Living life with a peanut allergy can be very difficult, especially when there are always new, delicious peanut butter foods coming out. However, Australian scientists may have found the way to cure peanut allergies in children.
The long-term study
The new study uses a form of immunotherapy to try to cure children of their allergy. This involves combining probiotics with small doses of peanuts in order to slowly train the child's immune system into accepting the allergen instead of trying to fight it. The probiotics were added to boost the child's ability to digest peanuts and to prevent an immune system reaction.
The study followed the children for four years. After that, 67 percent of the children treated with the probiotic-peanut mix could eat peanuts comfortably compared to 4 percent who did not get the treatment to begin with. Other children in the study showed minimal Allergic Reactions to skin-prick tests with a peanut allergen.
It is too early to call this a cure, as we have not seen the long term effects. It is believed that adding the probiotics is what truly helps the children be able to eat peanuts without a severe allergic reaction. However, the probiotics have not been tested by themselves yet.
Struggles for people with peanut allergies
For many people, having a peanut allergy would seem like a disappointment and slight annoyance, but easy to avoid a reaction.
Quite the opposite is true. Not only do people with peanut allergies have to deal with the cost of EpiPens, they also have to check every food item that they eat for traces of peanuts and other nuts. Peanut allergies have a wide range of severity and rarely sticks to just peanuts. A lot of people with peanut allergies don't eat any nuts at all.
Some people with allergies can have a reaction just based on skin contact. Having a peanut allergy also includes checking the label on almost everything you eat and asking questions at restaurants about the food.
Many candy bars and other food items are processed in factories and plants that also manufacture products with nuts in them.
People with allergies to peanuts and tree nuts, in general, have to read the label to see how safe their food is. A lot of food in restaurants is fried in peanut oil, as well as different kinds of fried snacks and potato chips. Many places have started to offer allergy-friendly options to food in order not to exclude anyone and to avoid possible allergic reactions.
