Eating small amounts of peanut after allergy treatment may extend its longevity: study
| Feb 25, 2019, 16:17 IST
This may sound weird, but hear us out. It’s actually backed by a new study. Turns out you can increase the longevity of oral immunotherapy or sublingual immunotherapy for peanut allergy by consumption of small portions of peanut.
The study that was led by Edwin Kim was presented in the annual American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (AAAAI) conference in San Francisco. The study followed 55 people who had completed OIT or SLIT peanut immunotherapy trials at UNC-Chapel Hill and were desensitised to between 300mg and 5,000mg of peanut.
Interestingly, desensitisation increases the amount of peanut it takes to cause an allergic reaction, decreasing the likelihood of a severe reaction caused by accidental peanut exposure.
After receiving complaints about immunotherapy trial from the participants, the team was encouraged to introduce containing peanuts into their diets with a goal of about 300 mg of peanut each day. As part of their long-term follow-up, participants were asked to report how much they ate, how often they ate it and how they felt afterward.
The majority of participants continued regularly eating peanuts daily for up to eight years after completing immunotherapy.
Among the participants who still ate peanuts, the median amount of daily consumption was 600 mg. No reactions from accidental ingestions were reported for the 55 participants, but ten people reported allergic reactions to the daily peanut foods they introduced into their diet.
The majority of reactions were mild and treated with antihistamines, however three reactions required epinephrine and two required EMS.
However, Kim concludes by saying more longitudinal studies need to be done, but he and colleagues are hopeful this research can be applied to other types of food allergies.
The study that was led by Edwin Kim was presented in the annual American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (AAAAI) conference in San Francisco. The study followed 55 people who had completed OIT or SLIT peanut immunotherapy trials at UNC-Chapel Hill and were desensitised to between 300mg and 5,000mg of peanut.
Interestingly, desensitisation increases the amount of peanut it takes to cause an allergic reaction, decreasing the likelihood of a severe reaction caused by accidental peanut exposure.
After receiving complaints about immunotherapy trial from the participants, the team was encouraged to introduce containing peanuts into their diets with a goal of about 300 mg of peanut each day. As part of their long-term follow-up, participants were asked to report how much they ate, how often they ate it and how they felt afterward.
The majority of participants continued regularly eating peanuts daily for up to eight years after completing immunotherapy.
Among the participants who still ate peanuts, the median amount of daily consumption was 600 mg. No reactions from accidental ingestions were reported for the 55 participants, but ten people reported allergic reactions to the daily peanut foods they introduced into their diet.
The majority of reactions were mild and treated with antihistamines, however three reactions required epinephrine and two required EMS.
However, Kim concludes by saying more longitudinal studies need to be done, but he and colleagues are hopeful this research can be applied to other types of food allergies.