The Internet is [typography font=”Lobster” size=”24″ size_format=”px”]blazing today[/typography] with stories about a study conducted at John Hopkins University regarding children with egg allergies “being cured” or improved thanks to Oral Immunotherapy. Oral Immunoltherapy (OIT) is when a patient is given increasing doses of a food with the hopes of tolerating the allergen or easing the seriousness of an allergic reaction. Truly, is it is not a cure, but we are on the right path! This is great news thanks to Dr. Wesley Burks and Dr. Stacie Jones!
But…since it sounds easy and simple I think it is human nature to want to try this at home. OIT is still considered experimental and should only be conducted under physician care and in a controlled environment-prepared to handle a serious allergic reaction. The goal of this study and OIT is to ever so slowly desensitize folks with food allergies by exposing them to larger and larger doses of the allergen. OIT is showing great promise although some patients dropped out of the study when they had reactions and some lost their tolerance to the allergen when they stopped eating it for one month. So, if you go down this path, you need to be ready to eat that past allergen on a regular basis!
To give a quick snapshot of today’s articles about this Egg Oral Immunotherapy and a possible cure…please take a look at the links below!
image courtesy of contrarian-investor.com
New England Journal of Medicine: “Oral Immunotherapy for Treatment of Egg Allergy in Children”
WebMd: “Exposure Therapy Works For Food Allergies”
Fox News: Dr. Wesley Burks
From Health 24- Dr. Stacie Jones
One of the hardest things I find about managing both life threatening food allergies and asthma is talking to others. I hate to be the one that might be perceived as demanding, pushing or for asking too much. What I now know, fourteen years later, is that honest, clear information presented with kindness works!..
I don’t want to rain on your parade, but the desensitization research has been going on (slowly and carefully) for many years now at John Hopkins, Duke University and someplace in Chicago. It shows a lot of promise, but many times individuals with food allergies are simply too sensitive to even the tiniest amounts of the allergen to go through the therapy. (There’s also some interesting work being done at Mt. Sinai into a new drug derived from a Chinese herb.)
I agree, though, it’s positive news, and I hope only for the best!
Hi Libby, you’re not raining…it’s all positive steps forward. I think what is so frustrating is that truly funding has been so limited for research in these areas. My nephew is a researcher and when he choose his area of focus he looked at food allergies, but the funding was too limited at that point in time. It is improving and has been there, but without much fanfare. I have a friend whose son is participating in the Chinese Herb therapy with good success and that therapy personally has me interested. Although, I have to say that I am a bit skeptical regarding desensitization the long term the efficacy. Bottom line, we’re all hoping each step is one valuable piece of the puzzle!