There's proof positive that peanut allergies can be cured. For more than eight months, doctors fed tiny doses of peanuts to children with a potentially deadly peanut allergy.
"At the start of the study, these participants couldn't tolerate one sixth of a peanut," said Duke University researcher Dr. Wesley Burks. "Six months into it, they were ingesting 13 to 15 peanuts before they had a reaction." And a few children were cured completely, according to Dr. Burks.
The study of peanut tolerance treatment is the first of its kind. The results were given at a meeting of the American Academy of Asthma and Immunology.
About four million Americans have food allergies, with peanuts and tree nuts being the most common. Nearly half of the deaths from food allergies are caused by peanuts.
