Study Finds A Daily Dose Of Peanuts Under Your Tongue Helps Treat Peanut Allergies
Potentially Hazardous Wikimedia Commons Placing a small amount of allergen under the tongue every day helped decrease participants' sensitivity to peanut powder. Peanut-fearers, rejoice -- new research suggests that treatment may be possible for peanut allergies. A study sponsored by National Institutes of Health in the January issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology found that by exposing people to small amounts of peanut powder every day, they could increase their tolerance. First, people with a peanut allergy went through a terrifying food challenge, seeing how much peanut powder they could eat before they had an allergic reaction. After 44 weeks of sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT), a treatment in which you place a small amount of the allergen under your tongue to decrease sensitivity, they were again asked to eat peanut powder until they had a reaction. During the second challenge, 70 percent of...