Madely Health Headlines Commentary for May , 2013

Oral therapy approved to replace allergy shots for grass pollen allergies Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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New tablet could treat grass pollen allergies, not just symptom

Madely Health Headlines Commentary for May 6, 2013

Seasonal allergies return to Ottawa Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Sniffing and sneezing, coughing and wheezing: Ottawa residents stormed by seasonal allergies

Madely Health Headlines Commentary for April 2, 2013

Bone marrow transplant treatment for aggressive forms of MS shows promise Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Ottawa doctors behind breakthrough MS report

Madely Health Headlines Commentary for December 11, 2012

Bone marrow transplant helps cure genetic cause of girl's inflammatory bowel disease Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Bone-marrow transplant cures girl’s inflammatory bowel disease

Madely Health Headlines Commentary for March 13, 2012

Early allergy season treatment strategies Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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The Season’s Public Enemies

Madely Health Headlines Commentary for November 29, 2010

No conclusions can be drawn from hand-washing and allergy-link study Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Excessive hand-washing may be bad for your health

Madely Health Headlines Commentary for February 23, 2010

Treatment to reduce peanut allergy reactions enters its next study phase Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Peanut allergy treatment could be on the horizon

Madely Health Headlines Commentary for

More accurate peanut allergy test could be on the way Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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More accurate peanut allergy test could be on the way

Reference:

Component-resolved diagnostics facilitate the diagnosis of peanut allergy

Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology

Not all peanut-sensitized children experience allergic reactions on exposure. Tests that could discriminate peanut allergy from tolerance without the need to perform oral food challenge would be extremely useful. Within the context of a population-based birth cohort, Nicolaou et al (p 191) determined, on the basis of peanut challenge, the proportion of children with peanut allergy among those considered peanut-sensitized using skin prick tests, sIgE measurements, or both (with whole peanut extract) and investigated whether blood tests with component-resolved diagnostics (microarray with major peanut and cross-reactive components) could differentiate peanut allergy from tolerance. Although approximately 1 in 10 children 8 years of age in the United Kingdom is peanut sensitized, on the basis of the oral food challenge, only 1 in 50 has peanut allergy. Component-resolved diagnostics revealed marked differences in the pattern recognition between subjects with peanut allergy and peanut-tolerant subjects (see Figure). Children with peanut allergy had higher responses to Ara h 1 to 3, whereas peanut-tolerant children had higher responses to grass components and cross-reactive carbohydrate determinants. Ara h 2 offered the best discrimination between the groups. These data confirm that the majority of children considered peanut sensitized on the basis of standard test responses do not have peanut allergy and suggest that measurement of IgE response to Ara h 2 might prove to be a clinically useful tool in predicting peanut allergy.

Madely Health Headlines Commentary for January 11, 2010

Do nut-free zones on airplanes make sense to you Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Air Canada ordered to create nut-free buffer zones

A CFRA web poll asked this question and I discussed this with Steve Madely. This is a continuation of our discussion from last week.

Madely Health Headlines Commentary for January 8, 2010

Nut free zones on planes Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Air Canada ordered to create nut-free buffer zones

Comment:

This is a classic illustration of poor risk evaluation. There is no information available in this article to help me answer the basic questions when examining a health claim.

How many people suffer anaphylactic reactions on airplanes that require emergency treatment? How many have died? What is the incidence of these occurrences?

Has there been any evidence to show what the risk reduction would be with setting this policy? Will there be any subsequent evaluation to look at outcomes? And if the outcome demonstrates little to no reduction of risk or incidence, will there be a push to rescind this edict?

Have proactive measures by people who have nut allergies prior to boarding the plane been sufficient to prevent anaphylaxis?

This is a classic illustration of the precautionary principle eloquently discussed by this man.

An exerpt from the website Junkfood Science illustrates this point.

Food allergy deaths have only been tracked by the CDC since 1998, using death certificates coded using ICD-10 classifications (the 10^th edition of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases). ICD-10 hasn’t yet been universally adopted, which makes the accuracy of its figure unreliable. It reports that of 2.5 million deaths among all ages in the U.S. in 2005, 11 people died from a food allergy in 2005, with the number from peanuts unknown.

Perhaps the most accurate population data on peanut-related deaths among children comes from the UK. Its national death statistics and pediatric surveillance system has recorded death statistics for nearly all children and it reported that only one child, a 15-year old, died from a peanut allergy between 1990 and 2000.

Madely Health Headlines Commentary for November 27, 2009

Vaccine implant destroys cancer tumours in mice Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Vaccine implant destroys cancer tumours in mice