How do you treat a peanut allergy? Unfortunately for sufferers of this nut intolerance, you don't. There is no treatment currently available, but a new study suggests that being exposed to small amounts of peanut protein over time increases one's peanut tolerance. A lot.
Researchers figured this out using a common allergy therapy called sublingual immunotherapy
, which is a fancy way of saying they put a little bit of peanut powder under 20 allergic people's tongues. The exposure was repeated every day for about a year. The longer participants were exposed to the peanut powder, the less sensitive most participants became to it. Before the therapy began, researchers needed a baseline for peanut tolerance, so participants consumed a diluted form of peanut protein until they had an allergic reaction. Researchers made sure not to use any participants with a history of life-threatening allergic reactions. At the outset, the median ...
