2 million for the sake of our discussion. If you could get 1.6M people (80%) able to eat peanuts again, that's non-trivial. Every one of those people should have an Epi-Pen, which is expensive, and needs replacing. Plus all the other crap they have to go through every day just to deal with their allergy. As @Gared said, peanut butter is a wonderful low-cost protein, which should actually help the diet of many, both children and adults.

This is a one-time treatment it appears, so it's not even a "new treatment" that will cost them forever. This is a CURE. Hardly a "solution in search of a problem" Dave.

 

[Denbrought]

The CDC has only documented 13 deaths from peanut allergies between 1996 and 2006. 13. This is another case of a solution in search of a problem.

Children's food allergies in the U.S., according to the best source I could dredge up, have an overall economic impact of about $25B. Since the authors did not release data granular enough, I make no claims about what percentage of the economic impact corresponds to peanuts, but they claim that 28% of the 8% of children with allergies had a peanut allergy.

Any research toward reducing that economic impact seems worth it, specially if it results in cheap treatments.

 

[GasBandit]

My mother's youngest brother, if I am to believe the contents of the old home movies I have watched, spent much of his second year of life sitting in a wood-walled flowerbed literally eating dirt.

Literally. Eating. Garden. Dirt.

By the tiny fat-fisted handfull.

You know there had to have been fertilizer in that dirt.

You know what goes into fertilizer.

And my grandmother's narration was basically "Oh, there goes Eric, eating dirt again."

Now, I'm not saying there's causation, but my uncle isn't allergic to anything.

 

[drawn_inward]

My mother's youngest brother, if I am to believe the contents of the old home movies I have watched, spent much of his second year of life sitting in a wood-walled flowerbed literally eating dirt.

Literally. Eating. Garden. Dirt.

By the tiny fat-fisted handfull.

You know there had to have been fertilizer in that dirt.

You know what goes into fertilizer.

And my grandmother's narration was basically "Oh, there goes Eric, eating dirt again."

Now, I'm not saying there's causation, but my uncle isn't allergic to anything.

You can get shit from a healthy person in pill form to relieve gut issues!
http://www.npr.org/sections/health-...-poop-pills-fight-life-threatening-infections

My one year old ate a few handfuls of sand at the beach last year. We though one would have taught her, but nope she kept at it.

 

[PatrThom]

Yes. You need to teach your immune system who the enemy is.
...because if you don't, it will attack you.

--Patrick

 

[Ravenpoe]

Yes. You need to teach your immune system who the enemy is.
...because if you don't, it will attack you.

--Patrick

My immune system is a vicious predator.

This isn't as good as it sounds, as I also have an auto-immune disorder.

 

[blotsfan]

Allergies like this only started when we started treating our kids like little porcelain dolls and not allowing them to get dirty or take risks. We wrapped them in bubble wrap and their immune systems were never introduced to enough germs to build a defense.

I mean, single celled organisms weren't around back when you were a kid and you don't have any peanut allergies.

 

[PatrThom]

I mean, single celled organisms weren't around back when you were a kid and you don't have any peanut allergies.

That's because they had to build up their defenses against him.

--Patrick

 

[blotsfan]

That's because they had to build up their defenses against him.

--Patrick

 

[Officer_Charon]

TIL that Dave is the immunological Chuck Norris.

 

[Squidleybits]

My immune system is a hot mess. One of my autoimmune diseases is chronic hives and my most severe trigger is water. I wish there was a way that I could have a treatment like this so I could stop reacting.

Even though I'm no longer on my biologic that I was rejecting, I still have water issues. I had a wicked attack this weekend from the humidity in the air after we had a torrential downpour.

 

[Eriol]

Update/related to this: New Montreal clinic aims to desensitize children to food allergies

In the coming months, dozens of children with food allergies will begin a treatment to desensitize them to their allergens as part of a three-year pilot project at Montreal's Sainte-Justine hospital.

Oral immunotherapy involves consuming small portions of the food they're allergic to each day.

The amount is gradually increased, with the goal of bettering the patient's quality of life and decreasing the risk of an allergic reaction if they accidentally consume the wrong foods.

The success rate is around 70 to 80 per cent, according to a researcher in the field.

I'm glad this general idea/approach is getting more attention. Let's hope it pans out for many forms/types of allergies, but anything is a win.

 

[Dave]

I'm allergic to big breasted blonde nympho chicks.

(Or is it that they are allergic to me? Either way I like this study.)