Early exposure 'cuts peanut allergy'

[muriel_volestrangler]

Eating peanut products as a baby dramatically cuts the risk of allergy, a study reported in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests.

Trials on 628 babies prone to developing peanut allergy found the risk was cut by over 80%.
...
But specialists warned at-risk families should not experiment with peanut products without medical advice.
...
The trial focused on babies as young as four months who had already developed eczema - an early warning sign of allergies.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-31550816

[mopinko]

1. interesting.

and yeah, the opposite of current advice.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

2. But at the first sign of reaction, who would want to risk the baby's life 2 cut the allergic reaction into an adulthood that might never come?

I believe peanut allergy is the second deadliest after bee stings.

[HockeyMom]

3. Eat peanut butter once a week

My daughter's OB told her to do that while pregnant. She has food allergies (dairy and beef) but not peanut.

[CanSocDem]

4. "Early exposure, eh?"

And then what...??? Let the body heal itself sounds like the stuff of anti-vaxers. Pardon my tone, but sometimes the hypocrisy makes my stomach turn.


.

[trotsky]

5. I'm sure someone with a peanut allergy just needs to envision themselves not being allergic, right?

That'll fix it?

[proverbialwisdom]

9. Check it out.

Last edited Fri Mar 13, 2015, 02:49 AM - Edit history (1)

http://robynobrien.com/about-robyn-obrien/

ROBYN O'BRIEN

A former financial and food industry analyst Robyn O’Brien triggered an allergic reaction in the food industry when she asked: “Are we allergic to food or what’s been done to it?”

She has helped to lead a food awakening among consumers, corporations and politicians. Food companies responding to Robyn’s work include Kraft, Coca Cola, Burger King, Chipotle, Nestle, Target and others. She sheds light on how the changing landscape of food and health are impacting the food industry and our economy.

While working as an equity analyst, she covered a lot of companies, but was specifically assigned to cover the food industry. She couldn’t cook but had the opportunity to meet Goldman Sachs’ Henry Paulson, Ebay’s Meg Whitman and Martha Stewart, along with the management teams from Kroger, Costco, Whole Foods and other companies.

She leads a “for purpose” non profit (AllergyKids) and is a best-selling author, public speaker, strategist and mother of four. She brings insight and detailed analysis to her research on the health of the American food system as documented in her first book, The Unhealthy Truth, and has been called “food’s Erin Brockovich” by Bloomberg and the New York Times.

Her work has appeared on CNN, the Today Show, Good Morning America, FOX News, in the Washington Post and countless media outlets, and she currently writes a popular column for Prevention while serving as the Executive Director of the AllergyKids Foundation and doing strategic advisory work for companies making trend-setting changes in the food industry.

<>

http://robynobrien.com/science-for-sale-the-funding-behind-the-latest-study-on-peanut-allergy/

Science for Sale? The Funding Behind the Latest Study on Peanut Allergy

March 9, 2015
By Robyn O'Brien

The New England Journal of Medicine’s recently published a five year study where peanuts introduced to the diet of infants reduced the incidence of developing peanut allergy by age 5 by 80%.

The study had hit like a grenade in the food allergy world and triggered an allergic reaction in parents.

Why?

The study threw out 10% of at-risk babies before it even started and was funded in part by the peanut industry, but this was not highlighted in the media.

That’s like conducting a diabetes study on sugar, funded by the sugar industry, but not mentioning it.

Nowhere in the New England Journal of Medicine editorial, “Preventing Peanut Allergy through Early Consumption — Ready for Prime Time?” did the authors share this critical statement: “The National Peanut Board is providing funding to support this research.” Nowhere in the press was it shared. Given how prevalent the peanut allergy has become, parental instinct kicked in, and the reaction was strong.

From 1997-2010, the prevalence of peanut allergy in children has more than quadrupled in the United States.

Today, a food allergy reaction sends someone to the emergency room once every three minutes. The vigilance, stress and lost lives associated with this condition are impacting families, schools and communities around the country.

Parents are asking: Why is this? And the scientific community is trying to wrap its head around it, too. More science is absolutely critical.

<>

MORE: http://robynobrien.com/the-unhealthy-truth

[Gore1FL]

10. Robyn O'Brien isn't the most credible of resources, unfortunately. n/t

[proverbialwisdom]

11. That's a shallow critique. Please tell more. Says who?

The crowd described here? LINK: http://foodbabe.com/2015/02/12/dirty-pr-campaign/ as reported by http://usrtk.org recently?

http://www.corporatecrimereporter.com/news/200/report-details-gmo-public-relations-campaign/
http://usrtk.org/seedybusiness.pdf

Incidentally, FYI, the author of The Peanut Allergy Epidemic (Second edition, Spring 2015), Heather Fraser, recently criticized O'Brien for holding her punches (edited out of earlier post). More about the book here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3192090/

[proverbialwisdom]

12. Here's the first thing I ever read by her.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/101612510

A Ripple of Hope: When Courage and Conscience Collide

June 10, 2008
by Robyn O'Brien

I was raised on capitalism and the Wall Street Journal. As a child, my family celebrated the birth of Reaganomics the way one would have celebrated the birth of a child. There was prosperity to be had by all – if only we believed. My father, like so many of his era, fully supported deregulation and the notion of trickle down economics. If we loosen the regulatory purse strings that government tightly controls, we will all prosper. The system works.

In our house, the Reagans had an almost royal status – to watch them dance, with Nancy in her red dress, gave me the feeling, as a child, that I was watching some magnificent combination of Frank Sinatra and a foreign prince with his graceful companion on his arm.

I trusted my political values would serve me well – I was loyal, patriotic and supported the system.

And then one of my children got sick. With a blood condition that no one could pronounce and a pediatric mandate requiring immediate enrollment at a Children's Hospital. And I awoke.

<>

Here's the latest jpg from Twitter I've seen by her:

[center][/center]

She's so annoying to Big Food and others. I can dig it.

[LeftishBrit]

7. Interesting- though obviously not to be 'tried at home' unless you've got the support of a doctor

Peanuts are not on the whole a big part of UK diet: we do eat peanuts (well, I don't; I'm not allergic but find them indigestible and don't much like the taste) but not to the extent that they seem to be in America.

If one could find ways of preventing such allergies it would be a good thing!

[womanofthehills]

8. Peanuts and corn are high in toxic aflatoxins

Aflatoxins are liver cell carcinogens. The US has a limit of 20ppb of aflatoxin but the European markets are striving for 2ppb.

I avoid peanuts because I don't digest them well and who knows if each batch of peanut butter is tested.