https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/09/dangers-peanut-allergy-drug/597997/
For kids who've already developed a peanut allergy, though, a similar but more controversial treatment is up for approval by the Food and Drug Administration. The agency is holding a hearing today with the pharmaceutical company and its advocates, expected to inform a final ruling in coming months.
There is currently no "treatment" for a peanut allergy. As it is, patients are told to avoid peanuts. They are prescribed a syringe full of epinephrine (trade name: EpiPen) and taught to inject themselves if needed. Despite much advancement in medical science and technology over the decades, nothing has given families peace of mind that the allergy itself could be treated, or at least tempered. Until now. The new approach involves trying to reprogram the immune system by giving a person ... peanuts.
This might sound dangerous, because it is.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/13/health/peanut-allergy-children.html
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/09/first-peanut-allergy-treatment-gains-backing-fda-advisory-panel
(Score: 3, Funny) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday September 16 2019, @12:23AM (2 children)
We have a link shortener for soylentnews.org links that we use for bender the IRC bot as well as Twitter and FB at sylnt.us. It spurts out https://sylnt.us/$foo [sylnt.us] where $foo is a short jumble of letters that has no relation at all to what's in the story. The universe, however, appears to have a sense of humor and arranged for the link to wind up https://sylnt.us/cum [sylnt.us] for this nut story.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 16 2019, @12:32AM (1 child)
The next Windows story will be at https://sylnt.us/bsod. [sylnt.us]
I also see "Optional custom short URL" so maybe it wasn't random.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday September 16 2019, @12:53AM
Short link creation is scripted in an IRC bot that most of us ward off with garlic and crosses rather than poke at.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 16 2019, @12:30AM (9 children)
See subject.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 16 2019, @12:35AM (3 children)
I was just going to ask the same question.
Perhaps because dumbass parents think raising their kids in a mostly sterile enviroment is healthy instead of letting them play in the dirt and build their immunity system.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday September 16 2019, @01:49AM (2 children)
Add to this feeding them instant formula instead of breast-feeding (many antibodies are passed these way to the baby).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 17 2019, @01:35AM (1 child)
The benefits of breast-feeding are overstated and many of the studies are poorly done. Not to mention, it makes sense that a lot of women don't want to breast feed, since it keeps them chained to either a baby or a breast pump. It's easy for men to say that all women should breast feed, since they don't have to do anything.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday September 17 2019, @02:44AM
[Citation needed]
Mind you, I find over 10,000 of them, peer-reviewed [google.com]. That's quite a large number of studies to dismiss, so your sources better be very good at proving the contrary.
Well, I haven't said "all women should breast feed".
Furthermore, just saying it should require as much energy expenditure (very small) and abilities (normal) from a man as from a woman. Do you want to suggest that somehow the women are much weaker and/or less verbally skilled than men or what? (grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 16 2019, @12:37AM
(Score: 4, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 16 2019, @01:11AM
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4004710/ [nih.gov]
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6716146/ [nih.gov]
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4617537/ [nih.gov]
(Score: 5, Interesting) by sjames on Monday September 16 2019, @01:16AM (1 child)
Part of it is pregnant women following bad advice to avoid peanuts.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Monday September 16 2019, @05:48PM
Seems to be supported by a couple of those NIH links above...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 17 2019, @12:30PM
I'm guessing the invention of the epipen allowing those people with an allergy to live to adulthood and procreate.
See, the bad part of making survival easier, is that you don't need to be a strong to survive. It is a feedback loop, and thus the only way to make a species stronger is to allow the weak* to die. But that is heartless.
I don't see a good solution, both allowing the weak* to die, and letting the population become weaker seem like bad solutions.
* for whatever is considered a weakness, in this case being allergic to food.
(Score: 3, Funny) by c0lo on Monday September 16 2019, @12:54AM (4 children)
Bad news for Big Pharma.
Because no patent protection and the the cost of generics will be, well, just peanuts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 16 2019, @01:05AM
FDA had to approve this thing. As a biologic instead of a chemical. It's a new area and they may be able to keep the scam going for some time. "Oh, we use only the finest and most allergenically sensitive of peenuts."
(Score: 3, Informative) by Mykl on Monday September 16 2019, @01:06AM (2 children)
I RTFA, and it appears that Big Pharma actually can still make millions by selling overpriced Peanut Flour. In summary, doctors need to prescribe something, and something that's on the approved list will get them paid, whereas something that's not approved (even if it's just peanut flour bought down at the local store) will require an out-of-pocket payment by the patient.
Congratulations, US Medical industry. You've made it possible for peanut flour pills costing thousands of dollars a year to be cheaper than having a doctor tell you to buy some peanut flour from the store.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday September 16 2019, @01:14AM (1 child)
Well, true, but one hopes not billions (they can't protect themselves against generics).
The society can survive a percentage of people making irrational purchases, just look at Apple (grin).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Monday September 16 2019, @12:30PM
The makers of EpiPen and Daraprim have somehow managed to protect themselves against generics.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Monday September 16 2019, @04:24AM (1 child)
Wasn't careful desensitization with tiny exposures the standard for allergies in the '60s and '70s?
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 16 2019, @04:51AM
What's new here is that parents have coddled their kids to the point that peanut consumption is now banned in certain places, and somebody is about to make a lot of money off of selling $0.01 of FDA-approved peanut dust in gel caps.