Most Recognize Allergies Are Serious but Don’t Know Who Should Treat Condition
Arlington Heights, IL – infoZine – Newswise – While nearly four in five people know allergies are serious, only one in five realize that allergists are the doctors who specialize in treating the condition, according to a recent survey commissioned by the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI).
More than a third (38 percent) of respondents recognize allergies are a serious disease that can be deadly and two in five (40 percent) acknowledge that they are somewhat serious and can affect your quality of life. However, when asked what type of doctor should be seen for the optimal treatment of allergies, only 21 percent correctly identified an allergist, while 29 percent named general practitioner, family doctor or internist, and another 29 percent said they didn’t know.
People with allergies didn’t fare much better at identifying the appropriate specialist to treat allergies, with only 23 percent naming allergists. More than a third (37 percent) of people who responded said they have allergies, including allergic rhinitis, asthma, hay fever, sinus allergies, eye allergies, food allergies or skin allergies such as contact dermatitis, eczema or hives.
“Allergies can make you miserable and sufferers need to know that allergists are the best trained specialist to treat anyone with allergic conditions,” said Stanley Fineman, M.D., president-elect of the ACAAI. “Allergists conduct appropriate testing to identify what’s triggering the allergy, its severity, and the best treatment plan. No one needs to suffer. We can help all patients find relief.”
The ACAAI survey results of 1,020 adults also found that:
Women are more likely to recognize allergies are serious, with almost half of women (47 percent) saying allergies can cause death, compared to less than one-third (30 percent) of men.
People with allergies are not any more likely to say the condition is serious than people without allergies. However, one-quarter (25 percent) of the people with allergies said that the condition is not serious but can make you miserable, compared to only 19 percent of those without. More than one third (35 percent) of people with allergies named general practitioner, family doctor or internist as the type of doctor who should be seen for the treatment of allergies. Only 23 percent recognized that an allergist is the appropriate physician specialist to diagnose and treat allergic diseases.
The survey of 1,020 Americans (503 men and 517 women) was conducted online January 27-28, 2011 among a demographically representative sample of adults 18 and older. The survey was conducted by ONLINE CARAVAN®, an omnibus service of ORC International.
Allergy Treatment Helps Kids Tolerate Some Peanuts
By Duke Medicine News and Communications – A peanut solution given under the tongue can desensitize a child’s deadly peanut allergies, but further testing will be needed to determine if it may permanently eliminate their reactions to the foods, according to researchers from Duke University Medical Center.
In a double-blind, placebo-controlled study, Duke researchers built up tolerance to the allergen in 11 children with a year of small but escalating daily doses of peanut. The therapy allowed the children to tolerate 20 times more peanut protein.
These protocols were done in a clinical setting with close observation and emergency resources close at hand.
“A treatment like this means that some families won’t need to be as concerned about their children taking a bite of something that has peanut in it and could cause a life-threatening reaction,” said Wesley Burks, MD, chief of the Division of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology at Duke and senior author of the study. “It would really provide them a margin of safety.”
This form of therapy, called sublingual immunotherapy, is different from Burks’ previously published research on oral immunotherapy, which involves eating milligrams to grams of peanuts in the form of flour mixed in another food, such as applesauce. That research continues to help kids tolerate peanuts without reactions, and Burks is looking at how the therapy may help resolve their allergies.
Burks’ new research builds on a therapy that has been helpful to people with allergic rhinitis and asthma, but has not been studied extensively as a therapy for food allergy.
More than three million Americans have peanut or tree nut allergies and fewer than 20 percent will outgrow the allergy without therapy. Currently, there is no treatment for the disease. Once a diagnosis is made, physicians have to try to help the family avoid the food, which is not a perfect plan because accidental exposure can still happen.
That is one reason Burks and his team are trying to develop a new, successful therapy for peanut allergy sufferers.
“Ideally we want to eliminate the allergy,” Burks said. “But, we are not there yet.”
The study included 18 children who completed 12 months of dosing. One group (11 children) received the liquid peanut concentration, which was held under the tongue for one or two minutes and then swallowed.
The other group (seven children) received the placebo. The dose started at 0.25 micrograms of peanut protein administered in clinic and was increased biweekly by 25 to 100 percent until 2,000 micrograms was reached. In the time between the biweekly doses in the clinic, the children took daily doses of the previously administered dose at home. The 2,000 microgram dose was continued for six months.
After a year of dosing, the children on treatment tolerated significantly more peanuts when they were challenged. They tolerated the equivalent of six to seven peanuts compared to those that received placebo and tolerated less than one peanut.
“We were able to raise the threshold for the amount of peanuts these kids could tolerate,” Burks said. “But, we are not ready to take this approach to clinical practice,” he cautioned. “It’s not a long-term cure. That part of the process is still being studied now.”
Those that were on treatment are continuing and those that were on placebo have entered the treatment phase. Both groups will be followed three or four more years to determine if it’s feasible to eliminate their allergy.
“The good news is we have successfully helped these kids tolerate about five peanuts and that means accidental ingestion is less of a hazard,” Burks said. “Most kids with peanut allergies are not going to accidentally eat five peanuts and most reactions from accidental ingestions occur from just a trace of a peanut, well below the study groups’ new threshold.”
The study, which published online January 31, 2011 in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, and the Wallace Research Foundation.
Co-authors of the study include Edwin H. Kim, J. Andrew Bird, Michael Kulis, Susan Laubach, Laurent Pons, Pamela Steele, Janet Kamilaris, and Brian Vickery, all of Duke University Medical Center, and Wayne Shreffler, of Massachusetts General Hospital.
Allergy treatment company fined for contempt of court
A DIRECTOR and his company have been fined $15,000 for contempt of court after breaching undertakings to stop claiming they could diagnose and cure allergies through ”muscle testing” and ”positive conditioning”.
Federal Court judge Ray Finkelstein found in August 2009 that Allergy Pathway had engaged in false, misleading and deceptive comments by advertising that it could safely eliminate allergies.
Yesterday he fined the company and its sole director, Paul Frederick Keir, for continuing to make the claims in contravention of those orders, including on the internet via a YouTube video, Facebook and Twitter.
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The company, which according to its website has five clinics in Australia and New Zealand, said it used muscle testing to diagnose allergies because ”a normal muscle will weaken when exposed to a substance the person is reacting to”.
”Positive conditioning” – stimulating a patient’s spine while exposing him or her to a vial of the allergy trigger – was said to ”retrain the body to no longer perceive the substance as something that is harmful”.
In a report to the court, Associate Professor Jo Douglass, head of The Alfred hospital’s allergy and asthma service, said she was unaware of any scientific evidence to support such practices, which were unsafe and, if followed, would ”expose some individuals to the risk of severe allergic reaction or even death”.
Justice Finkelstein ordered Keir and the company to publish corrective statements at the company’s clinics, on its website, on Facebook and Twitter, and in a letter to customers.
