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[emmycantbemeeko]

"My wife's allergy is so severe that if someone is sitting next to her and eating peanuts, the odor is enough to trigger an allergic reaction."

SILLINESS. You cannot have an allergic reaction to food proteins from an odor!

Comments

[shoutingboy]

Perhaps not--but I could well believe that someone who had had severe episodes could go on to have severe, even life-threatening, psychosomatic reactions to the smell of peanuts.

[emmycantbemeeko]

I am not sure if I believe in psychosomatic anaphylaxis. I'm inclined not to, as I've never seen anything in the literature supporting its existence and I have trouble imagining the physiology that would explain it. If you've read anything related to such a condition it I'd be (genuinely) interested to read it.

That a person with a memory of trauma related to severe allergic reaction might have an anxiety attack from an associated smell I will readily grant, but that is a far cry from the claim here- that SMELLING peanuts will cause an allergic reaction. Maybe the man quoted was simply being imprecise with his wording and he really meant that to his wife smelling peanuts is terribly traumatic because of past allergic episodes

[shoutingboy]

'That a person with a memory of trauma related to severe allergic reaction might have an anxiety attack from an associated smell I will readily grant...'

That's all I meant to speculate--that, and that a person having such an attack might genuinely feel relief from the symptoms after using an epiephrine injector (from the placebo effect). And after that happens, the person might think she'd suffered a genuine allergic reaction just from the smell.

[emmycantbemeeko]

We're in agreement then! And I think that sort of thing happens quite often, unfortunately

I really think CNN.com should have included some semblance of a voice of reason in the form of a non-hysterical expert that article.

[mandy_moon]

*Sigh*

I know I should have more sympathy, but I think hysterics like this is what makes me roll my eyes. At an elementary school where I used to work, the entire student body, faculty and staff were forbidden to bring peanut products of any kind to school because ONE kid had a peanut allergy. And supposedly the smell of peanuts was enough to kill him, or so they said.

Somehow the idea of going through your entire elementary school experience without ever having once brought a PB&J in a brown paper bag for lunch seems unwholesome (unless you're that one kid).

[emmycantbemeeko]

I'm pretty sure that if my child were truly at risk from the scent of certain foods, that I would not send him to school outside the home. Cause if it's REALLY that bad, do you want to trust hundreds of strangers to remember not to pack peanut butter in their lunch every day?

I think initially people overstated the case to gain attention and compliance, and now the absurdity is beginning to weaken compliance and reduce the seriousness with which the issue is taken. I have no issue being told not to bring food X in the presence of person Y- I have a severely allergic cousin (although she's not allergic to peanuts, strangely enough). But I would be irritated to be told that the reason I couldn't have milk in front of her was because the smell was dangerous. It's enough to say "Because the risk of her drinking it while our backs are turned or it spilling on her is not worth it."

[nikkif]

I've heard of this before, usually with a story about someone on an airplane having an allergic reaction because people are eating their honey roasted peanuts all around them. I always assumed that it was the tiny peanut particles traveling through the air that got breathed in.

So is this not possible? If it isn't, then what's with all the peanut bans in grade schools and such? It's always seemed crazy to me, but I don't have an allergy, and don't know much about it.

[majellen]

The bans are because kids are notorious for randomly sharing food and/or not cleaning up well after themselves. Picture a fourth grader with a PBnJ for lunch. He gets some peanut butter on his hand. He wipes his hand on his pants. Later on, that peanut butter transfers onto the bottom of a desk. Peanut allergic kid sits there later. Has allergic reaction.

[emmycantbemeeko]

It's theoretically possible that aeresolized peanut particles could cause an allergic reaction in someone, but I can't find any cases of it in some admittedly-not-too-impassioned googling, and the idea that that would be a risk related to being in the presence of people eating peanuts seems absurd

[deathling]

But you can have a reaction to the mold spores...

[deathling]

In pathology we learned that people may not actually be having an allergic reaction to the peanuts themselves but to an aspergillus mold toxin that grows on nearly all peanuts.

[majellen]

Wow...is there a way to differentiate between the two allergies with a test? My friend's son is allergic, tested moderate on a blood test for it after a bad reaction to contact on his skin.

[emmycantbemeeko]

Okay, but even granted that, how many mold spores survive the processing of peanuts to remain airworthy in things like honey roasted peanuts, peanut butter, etc? And why then would blind peanut smell tests fail to elicit a reaction in severely allergic children?

[twiness]

Allergies are strange things. I've had several allergies to flowers and trees etc. so to have things travel through the air and bother you seems totally natural..though I'm also very allergic to strawberries but I don't have a reaction because someone else is eating them near me..hmm.

[emmycantbemeeko]

It may seem totally natural but it's not. Peanut allergies are to the protein in peanuts, which is notably not airborne, as opposed to pollen, which is notably airborne.

There's absolutely no reason that simply eating peanuts within sniffing-distance of someone should trigger an allergic reaction. The substances in food that cause them to have an odor and the substances that cause allergies are completely different.

There's a good article about it here: http://junkfoodscience.blogspot.com/2008/02/food-fears-run-amuck-government-outlaws.html

[twiness]

I very much like that blog, I must thank you for sharing it with me.
I seem to recall that about food allergies from a food science course I took..that does make sense though since there is no pollen in nuts. Is it necessary to ingest peanuts to have a reaction? It seems like maybe people just have severe anxiety associated with peanuts and perhaps even the smell of peanuts and thus they have a reaction.

[emmycantbemeeko]

It's a great blog!

We discussed that a bit above in the thread- the idea that people who'd previously experienced a severe reaction might have anxiety attacks related to the smell. I can buy that, but anxiety does not fatal anaphylaxis make.

The symptoms of a severe anxiety attack and severe anaphylaxis feel similar at first, but the important distinction is that in an anxiety attack you feel like you're going to die; in an anaphylactic reaction you actually might. The chemical mediators that cause the symptoms are different. To someone having a panic attack though, who administers an epi pen, "recovers", and never gets a blood test to confirm or disprove anaphlyaxis, they may well assume that they narrowly escaped a severe allergic reaction, when actually they had none. That's why despite a lack of clinical evidence or logical explanation for a peanut-smell reaction, you'll find some passionate true-believing patients