Peanut consumption protects against peanut allergies

02/27/2015

Peanut allergies are among the most common allergies, which is why intensified preventive measures have been discussed and implemented in recent years. These included, among other dietary recommendations that advise avoidance of peanuts during pregnancy, lactation and infancy. Nevertheless, peanut allergies continued to grow strongly over the past decade. Now, a comprehensive study by British researchers concludes that early consumption of peanuts does not increase the allergy risk, but instead significantly reduces it.

The groundbreaking new findings from allergy research suggest that exposure to potential allergens in children contributes to allergy protection instead of increasing the allergy risk. Previous recommendations that advise pregnant women and toddlers as little contact with allergens as possible must, in principle, be revised. The often advised avoidance of peanuts may have been a major contributor to the increase in peanut allergies over the past decade. In this country today about 0.5 percent of children are affected by a peanut allergy, reports the news agency "dpa", citing Prof. Kirsten Beyer of the Berlin Charité. Even 20 years ago, there were hardly any peanut allergies in Germany.

Breakthrough in allergy research
The research team led by Professor Gideon Lack of Kings College London presented the results of the Learning Early About Peanut Allergy (LEAP) study to the public at the Annual General Meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology the future allergy prevention. The Univ.-Prof. Zsolt Szepfalusi from the University Children's Hospital at the MedUni Vienna quoted by the "Kurier.at" with the statement that "there has not been such a breakthrough in allergy research in the last 30 or 40 years". The study was published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine..

Doubling of peanut allergies in the last decade
Over the years, the researchers from the Immune Tolerance Network have analyzed the effects of early consumption of peanuts on the subsequent risk of allergies in the LEAP study. Now, the results of the first randomized study to prevent food allergy by including allergens in a large cohort of high-risk children are available, report Professor Lack and colleagues. Basically, the peanut allergy is an abnormal reaction of the body's immune system to harmless peanut proteins in the diet. Possible symptoms include nettle rash, shortness of breath, nausea and vomiting, or even a life-threatening anaphylactic shock. So far, the assumption has been made here that the contact caused an increasing risk of allergy, the researchers continue to report. However, while peanut avoidance is often recommended during pregnancy, lactation and childhood, the prevalence of peanut allergies has doubled in the US and other countries over the last decade.

More than 600 children at high risk of allergy were examined
The researchers therefore hypothesized in the LEAP study that regular consumption of peanut-containing products in childhood produces a protective immune response rather than an allergic immune response. More than 600 children between the ages of four and eleven months at high risk of peanut allergy were divided into two groups as part of the study. One group regularly received peanut snacks, while the other avoided peanuts altogether. Until the age of five, the researchers observed the allergy development of children of both groups. The subsequent comparison clarified the preventive effect of early allergen exposure.

Early consumption of peanuts prevents peanut allergies
Of the children who avoided peanuts, 17 percent developed a peanut allergy by the age of 5, while only 3 percent of children who received peanut snacks showed a peanut allergy, write Professor Lack and colleagues. Overall, in infants with high allergy risk, continued consumption of peanuts in the first eleven months of life has been very effective in preventing the development of peanut allergies, the researchers report. Anthony Fauci, head of the US Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which co-funded the study, said the findings have the potential to change our approach to preventing food allergies.

Avoidance of allergens cause of the increase in allergies?
"For decades, allergologists have been advocating for young infants to avoid allergenic foods such as peanuts to prevent food allergies," but current "results suggest that this advice was wrong and may have contributed to the increase in peanut and other food allergies." Professor Lack. The results of the study are also rated as extremely exciting by Prof. Kirsten Beyer. "These are the first results of a large study, which prove that the early administration of highly allergenic substances can prevent an allergy," cites the "dpa" the expert. However, the results should first be reviewed in further studies before general recommendations can be derived.

Revision of nutritional recommendations required
Compared to the "courier" explains the allergist Zsolt Szepfalusi that in view of the new study results "in the nutritional recommendations for allergy prevention for children soon some serious changes" are expected. In principle, it would require a turnaround of the overall strategy. "Now we need to change our strategy even more towards premature exposure to allergens," said Szepfalusi, who was recently involved in the presentation of new allergy recommendations. These had already released the intake of allergens via the complementary foods, whereas previously a complete avoidance of the potential allergy triggers in pregnancy and infancy was applied. "Now we will probably put more emphasis on not only being allowed to do it, but expressly", quotes the "courier" to the allergist. According to the latest study results, this should apply in particular to children with a high risk of allergy.

Improvement of allergy prevention
Although the LEAP study explicitly refers to the risk of peanut allergy, the Szepfalusi hopes that the results will be transferable to other allergens such as milk, eggs and wheat. Overall, the new findings could not only contribute to a significant improvement in allergy prevention, according to researchers from the Immune Tolerance Network. (Fp)