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In a press release Thursday, the National Institutes of Health reported an addendum to its official guidelines for Diagnosis and Management of Food Allergy. The specific change is intended to address the precipitous rise in peanut allergies which has occurred recently. For many years, parents have been strictly advised to avoid exposing babies to peanuts, eggs, and other potential allergen foods, on the hypothesis that early exposure could be dangerous and exacerbate problems in those children likely to develop allergies.
The new guidelines are a complete reversal in that the NIH now recommends earliest exposure (4 to 6 months) for children at most risk of developing allergies, such as those with severe eczema and/or known egg allergies. Other children should also have peanuts -- though not whole ones, which can be a choking hazard -- introduced into diets freely along with solid foods. The new guidelines are based on results from the landmark Learning Early About Peanut Allergy (LEAP) study. From the NIH press release:
"The LEAP study clearly showed that introduction of peanut early in life significantly lowered the risk of developing peanut allergy by age 5. The magnitude of the benefit and the scientific strength of the study raised the need to operationalize these findings by developing clinical recommendations focused on peanut allergy prevention," said Daniel Rotrosen, M.D., director of NIAID's Division of Allergy, Immunology and Transplantation.
CNN reports on the history of the LEAP study, noting that there was an earlier practice in Israel to expose children to peanuts as early as possible. Anecdotally, these children had a much lower frequently of allergies than Israeli children raised in the UK. The LEAP study thus assigned over 600 children randomly to a group with early exposure or a group which avoided peanuts completely for the first 5 years of life. The results were striking:
All the children participating in the study were at high risk of peanut allergy due to family history or having eczema or egg allergy themselves, said Nepom [one of the developers of the LEAP study]. At age 5, the children in both groups were given peanuts and observed, Nepom said: Eighteen percent of the children who had been avoiding peanuts had a peanut allergy at age 5, compared with only 1% of the children who had been introduced to peanut butter or Bamba early in life. "This showed that early introduction of peanut flour had over 80% prevention effect," Nepom said.
The study and the new NIH guidelines represent one of the most scientifically rigorous rationales to reconsider allergy guidelines in general. Proponents of early exposure to problematic foods, along with the hygiene hypothesis, claim that the obsession with avoiding exposure to potential allergens in early life has actually caused the current epidemic of allergies. Approximately 1 in 13 children in the U.S. has a food allergy; over 2% alone have peanut allergies. While death from anaphylaxis after exposure is relatively rare, various studies indicate that peanuts are likely the most common trigger in children and frequently result in hospital visits. The NIH policy change is also quite relevant, following the extended national debate on cost of anaphylaxis medication, particularly the outrageous prices for EpiPens (see SoylentNews coverage here, here, and here).
(Score: 2) by ledow on Saturday January 07 2017, @04:44PM
Nut allergies can be treated so that even the most severe reaction can end with people being able to eat a bag of nuts with no ill effect.
You know how they do it?
They expose the person to tiny, controlled amounts of nut that slowly increase over time.
If that doesn't yell "STOP AVOIDING NUTS", I don't know what does.
We've known about this for 20+ years at least.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 07 2017, @05:08PM
Stop avoiding deze nutz.
(Score: 1, Troll) by jmorris on Saturday January 07 2017, @05:09PM
But it was "settled science" and all of the rewards were in keeping this scam going. Nobody in the industry/academic/government nexus was going to be fired, lose funding or suffer in any way for following alomg with the "consensus". Trying to argue the other way would have run into fierce headwinds from political activists. And even now, zero careers will be impacted in a negative way for all of the damage caused. Imagine if Apple products caused x% of users to develop allergies, imagine the lawsuits and public backlash. All these guys were 100% dead wrong, yet anyone with an ounce of common sense strongly suspected Science had took a wrong turn were told they were ignorant and to STFU because Science had spoken and peanut butter was on the fast track to being as awful as tobacco and about as heavily regulated. How many of these people will suffer for being so wrong?
And that is how things in government regulation and political pressure groups go wrong so often. Once a frenzy starts there is a holiness spiral that starts. Moderation, common sense and such are punished and the most extreme zealot rewarded. When the whole affair blows up, again the zealots are not punished "for caring too much" and again teh correct lesson is learned by everyone observing, that getting to the head of the bandwagon pays. Observing that we see these stories almost weekly now in science it is safe to assume it has become dominated by the same problem and for the same reason, politics displacing science.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 07 2017, @08:19PM
Sounds the same as the vaccination scam that's been going on for years... Oh, that ones different.
(Score: 4, Informative) by vux984 on Saturday January 07 2017, @08:32PM
But it was "settled science"
No it wasn't. It was the best theory at the time.
Trying to argue the other way would have run into fierce headwinds from political activists.
Erm... but they did argue the other way, studied it for several years, delivered convincing evidence they were right, and now even the NIH has reversed its recommendations. Your post reads like an accusation... but I see a success story here. The science won.
(Score: 2) by jmorris on Sunday January 08 2017, @04:31PM
Only after how many people will now suffer for the rest of their lives? This one was obvious and yet once a "consensus" formed and the bandwagon started rolling it was almost impossible to stop. Yes, Science won this round. It shouldn't have needed such a battle with so many casualties. This one was the easy one, what about the fact most "experts" still cling to the eating fat makes you fat myth and keep stuffing kids full of carbs at school. What chance does Science have against the elephant in the room, AGW: trillions of dollars at stake, millions of activists fully invested in a Holy Cause, etc. How many Judith Curry [yahoo.com] incidents do we need to even admit there IS a problem?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 09 2017, @08:27PM
This is how it always is with you: Science isn't perfect, so let me change the topic and start talking about how human-caused climate change is bullshit.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 08 2017, @03:20PM
Medicine is no more of a science than carpentry or sculpting.
(Score: 2) by fishybell on Saturday January 07 2017, @05:14PM
"Well known to science" while not being well known to the general public is well known to science.
(Score: 3, Funny) by sjames on Saturday January 07 2017, @06:36PM
The outrageous part is that desensitization was once a well understood and practiced treatment for allergies of all sorts, and it worked.
It's like the entire medical community has been playing an eleborate prank on the world for the last 20 years. Full of useless or even harmful advice and a lot of ut-tuting when people ignore it.
What's next, the AMA recommends no less than 3 kicks in the crotch a day or you'll die of an ingrown toenail by age 30? 10 percent higher health premiums if you can't present a certificate from a certified professional crotch kicker? PSAs of two guys playing 8-ball in a bar: "You know Jim, those aren't the only balls that need to be racked!"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 07 2017, @08:22PM
Just wait until it comes out "scientists knew all along" that the most likely result of the measles vaccination campaign was to generate an epidemic of insane proportions. It is only a matter of time before we see one that affects ~50 million adults in the united states alone by my estimate (from vaccination rates, vaccine failure, and waning immunity, which are all admittedly shaky data). Can you imagine what will happen when 1/5 of the adult population is sick at the same time?
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12176860 [nih.gov]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 09 2017, @10:53PM
The solution to our unemployment problem.
You are of course assuming that the system isn't working as intended.
Maybe a few partial extinction events are intentionall being left in the cards to help ease economic woes.
It would not be the first time force depopulation has been tried, for the 'good of society.'