Oral Immunotherapy & Egg Allergies

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease released an article on the 18th summarizing a recent study on the effect of oral immunotherapy in children and adolescents with severe egg allergies. There were only 55 children in the study, which is a rather small sample size. The control group consisted of 15 children who were given a placebo (cornstarch) and the other 40 children were given increasingly larger doses of egg white powder over a period of 2 years. They were tested at 10 months, 22 months, and 24 months. At 10 months 55% of the children in the test group passed an egg challenge test. At 22 months they retested the children who passed the first challenge. 75% of those children had no reaction to eating egg. The children were then taken off the therapy entirely for 2 months and tested again. Eleven children passed the third challenge and continued to have no reaction a year later. So what does this all mean? Roughly 25% of the test subjects given the therapy had lasting effects. This study does indicate that oral immunotherapy could be a possible treatment for some people with egg allergies, but seeing as how their sample size was small and the odds are 3 to 1 that it won't work, I hope this means they will continue to test and perfect their methods.
You can read the full article here: NIAID Article July 18, 2012

TUESDAY'S TIP: Malnutrition & Food Allergies

Finding the Right Balance

How do you ensure you're getting the right nutrients when you have to avoid certain, possibly nutrient-rich, foods? When you have a food allergy... or multiple allergies like me, it can be difficult to find alternatives or replacements for foods we can no longer eat. I know I can't be the only person who has looked up and down the grocery store aisles in search of an acceptable snack, lunch item, or ingredient to alter a recipe. If you're like me, you probably get frustrated too and end up saying something like, "Forget it! I'll just get a candy bar... that's got nutrients, right?" No? OK, well... maybe it's just me.

If you have to avoid certain foods for health reasons, and you don't eat enough of the right foods, you could be lacking vital nutrients. So what do you do? We need to have carbohydrates, protein, fats (yes, fats), vitamins and minerals in our diets to get everything our body needs to function properly. Let's take a look at these individually.