Peanut allergies less common than tests suggest

[Warpy]

Many children tested may be peanut-sensitive, rather than truly allergic

updated 1:46 p.m. MT, Wed., Jan. 13, 2010

NEW YORK - Many children who test positive for sensitivity to peanuts may not actually have full-blown allergies to the food, a new study suggests.

UK researchers found that among 79 8-year-olds who were deemed peanut-sensitive by standard allergy testing, only 7 turned out to have true allergies when they underwent more-extensive testing that is less commonly used in routine practice.
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The limitation of these two tests is that they gauge peanut sensitivity — which refers to the immune system response to peanut proteins. But not everyone who is sensitive to peanuts has a true allergy, which means that a person has specific symptoms, like wheezing, hives, swelling or digestive problems, after eating peanuts.
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In this study, only 7 of the 79 peanut-sensitized children showed objective symptoms during the food challenge.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34846303/ns/health-allergies_and_asthma/

True peanut allergies are no joke, but it's good to know they've been over diagnosed and that most children don't have them.

[HuckleB]

1. I'm glad someone is looking into it in depth.

I can't say I am surprised by the findings, but the studies must be done.

[trotsky]

2. I sure hope we can figure out and cure food allergies like this.

Peanuts, wheat, milk... such nutritious food, yet inedible for millions.

[HuckleB]

3. I hope we can develop tests that with fewer false positives, too.

And maybe some day, somehow, some way we'll see the day when naturopaths stop conflating food intolerances for allergies.

Well, I can dream.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SavsJYXWgm8

[trotsky]

4. Don't be silly.

Everyone knows it's evil vaccines (and probably GMO crops) that have caused ALL food allergies and intolerances!

Oh yeah, and amalgam fillings too.

[HuckleB]

6. I keep forgetting about the amalgam.

B-)

[bluestateguy]

5. Peanut allergies are indeed over diagnosed

And it's not fair that peanuts or peanut butter is banned in a school cafeteria because one child has a peanut allergy. One child.

[Raejeanowl]

9. Agree

I'm also not a supporter of the parents with the violent autistic child who want his "calming dog" to be with him in the classroom. There comes a point where accommodating one child's disability becomes unfair and disruptive to the rest of the kids. My child has allergies and can't tolerate the dog dander....whose rights trump?

[unblock]

10. yeah, who cares if that one kid dies, right?

if someone drops a peanut on the floor and my toddler, who's too young to know better, pops it in his mouth, it's lights out and quite possibly game over. yes, we keep the school nurse supplied with two fresh, mini epi-pens and liquid benadryl, but given the very limited time involved, he'd have to be very lucky to survive with no brain damage.

he's already been to the e.r. once. simple contact with peanut butter (not even eating any) made his whole face puff up and he was in the e.r. for about 2 hours on meds before the swelling started clearing up.

sure it might be over-diagnosed, and whatever, maybe his technical classification is "highly sensitive" rather than "allergic". that distinction might matter to a physician or to an epidemiologist, but it doesn't matter to his parents and shouldn't matter to his school. he needs an environment free of peanuts, plain an simple.

[frazzled]

7. You know if you have it

Though a child may not, or may not be able to express it.

I grew up on peanut butter. Loved peanuts. Ate a lot of them.

Then sometime in my early 20s, back in the 1970s, I became violently ill one evening--flulike symptoms, agonizing gastointestinal pain, sweating, dizziness, nausea. I thought I had come down with a bad flu. It took a few more times of such illness to realize that peanuts had been served on each occasion. I didn't believe it. But it was so horrible I also didn't want to eat them anymore. For about 15 years I tried once a year to test my own reaction: I'd have one peanut, or a miniscule bite from a peanut butter cookie. It was always the same: about an hour after ingestion, the sweating, dizziness, pain, and nausea would occur. I discovered after someone brought a Chinese noodle salad to a potluck at my house that peanut oil would make me just as ill. I had to start asking whenever I was in a restaurant. I never went to a doctor to get a test: what was the point? I knew whether it was an allergy or just a sensitivity, I never wanted to ingest a speck of peanut dust or oil ever again.

It's been more than 35 years since that first reaction. I don't even think about seeing if the sensitivity/allergy has passed: the thought of a peanut makes me cringe.

[trotsky]

8. Sounds like you have the sensitivity.

The allergy concerns the peanut protein, not the oil. And the allergy kills by causing airway constriction. So as bad as your reaction to peanuts is, at least it's not a potentially fatal allergic reaction! :)

[gkhouston]

11. You can have the allergy and not test positive on the skin test. Happened to my munchkin.

Positive blood test, negative skin test, and definite real-world bad reactions to actual peanuts. Her blood test reactions are going down with age, though, so we may try a challenge in another few years, if she's willing. Right now, she won't even touch sunbutter, which is harmless but smells just like peanut butter.

[Name removed]

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Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[HuckleB]

13. The fear about peanut allergies is nuts

http://www.salon.com/environment/vital_signs/2009/02/05/peanut_allergy/index.html