10/24/16 Skin Patches for Peanut Allergies- Theresa Dvorocsik

http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/31/health/peanut-allergy-skin-patch/index.html

Over the course of a year, researchers from the Consortium of Food Allergy Research tested 74 peanut-allergic volunteers, ages 4 through 20, to see whether a daily Viaskin peanut patch could help raise their peanut threshold. This patch, called epicutaneous immunotherapy, released peanut proteins into the participants' skin, building cellular tolerance to the nuts. 

The results showed that participants who received higher doses of peanut protein in the patch were able to consume more peanuts after a year. The patch was the most effective on children ages 4 to 11 and significantly less effective on older participants, according to a statement from the National Institutes of Health, which funded the study through its National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

This is incredibly interesting to me because I have a life-threating peanut allergy and my allergist and I have been looking for solutions for years and this might be a new one. I do immunotherapy for my allergies like cats, grass, and other outdoor allergies, but my peanut allergy is so severe it has never been safe to try.