Exercise and stress could be major causes of peanut allergy, according to scientists at The University of Manchester.
A new three-year study with Cambridge University Hospitals and Imperial College London will look at how much peanuts can cause an allergic reaction in the UK.
The £1.2million project will also help to improve peanut packaging such as labelling and contamination as during manufacturing, non-peanut products may be contaminated by peanut residue from food made on the same machinery.
It will also look at whether exercise or stress make people more likely to react to peanut.
Dr Andrew Clark, chief investigator on the study, said: “This study is the first of its kind in the UK, and globally, to find what external factors influence whether someone has an allergic reaction and to find out the amount of peanut that is safe for the population to consume, even after they have exercised or when they are stressed.
“It will not only bring reassurance to the thousands of people who are allergic to peanuts but offers a blueprint for improving food labelling for a whole variety of food.”
In the UK there are about 200-400,000 peanut allergic people and approximately 1 in 50 children suffering from the condition.
Michelle Byrne, 37, from Urmston, runs an allergy centre in the town and suffers terribly from her condition.
“The worst experience I had was when I walked into a room and my asthma got worse,” she told MM.
“I couldn’t work out what it was until I saw a peanut butter jar on the table and it was that.
“Also, someone attended my session whose sister had died 15 years ago after being on a flight where someone was eating peanuts and the vapour passed through the air conditioning.
“She had a reaction and ended up dying because she couldn’t get treatment quick enough.”
Dr Clark will work closely with Professor Clare Mills from the Allergy and Respiratory Centre of The University of Manchester and together they are looking for people with a peanut allergy to participate over a period of a year.
The researchers will invite 100 peanut-allergic people from a cross-section of the population to undergo ‘challenges’ under a range of conditions to find out how much peanut causes a reaction.
Professor Mills said: “Peanut allergies appear to have increased in the UK over the last 15 years and this research will play an important part in helping to make life easier for allergy sufferers.”
Men and women between the ages of 18-45 are eligible to register. Participants will receive up to £800 for attending eight sessions at one of the two sites for the study, Addenbrooke’s in Cambridge or the Royal Brompton in London.
Professor Clare Mills, who is the lead researcher from Manchester, said: “Peanut allergies appear to have increased in the UK over the last 15 years and this research will play an important part in helping to make life easier for allergy sufferers.”
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