Peanut Allergy - Treatments

Treatments

Currently there is no confirmed treatment to prevent or cure allergic reactions to peanuts; however some children have been recently participating in a method of treating the allergy to peanuts using mithridatism. This method consists of feeding the children minuscule peanut traces which gradually become larger and larger in order to desensitize the immune system to the peanut allergens. Strict avoidance of peanuts is the only way to avoid an allergic reaction. Children and adults are advised to carry epinephrine injectors to treat anaphylaxis.

In order to diagnose allergies one must be prepared to first tell their doctor about their symptoms. These symptoms should include any time intervals between the ingestion of the product and the time that the symptoms began. A person should also include the exact type of symptoms and any other history of the symptoms that may have also occurred from this same product. The time interval from the person's last reaction will also be helpful to the doctor to determine the specific allergy or medical issue. One of the first and easiest ways a doctor is able to diagnose the food allergy is by means of something called a Food Challenge. During this challenge, the patient will be asked to eliminate the peanut allergen completely from their diet for a time span from 10 to 14 days from start to finish. This type of elimination food challenge time span if for the IgE mediated allergy. There will be a time span as long as 8 weeks for the reaction called the cell mediated allergic reaction. By running these Food Challenges, doctors are able to determine whether or not the suspicion of the peanut allergy is accurate. The doctor will look at the results after the given time and if the symptoms have not changed, even after the peanuts have been eliminated completely for such a long period of time, that the allergy is probably not the likely cause. If the symptoms go away after the challenge then the allergy is probably the cause of the symptoms.

While several companies have developed promising drugs to counteract peanut allergies, trials have been mired in legal battles.