EEEK!

The opening paragraph tells us:

You can be assured that anaphylaxis to airborne food particles is very rare. An allergic reaction to food will not occur because someone is eating it in a classroom or vicinity of the allergic person. The main reason for advising that the allergenic food not be brought into a classroom is the potential for an allergic child to accidentally ingest some by sharing food. Secondary reasons (less likely to cause anaphylaxis because of the smaller quantities involved) are cross-contamination of desks, toys etc.

He goes on to tell us that the smell of peanuts in the air does not come from the peanut protein.  Note, though, that peanut dust in the air can cause a reaction. Like if a room full of people opened packages of peanuts at the same time.

Give the Allergic Living article a read to set your mind at ease, or at least part of your mind

If they can create a peanut that is low allergy, when will they be able to create one that is NO allergy?

I know there is the camp that is against the whole genetic manipulation of food, but it’s very cool and promising.

Besides, genetically modifying food and plants may lead us to some very important medical discoveries!

Researchers are working on peanuts that are low allergy, which could put an end to the problems the popular seed can cause.

Through mixing varieties, the US team has managed to remove or reduce key proteins thought to spark the allergy.

They stress the resulting peanuts are not genetically modified but the product of conventional cross-breeding.

Peanut allergies are relatively common and usually cause breathing problems.

But at their most serious, they can lead to a potentially life-threatening anaphylactic shock.

Read on…

via BBC News – Hopes rise for low allergy peanut.

Canada’s first nationwide food allergy survey shows that about 1.7 per cent of children under 18 have a probable peanut allergy, while another 1.59 per cent have a probable allergy to tree nuts, such as hazelnuts and walnuts.

This study was from 2008-2009 and was conducted over the phone to 10000 families. That’s a good sized sample and shows that a great many children are affected.

It’s also notable that there is a great difference between results in the US and Canada.

He says the rates are higher in Canada than in the U.S. — a 2002 American study found that 0.83 per cent of children have peanut allergies and 0.51 per cent are allergic to tree nuts.

Keep in mind the time between studies. It is possible for those results to have changed in 6 years.

Read the whole article here.

Thanks, Maggie!

By, Maggie Pingolt

PHOENIX- Waking up the day of high school graduation is typically a gift from the gods, a chance to leave the confines of an underage life with parents.  For some with food allergies, it’s just another day of heightened awareness.  One misstep at the party buffet and the night is ruined in hives, sneezing or anaphylactic shock.

Going to college is a difficult tradition in and of itself.  In addition to a life threatening condition like food allergies, teens and young adults are at the highest risk of death because of vehicle accidents, drug overdose, and alcohol intoxication.

Chelsey Heath, a freshman at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, has an anaphylactic peanut allergy.  She feels many young adults with food allergies do not practice healthy behaviors.

The Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network says, “A study showed that teens with food allergy and asthma appear to be at the highest risk for a reaction, because they are more likely to take risks when away from home, are less likely to carry medications, and may ignore or not recognize symptoms. “

The inability to accurately assess risk is one reason many college students with food allergies disassociate themselves with behaviors that may prevent an allergic reaction.  Some students may find healthy, safe options difficult to find on campus; others may feel they’re invincible to reactions.

“I’m a very type-A person, but the average student who goes and get’s drunk could be in real danger.  How many people would be able and willing to help them if they went into anaphylactic shock?” says Heath.

Anaphylactic shock, the most detrimental of reactions, is categorized by a change in blood pressure, swelling of the esophagus and difficulty breathing.  Symptoms may also include hives, swollen lips and change in skin tone. All reactions within the anaphylaxis range are deadly and must be treated immediately.

Studies indicate those with food allergies are likely to struggle with more than one food allergy and a culmination of other allergies; including medicines, animal danders’ and pollen.

Heath is also allergic to wool, rayon, grass, cigarette smoke, nickel, and her own sweat (which results in a heat rash).  She’s not alone.

“There’s very little conception of food allergies.  Some people don’t always take it seriously and they think I’m just being picky but I respond, ‘Uh, I’ll show you what picky is when I can’t breath.’”

Google.com searches of “college students and food allergies” reveal many different blogs, recipes and online support groups; but are college services up to par?

Jessica Miller a 22-year-old secondary education-biological sciences major at ASU, was diagnosed with a citrus allergy the summer before ninth grade and has a reason to complain.  As she ages her allergy has gotten progressively worse.

Miller says the biggest difficulty is ingesting her allergen without any knowledge of doing so; ASU’s dining hall on the downtown campus poses concerns with soups, sauces or fruit salads.

“I have a problem with some of the ways different restaurants (including the dining halls on campus) can’t give you an explanation about what is in the food.

“If you ask someone, you usually have to wait and see if the chef is available to get a list of ingredients and they’re very inconsistent with their signs,” complains Miller.

Taylor Stelk, second-year food science major at the University of Nebraska, comes from the other side of the fence.

“College campus knowledge of food allergies is (at least to me) surprisingly high.  Perhaps this is because I live on a campus that has a well-based department of food allergies, but dining services do provide meals to those with food allergies,” says Stelk.

As a researcher in food industries’ maintenance of allergen-free products, Stelk rates the general public’s knowledge as decent. “The food industry has begun to create products that are ‘gluten-free’, ‘peanut free’, but I do not the think it is common knowledge of how prevalent some allergens are in a wide variety of foods.

“Many people don’t consider the fact that many food producers create dozens of products in one facility.”

Lindsey Mock, a nursing student at ASU with a shellfish allergy, believes safety and awareness are the responsibility of the person with the food allergy.

“I did not need to make any special arrangements before going to school/living in the dormitories, since I stay away from food products (that may contain shellfish). Products have a list of ingredients, so consumers can check for their food allergy,” Mock says.

However, because manufactured food is such a staple for busy college students, the risk can be high.

The recommended class load for the average student is 16 credits.  With class time, study sessions, regular exercise, work and a social life, preparing meals multiple times a day can be challenging.

Preparing meals multiple times a day on a limited variety of food isn’t any easier.

Dr. Michael Manning, an allergy specialist in Scottsdale, Ariz., responds to the complexity of the disease as the antagonist in finding a cure.

“The allergic reaction to a food is due to a very specific immune response to a particular protein, of a group of proteins, that are found in a food. Typically there is a major protein responsible for triggering the reaction, the allergen is the protein found in the food.

“The more we know about the proteins involved, the more we can target what is needed to turn the reaction off.  However, it is difficult to use the term ‘cure’ with allergic disease because the individual has a genetic predisposition to make allergic antibodies- it is very difficult to completely shut that system down.”

Dr. Douglas Lake, an immunology and allergy expert at ASU explains the genetic predisposition of food allergies in the context of an autoimmune disease.

Problems arise in the most basic aspects of the chemical composition of proteins.  Because proteins are comprised of many different molecular relationships like amino acid sequences, carboxyl groups and R-groups, finding the actual cause is like finding a needle in a never-ending haystack.

Lake points out the difficulty of food allergies in the body’s translation of amino acids.  People’s ability to digest a given protein is written in his or her DNA, and each protein’s particular structure is “written” in the sequence of their amino acids.

All amino acids are constructed from different arrangements of hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon, and oxygen.

Because of the infinite arrangements from such basic elements, it’s especially hard to pinpoint a medicinal direction to study when there’s such complexity in a given protein.

Marc Dufour, a father of a child with food allergies, sees the rising prevalence in media as a positive incentive for more studies.

“There are a lot of interesting theories these days and this is encouraging because it means food allergies are a topic of interest and discussion, and related research is finally on the front burner.”

Sources:

http://www.aafa.org/esg_results.cfm?state=AZ

http://www.fda.gov/Food/LabelingNutrition/default.htm

http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/short/362/9/779

http://www.allergicliving.com/features.asp?copy_id=67

http://www.foodallergy.org/

http://www2.med.umich.edu/prmc/media/newsroom/details.cfm?ID=521

Chemistry, the Central Science, 11 edition

This article reviews a new study from Mcmaster University and Dalhousie University in Halifax where 30 children with peanut allergies are going through the ingestion immunotherapy process.

One notable difference in thsi study compared to the one done in the US is that they will be allowing in children with severe reactions. The study in the US worked only with children whose allergic reactions were mild.

Snippit

Encouraged by the positive results of British and American trials on oral immunotherapy and peanut allergies, Canada will soon begin its own research.

The study, being run by Hamilton’s McMaster University and Dalhousie University in Halifax, will focus on 30 children with peanut allergies. They will ingest small quantities of peanuts over an extended period of time.

The British and American trials have shown that gradual and steady exposure to the peanut allergen can reduce or, in some cases, eliminate reactions altogether.

Researchers aren’t calling it a cure, but it could be a big step in the right direction.

“Children in the U.S. and England have been given tiny amounts of peanuts and it appears to be working,” says Dr. Susan Waserman, an allergist at McMaster and one of the Canadian study organizers. “Right now, there’s no treatment beyond avoidance and the use of (epinephrine auto-injectors), so this is all good news.”

The project will be presented to an ethics board in the next few months, with the work beginning shortly thereafter.

Read the full article here.

• How do you describe your allergies to a waiter or chef?
• Are you sure you covered everything?
• After he leaves to go place your order, did you forget to tell him one other thing about what you can not eat?
• What if the waiter forgets to mention something to the kitchen or says the wrong thing?
• What happens if you are travelling? Do you know how to describe your allergies to someone in their native language?

Delicardo Foodcards can help you get through these situations. The Delicardo Foodcard contains all the information a food preparation professional could need. It lists the food you can and can not eat. It even tells them where these allergic reaction-inducing ingredients can be most commonly found.

Available in English, German and Spanish (they are currently working on a French version as well as other languages) you can order them specially for the vacation you are about to take.

The cards are available for just about any allergy or sensitivity out there:

• Nuts
• Celery
• Egg
• Fish
• Histamine
• Milk
• Seafood
• Soya
• And More!

Delicardo Foodcards are developed with help from nutrition professionals and chefs to give as accurate a description as possible. The design is made to be easy to read. There is an area for you to add your own notes or for waiters to add theirs.

Each individual allergy can be included on a card, or you can customize your cards to include as many allergies as you want to make a combination card. Check out the Configurator here. In the Configurator you can also add your own notes if there are specific foods you want listed that are not included by default. You can also include information about medication.

The cards are currently available through the Delicardo website, and pricing for packages of 10 or 50 cards is in Euros. We at Eat Nut Free have inquired if there will be a North American distributor, and we should have news about that in the near future.

Together with Delicardo we will be hosting a give-away of a 10-pack of cards. Depending on the response we may give away more! Stay tuned for details of the contest within the next couple of weeks.

The History of the Peanut Allergy Epidemic, the first documented history of the rise of peanut allergy, is now available http://www.peanutallergyepidemic.com

Written by Heather Fraser a Toronto-based historian and mother of a peanut-allergic child, this meticulously researched book pinpoints the moment of the allergy’s appearance and reveals the perfect storm of social, medical, political and economic factors from which the epidemic has grown.

The epidemic proportions of peanut allergy have spawned intense research into numerous risk factors including peanut consumption, birth month, hygiene, parasite levels and even head size.   And yet, no one has been able to connect the specifics of this surprising epidemic with a functional mechanism of sensitization – how have 2 million children in just the last 20 years become sensitized to this one food?  Neither coincidence nor genetic fluke can explain the speed at which this allergy has spread in children or its peculiar features.   The allergy appears primarily in western countries including the US, Canada, Australia and the UK and in toddlers, boys more often than girls in a ratio greater than 2:1.

The history of food allergy provides some answers starting with Charles Richet who coined the term anaphylaxis in 1913 to describe a sudden and unexpected prevalence of mass allergy related to pharmaceuticals.  Clemens von Pirquet in 1906 called these altered reactions in children allergy.  Combing the literature, Fraser discovered that outbreaks of peanut allergy began to occur only after WW II.  There was a slow but noticeable growth of the allergy in children through the late 1960s up until about 1989. Around 1990, there was an explosion of this allergy just in toddlers.  This moment is well documented by ER records, cohort studies of the time and eyewitness accounts.  Society only recognized the epidemic when this mass of allergic kids showed up for kindergarten.

The surge of peanut and food allergic 4 and 5 year olds took everyone by surprise – school systems, teachers, parents, entire communities.  And it has persisted and worsened.  An estimated 2% of kids living in the US and Canada are peanut allergic.  A 2010 Australian stat indicated that 3% of children living there are allergic to peanut.

How has this happened?  Functionally, there are a limited number of ways in which a person can become anaphylactic to any protein – ingestion, inhalation, through the skin and injection.  Historically there was only one mechanism implicated in mass allergy.  This together with a series of swift, identical alterations in political, social, legal, medical and economic conditions in western societies between 1987 and 1994 the peanut allergy in children tipped into epidemic….  Events unfolded in plain sight.

The History of the Peanut Allergy Epidemic (Innovation Press, 2010) is a must-read for every parent, teacher, and health professional.  Heather Fraser, MA, BA, B.Ed is a Toronto-based writer.  The book consists 211 pages with endnotes, index and appendix showing the global prevalence of the allergy.  Book is $19.99 and available for purchase http://www.peanutallergyepidemic.com

Ever since she was an infant, Reagan Roberts could not tolerate being anywhere near cow’s milk. A mere sip would leave her vomiting and gasping for breath. If she were even touched by someone with milk on their hands, she would break out in hives and a bright red rash.

via Peanuts, Anyone? Researchers Expose Kids to Risky Foods in Order to Cure Them – washingtonpost.com.

An investigational drug, FAHF-2, has been given new drug approval by the FDA. The herbal remedy shows great promise in reversing anaphylaxis, a severe and life-threatening reaction to peanuts that can result in death. In clinical trials in mice, the herbal remedy has been shown to prevent anaphylaxis for more than 9 months after the treatment was stopped.

Food allergies have been on the rise for several years. Peanut allergy doubled in children between the years 1997 and 2002. It is estimated that 150 people die every year in the US as a result of food allergies. Even trace amounts of these foods can cause a life-threatening reaction. There is no cure for food allergies. People who suffer food allergies must practice strict avoidance of known triggers and seek help immediately if food is accidentally ingested.

Anaphylaxis is a serious allergic reaction that can occur extremely rapidly and can result in death if not treated immediately. People who have asthma in addition to food allergies may be at higher risk of suffering a severe reaction. The following symptoms may occur in an anaphylactic reaction:

Itching, tingling or metal-like taste in the mouth

Hives

Wheezing or difficulty breathing

Swelling of the mouth and throat

Low blood pressure

Loss of consciousness

The herbal remedy for peanut allergy, as well as a remedy for asthma, is currently being tested on humans.

via News.HealthGuru.com: Ancient Chinese Secret for Peanut Allergy.

Related:
FAHF-2 provides peanut-allergic mice long-term protection from anaphylactic reactions

A disproportionately high number of Asian children are being diagnosed with nut allergy, a leading expert says.

Dr Abbass Khakoo, medical director at London’s Hillingdon Hospital, is a specialist in food allergies.

He said children from ethnic minorities were over-represented at his two London clinics.

He has found children from ethnic backgrounds appear to display symptoms of nut allergies at a younger age than their white counterparts.

Guys and St Thomas hospital in London, which has a large allergy clinic, has also reported that they are seeing higher numbers of Asian children who have nut allergies.

Dr Khakoo has called for further research to find out why more Asian children appear to be developing nut allergies.

He said: “There is something about the increase in these groups presenting to allergy clinics, that is causing alarm and puzzlement because we don’t understand why there has been an explosion in nut allergy”

Peanut allergy affects up to 2% of young children in the UK, but other nuts including almonds, cashew, brazil nuts and walnuts can also cause a severe allergic reaction known as anaphylactic shock.

Swelling

Symptoms can include breathing problems, swelling of the throat and mouth, a change in the heart rate and even unconsciousness which could lead to death.

Raam Uthayanan did not know he had a nut allergy

Raam Uthayanan, 16, from Pinner in West London, was diagnosed with an nut allergy four months ago.

He said: “Usually my throat closes up, sometimes I may vomit and sometimes my face and lips swell up.”

Raam began to have reaction to foods containing nuts from the age of four or five.

He was frequently sick, but his father Sunthar thought he did not like nuts and was lying about feeling unwell.

Sunthar said: “I was so surprised, I didn’t expect him to have an nut allergy.

“He had some sort of a problem when he was 10 and when I gave him nutty cornflakes he vomited. But at that time it did not click.”

It was only recently when Raam fell ill at school after eating a cake, he was taken to hospital and his family finally realised he was allergic to nuts.

His father said: “I failed actually, even though I had noticed the other incident. Luckily nothing went wrong seriously.”

Cakes, biscuits, cereals and in particular take away food are all thought to be high risk.

But Raam said a number of home cooked Sri Lankan dishes also contain nuts and he must now avoid them.

His relatives now ensure they cook meals that he can eat.

“There’s quite a lot of curries that have nuts just to decorate them,” he said.

“I always have to ask what’s in the food before eating it, sometimes at people’s house I have to avoid curries that look so good but contain nuts.”

via BBC NEWS | Health | Nut allergy ‘hits Asian children’.