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Researchers Move Closer To Peanut Allergy Cure

(CBS News) — Scientists say they have taken a major step forward in finding a cure for peanut allergies. A new study, published in the journal The Lancet ...
peanut allergy

(CBS News) — Scientists say they have taken a major step forward in finding a cure for peanut allergies.

A new study, published in the journal The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health, finds that a new therapy being used to treat peanut allergies has kept patients from experiencing an allergic reaction to peanuts over a four-year period.

The report was a follow-up to a previous study that found a combination of probiotics and peanut protein significantly increased tolerance to peanuts in children who were allergic.

Currently, there is no cure for food allergies, which are on the rise in the U.S. and around the world.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, food allergies among children in this country increased approximately 50 percent between 1997 and 2011. The number of children with peanut allergies specifically more than tripled to 1.4 percent of kids in 2008, up from 0.4 percent in 1997, a 2010 study from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine found.

Food allergies result in 200,000 emergency room visits each year, according to the advocacy group Food Allergy Research and Education (FARE) and are the leading cause of anaphylaxis, a potentially life-threatening reaction that disrupts breathing and causes a sudden drop in blood pressure.

Read more and see video, here.

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