Are there any nuts in that?

So today, my feature on peanut allergies came out over at New Scientist. I'm really sorry that it's behind the purchase barrier (sorry), so you gotta buy it on newsstands, already have a subscription to read online. But here's the gist:

It opens up with a description of my very first experience with anaphylactic shock. I'd always been allergic to peanuts, but I usually just threw up. And, brilliant timing as it was, I was attending a college ball when it happened. Anne was there, ask her all about it. There were paramedics and oxygen masks and syringes full of adrenalin and antihistamines. One part that didn't make it into the feature was that, upon sitting my ass down in the ambulance, I remember that I wasn't....wearing...any.....underwear. It's a good look, you know. Hospital gown, high heels and nothin' else.

Moving on. Basically the feature is about people doing all sorts of fun studies trying to a) prevent at-risk kids from getting peanut allergies by feeding them TRUCK LOADS of peanuts in infancy. And b) treating the poor suckers that did get the allergy using genetically modified peanut allergy shots (that don't kill people like the old ones did), building up tolerance via plain old eating peanuts and also with Chinese herbs (yes, Chinese herbs. I am still really impressed that the biggest big-wig in US peanut research opened his mind to the project, but you know why? Because they bloody work).

I also touch on why peanut allergies are so bad (we don't really know) and why they seem to be rising (also don't know). It seems to have something to do with the Americanisation of food around the Western world. Peanut allergies used to just be an "American problem" that have now spread to Britain, Australian, New Zealand and slowly into continental Europe. Peanuts are just everywhere, in everything, either as an ingredient or just a trace element. The basic idea is that the ubiquity of peanuts means that all kids are exposed to them in a fragile developmental window where encountering tiny amounts of peanuts (as opposed to zero or tonnes and tonnes) leads straight to an allergy.

Confused? Let me break it down. To have a peanut allergy you must first be sensitized - a process where your body decides that peanuts are dangerous, and produces antibodies against them. This likely happens during an immunologically immature window (ages 0 - 3 very, very roughly). BUT, if you eat tonnes more peanuts in this flexible time, then your body begins to TOLERATE the peanuts (the process that happens in normal people who can eat nuts). So either ZERO peanut exposure (which is seemingly impossible) or TONNES of peanut exposure is safe. In between is the danger zone. And that's exactly what kids today are likely experiencing in early childhood.

But then there's me. I was supposedly allergic to peanuts the very first time I ate them..meaning that I was sensitised either through my skin, or via my mother's breast milk. Lord knows she ate peanut butter like it was going out of style while nursing and it could have gotten to me either way. The only question is whether by feeding me buckets of peanut butter my allergy could have been "erased" so to speak. Dunno. But I am like SO first in line for the Chinese herbs.

Comments

[lil sis]

That feature sounds so good I think I'm going to BUY the article!

[sara]

Hmm, so you're supposed to be feeding my allergy-prone kids peanut and nut butter so that they don't develop allergies? But how do you know that the allergy hasn't already developed, thus causing your little PB dessert to send the kid into anaphylactic shock?

[donna]

I wonder if some people are allergic to the fungus on the damn things, and not necessarily the nuts themselves... and apparently the way we process them doesn't help:

A theory of the development of peanut allergy has to do with the way that peanuts are processed in North America versus other countries like China. Peanuts are widely eaten in China but the prevalence of peanut allergies is almost unheard of there. Soheila J. Maleki, PhD, from the United States Department of Agriculture discovered that roasting peanuts as is done in North America causes the major peanut allergen Ara h2 to become a stronger digestive enzyme inhibitor and more resistant to digestion. Boiling peanuts, as is done in China, does not cause this effect. Though the allergy can last a lifetime, new research has shown that almost 25% of children will outgrow a peanut allergy.

(via Wikipedia)

I've found my digestive system won't tolerate peanuts anymore, although peanut butter is less of a problem.

[Anna]

The peanut processing theory is probably less significant for why people GET allergies to begin with, but could be why they evoke such strong allergic reactions. I don't really know. There is also lots of roasting going on in Africa, where they eat TONNES of peanuts and have no peanut allergies - of course a lot of Africans have parasites, which seem to protect against allergies. It's a bit of a connundrum, really.

And Sara. I'd wait for the end of the trial (if you can wait that long:), but yes, the idea would be that YOU specifically would feed your kids tonnes and tonnes of peanut butter. The whole point is that they MIGHT be SLIGHTLY allergic, but by keeping on eating it they kind of get over it.

??

[Caitlin O'Connor]

That was YOU? Heck, I bought that issue just for your story! (My epipen's for bee stings - not nearly as hidden as peanuts.) WELL DONE!!

[Anna]

THAT'S THE COOLEST THING EVER! Thanks Caitlin. You totally just made my day. And please don't make fun of me for the "Anna Gosline dines with death..." strap. I SO did not write that. Anne pissed her pants laughing when she saw it, knowing I would cringe.

[katie]

very cool. congrats!! as someone allergic to not just peanuts but most nuts, i'm very interested. my mother is also very allergic to the same nuts as i am, as is my brother... no evidence for genetic linkage?

[Anna]

Oh, yes. There is a HUGE genetic component. My brother is allergic to nuts (not peanuts, though, weirdly). The thing is, genes probably woudln't explain why MORE people are allergic to nuts..probably the same amount of people who are genetically predisposed to allergies and now just the perfect environment (at least for peanuts) to bring it out.

[Sanescientist]

Wow! Your own multi-page spread in NS! I am so jealous. and to think that I was proud of getting a mildly amusing snippet published in Feedback.