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.

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.

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’.

An idea that started as a class project between two friends is big business in the booming food allergy and intolerance market that one research firm estimates will reach $3.9 billion this year.

Scott Mandell and Bert Cohen, classmates at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management in 2000, founded their allergen-free food company, Enjoy Life Natural Brands LLC, in 2001. The pair drafted their initial business plan for a school assignment in their last class before graduation. Their idea for an allergen-free food company was inspired by Cohen’s mother, who had multiple sclerosis and serious dietary restrictions.

“Quite frankly, we didn’t have a better idea at the time,” President and Chief Executive Officer Mandell admitted. “Once we got into it and got behind the numbers, we saw an amazing opportunity.” 

Mandell and Cohen continued working on a business plan after the class ended in the spring of 2000. About six months later, Mandell quit his job as a commercial lender to focus entirely on Enjoy Life. Within 21 months of Mandell quitting his job, Enjoy Life products were on shelves for sale. 

The pair hit upon a growing industry. The market for allergen-free foods nearly doubled between 1999 and 2003, growing to $1.8 billion from $947 million in retail sales in the U.S., according to New York research firm Packaged Facts, a division of Market Research Group LLC. Nearly 12 million Americans have food allergies, according to the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. 

Food allergies and people’s awareness of them are also on the rise. The number of children diagnosed with the peanut allergy has doubled in the past decade, and the prevalence of food allergies in children under the age of 18 has increased by 18 percent between 1997 and 2007, according to the academy. 

Enjoy Life started in a 6,000-square-foot “shoebox” on Chicago’s West side with help from friends and family who Mandell dubbed “angel investors.” In the beginning the company’s main distributor was Mandell, who would load products into the back of his car and sell them to natural foods stores throughout the Midwest. 

These days Enjoy Life products are carried in more than 50 grocery and natural food stores such as Whole Foods Market Inc., SUPERVALU Inc.’s Jewel-Osco, and Publix Super Markets Inc. Enjoy Life has gone from selling its products only in the Midwest to 85 percent of its sales coming from the U.S. and 15 percent from Canada. 

The company recorded $10 million in sales in 2008 and $8 million in 2007. Mandell declined to estimate what the company’s sales might be this year. “This year I’m expecting the worst and hoping for the best,” he said. 

Enjoy Life started to feel the effects of the economy in the fourth quarter, but Mandell said sales have picked up “substantially during the last six weeks,” something he attributed in part to slightly improving consumer confidence. Mandell attributed some of the sales softness in the fourth quarter to distributors taking their inventory levels down to three weeks from eight to 12 weeks. “Now I’m feeling it go back the other way,” he said. “I think they cut too deep.” 

Mandell attributes research done by the University of Chicago’s Celiac Disease Center and Children’s Memorial Hospital in helping raise awareness about the increase in food allergies. 

“Is there something different in our genetic make-up? Is there something different in the environment? Yes,” said Christine Szychlinski, manager of the Bunning Food Allergy Program at Children’s Memorial Hospital. 

Researchers at Children’s Memorial are in the midst of a two-year study on 500 Chicago families to learn more about potential reasons for the increase in childhood food allergies. “We know from the children we are seeing here at our clinic that food allergy is on the rise, definitely,” Szychlinski said. 

As the number of people diagnosed with food allergies continues to rise, grocery stores have seen a growing customer base for allergen-free products. Whole Foods is one of the national retailers that has Enjoy Life products. The demand for allergen-free products has “definitely been a growing trend in the last decade,” said spokeswoman Kristen Kaza. 

Enjoy Life is one of the few companies producing food free of the eight most common allergens. Milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shell fish, soy and wheat cause 90 percent of allergic reactions, according to the nonprofit organization Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network. Most of Enjoy Life’s competitors’ products are just gluten-free, meaning no wheat, rye or barley, Mandell said. “We have taken that big additional step in being free of all common allergens so that makes us very unique,” he said. 

The allergen-free movement started to take off in the past two years when then Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc. introduced a gluten-free beer in 2006 and General Mills Cereals LLC converted its half-century old Rice Chex brand into a gluten-free product in 2008, said Tatjana Meerman, publisher at Packaged Facts. “Heavy hitters have jumped into the market and that has spurred a lot of awareness and marketing activities,” Meerman said. 

Greg and Jenifer Herskowitz own The Allergy-Free Shop in Miami and carry more than 250 brands that offer an array of gluten-free, dairy-free or peanut-free products. Enjoy Life is the only brand they carry that is entirely free of all eight common allergens. During the last three years the selection of allergen-free foods “has grown exponentially,” said Jenifer Herskowitz. 

Denise Bunning of Lake Forest knows how limited the selection of allergen-free foods can be. Her sons Bryan, 15, and Daniel, 12, have allergic reactions to milk, eggs, tree nuts, shell fish, and beef. Bunning and her husband discovered that Daniel was allergic to milk the first time he took a sip of it. 

“He couldn’t breathe and his little face started turning purple. He literally almost died,” said Bunning, who co-founded the Bunning Food Allergy Project with her husband. 

The current economic climate has made Mandell rethink some aspects of Enjoy Life’s operations. The company had planned to introduce a line of crackers to come this spring, but Mandell decided to push back the launch until later in the year. 

Keeping inventory levels low at the warehouse, adjusting the quantities of supplies, and using social marketing platforms like Facebook and Twitter are all tactics Mandell has implemented in recent months. “With the economy the way it is, cash flow is always a more important consideration so we want to make sure we are managing our cash properly,” he said. 

Denise Bunning can’t afford to stop buying allergen-free products. She is still an Enjoy Life customer and said her son Bryan was a big fan of the company’s granola bar line for awhile. “It’s getting easier because companies are finally realizing that food allergies are unfortunately here to stay,” she said.  

via Parents offered new choices in allergen-free food .

Obese children and teens are 26 per cent more likely than kids of a normal weight to have some kind of allergy, especially a food allergy, U.S. researchers report.

But it is not yet clear if obesity actually causes allergies; only an “association” between obesity and allergies was found, said Dr. Darryl Zeldin, the senior author on the paper.

“While the results from this study are interesting, they do not prove that obesity causes allergies. More research is needed to further investigate this potential link,” Zeldin said.

Nevertheless, the authors suggest that controlling obesity in young people may be important for lowering rates of allergies.

The researchers, from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, a part of the U.S. National Institutes for Health, analyzed data on 4,111 children aged 2 to 19 that included information about allergies and asthma.

They looked at a number of factors including body weight and BMI (body mass index), antibody levels to indoor, outdoor and food allergens, and responses to a questionnaire about diagnoses of hay fever, eczema, and allergies.

They found that antibodies for specific allergens were higher among children who were obese or overweight.

“The signal for allergies seemed to be coming mostly from food allergies. The rate of having a food allergy was 59 percent higher for obese children,” said Dr. Stephanie London, a researcher at NIEHS.

The study appears in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

The study is the first to be published using new data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). NHANES is a large survey designed to assess the health and nutritional status of American adults and children.

An allergy/asthma component was added to the 2005-2006 NHANES study, making it the largest nationally representative dataset of allergy and asthma information ever assembled in the U.S.

“There is a wealth of knowledge we will be able to gain by analyzing these data that will be useful to allergy and asthma sufferers,” said Zeldin.

via CTV.ca | Obese children more likely to have food allergies.

A man who suffered from a peanut allergy collapsed and died from severe anaphylactic shock less than an hour after receiving treatment for his allergy from an alternative medicine practitioner.

 

Dublin Coroner’s Court yesterday heard that Thomas Schatten (43), of Marina Village, Malahide, Co Dublin, collapsed and died in the living room of his home on the evening of May 18, 2005.

He had earlier been treated for the peanut allergy by kinesiologist Dr Brett Stevens, who told the inquest that Mr Schatten ate a small bit of peanut during his appointment, to which he had no reaction.

The allergy elimination technique used by Dr Stevens, who is also a chiropractor, is called NAET and involves “muscle testing”. The inquest heard that Mr Schatten, an editor and writer, had received the treatment on four previous occasions for his peanut allergy and suffered no ill effects.

Following the treatment, Mr Schatten, who had experienced two anaphylactic reactions in the past, went to the bathroom and Dr Stevens, upon hearing coughing coming from the toilet, asked Mr Schatten if he was all right. Mr Schatten, who suffered from asthma, said he had a bit of a cough and that his chest was tight and indicated he wanted to go home to get his medication for asthma.

Reaction

He left the clinic at 5.20pm. Dr Stevens told the court he didn’t think Mr Schatten was having an anaphylactic reaction. He said he was aware that he had suffered a reaction to peanuts when he was young and avoided them prior to beginning the treatment.

About 15 minutes later, Dr Stevens rang Mr Schatten to make sure he was all right. Mr Schatten could only say the words “breathing” and “ambulance”.

After arranging for an ambulance to be called, Dr Stevens made his way to Mr Schatten’s apartment. He found him lying on the ground with laboured breathing. He suffered a cardiac arrest on the way to Beaumont Hospital and was pronounced dead at 6.55pm. A post mortem found he had died of an acute hypersensitivity reaction or anaphylactic reaction to peanut.

Supervision

Professor of histopathology at the Royal College of Surgeons and at Beaumont Hospital, Mary Leader, told the inquest that in (allopathic) medicine such desensitisation would not be carried out without strict supervision in a hospital where drugs, IV access, oxygen and a doctor were immediately available and she said no person should be tested for nut allergy without these. “If a patient has an acute anaphylactic reaction like this they are immediately treated with drugs to stop the reaction,” she said.

She said the coughing and tightening of chest Mr Schatten experienced are symptoms associated with an allergic response. The court heard there was an approximate 35-minute time lapse between the ambulance being called and arriving, due to a shortage of ambulances.

There were no suspicious circumstances, Garda Shay McGrath said.

He said he believed the death was accidental and Dr Stevens was attempting to alleviate the allergy using the methods he used. A file went to the DPP in relation to the death.

Coroner Brian Farrell recorded a verdict of death by misadventure and called for the re-evaluation of the NAET allergy elimination technique in relation to peanut allergies.

“Nut allergy is a particular situation. All the clinicians I spoke to said assessment of nut allergy needs to be dealt with guardedly,” he said. “This is the second inquest in the coroner’s court in the last three months where a person has died of peanut allergy. It emphasises the seriousness of peanut allergy.”

via Man died an hour after being treated for peanut allergy – Courts, National News – Independent.ie.

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.