Google+ Allergy-Free Vintage Cookery: Can Food Allergies Be Cured?

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Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Can Food Allergies Be Cured?

I like to illustrate my allergy posts with vintage family photos, and today I'd like you to meet my father.  He passed away 18 years ago yesterday, and although he is dearly missed, his legacy lives on in his oldest grandson, who looks just like him.

So my question to you today is can food allergies be cured? Allergy shots have been available for environmental allergies since 1911, but desensitization treatment for food allergies is still in development.  A vaccine for peanut allergy is said to be just a few years away from the market, but no other food allergens have attracted the research dollars that peanuts have, and no other treatment is currently so close to fruition.

Some individual allergists are experimenting with oral desensitization treatment for non-anaphylactic allergens.  This involves introducing very small amounts of a trigger food orally, under strict medical supervision.  According to Dr. Adrian Wu in the Hong Kong Medical Journal, "a recent study of oral egg desensitization in seven children with non-anaphylactic reactions to egg showed that five subjects could be desensitized to tolerate at least 8 g of egg without reaction."

Alternative (non-medical) treatments abound, but their efficacy is dubious, and some may be downright dangerous.  To the desperate parent, a promise of a fuller lifestyle can be just enticing enough to outweigh any doubts they might have about whether the proffering practitioner is competent, professional or even licensed.  Some alternative treatments may rely on applied kinesiology, accupressure, yoga, biofeedback, herbal medicine, hypnosis, art and music therapy, and even chiropractic spinal manipulation.  While some anecdotal evidence is available about the results of these therapies, no clinical studies to date support any of these treatments.

I am interested to hear what you all have tried in the way of food allergy therapies.  Has anything worked for you aside from avoidance?  Have you heard of an alternative therapy you're tempted to try? Share your stories in the comments....

Shared with Real Food Wednesday at Kelly the Kitchen Kop and Fresh Bites Friday at Real Food Whole Health.

4 comments:

  1. I'm not ready to go down that road yet. My son's peanut and dairy allergies are just too severe. I have hope for one day though. He did do a sort of desensitization with egg where he was allowed one egg baked into cookies. He could have 1 cookie a day. It didn't last long because he was afraid of the food. Since he knows what it feels like to go into ani shock, he is skiddish. I would be too.

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  2. My food allergies came out later in life. They were due to the overuse of antibiotics causing candida yeast overgrowth. 2 years ago I was getting all sorts of crazy symptoms and got the IgG & IgE blood test done. Mine were all IgG meaning they were food sensitivities and not life threatening. I did a month long candida cleanse and that helped significantly. Then I eliminated what I couldn't tolerate. Recently (two weeks ago) I started seeing a practitioner for NAET. Nambudripad's Allergy Elimination Technique. I heard so many great stories that I had to give it a try. It has worked for my sensitivities to dairy and I am currently working on treating eggs. My insurance doesn't cover it so I have to pay out of pocket. Since I'm a student I can't afford to get them all done at once. So I will have to wait a while to treat my gluten, soy, almond, and mushroom sensitivities.

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  3. When my daughter was diagnosed, she was highly allergic to most nuts, peanuts, soy, dairy, wheat, eggs, sesame, and sunflower (with more suspected). We put her on an "allergy diet" avoiding everything she was allergic to (and all gluten) and gave her a vitamin/mineral/amino acid supplement along with fish oils and probiotics. After a year we retested and found she is now only allergic to eggs and the nuts that caused anaphylaxis. I suspect it had something to do with allowing her gut lining to heal, but I do not know what caused the problem in the first place. (Gluten antibodies are neg.)

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  4. The Gaps diet is supposed to heal the leaky gut that is supposed to be the root cause of allergies and all food sensitivities. More about it is on www.cheeseslave.com.

    We are doing this diet now for food allergies. It has had wonderful effects, but we haven't been on it that long.

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