You Live with Peanut Allergy – Some Help

Peanut allergy has affected about 3 million people in America.  Although peanut allergy is maximum amongst all kinds of food allergy , other food items are also there to contribute to the statistics of 8% children and 2% adult who are afflicted with  food allergy.

When immune system reacts to a normally safe food, it is termed as allergic reaction.
The most severe reaction is sudden drop of blood pressure called Anaphylaxis. But, most common symptoms are hives, eczema, asthma and gastrointestinal system.

Two earlier studies have revealed that reason for food allergy is hereditary to a great extent. A British study had concluded that among 58 set of twins, of whom 11 were identical and 44 fraternal, at least one of the twins had peanut allergy and out of 115, at least 70 had history of peanut allergy.

Among identical twins about 64% had a history of peanut allergy. And, only 7% between the fraternal twins had the same. The conclusion vis-à-vis environmental and genetic factors, researchers concluded heritability factor of 82% to 87% for peanut allergy. Possibly, environmental factor might have biased the genetic component in peanut allergies. When the genetic factor was not taken into account, the rate dropped to a under 19%.

Scott Sicherer, M.D., a lead researcher and some of his colleagues performed a twin study. They were studying whether genetics play an important role in peanut allergy. They checked the incidence of peanut allergy between identical and fraternal twins. Their twin studies provide information how environmental and genetic factors should be compared.

 In the absence of any solid evidence of any direct link between hereditary and allergies, many felt that more research studies are required to examine the link between genetics and allergies, to arrive at a conclusion.