Fighting Food Allergies

Researchers At Hopkins And Beyond Working For Breakthrough

The spike in research has been driven by evidence that food allergies are becoming more common, occurring earlier in life and lasting longer. About 12 million Americans are estimated to suffer from food allergies. Some evidence suggests that the number of peanut allergies may have doubled in children in the past decade.

The reason for the trend is the subject of intense research and debate. There are several theories, including changes in how food is processed and children's not being exposed to certain foods early in life. Evidence has also been mounting for the "hygiene hypothesis," which blames growing up in increasingly sterile homes, making the immune system overreact to ordinarily harmless substances.

Food allergies can trigger symptoms ranging from rashes and hives to responses believed to cause perhaps 200 deaths each year in the United States. Currently, food-allergic people have only two options: to avoid the substance that causes their reaction or to try to stop a reaction with an injection of epinephrine.

Although doctors have long used shots to desensitize people allergic to pollen and other substances, early attempts to do the same for food allergies ended in failure.

But a small number of researchers in recent years have begun trying the approach again, this time by orally administering the protein in the food that triggers the allergic reaction.

In a study involving 19 children who were severely allergic to milk, Wood found that within four to six months most of the children significantly increased the amount of milk protein they could tolerate. After between about nine months and two years, about half of the children could safely consume as much milk or food containing milk as they wanted.