Daily peanuts help adults keep allergy at bay, new study finds

Testing finds small doses of peanuts can help adults build immunity. Good Morning Britain has the story.

A man with a life-threatening peanut allergy is now living a near-normal life after taking part in a “life-changing” study that involved him eating four nuts every morning.

Richard Lassiter’s allergy was so severe that he was hospitalised several times after accidentally eating peanuts.

On one occasion, he spent the night in a high dependency unit needing adrenaline and oxygen.

“I can’t keep dealing with this, it’s just so terrifying,” he told his wife.

But now the 44-year-old executive coach from Beckenham, Greater London, eats peanuts every morning, which he describes as “taking his medicine”.

The new study, known as peanut desensitisation or oral immunotherapy, works by introducing tiny amounts of peanut and gradually increasing the dose to build up tolerance.

Health officials said the trial offers “hope” to thousands of people with peanut allergies.

Experts pointed out that most previous desensitisation research has focused on children, meaning adults are rarely offered this type of treatment. But the new findings suggest it could become a future option for adults as well

Speaking about the trial, Mr Lassiter said: “I got to the point where I was having a total of four peanuts a day, which I still take to this day.

“This morning I had my four peanuts after I ate my breakfast, as if it was some sort of a teaspoon of medicine.”

He added: “It’s been life-changing for me – it’s increased my confidence immeasurably.

“It’s had a huge effect on my life. I feel much calmer, much happier and really excited about the ability to do all of these things in the future.”

Researchers from King’s College London and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Trust published the new study in the journal Allergy, which involved 18 adults with typical peanut allergies who were gradually desensitised to peanuts.

After confirming their allergies in the hospital, participants were given tiny amounts of peanut flour to eat at home, starting with less than 1% of a whole peanut.

The dose was slowly increased, and once they could tolerate 50–100mg of peanut protein, they moved on to eating whole peanuts or peanut products.

By the end of the study, funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research, 67% of participants could eat the equivalent of five peanuts without any reaction.

Chief investigator Stephen Till, professor of allergy at King’s College London and consultant allergist at Guy’s and St Thomas’ said: “The problem is that once I see (adult) patients in my clinic, there’s been nothing that we’ve been able to do to them – we can’t offer them desensitisation because the data is all from young children – in medicine you can’t give treatment to children or to adults based on a clinical trial that’s been performed in the other group.

“So we have got this sort of, and continue to have this sort of big unmet need of adults with peanut allergy.”

He added: “We were really pleased because we got the evidence that we hoped we would get – we saw results that were broadly in line with what been obtained from studies in young children.

“Our phase two study suggests that this treatment is potentially effective in adults.”