Going Back in Time to Solve a Modern Threat
Chinese herbal remedies are being tested to combat food allergies

(HealthDay News) -- Researchers are working on a new herbal formula based on ancient Chinese medicine that might be able to control peanut and other food allergies.

The idea that traditional Chinese medicine might offer a promising therapy for peanut and other food allergies isn't all that surprising, Dr. David L. Katz, director of the Prevention Research Center at Yale University School of Medicine, told HealthDay.

The use of herbs as medicinal therapy over many centuries, he explained, would separate the beneficial from the useless or harmful. And in addition, most drugs are derived from plants, he said.

"So, the actual differences between pharmacotherapy and herbal therapy are differences of degree, not kind," Katz said.

One herbal remedy being tested for food allergies is called Food Allergy Herbal Formula (FAHF-2). In a study in which it was given to mice allergic to peanuts, it was found to protect the mice from allergic reactions for more than 36 weeks after treatment was stopped. The formula also protected them from other food allergies, including fish, shellfish and tree nuts.

The findings were published online in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

The study showed that it's possible to "reverse the peanut allergic reaction," Dr. Xiu-Min Li, director of the Center for Chinese Herbal Therapy for Allergy and Asthma at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City and the study's lead researcher, told HealthDay.

"The herbal formula can stop peanut allergy and produce a prolonged protection," she said. "This formula may be effective for human peanut allergy."

Just such a test on people -- a clinical trial to test the safety and effectiveness of the formula for peanut and other food allergies -- was launched in 2007. Results to date "have shown that FAHF-2 is safe and well-tolerated," Li said.

When traditional Chinese medicine proves effective, Katz said, physicians want to know the science of how it works.

"But for the sake of their patients, conventional practitioners should look past terminology that may make them wince to see the promise of new and potentially effective treatments," he suggested.

In the case of peanut and other food allergies, a cure would be a major breakthrough -- no matter where it comes from, Katz said.

Food allergy, which has been estimated to affect up to 8 percent of children younger than 3 and close to 4 percent of adults, can be deadly. Each year in the United States, the deaths of 100 to 200 people are attributed to food allergies, according to the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Most deaths occur in adolescents and young adults.

In 2007, about 3 million U.S. children had food allergies, an 18 percent increase from 1997, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. Although researchers have experimented with trying to desensitize allergic people to particular food allergens through immunotherapy, or allergy shots, U.S. National Institute of Health experts say they "have not yet proven that allergy shots reliably relieve food allergies."

That leaves avoiding particular foods as the only proven means of preventing an allergic reaction.

On the Web

The American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology has more about food allergy.

SOURCES: HealthDay News; Xiu-Min Li, M.D., associate professor, pediatrics, and director, Center for Chinese Herbal Therapy for Allergy and Asthma, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York City; David L. Katz, M.D., M.P.H., director, Prevention Research Center, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Conn.; February 2009, Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, online; U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (www.niaid.nih.gov)
Author: Robert Preidt
Publication Date: Jan. 31, 2010
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