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Therefore, the EAT research offered more proof that parents shouldn't give their infants allergic foods, contrary to traditional knowledge. However, a different analysis of this study was unable to prove that providing them with such food had any positive effects. This raises the unanswered question of how much allergenic food is optimal and suggests that this failure may have been related to problems with the amount of food they were served. The outcomes for the remaining experiments in the alphabet soup were likewise somewhat inconsistent. All of them were concerned with egg allergies, and most of them revealed findings similar to those of the LEAP study: giving eggs to infants seemed to lower their likelihood of developing egg allergies. The STAR research found little effect, whereas the HEAP study found the opposite. Additionally, several kids had to be admitted to hospitals as a result of allergic responses in both the HEAP research and the otherwise fruitful PETIT study. Finally, a word of caution: if you are a parent of a child at risk for food allergies, don't just feed them allergic food. Consult a physician beforehand. Chapter 9 - Food allergies that already exist can be cured with oral immunotherapy. Despite the conflicting data and warnings, a new agreement is emerging in the field of food allergy research and the broader medical community: restricting a baby's diet to allergenic foods is typically a bad idea, and introducing them to them early is a preferable strategy. If you're a parent of a baby who hasn't yet experienced food allergies, that's fantastic news. But what if you or someone you care about already has them? There's good news for you too, though. A fascinating new method of treating food allergies has emerged in the medical landscape. Oral immunotherapy, or OIT for short, is what it is called. The concepts behind OIT date back to earlier times. Do not forget that a food allergy is essentially the consequence of your immune system being confused about which chemicals entering the body are beneficial proteins to allow pass and which ones are hostile foreign invaders to assault. If you give it some thought, that suggests re-educating the immune system as a simple solution to reverse food allergies. But how exactly do you do that? The quick answer to that is very gradual. A little amount of the food the patient is allergic to, often in powdered and meticulously sterile form, is given to them as the first step in OIT therapy. The sum is then gradually raised over a considerable amount of time. Desensitization of the patient to the allergen is the aim. The patient's immune system becomes less and less likely to see it as a threat as it grows accustomed to it. As a result, the patient can tolerate increasing amounts of the problematic meal. The patient is free to continue this process as long as they would like. For other people, the goal is just to be able to tolerate traces of the allergen. They won't have to be as concerned about it contaminating their food this way. For instance, food produced at a facility that also handles nuts might be consumed by someone with a nut allergy. Some patients wish to progress further and be able to consume more meals. Why would someone want to stop the medication before that? OIT isn't exactly a stroll in the park, as we'll soon find. Chapter 10 - OIT is getting less challenging, risky, and time-consuming. OIT has both good and bad news for persons who have food allergies. Let's begin with some encouraging news. It works. It has been proven to be quite beneficial in several investigations and clinical trials. For instance, 84 percent of patients who got OIT in a significant 2019 trial that treated persons with peanut allergies were able to ingest peanut proteins safely by the conclusion of the treatment period. They had to put in a lot of effort and go through some unpleasant, maybe dangerous situations to get to this stage, though. The bad news is that. Currently, OIT might be challenging to finish. Fortunately, there's also more fantastic news on the way. OIT's duration varies depending on the patient's objective. It takes roughly six months if she simply wants to avoid unintentional allergy exposure. It takes around two years for her to get entirely desensitized to the allergen and be able to consume full portions of the questioned item. In any event, a patient is required to attend a therapy session every two weeks or so, which might last a few hours or longer. In other words, a significant amount of time must be invested. Additionally, each therapy session essentially entails the doctor deliberately attempting to push the patient's immune system to the point of setting off an allergic reaction. Sometimes, though, that line is crossed, and the sufferer must deal with the fallout. In the early stages of OIT, this frequently meant having life-threatening allergic responses. But those reactions are getting weaker and less common as OIT develops and gets more refined. Omalizumab, a medication that can speed up the entire process, has helped to reduce the total length of time it takes. Mepolizumab, reslizumab, benralizumab, and several other medications with "zumab" in their names might all contribute to making it even faster and safer. A variety of complementary therapies are also under development, from vaccinations for food allergies to gene therapy, which tries to directly remodel the immune system. While other aspects of the future may be grim, for people who have food allergies, things are looking up. The End of Food Allergy: The First Program to Prevent and Reverse a 21st Century Epidemic by Kari Nadeau, Sloan Barnett Book Review Food allergies may soon be a thing of the past thanks to some recent developments in science and medicine. Early exposure to allergenic foods can aid in preventing the development of food allergies in newborns. Others who already have food allergies may be helped by oral immunotherapy. In both situations, it seems that judicious exposure—rather than avoidance—is the secret to success. Consult your physician. This is the first thing you should do if you or a loved one has a food allergy and is interested in attempting oral immunotherapy (OIT). Your doctor can send you to one of the numerous clinical studies taking place nearby if you're in the right place at the right time. Remember that OIT can be extremely dangerous if not administered correctly, so you should never attempt to perform it on your own. OIT must be carried out in a hospital setting under the close supervision of a certified physician to be secure.