When I was six months old, I rolled an uncracked walnut around in my hands, rubbed my hands on my face, and broke out in a frightening allergic reaction. Complete with swelling, redness, and hives, it was enough to convince everyone that I was allergic to walnuts. Later experience would prove this to be absolutely the case not only with walnuts but also with peanuts and other tree nuts. While I have no memory of the walnut incident, it’s safe to say that allergic reactions had my attention from a very early age.
Anaphylaxis Is Deadly
Some people sniffle. Some people cough. Some people wheeze. And all of these may be due to allergies. But, NIH describes anaphylaxis as an acute, life-threatening hypersensitivity disorder defined as a generalized, rapidly evolving, multi-systemic allergic reaction. When someone is having a severe allergic reaction – an anaphylactic allergic reaction – they have at least one of these symptoms within minutes to hours: respiratory symptoms, a drop in blood pressure, and/or symptoms of end-organ dysfunction. The reaction may also involve any two of the following body systems: skin (hives …), respiratory (wheeze, cough, throat clearing …), low blood pressure (systolic less than 90 mm …) and/or gastrointestinal symptoms (persistent painful cramps or vomiting …). If not treated with epinephrine, the person can most certainly die.
Mast Cells Run Amok
Mast cells are part of your immune system. When something “invades” your skin, Mast cells are what make you itch so that you’ll scratch to get rid of it. When something “invades” your lungs, Mast cells produce mucous that makes you cough. Your Mast cells are located throughout your body with the idea being that they will react locally to an “invader” that’s local. The problem is that when you eat a food, it not only moves from your mouth to your esophagus to your stomach but also breaks down as it is ingested. As the protein in that food is carried through your bloodstream, Mast cells all over your body work together in a systemic reaction to evict the invader.
The Reaction
I can tell you from first-hand experience that as the Mast cells spring to action, your lips can swell, your uvula can fill with fluid, your chest can get tight, you can begin to wheeze, your blood pressure can drop, you can get dizzy, you can break out in hives as your fingers and hands and toes and feet all swell. If you use an Epi-Pen, which has the medical form of adrenaline, it will reverse these symptoms – if you have enough and use it soon enough. It’s very likely you’ll need a ride to the ER for additional adrenaline and prednisone. You may even need an ambulance. You may lose consciousness. And, all you may know about what you ate to trigger this Mast cell response is that there was a metallic taste right before your body went nuts.
A Lifelong Interest
Having read every label or asked about the ingredients of everything I’ve eaten, I wondered if allergic sensitivity was genetic. At the time I became pregnant, the conventional wisdom was that specific allergies were not genetic but a tendency to allergic reactions might be. The best advice was to avoid certain foods and delay the introduction of solids until my child was ten months old. To this day, I follow the news on the latest allergic reaction-related news and was surprised – and frankly a bit horrified to learn the latest practice, which I’ve included below.
Really?!
I seriously cannot envision ever trying this for myself BUT oral immunotherapy for peanut allergy is available for young children. Since peanut allergies are so common, are life-long, and can be life-threatening, considerable attention has been paid to finding a way to desensitize people to peanut protein. I’ve personally met several of these researchers and feel proud that any data from my family has been of help to them.
Allergy practices can now give daily doses of peanut flour to children ages 1 to 3 as oral immunotherapy. According to NIH Research Matters in 2022, this treatment desensitized most individuals and induced remission of the allergy in 21%. The article includes links to several other articles about peanut allergy therapy. I’m keeping my fingers crossed!