Chris Brookes-Smith, 28, thought he was “going to die” from his nut allergy when he went into anaphylactic shock after accidentally eating peanuts 10 years ago
He now eats them every day as part of a clinical trial, which helped him overcome his nut allergy
In the trial, people with nut allergies were given small supervised doses of the nut, and the “average tolerated dose of peanuts increased 100-fold”
A man with a life-threatening allergy to peanuts overcame it through a new clinical trial that exposed people to small, supervised doses of the allergen. Now, he eats peanuts for breakfast.
Chris Brookes-Smith, 28, struggled with a lifelong allergy to peanuts, telling the BBC that 10 years ago, “I thought I was going to die” after accidentally eating peanuts.
“I knew I was in trouble after one bite,” he told the outlet. “Within seconds, there were spots on my lips. Within minutes, I was vomiting. I could feel my throat closing up, hives forming in my armpits, then over my whole body … My face going all puffy with the swelling.”
He ended up in the hospital, comparing his appearance to “a plucked turkey because my skin had blistered so much.”
Kings College London
Participants were given slowly increasing portions of peanuts, under medical supervision.
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Peanut allergies can often be fatal, causing a severe allergic reaction known as anaphylactic shock. It can cause a variety of symptoms, the most dire being a narrowing of airways that causes difficulty breathing, according to Mayo Clinic. Patients are typically administered epinephrine, an adrenaline treatment. If the condition isn’t treated immediately, it can be fatal.
However, thanks to a clinical trial led by King’s College London and Guy’s and St. Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, Brookes-Smith can safely eat the peanuts — not whole handfuls, but he has four nuts a day at breakfast, as advised by his doctor to keep the allergy managed.
The results of the successful trial, called Grown Up Peanut Immunotherapy (GUPI), were published in the journal Allergy. Trial participants were slowly given increasing doses of peanuts, from 0.3 to 300 mg.
Kings College London
Chris Brookes Smith took part in the peanut therapy trial
Related: Graduate Student, 25, Frantically Texts Mom Before Nut Allergy Puts Him in a Coma
“The first time I went there and I ingest this stuff, my heart’s going a million miles an hour,” Brookes-Smith, who hails from the English county of Northamptonshire, told the BBC. At first, he ate yogurt with a small amount of peanut powder mixed in — strictly supervised, of course.
“The big jump in fear was going from peanut dust to half a whole nut,” he told the outlet.
As a result of the trial, 67% of participants — all adults — can now consume the equivalent of five peanuts.
Kings College London
Increasing portions of peanuts were administered under medical supervision..
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“Constant fear of life-threatening reactions place a huge burden on people with peanut allergy. The only way to manage a peanut allergy is strict avoidance and treatment of allergic reactions, including with adrenaline,” Chief Investigator Professor Stephen Till, Professor of Allergy in the School of Immunology & Microbial Sciences, said in a press release.
“The average tolerated dose of peanuts increased 100-fold over the course of the trial,” Till explained. “Although peanut immunotherapy is known to be effective in children, this trial provides preliminary evidence that adults can also be desensitized and that this improves quality of life.”
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