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Powdered Milk
Helps Kids Overcome Milk Allergy Source of Article: http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/healthday/2008/11/05/powdered-milk-helps-kids-overcome-milk-allergy.html Consuming
higher and higher doses built up tolerance, study shows Posted
November 5, 2008 WEDNESDAY,
Nov. 5 (HealthDay News) -- Consuming increasingly
higher doses of powdered milk may help children with milk allergies overcome
their condition, a new study suggests. In the
double-blinded, placebo-controlled study of milk immunotherapy, all 12 children
receiving milk powder daily significantly increased their tolerance of milk
after four months, from no more than 40 milligrams to at least 2,540
milligrams (2.5 ounces). Meanwhile, the seven children receiving a placebo
powder showed no improvement. The findings were published in the Oct. 28 print
edition of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. The study
was conducted by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center and "Our
findings suggest that oral immunotherapy gradually retrains the immune system
to completely disregard or to better tolerate the allergens in milk that
previously caused allergic reactions," study senior investigator Dr.
Robert Wood, director of Allergy and Immunology at Hopkins Children's, said
in a hospital news release. "Albeit preliminary and requiring further
study, these results suggest that oral immunotherapy may be the closest thing
yet to a true treatment for food allergy." Children
regularly consuming milk powder had more milk antibodies in their blood, and were better able to tolerate milk than those on the
placebo. As a result, the researchers recommended that these children
continue consuming milk daily to maintain and further build their resistance. The
researchers aren't sure what would happen if the children stopped consuming
milk regularly. "It may very well be that this tolerance is lost once
the immune system is no longer exposed to the allergen daily," Wood
said. The U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently estimated that food
allergies in children have risen 18 percent in the last decade, with 3
million children in the Most food
allergies are managed through simple avoidance of the trigger foods in hope
that the child will outgrow the allergy. "Given
that the quality of life of a child with a food allergy is comparable to the
quality of life of a child with diabetes, we urgently need therapies that go
beyond strict food avoidance or waiting for the child to outgrow the
allergy," Wood said. Wood said
further research is necessary, so parents and caregivers should not try oral
immunotherapy without medical supervision. More
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