Traditional Chinese herbal formula as therapy for food allergy - Twitter summary from 2012 #AAAAI meeting

This summary was compiled from the tweets posted by the following allergists/immunologists who attended the 2012 annual meeting of the American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology (AAAAI): Nathaniel Hare M.D. ‏@AllergyTalk and Robert Silge, MD @DrSilge. The tweets were labeled #AAAAI. The text was edited and modified by me.

Dr. Julie Wang discussed the use of traditional Chinese herbal formula as therapy for food allergy. Advantages include low cost and favorable side effect profile.

Food allergy herbal formula (FAHF-2) contains 9 herbs and is currently in trials. FAHF-2 worked better than each component herb. FAHF-2 has 9 herbs in it. Two herbs were dropped from the original formulation FAHF-1 due to toxicity.

The FAHF-2 phase 2 trial includes patients older than 12 years with allergy to PN, TN, sesame, fish, and shellfish. The trial is ongoing are there are no results yet. The phase 2 trial of FAHF-2 is multi center in NY, Arkansas, Chicago, Dallas.

The FAHF-2 drawback is that treatment includes taking 30 pills daily. B-FAHF-2 is a modified version. It is being studied in mice, and should allow the use of a lower dose.


Image source: Chinese herbology, Wikipedia, public domain.