Allergies are a large part of healthcare costs, both directly and in lost productivity. .
A revolutionary treatment for allergies to peanuts and other foods is going mainstream—but do the benefits outweigh the risks?
Eating small but increasing doses of peanuts seems to protect children with peanut allergies, but the therapy comes with risks and unknowns
https://www.science.org/content/article/revolutionary-treatm…
This 2018 article describes the attempt to retrain the immune system to be more tolerant of “allergens”.
Allergens are the foreign particle to which the immune system responds, either excessively, inappropriately, or both.
Food allergies typically involve an allergen that is NOT toxic to the body, but the allergic response (inappropriate and or excessive immune response) can be fatal.
In general, mast cells release histamine which can reult in systemic edema which causes loss of blood pressure and loss of O2 delivery to the brain, heart, etc.
The described treatment involves some risks.
The patient is receiving a molecule to which his immune system might respond in a way that could kill him.
To do this, the practitioners keep the patient in a controlled environment with “emergency” treatment readily available.
As Jacob sat through the hourslong appointment in Cincinnati, playing video games and swigging increasing doses of peanut-spiked Kool-Aid, he joined legions of children writing food allergy’s next chapter.
Snip
Wasserman ventured into food allergy immunotherapy 11 years ago. He developed a protocol based partly on published case reports and protocols for allergy shots, and he put IVs into his first five peanut allergy patients in case he had only seconds to rescue them from severe anaphylaxis. "
This process could also be used by folks who fear vaccine allergies, but want to receive a vax, and or boosters.
TMF covered Aimmune Therapeutics (AIMT) in Sept 2020.
Why Aimmune Therapeutics Stock Jumped by 159% in August
https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/09/08/why-aimmune-therap…
The biopharma’s shares took flight last month after the announcement of a $2.6 billion merger agreement with multinational food and drink giant Nestle’s (NSRGY -2.11%) health science division.
So, food giant, Nestle, now controls the research?
Some practitioners are offering treatment, without “official sanction”.
Meanwhile, some doctors embrace another route: offering peanut immunotherapy in their practices. “I can treat 20 patients with $5.95 of peanut flour,” says Richard L. Wasserman, a pediatric allergist-immunologist in Dallas, Texas.
Wasserman has since treated more than 300 children with peanut allergies and more than 400 with other food allergies. Other practitioners are joining in,
The JCs aren’t happy:
Some clinicians—and executives at the companies developing products—aren’t happy about the doctor’s office treatments. “That gives a lot of us pause,” says Sampson, who in addition to his academic post is chief scientific officer of DBV.
DBV is a private company DBV Technologies, based in Montrouge, France, and New York City,
Aimmune Therapeutics/Nestle and DBV are developing treatment programs for retraining the immune system.
They don’t want competition from rogue clinics using $5 worth of peanut butter…
ralph