What a rush! Next-Gen Food Allergy Drug Development Summit was unreal. A mere twenty years ago, if your child had an allergy, all you heard was that you had to stay away from the food. Doctors had no cure at hand, no treatment to support parents. Just one thing- stay away or possibly die. Unacceptable.
Well today, the future is much different than it once was. I spent the week with the brightest researchers across the globe, co-chairing the Summit and as panelist sharing thoughts from Navigating OIT, as these dedicated and thoughtful folks shared their extraordinary innovations and treatments, that are around the corner. I know “Big Pharma” gets a bad rap and these days no one trusts university researchers either. But there are good people working to improve the lives of our children and the growing number of adults with food allergies. Believe it or not 25% of us have our lives impacted by food allergies.
So, check out some of these incredible ideas down the road: topical creams to ensure healthy skin as a preventative to allergies, toothpaste as a form of desensitization to an allergen, probiotics to improve gut health to stop allergies where they may be developing and pharmaceutical therapeutics to make OIT easier and more palatable!
Truly one can never know what the future brings. Treatments may be slower than we want or they may just be a doctor’s visit away or since you know me, a holistic approach just within reach (remember to work with your doctors on these). We live in times when it seems to be in vogue to be cynical and hopeless. And though there are some reasons to despair, there are also so many more reasons to be hopeful in this 21st century.
If you enjoyed this article, check out Live Your Best Life and The Sky Is Falling… FEAR!
