Archive for allergy
Addressing inequities in asthma by focusing on children’s environments
Asthma strikes children in low-income urban areas especially hard, more often sending them to the hospital. For more than 20 years, Dr. Wanda Phipatanakul at Boston Children’s Hospital has been investigating why — and seeking ways to level the playing field. “Children in low-income areas and children of color often aren’t diagnosed early enough with ... Read More
Is it allergies or COVID-19?
Allergy season has kicked off earlier this year than usual. This means children may start having symptoms — such as coughing and sore throat — that are similar to those of COVID-19, but are triggered by a reaction to pollen or grass. Dr. Subhadra Siegel the director of the Allergy and Immunology Program at Boston Children’s ... Read More
Racial differences in response to asthma therapies, and other AsthmaNet lessons
African Americans have higher rates of serious asthma attacks, hospitalizations, and asthma-related deaths than whites. Now, a large multicenter study of African Americans with poorly controlled asthma finds that one size doesn’t fit all when it comes to common asthma treatments. Results appear in The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). The randomized study had ... Read More
‘Good’ bacteria may prevent – and reverse – food allergy
Food allergy is a large and growing public health problem. For reasons that remain a mystery, the number of Americans who suffer from the disease has risen sharply over the last decade to as many as 32 million, according to one recent estimate. Nearly 8 percent of children in the U.S. — about two in ... Read More
Spring health tips: Lyme, seasonal allergies, poison ivy
Dr. Carolyn Sax is a primary care pediatrician at Hyde Park Pediatrics, a Pediatric Physicians’ Organization at Boston Children’s Hospital (PPOC). As winter recedes, warmer temperatures can introduce a new set of spring health challenges. Susceptible children start to display symptoms of seasonal allergies as soon as trees and flowers bloom and grass grows — ... Read More
How scratching may prime children with eczema for food allergy and anaphylaxis
Eczema, a chronic itchy inflammatory skin disease, affects about 15 percent of U.S. children. It’s a strong risk factor for food allergies — more than half of children with eczema are allergic to one or more foods — and most people with food allergy have eczema. But the connection between the two hasn’t been clear. New ... Read More
Could poop transplants treat peanut allergy? A clinical trial begins
Increasing evidence supports the idea that the bacteria living in our intestines early in life help shape our immune systems. Factors like cesarean birth, early antibiotics, having pets, number of siblings and formula feeding (rather than breastfeeding) may affect our microbial makeup, or microbiota, and may also affect our likelihood of developing allergies. Could giving ... Read More
20-week treatment makes life safer for kids with peanut allergy
A study last week in The New England Journal of Medicine suggests that exposing infants to peanuts can provide lasting protection against peanut allergy. But what about peanut-allergic children right now? They and their parents live a life of precautions — from pre-screening birthday party menus to segregation at the school lunch table — to ... Read More
Food allergies: Turning tolerance back on
Hans Oettgen, MD, PhD, is Associate Chief of the Division of Allergy and Immunology at Boston Children’s Hospital. He leads a research group investigating mechanisms of allergic diseases. Not long ago I received a wonderful email from “Sam,” an 18-year-old young man with peanut allergy. He was participating in a clinical trial of oral immunotherapy ... Read More
This post may contain peanuts: Two-pronged treatment may ease severe allergies
Tripp Underwood contributed to this post. Families with peanut-allergic children live in fear that their child will ingest peanuts—even minute amounts—accidentally. Now, a small pilot study published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology offers hope for peanut allergy. In the year-long study, immunologist Dale Umetsu, MD, PhD, and colleagues in the Division of Allergy and Immunology at ... Read More