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’.

Hopes of a normal life for nut allergy victim Charlotte

Published Date: 13 March 2009

A Sheffield girl is taking part in a groundbreaking medical trial that could cure her of a nut allergy that currently threatens her life.

Charlotte Kirkland, aged eight, is so allergic to peanuts and other nuts that she has to carry medication in case she falls ill. She can’t have ice-cream, sweets or cakes unless her parents, Wendy and David from Stocksbridge, have carefully checked all the ingredients on the packet and are confident they contain no traces of nuts or nut oils.

Now it hoped that she may eventually be able to lead a normal life as a result of trials at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge where doctors are using a new technique to built up children’s tolerance. By the end of the programme they should be able to eat the equivalent of five peanuts a day safely.
 

Charlotte, who goes to the hospital every fortnight, started by eating a speck of peanut flour and has gradually built up her resistance. The Deepcar St John’s Primary pupil is carefully monitored to ensure her body does not go into a severe reaction and a ‘crash team’ of doctors is on standby. She could eat her first peanut within a few weeks.

Charlotte’s allergy was detected when she was 18 months old and she licked the chocolate off a Brazil nut and her lips swelled to twice their normal size. She was found to be allergic to all nuts but severely reactive to peanuts.

Dad David said: “We are so pleased Charlotte’s on the trial as life is very restrictive. She can’t go to parties without her own food and she gets upset when she can’t have ice cream or sweets.”

Peanut allergies affect one in 50 young people in the UK and commonly cause breathing problems. At their most serious they can lead to a potentially life-threatening anaphylactic shock.

Experts says the treatment will remain effective as long a child on the trial continues to take their daily dose of peanut flour or peanuts, to help them retain the tolerance they’ve built up.

via Hopes of a normal life for nut allergy victim Charlotte – Sheffield Telegraph .

Doctors in Britain are closer to finding a cure for severe nut allergies, according to a study published Friday.

A research team at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge exposed children gradually to tiny amounts of peanuts over six months to build up their tolerance.

It is the first time such a desensitization program has been used to treat a food allergy.

Four children — who risked fatal anaphylactic shock from contact with traces of peanut — took part in the study published in Allergy.

The children were initially given a dose of five milligrams but by the end were able to tolerate 880 milligrams — equal to five peanuts.

“We’ve shown it works. We’ve shown it can be done safely. Now we’re at the stage where we need a larger trial and perhaps a control group, so that we can show it has a large effect,” said Dr. Andy Clark, the study’s lead researcher.

The research provides hope for the one in 50 young people in Britain with a nut allergy, he added.

“Every time people with a peanut allergy eat something, they’re frightened that it might kill them. Our motivation was to find a treatment that would change that and give them the confidence to eat what they like,” Clark told the Guardian.

Thirteen-year-old Carl Morris took part in the study.

“I got pretty scared when I was eating things with traces of nuts, but now I can just freely explore different foods that may have killed me before,” he said.

Kate Frost is the mother of a nine-year-old boy who participated in the study.

“It’s very hard to describe how much of a difference it’s made, not just in Michael’s life, but for all of us,” Frost told the BBC.

“A peanut allergy affects the whole family. You can’t go out to a restaurant. If your child goes to a birthday party, he takes a packed lunch.”

It’s estimated that more than 150,000 Canadians suffer from peanut allergies. About two per cent of people can have an anaphylactic reaction to an allergen, and peanut allergies account for 50 to 100 deaths in the United States every year.

via Tiny study suggests peanut allergy can be overcome.