Peanut Allergy Treatment

A peanut allergy is one of the more common allergies and it's also unfortunately one of the more serious ones. For many people a peanut allergy can be so sensitive that simply being on the same plane, or in the same room, as someone eating peanuts can be enough to trigger a potentially fatal reaction.

Peanut allergy is a particularly dangerous and difficult one because peanuts are used in so many things and often in such small quantities that the ingredients don't even list them. Fortunately by law many products and menus are required to mention that they come with 'traces of nut' and this can help you to steer away from them, but if you're eating at a friend's house or out and about (particularly abroad where the laws may be different) you can find yourself playing a Russian roulette with your food. And of course what makes a peanut allergy so particularly painful for many people is the fact that peanut is so regularly included in chocolate...

All this means that if you want to try and avoid a peanut allergy you need to be constantly vigilant, have special treatment on planes and vehicles, and need to avoid some of what may be your favorite foods and snacks. Luckily in some cases there is a treatment.

How Does a Peanut Allergy Work?

Before you can understand the treatment you need to understand the problem. Essentially when you have an allergic reaction to peanuts it is not because the peanuts are poisonous to you – it is not the result of your individual body chemistry simply being incompatible with peanuts (which is what many people think). Rather it is your body's reaction that is the problem and that causes the problem. The peanut is harmless – what happens is that your immune system doesn't agree and treats it as though it is a dangerous toxin and reacts as though you had some kind of poison in your system. It then works to get rid of this by causing you to swell up and to sweat and in some cases resulting in anaphylaxis where your basal functions shut down and you need immediate treatment. Read more...