Evidence that food ALLERGIES never really go away

[Zizzle]

I went to a hospital lecture given by the world reknowned Dr. Robert Wood of Johns Hopkins. All the DC area kids with serious food allergies go to him. He described several immunotherapy studies he's done on kids with wheat, milk, peanut or egg allergies. He compared oral immunotherapy to shots, etc. He had a few successful studies, where after 2-3 years many of the children achieved tolerance to the allergen. BUT, there was one caveat... these kids have to ingest a dose of the allergen every day for the rest of their life to maintain tolerance to it.

My friend sitting next to me said her friend's kid went through this therapy for milk allergy, but he had such an aversion to milk, he refused to ingest the daily maintenance spoonful and the allergy came back.

Another adult friend told me she was allergic to wheat as a child and somehow "outgrew it." She now suffers from a host of other allergies and inflammation, and decided to go wheat free to see if it would help. Within a few weeks on the diet, she was developing serious allergic reactions to wheat if there was cross-contamination. I asked if she regrets going wheat free now, and she said she doesn't, because she thinks it's been the hidden cause of all her inflammation.


I got a moment with Dr. Wood to ask about my daughter's legume-wide allergy, which started at age 5, after 2 years of tree pollen allergy. He said it's likely caused by birch tree pollen allergy (the neighbor just planted one across the street...great). I asked if immunotherapy for the pollen allergy would cure the food allergies and he said NO. I asked if she could outgrow it, again NO. I asked if it would likely result in anaphylaxis someday, and he said "probably not." He did say just as asthmatics get worse food allergy reactions when their asthma is flaring, my daughter's food allergies may get worse during pollen season, although the antihistamines she takes may help prevent any severe reactions.

[tex]

Clearly, Dr. Wood is one enlightened physician. Kudos to him.

Most of his unenlightened peers continue to preach that most kids outgrow childhood allergies. May the bird of paradise fly up their nose.

Tex

[Zizzle]

Clearly, Dr. Wood is one enlightened physician. Kudos to him

Yes, he knows the deal, but he is in the business of helping worried families and kids with life-threatening allergies, so his work is to build up tolerance, regardless of the long-term consequences.

For a leading expert, he admited to having little to no answers about the causes and future directions in food allergy. He did spell out the accepted theories:
-Hygiene Hypothesis (although he wonders how poor inner cities would be categorized as too clean. I say it's lack of biodiversity)
-Diet (processing, pesticides)
-Specific nutritional factors (not enough D, too much folate) This was interesing - he said the rise in food allergy started when moms started taking prenatal vitamins.
-Immunizations
-Antibiotics
-C-sections
-Many others...

Protective factors:
Exposure to cows, dogs at home
Going to daycare (more infections early on)
Delaying solids until 4 months
For high risk kids -- avoid peanuts and tree nuts in pregnancy and while breastfeeding and supplement breastmilk only with hypoallergenic formula.

[tex]

Well, in his defense, doctors are in business to sell services and advice (not necessarily to improve their patients' health), and because of that, the most successful doctors go where the money is. This is just another example of, "The customer is always right", and doctors either give 'em what they want, or they will go somewhere else.

-Specific nutritional factors (not enough D, too much folate) This was interesing - he said the rise in food allergy started when moms started taking prenatal vitamins.

Wasn't this about the same time that soybeans began to be promoted as a wonder food, and the "drink more milk" campaign began to gain traction, and gluten began showing up in virtually everything considered to be nutritious, and snack (junk) foods became popular, and carbonated drink sales began to take off, and ingredient lists of processed foods began to grow longer and longer? Why, with all the possibilities, would he fixate on the use of select prenatal vitamins?

Increased folate significantly reduces my allergy symptoms, and at least one of my doctors agreed that he had noticed the same effect — there's certainly no reason why extra folate would make allergy symptoms worse. Is there?

Concerning the "Protective factors:"

I don't have much faith in these claims, either. When I was a kid (growing up on an old-fashioned farm), I lived with a menagerie of animals and birds right outside the door. I played in the same dirt that they played in (and did everything else in ). Chickens, ducks, geese, and turkeys roamed free (along with several dogs and cats), but of course the cattle and hogs were confined to pens/pastures. It didn't seem to work for me, because I grew up with asthma, and it went downhill from there.

Maybe I was exposed to all the communicable diseases too late in life. Day care didn't exist back in those days, and I was 6 when I started school. I made up for lost time by getting every disease that was going around (except polio, thank goodness), just as quickly as I could, but it's difficult to say how much that helped anything.

One question — can they really determine that a child is a "high risk kid" before they are born?

Tex

[Zizzle]

can they really determine that a child is a "high risk kid" before they are born?

Most definitely. Kids who's siblings or parents have food allergies, and families with atopic tendencies (eczema, asthma, rhinitis).

[Gabes-Apg]

The vitamin thing has me intrigued, is it that people got nutrients 'synthetically'? rather than in their natural form?

mindful that if people are deficient in Vit D, they are not absorbing nutrients properly anyway regardless if it is via foods or supplements.

[tex]

mindful that if people are deficient in Vit D, they are not absorbing nutrients properly anyway regardless if it is via foods or supplements.

That's what's missing from his list — The vitamin D deficiency epidemic. That occurred in the same time frame, and it trumps a lot of the things on his list, since it has such a profound effect on the immune system and autoimmune disease development. If the mother is vitamin D deficient, the odds go way up that the baby will be born with a much higher risk of developing allergies.

Thanks, Gabes.

Tex

[Gabes-Apg]

Your welcome Tex


long story short - Soy is Evil (ok - any GMO crop is evil) and Vit D deficiency has tainted the genes (?immune system)

[ant]

Dear Gabes,

Soy is Evil (ok - any GMO crop is evil)

Did you see this article about Professor Jack Heinemann of the University of Canterbury, NZ, and Associate Professor Judy Carman, a biochemist at Flinders University in Australia and their theories on "RNA interference".

http://www.wealthwire.com/news/equities/4149?r=1

Best, Ant

[Gabes-Apg]

Ant
thanks for that - very interesting.

the reality is, for our generation, well actually for 75- 85% of anyone who exists on this earth, the damage is done.
even if we could undo what has happened, it will take generations to 'undo' what has occurred.

cultures like the ?Amish, and those living in remote areas of indigenious existance are the only ones that may be ?protected