Easyjet and nut allergies

[Crackle]

I believe that the theory that the growth in the number of people with allergies is strongly connected to the modern tendency to restrict what we give young children is very well-founded and has been around for a long time.

I wouldn't say well founded because the advice has turned around 180 degrees in just a decade. The study says you can reduce the risk by introducing at an early age, the link to restriction is unproven as far as I know.

Also peanut allergy is hardly ever considered alone but normally alongside asthma, eczema and other intolerances. This study and others like it, are promising but I don't think it's anywhere close to understood yet. I think that's also because there's no one single explanation. There might be something in the restriction theory, there might be something in the spread of peanut oil as a base product, there might be genetic factors, there might be environmental factors. You might solve one thing, peanuts but not solve something else, like asthma. So is it modern life. Well it could well be but not just one factor.

 

[Drago]

Thanks guys - guess who's been OK for a couple of years and had an anaphylactic episode this morning. Lovely.

 

[slowmotion]

I'd forgotten those little bits of metal... Do they still do tests on their blood or is that all banned now?

I imagine that Elf and Safety and HIV probably did for self-stabbing in schools.

 

[slowmotion]

Thanks guys - guess who's been OK for a couple of years and had an anaphylactic episode this morning. Lovely.

Sorry to hear that @Drago. All the best.

 

[Drago]

I'm ok thanks buddy. Nacked and tired, the industrial dose antihistamines I have leave me pretty washed out.

 

[jefmcg]

I wouldn't say well founded because the advice has turned around 180 degrees in just a decade. The study says you can reduce the risk by introducing at an early age, the link to restriction is unproven as far as I know.

Also peanut allergy is hardly ever considered alone but normally alongside asthma, eczema and other intolerances. This study and others like it, are promising but I don't think it's anywhere close to understood yet. I think that's also because there's no one single explanation. There might be something in the restriction theory, there might be something in the spread of peanut oil as a base product, there might be genetic factors, there might be environmental factors. You might solve one thing, peanuts but not solve something else, like asthma. So is it modern life. Well it could well be but not just one factor.

This study looks pretty good to my dilettante mind. They took infants with a eczema or egg allergy and randomly assigned them to an avoidance group or consumption group. Of those who had a pre-existing sensitivity to peanuts, 30% developed an allergy if they were not exposed to peanuts, but only 10% of those exposed to peanuts did. Similarly for those who did not have an sensitivity at the beginning of the study, those who avoided peanuts were 7 times as likely to develop an allergy as those who didn't.

Sure, I bet they don't understand the mechanism entirely, but it seems pretty clear.

There's a small group that will develop a peanut allergy no matter what protocol is chosen - the cohort probably includes @Drago - glad you are ok!

 

[Crackle]

but it seems pretty clear

In isolation yes but in fact it can't just be considered in isolation and if you are also approaching this from a historical perspective it makes you more reluctant to embrace the latest thinking, you need more or time or both. Anyway it's not the first, there was another one a few years ago, along similar lines but it went more into the link to eczema..

 

[slowmotion]

Slightly off-topic, but is the general medical consensus still that exposure to general low level infections/bacteria etc at an early age is good for the immune system, and that the current obsession with anti-bacterial handsprays etc is a bit counterproductive? Outside hospitals, anyway.

 

[Tanis8472]

Well I wasn't expecting such a long and interesting read from this