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Guadalupe Espinoza
UWP 1
12/8/2013
WC: 1342
Growing Peanut Allergy Epidemic
Everyday millions of Americans fall victims to the allergic reactions produced by
their own bodies. An allergy is when one’s immune system recognizes a foreign
substance whether it be food, dust, pollen and it has a hypersensitive reaction to it. The
growing number of people with allergies has significantly grown over the past few years.
More specifically the allergy to peanuts has become a growing phenomenon. “Peanut
allergy is one of the most serious of the immediate hypersensitivity reactions to foods. Its
persistence and severity and appears to be a growing problem” (Sampson 2002). A recent
study conducted showed that “1.3% of American adults in the U.S are allergic to peanuts
or some other kind of tree nut” (Sicherer, Munoz-Furlong, Burks, Sampson 1999).
Experts say that 80% of emergency room anaphylactic visits were peanut related.
Anaphylaxis is the state in which one’s air passageways begin to swell so badly it makes
it difficult for one to breathe. “Due to the persistence of the reaction and the lack of
effective treatment, peanut specific immunotherapy is currently being examined as a
treatment option”(2002). Many times people with such life threatening allergies carry an
epinephrine pen (epi-pen), which has an antihistamine drug that reduces the swelling of
airways. Some researchers believe that heredity and what a mother eats during pregnancy
can influence a child’s development of allergies. Numerous studies have began to
question the connection of heredity and maternal diets during pregnancy to the growing
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prevalence of children found with peanut allergies the experimental treatments of
immunotherapy and the quality of life these children experience will also be examined
when relating the growing number of peanut allergies found in children.
Allergies to peanuts are very often the cause of fatal and nearly fatal food related
anaphylaxis. During a study that was conducted to examine the similarities in allergies
between different generations it was found that “peanut allergies were increasingly by
successive generations”(Haourihane, Dean, Warner 1996). Many subjects of the study
showed a similar if not the same allergy as that experienced by their previous generation
of family members. Children with allergies after a questionnaire found that they shared
the same or similar allergies to grandparents. The study also showed a higher rate of
allergies between siblings. “Peanut allergy affects 7% of siblings of people with peanut
allergy”(1996). It was more common to see siblings with the same allergies to both food
and other substances. The study also showed that out of the number of parents that shared
the same allergy as their child most of them were the mothers. “Atopy was more common
in maternal relatives of allergic subjects than paternal relatives”(1996). The similarity in
allergies between mother and child was quite prevalent and as researchers suggested it
goes beyond the shared genetic make up and might in fact be related to the mother’s diet
during pregnancy.
A mother’s diet can influence many health factors for a child when pregnant.
Everything consumed goes through both the mother and fetus. The vital connection that
is the umbilical cord is the lifeline for the fetus. “Mothers of allergic children reported to
have consumed little to none of the allergen during pregnancy”(1996). The reasoning
behind the child developing allergens can be related to the fact that their body is not
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accustomed to breaking down the proteins and enzymes of the substance. When the
allergen is finally introduced the body can have a difficult time absorbing the substance,
which if not broken down successfully, can result in some sort of negative hypersensitive
reaction. “Consumption of peanuts while pregnant of breast feeding reported a
significantly lower number of children with allergies”(1996). This direct relationship
between the mother’s diet and the child’s development of allergies goes on to show the
influence the food ingested during pregnancy can have life long effects on the fetus.
Mothers that reported not consuming peanuts had a higher number of children with
allergies to the substance. The lack of experience their bodies have with breaking down
the substance is clearly related the mother not introducing the substance to the fetus. The
course of treatment when dealing with the peanut allergy can also influence the severity
of one’s reaction when coming in contact with the substance.
Peanuts and peanut products are the most common foods responsible for foodinduced anaphylaxis. The allergy to peanuts is one that is extremely rare to overcome.
“Patients rarely loose sensitivity to peanuts”(Oppenheimer, Nelson, Bock, Christensen,
Donald, Leung 1989). Once hypersensitivity to peanuts presents itself it remains
indefinitely. A peanut allergy usually presents itself early in life and is battled with for
the remainder of the patient’s life. “Currently there are no curative therapies for peanut
allergy or other food allergies”(1989). The only treatment guaranteed to work is the strict
avoidance of peanuts. The stress behind having to constantly fear their allergen can cause
patients to go to extremes. When exposure does occur the only viable treatment is rush
supportive treatment such as an epi-pen. Rush immunotherapy has been investigated as
an experimental course of treatment. This treatment includes the injecting of the allergen
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into the skin and then continuously increasing the dosage to build resistance. “Subjects
received increasing doses of subcutaneous injections to determine skin reactivity over a
course of 60 minute intervals for 5 days” (1989). Throughout the study there was a
dramatic reduction in skin irritation as the body became accustomed to dealing with the
allergen. This dramatic experimental treatment was engaged in by subjects in order to
gain some sort of resistance to their allergen. The resistance established by the subjects
although traumatic could save their life in the future if they were ever exposed to their
allergen again. The built resistance can buy them vital minutes during an allergic
reaction. Due to the increase in resistance cause by the experimental treatment patients
found that they could have a more open diet that allowed a greater variety of foods.
The extreme diets carried out by patients with allergies can often cause a constant
uncertainty in their lives. “Peanut allergy patients are driven by forces them and their
families to exercise extreme vigilance” (Primeau, Kaagan, Jospeh, Lim, Dufresne, Duffy,
Prhcal, Clarke 2000). The quality of life behind dealing with this never-ending allergen
often causes children to carry a psychological burden. Children examined in the study
“reported a more significant disruption in their daily life activities” (2000). For these
patients even the minute amount of peanuts ingested can have life threatening results.
“Those with peanut allergies continue to experience constant uncertainty throughout their
lives regarding the risk of accidental ingestion”(2000). With the constant mass production
of food products it is often difficult to find product that are completely peanut free, this
constant psychological distress can take a negative toll on the both the patient and their
family. The severity behind their peanut allergy can have both financial and social strain
that without a mastered routine can have life altering results.
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Works Cited
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1. Burks, W. (2003). Peanut allergy: a growing phenomenon. Journal of Clinical
Investigation, 111(7), 950-952.
2. Grundy, J., Matthews, S., Bateman, B., Dean, T., & Arshad, S. H. (2002). Rising
prevalence of allergy to peanut in children: data from 2 sequential cohorts. Journal of
Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 110(5), 784-789.
3. Hourihane, J. O., Dean, T. P., & Warner, J. O. (1996). Peanut allergy in relation to
heredity, maternal diet, and other atopic diseases: results of a questionnaire survey, skin
prick testing, and food challenges. BMJ: British Medical Journal, 313(7056), 518.
4. Oppenheimer, J. J., Nelson, H. S., Bock, S. A., Christensen, F., & Leung, D. Y. (1992).
Treatment of peanut allergy with rush immunotherapy. Journal of allergy and clinical
immunology, 90(2), 256-262.
5. Primeau, M. N., Kagan, R., Joseph, L., Lim, H., Dufresne, C., Duffy, C., ... & Clarke,
A. (2000). The psychological burden of peanut allergy as perceived by adults with
peanut allergy and the parents of peanut-allergic children. Clinical and Experimental
Allergy, 30(8), 1135-1143.
6. Sampson, H. A. (2002). Peanut allergy. New England Journal of Medicine, 346(17),
1294-1299.
7. Sicherer, S. H., Muñoz-Furlong, A., Burks, A., & Sampson, H. A. (1999). Prevalence
of peanut and tree nut allergy in the US determined by a random digit dial telephone
survey. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 103(4), 559-562.