Just like the recent studies that show eating increasing amounts of peanut can actually build tolerance to peanut protein, researchers have found that eating egg can actually help those with egg allergies to get over them. The approach is called Sublingual Immunotherapy and it’s becoming the next big thing in egg allergy research.

Findings will be presented at the next annual meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology.

Sublingual Immunotherapy is also known as SLIT. This is different than our currently approved immunotherapy which depends on needles – the dreaded allergy shot.

The SLIT approach is deceptively simple: start with minute doses of the offending allergen, taken orally, and very gradually increase the dose. Eventually, the patient’s body learns to tolerate the allergen through the sublingual immunotherapy. No needles; less reactions. Current studies have shown this to be effective with both peanut allergies and dairy allergies.

This latest sublingual immunotherapy study had children with egg allergies in one of two groups: one received gradually increased doses of egg protein; the other group received a placebo that looked like egg whites but contained no egg protein. Over the course of 11 months, more than 50 per cent of the group receiving egg could tolerate a full 5 grams of egg without reaction. Children on the placebo remained as reactive to eggs as previously.

Source: DNA