|
|
|
|
<div id="readability-page-1" class="page">
|
|
|
|
|
<div id="textArea">
|
|
|
|
|
<h3></h3>
|
|
|
|
|
<p>Feb. 23, 2015 -- Life-threatening peanut allergies have mysteriously been
|
|
|
|
|
on the rise in the past decade, with little hope for a cure.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
<p xmlns:xalan="http://xml.apache.org/xalan">But a groundbreaking new study may offer a way to stem that rise, while
|
|
|
|
|
another may offer some hope for those who are already allergic.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
<p>Parents have been told for years to avoid giving foods containing peanuts
|
|
|
|
|
to babies for fear of triggering an allergy. Now research shows the opposite
|
|
|
|
|
is true: Feeding babies snacks made with peanuts before their first birthday
|
|
|
|
|
appears to prevent that from happening.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
<p>The study is published in the <i>New England Journal of Medicine,</i> and
|
|
|
|
|
it was presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Allergy,
|
|
|
|
|
Asthma and Immunology in Houston. It found that among children at high
|
|
|
|
|
risk for getting peanut allergies, eating peanut snacks by 11 months of
|
|
|
|
|
age and continuing to eat them at least three times a week until age 5
|
|
|
|
|
cut their chances of becoming allergic by more than 80% compared to kids
|
|
|
|
|
who avoided peanuts. Those at high risk were already allergic to egg, they
|
|
|
|
|
had the skin condition <a href="http://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/eczema/default.htm"
|
|
|
|
|
onclick="return sl(this,'','embd-lnk');" class="Article">eczema</a>, or
|
|
|
|
|
both.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
<p>Overall, about 3% of kids who ate peanut butter or peanut snacks before
|
|
|
|
|
their first birthday got an allergy, compared to about 17% of kids who
|
|
|
|
|
didn’t eat them.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
<p>“I think this study is an astounding and groundbreaking study, really,”
|
|
|
|
|
says Katie Allen, MD, PhD. She's the director of the Center for Food and
|
|
|
|
|
Allergy Research at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Melbourne,
|
|
|
|
|
Australia. Allen was not involved in the research.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
<p>Experts say the research should shift thinking about how kids develop
|
|
|
|
|
<a
|
|
|
|
|
href="http://www.webmd.com/allergies/guide/food-allergy-intolerances" onclick="return sl(this,'','embd-lnk');"
|
|
|
|
|
class="Article">food allergies</a>, and it should change the guidance doctors give to
|
|
|
|
|
parents.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
<p>Meanwhile, for children and adults who are already <a href="http://www.webmd.com/allergies/guide/nut-allergy"
|
|
|
|
|
onclick="return sl(this,'','embd-lnk');" class="Article">allergic to peanuts</a>,
|
|
|
|
|
another study presented at the same meeting held out hope of a treatment.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
<p>A new skin patch called Viaskin allowed people with peanut allergies to
|
|
|
|
|
eat tiny amounts of peanuts after they wore it for a year.</p><a name="1"> </a>
|
|
|
|
|
<h3>A Change in Guidelines?</h3>
|
|
|
|
|
<p>Allergies to peanuts and other foods are on the rise. In the U.S., more
|
|
|
|
|
than 2% of people react to peanuts, a 400% increase since 1997. And reactions
|
|
|
|
|
to peanuts and other tree nuts can be especially severe. Nuts are the main
|
|
|
|
|
reason people get a life-threatening problem called <a href="http://www.webmd.com/allergies/guide/anaphylaxis"
|
|
|
|
|
onclick="return sl(this,'','embd-lnk');" class="Article">anaphylaxis</a>.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
|
</div>
|