![]() ![]() In a related study, published online last week by the journal Translational Allergy, Dutch scientists recruited 29 children who were allergic to cashews. Every single child with a peanut allergy passed an almond oral challenge, suggesting that peanut allergy patients can safely eat that nut without first undergoing a skin prick or blood test or an oral challenge, the researchers concluded. ![]() Turns out that most of the children passed the oral food challenges, which means they weren't allergic to the nuts in question, even though their skin prick or blood tests were positive, Greenhawt and his coauthors reported in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. They then underwent a total of 156 “oral food challenges,” in which-under the supervision of an allergist who has medications available in case of an allergic reaction-they were given tiny but increasingly larger amounts of a tree nut for which they had tested positive but had never exhibited allergy symptoms. The children, all patients at the University of Michigan, where Greenhawt previously practiced, had undergone skin prick or blood testing for other nuts. Greenhawt and his coauthors examined the records of 109 children with a known tree nut allergy, 46 of whom also happened to have a peanut allergy. Interestingly, even some people with known pollen allergies test positive for nut antibodies, even though they're not allergic to nuts. ![]() If you're allergic to cashews, for example, you might test positive for pistachio antibodies, even though eating pistachios wouldn't cause you any problems. One reason is that some foods contain similar but not identical proteins. In other words, a positive skin prick or blood test “is not a surrogate for being allergic,” said Greenhawt, who chairs the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology Food Allergy Committee and co-directs the Children’s Hospital Colorado Food Challenge Unit. ![]()
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