Research to overcome milk, egg allergic reactions
The University of Navarre Hospital in Spain is launching treatment in order to eliminate allergic reactions to milk and eggs.
The hospital is using a process of gradual desensitisation, exposing patients to small quantities of milk and eggs initially and then increasing these.
Within two months, in the case of eggs, and between three and four, in the case of milk, patients will be able to drink one glass of milk or consume one egg.
Dr Maria Jose Goikoetxea, a specialist in the Department of Allergology and Immunology at the hospital, said that milk and eggs are not just basic foods present in a wide range of cooked products either as ingredients or in traces.
As a result, patients’ lives would be hugely improved if their allergies are overcome which would give them access to a range of food products not yet available to them.
Goikoetxea said: “In general, it is an allergy that about 80% of children overcome spontaneously at three years of age. But there remains that 20% who do not”.
After being applied in other Spanish hospitals, treatment has been applied at the University of Navarre Hospital and positive results have started coming in.
Goikoetxea added: “If we take a child or an adolescent, we can see that after the treatment they can eat cake in the morning, have a fried egg or a yoghurt for dinner, for example, and, moreover, they do not have to check the labels of all the products they consume. When they were patients they could not eat anything that had milk and eggs”.
However, patients – even though they have built a resistance to allergic reactions – must continue consuming these products in order for the treatment to work properly.
Goikoetxea continued: “This is the maintenance stage, i.e. the patient has to take a glass of milk daily and three eggs a week because if we eliminate the stimulus of these foods, we could lose the tolerance again”.
Also known as food desensitisation, induction to oral tolerance, or immunotherapy with food, the treatment involves manipulating and correcting the organism’s defences.
