As many as eight out of every 100 children in the U.S. suffer from food allergies, a rate that rose 18 percent between 1997 and 2007. Although some outgrow these reactions, many are plagued for life with symptoms that range from a tingling, itchy mouth to tightening airways and a potentially fatal drop in blood pressure.

Until now, the only way to prevent allergic reactions has been to avoid the offending foods, which can be difficult because traces of nuts, wheat and dairy lurk in many products. But a new study offers some of the best evidence that doing just the opposite—exposing patients to higher and higher doses of a food allergen—may help some overcome their sensitivity. In the largest placebo-controlled trial of its kind, Wesley Burks, a professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, and his colleagues started 40 children with egg allergies on a dose of egg white powder equivalent to one ten-thousandth of an egg. The researchers, who published their findings in July in the New England Journal of Medicine, ramped up the dose, and after 22 months of therapy followed by a two-month break, 28 percent of the children were able to eat the equivalent of two and a half eggs. One year later 100 percent of those children were eating eggs and reporting no reactions. The approach, called oral immunotherapy, follows the same principle as shots for airborne allergens, although shots may be less safe for food allergies.

Researchers believe the treatment, which has also been tested for peanut and milk allergies, “teaches” the body to tolerate what it once rejected. Blood tests in children who responded to the trial showed decreased levels of the antibody IgE, which triggers the immune response, and increased levels of IgG4 antibodies, which discourage inflammation. Those who failed the egg tests may need a longer therapy period, Burks says, or they may be too sensitive to respond to therapy.

A synthetic antibody might help those extrasensitive patients by binding (thus eliminating) free IgE in the blood. It is already approved for airborne allergies and is currently in trials for oral immunotherapy. Burks says, “The hope is that we can come up with a treatment in the next few years.”

FURTHER READINGS AND CITATIONS ScientificAmerican.com/oct2012/advances

This article was originally published with the title The Exposure Cure.

3 Comments

1. 1. Bops 02:14 PM 10/10/12

   Pepper burns your mouth, it burns your stomach.
   Your article in based on nonsense.
   Let's get adjusted to eating rat poison. That nonsence too!

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2. 2. Otter28 in reply to Bops 07:11 PM 10/25/12

   Really? Because I think that this article is based on a peer reviewed study that is listed in the citations. If you know ANYTHING about allergies and immunology, then you would recognize that the body builds up an immunity to allergens; they have an entire program based off of it. It's called allergy shots and they work for almost anybody with airborne allergies, such as myself. If you give the body small dilutions of the things it normally has a reaction to, eventually the body learns to fight the irritant without causing a full blown immune response. Moreover, feeding these subjects small amounts of the foods or types of the foods causes a safe, immunity-building response. Now, how is that nonsense? Because it sure sounds like a possibility for people like me (peanut allergy)to have an option about whether or not I need to carry my epi-pen with me. It sure sounds like a potential way to have my life back and not live in constant fear of accidental ingestion of peanut protein. This article is well written and well researched.

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3. 3. Celticrain 08:52 PM 2/4/13

   I HAD been allergic to egg white for many years. Over those years, I ate small amounts of baked foods containing eggs. Then one year when re-tested for food allergies, I tested non-allergic to egg whites. The only thing I could attribute this to was having eaten small amounts of egg white for many years, thus becoming de-sensitized to it. When I read this article I thought to myself, "yes! This is what I already figured was true!" There's no other explanation. The testing was all repeated many times, thus reliable and valid. And the headaches and illness i felt for years before I knew I was allergic, and ate eggs, is proof to me that I did have an allergy. By the way, I am a scientist at the Master's degree level, so, I do have the capacity to understand "good" and "bad" science!

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