Possible gamechanger for asthma medications for children with nut allergies

Possible gamechanger for asthma medications for children with nut allergies

Four million people cannot tolerate one of the most common food allergies in the United States.

The allergy usually lasts a lifetime and for some, an accidental exposure can be fatal.

Anabelle Terry does something that was unthinkable just a few years ago: eating nuts.

“Her doctor told her to carry an EpiPen everywhere we went,” said Anabelle’s mother, Victoria.

“At school, I had to worry about sitting next to people every day who had peanut butter sandwiches, PB&Js.” Anabelle said.

However, a recent investigation has given Anabelle and her parents new hope.

“This study really looked at preventing accidental ingestion, preventing anaphylaxis and making life a little easier and safer for food-allergic children,” says Dr. Tina Sindher, allergist-immunologist at Stanford Medicine Children’s Health.

The key is a drug originally designed to treat asthmatics.

“The way omalizumab, brand name Xolair, works is that it binds to your allergy cells and takes them out of the bloodstream,” Sindher said.

So, does it work?

“Children who responded to less than a third of a peanut could now tolerate more than two and a half whole peanuts without symptoms,” Sindher said.

Then the doctors started the second phase.

“You get omalizumab and you also do oral immunotherapy at the same time,” Sindher said.

“She was then able to gradually start taking some of the actual nut” without the medicine, Victoria said.

Just her daily dose of nuts.

And it worked!

‘And then I’m ready to go. I can live the rest of my life, and I’ll be a little better than I was before,” Anabelle said.

As a result of the study, omalizumab received FDA approval in February for the treatment of severe allergies.

Parents can ask their child’s doctor if they can get a prescription. It can be used for patients from 1 year old.

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