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 recent study conducted at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York suggests that a Chinese botanical drug can help patients manage their food allergies. This new drug may help many allergic patients in the western society and could also assist in curing other conditions such as asthma.

Food allergies have been turning into an increasingly common ailment in the western world. In the US alone, about 5% of the adults and 10% of the children suffer from one allergy or another. Allergies can be very dangerous, as in some cases the allergic individual may have a severe reaction to the allergen and in extreme cases can even go into anaphalactic shock and die. The traditional treatment for food allergies is simple avoidance. In case of failure in avoidance, a liquid antihistamine can be used to stop the allergic reaction and in some cases, epinephrine can be injected.

Dr. Xiu-Min Li from the Mount Sinai hospital recently realized that there are significantly fewer cases of allergies in China than in the United States. She believes that traditional Chinese medicine that is based on plants’ medical properties can be used to cure allergies. Together with a group of researchers she found a food allergy herbal formula (FAHF-2) which produced long term protection against peanut-induced anaphylaxis in mice. Treatment using FAHF-2 protected peanut allergic mice from anaphylaxis for more than 36 weeks after the mice stopped receiving the drug.

“Food allergy is a serious and sometimes fatal condition for which there is no cure,” said Dr. Li. “Approximately 80% of fatal or near-fatal anaphylaxis cases are due to peanut allergy in this country. There is an urgent need for effective therapies to prevent and treat those who suffer from food allergies and FAHF-2 could prove to be a major advancement in this field.”

The new formula may help not only individuals allergic to peanuts but also sufferers from a variety of other ailments. These include allergies to fish, shellfish, and tree nuts as well as severe or persistent asthma. Normally, asthma is treated by inhaled steroids which may cause serious side effects. If this type of steroid is used for long periods of time it may impair growth and cause immune-suppression. Parents of asthmatic children are showing an increasing interest in alternative treatments, with 60% of the children receiving some form of it in the past year.

The FAHF-2 drug has recently entered the human trials stage and is currently being tested at Mount Sinai to evaluate its safety and early efficacy on multiple food allergies including peanut, tree nut, fish, and shellfish.

TFOT has previously brought you several stories of disease cures found in plant sources. One such story described an experiment conducted at the Northwestern University which showed that an antioxidant present in soybeans was able to reduce metastases. More recently we’ve brought you the purple tomatoes that may reduce the chances for cancer developed by researchers from the John Innes Centre in Norwich, U.K.

You can read more on the Chinese botanical drug on the Mount Sinai website.

via Chinese Botanical Drug to Cure Peanut Allergies.

Herbal Remedy Could Halt Peanut Allergy

Tests in mice were successful, and human trials are under way

Posted February 13, 2009

By Steven Reinberg

HealthDay Reporter

FRIDAY, Feb. 13 (HealthDay News) — A new herbal formula based in ancient Chinese medicine may be able to control allergic reactions to peanuts and other foods, researchers from New York City’s Mount Sinai School of Medicine report.

Food allergies are potentially life-threatening for children and adults. Food allergies among children have increased 18 percent since 1997, and in 2007, some 3 million U.S. children had food allergies, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. Currently, there is no treatment for the allergies, so avoidance is the only protection.

“We can reverse the peanut allergic reaction,” said lead researcher Dr. Xiu-Min Li, director of the Center for Chinese Herbal Therapy for Allergy and Asthma at Mount Sinai.

In addition, protection from allergic reactions to peanuts persisted for almost nine months after treatment was stopped, Li said. “The herbal formula can stop peanut allergy and produce a prolonged protection,” she said. “This formula may be effective for human peanut allergy.”

The report was published in the February online edition of The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

For the study, Li’s team tested their new herbal remedy, called Food Allergy Herbal Formula (FAHF-2), on mice allergic to peanuts. They found that the formula protected mice from allergic reactions from peanuts.

In fact, FAHF-2 protected the animals from anaphylaxis for more than 36 weeks after treatment was stopped. This is one-quarter of the mouse life span, Li noted.

Li’s team has also shown the formula protects mice against other food allergies including tree nut, fish and shellfish.

Based on these findings, FAHF-2 has been given investigational new drug approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration; a human trial started last year.

The trial is testing the safety and effectiveness of the remedy for a variety of food allergies including peanut, tree nut, fish and shellfish, Li said. “The results of the trial have shown that FAHF-2 is safe and well-tolerated,” she noted.

In addition to FAHF-2, Li’s team has developed an herbal formula to treat asthma. That formula is also being tested in human trials, she said.

Dr. David L. Katz, director of the Prevention Research Center at Yale University School of Medicine, said that no matter where it comes from, a cure for peanut allergy would be an important breakthrough.

“This paper suggests that traditional Chinese medicine may offer promising therapy for peanut allergy,” Katz said. “This is less surprising than it may seem.”

First, it is probable that the use of herbs as medical therapy over a span of many centuries would distinguish the helpful from the useless and harmful by a process of trial-and-error, Katz said. Second, most drugs are derived from plants. “So, the actual differences between pharmacotherapy and herbal therapy are differences of degree, not kind,” he said.

When traditional Chinese medicine works, doctors want to know the science of how it works, Katz said. “But for the sake of their patients, conventional practitioners should look past terminology that may make them wince to see the promise of new and potentially effective treatments.”

Allergic reactions to food can range from mild hives to vomiting to difficulty breathing to anaphylaxis, the most severe reaction. Anaphylaxis causes muscles to contract, blood vessels to dilate and fluid to leak from the bloodstream into the tissues. This can result in narrowing of the upper or lower airways, low blood pressure, shock or a combination of these symptoms, and also can lead to a loss of consciousness and even death.

More information

For more information on food allergies, visit the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

via Herbal Remedy Could Halt Peanut Allergy – US News and World Report.