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Specialists say that in our times, more and more people start displaying symptoms of various allergies and have to live with this unwanted health condition. This can be caused by genetically modified foods we are consuming, numerous poisonous emissions and terrible condition of the environment, our bad habits, and some other factors. Some people show only light symptoms like itching, swollen lips, redness of skin, and others, which can be calmed down by taking a special medication or using a certain natural allergy treatment option. However, some people display very serious symptoms after being exposed to an allergen, and for many people such exposure can be very dangerous and even deadly.
This is especially valid for those people who show symptoms of peanut allergy which can vary from running nose to fatal anaphylactic shock. Peanut allergy is one of the most dangerous types of known allergies which currently affects about 1 per cent of people on the UK, and for some of peanut allergy sufferers it can be enough to be exposed to very small particles of peanut dust to get into a serious health trouble. That is why most of those people who show peanut allergy reaction too often have to always be prepared to encounter the dangerous allergen. In particular, they are recommended to always have at hand special anti-allergy solutions, i.e. epinephrine-containing pens which can be an effective emergency treatment to calm down serious symptoms of peanut allergy.
However, there can be other not less effective solutions based on natural abilities of our body to fight against the symptoms of allergies. According to the findings of a scientific team at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine published this week in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, it is possible to ‘teach’ a human body to develop tolerance and learn to suppress the symptoms by using its own immune system. 
The researchers offer a new innovative kind of treatment named ‘sublingual immunotherapy‘ . The essence of this new approach is giving those patients who suffer from peanut allergy doses of allergens in increasing amounts making the immune system develop some tolerance to the allergen.
For the experiments 40 volunteers aged between 12 and 37 were invited. All of them had very strong peanut allergy reaction and symptoms. In the beginning, some of the participants were given certain very small amounts of peanut sublingual therapy or placebo, in order to study the reactions and learn what the smallest allergen dose can be. It turned out that 2 g is the minimal dose which the participants can consume without showing very strong symptoms of peanut allergy. So, for 44 weeks all of them were given a daily dose of 2 mg of allergen. After 44 weeks, it turned out that about 70 per cent of the participants could manage to consume 5 g of allergen without displaying negative reactions, making the researchers believe that they managed to ‘teach’ the immune system of the participants to tolerate the allergen.
‘The immune response was stronger than we thought it might be, and the side effects of this treatment were relatively small,’ said Dr. Wesley Burks, one of the study leaders. ‘However, the magnitude of the therapeutic effect was somewhat less than we had anticipated. That’s an issue we plan to address in future studies,’ he continued. Closer to the 70th week of the experiment, some allergy sufferers could consume up to 980 mg. And in average, the participants of the experiment could consume almost 500 mg without showing symptoms of peanut allergy. By the end of the experiment, it turned out that almost 95 per cent of the participants became symptom free. The scientists concluded that peanut sublingual therapy could be very effective for the people with peanut allergy symptoms.
The experiments are considered very successful and the researchers from the North Carolina School of Medicine are convinced that the discovered approach can be used for developing a new revolutionary approach to allergy treatment. However, the scientists underline that this kind of experiments require a very responsible and educated approach, therefore no patient who displays symptoms of peanut allergy should try recreating this experiment at home or without supervision of a qualified specialist. If you’re suffering from allergies, do not fall for common allergy myths and talk to your health care specialist who can assist you in creating an individual treatment program to control your allergy situation.
Author Info: Hi! My name is Carla and I am a 5th year medical student at HYMS. I am interested in alternative medicine and I have done months researching the topic of herbal medicine. Besides, I like interviewing people and learning more about their experiences with one or another type of herbal treatments. I am willing to contribute to this site with my knowledge, and I would be happy to help you out to the best of my ability with any specific questions or problems related to alternative medicine.
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