The Peanut Allergy Epidemic: What's Causing It and How to Stop It

by Heather Fraser, Janet Levatin (Foreword by)

Overview

Why is the peanut allergy an epidemic that only seems to be found in Western cultures? Over four million people in the United States alone are affected by peanut allergies, while there are no reported cases in India, a country where peanuts are the primary ingredient in many baby food products. Where did this allergy come from, and does medicine play any kind of role in the phenomenon? After her own child had an anaphylactic reaction to peanut butter, historian Heather Fraser decided to discover the answers to these questions.

In The Peanut Allergy Epidemic, Fraser delves into the history of this allergy, trying to understand why it largely develops in children and studying its relationship with social, medical, political, and economic factors. In an international overview of the subject, she compares the epidemic in the United States to sixteen other geographical locations, finding that in addition to the United States, in countries such as Canada, the UK, Australia, and Sweden there is a one in fifty chance that a child, especially a male, will develop a peanut allergy. Fraser also highlights alternative medicines and explores issues of vaccine safety and other food allergies, making his book a must-read for every parent, teacher, and health professional.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781616082734
Publisher:	Skyhorse
Publication date:	06/01/2011
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Heather Fraser, MA, BA, BEd, is a natural health practitioner, writer, and founder of Bio-physical Resonance based in Toronto, Canada. In 1995, her one-year-old son reacted violently with anaphylaxis to a taste of peanut butter. Visit heatherfraser.org.

Table of Contents

Foreword xi

Preface xiii

Introduction: The Problem of Peanut Allergy 1

Part 1 The Mystery of the Peanut Allergy Epidemic

Chapter 1 From Idiosyncrasy to Multibillion-Dollar Industry 11

Chapter 2 Risk Factors 24

Geography 25

Peanut Consumption 27

Atopy: Eczema & Asthma 33

Birch Pollen Allergy 34

Th1/Th2 Paradigm Dysregulation 35

Age of Onset 37

Birth Month 37

Gender 38

Race 39

Mode of Delivery and Intestinal Flora 40

Maternal Age at Delivery 41

Socioeconomic Status 41

Large Head Circumference 43

Heredity 44

Immune System Overload 45

Vaccination 46

Ear Infections, Antibiotics & Gut Flora 47

Genetically Modified Foods & Herbicides 49

The Nocebo Effect & Owning Your Body 50

"Outgrowing" Peanut Allergy 51

Summary of Risk Factors 52

Chapter 3 Theories 53

Broken-Skin Hypothesis 54

Ingestion Hypothesis 58

Toxin Hypothesis 60

Helminth Hypothesis 63

Hygiene Hypothesis 66

Expanded Hygiene Hypothesis 69

Part 2 A History of Mass Allergy

Chapter 4 Rediscovering Anaphylaxis 75

Justified Behavior in the First Lancet Vaccination 76

A Framework for Mass Vaccination 82

The Neglected Role of the Needle: Discovering the Twin Relationship of Immunity & Allergy 87

Serum Sickness: A Precedent for an Allergy Epidemic in Children 89

Discovery of Food Anaphylaxis 92

The Origins of the Ingestion Hypothesis 94

The First Outbreak of Food Anaphylaxis 98

Chapter 5 The History of Peanut Allergy 101

Peanut Oil in Penicillin: Not the 'Smoking Gun' 101

Why Peanut? 104

Vaccine Adjuvants & Allergy: The Immunologist's Dirty Secret 108

Launching the Peanut Allergy Epidemic (1988-1994) 113

US Vaccine Injury Act creates liability free environment for vaccine makers 114

Sudden increase in vaccination coverage rates 115

Diseases of priority established, vaccine schedule in westernized countries expands and includes Hib 115

A suddenly competitive vaccine market spawns the Canadian PENTA, an unlicensed 5 in 1 119

The new Vitamin K1 injection, further expanding the schedule 121

The epidemic of severe food allergy in children arrives 122

Part 3 Peanut Allergy at the Crossover Point

Chapter 6 Absorbing the Costs 127

Ingredients: Aluminum, Food Proteins, and More 127

Slippery Labels but No Smoking Gun 130

Homology of Peanut and Haemophilus Influenzae Type B 132

Vaccine Antigens as an Adjuvant in Creating Peanut Allergy 133

Toxicity of Hib-DPT in Creating Allergy 133

The Australian Example 135

The Vitamin Kl Prophylaxis 136

Idiosyncrasies: The Ability to Detoxify 138

Chapter 7 Rationalizations 141

The Crossover Point 141

Personal Postscript: Red Flags 149

PENTA Vaccine (1994-97), a Cautionary Tale for All Vaccine Consumers 151

Appendix 157

Notes 163

Index 212

Editorial Reviews

“Fraser has created a necessary text for anyone concerned with allergies, anaphylaxis, or the rise in life-threatening reactions to peanuts, which has become widespread and epidemic.” —Mark Blaxill, cofounder, Health Choice and the Canary Party; coauthor, Age of Autism

“Phenomenal detective work! Heather Fraser weaves history, medicine, and science into a convincing hypothesis to solve a modern medical mystery. The Peanut Allergy Epidemic explains the origins and recent dramatic rise in incidence of peanut allergy in particular, but also provides a context for a wide range of other increasingly common immunological diseases. It should be required reading for pediatricians. I hope it is read by parents and prospective parents everywhere before blindly consenting to prophylactic medical interventions for their children.” —Jamie Deckoff-Jones, MD

“May in time come to be recognized as a major landmark in medical history. . . . The author has shown plausible reasons that certain substances in vaccines may be playing a contributory role in many increasingly prevalent childhood health problems.” —Harold E. Buttram, MD

“This magnificent book is in a rare class of books that present impeccable scientific evidence in prose that is accessible to the educated lay public, while slowly unfolding a gripping mystery that grabs the reader’s attention all the way through. If Heather Fraser is right about the link between vaccines and peanut allergy, and the evidence speaks for itself, then it opens up the frightening possibility that vaccines play a major role in all the food allergies that beset today’s children.” —Stephanie Seneff, PhD, senior research scientist, MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory

“In a world where scientific research demands thorough investigation into all causes of the allergy epidemic but one, Heather Fraser stands alone, shining her light on the stones intentionally left unturned for the last quarter of a century.” —Robyn Ross, BS, JD, allergy advocate

“[Fraser] masterfully demonstrates how, time and again, bizarre appearance and waning of widespread allergies to certain foods in human populations has followed the introduction and then withdrawal of specific medical formulations delivered by injection . . . The history of clinical and immunologic research illuminated by The Peanut Allergy Epidemic paves the way to finding the cause that will first be vehemently denied, then ridiculed, and finally accepted.” —Tetyana Obukhanych, PhD, author, Vaccine Illusion

“A compelling work on a subject that is taboo to the mainstream media.” —Lawrence Solomon, columnist, Financial Post; executive director, Energy Probe

“Fraser has created a necessary text for anyone concerned with allergies, anaphylaxis, or the rise in life-threatening reactions to peanuts, which has become widespread and epidemic.” —Mark Blaxill, cofounder, Health Choice and the Canary Party; coauthor, Age of Autism

“Phenomenal detective work! Heather Fraser weaves history, medicine, and science into a convincing hypothesis to solve a modern medical mystery. The Peanut Allergy Epidemic explains the origins and recent dramatic rise in incidence of peanut allergy in particular, but also provides a context for a wide range of other increasingly common immunological diseases. It should be required reading for pediatricians. I hope it is read by parents and prospective parents everywhere before blindly consenting to prophylactic medical interventions for their children.” —Jamie Deckoff-Jones, MD

“May in time come to be recognized as a major landmark in medical history. . . . The author has shown plausible reasons that certain substances in vaccines may be playing a contributory role in many increasingly prevalent childhood health problems.” —Harold E. Buttram, MD

“This magnificent book is in a rare class of books that present impeccable scientific evidence in prose that is accessible to the educated lay public, while slowly unfolding a gripping mystery that grabs the reader’s attention all the way through. If Heather Fraser is right about the link between vaccines and peanut allergy, and the evidence speaks for itself, then it opens up the frightening possibility that vaccines play a major role in all the food allergies that beset today’s children.” —Stephanie Seneff, PhD, senior research scientist, MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory

“In a world where scientific research demands thorough investigation into all causes of the allergy epidemic but one, Heather Fraser stands alone, shining her light on the stones intentionally left unturned for the last quarter of a century.” —Robyn Ross, BS, JD, allergy advocate

“[Fraser] masterfully demonstrates how, time and again, bizarre appearance and waning of widespread allergies to certain foods in human populations has followed the introduction and then withdrawal of specific medical formulations delivered by injection . . . The history of clinical and immunologic research illuminated by The Peanut Allergy Epidemic paves the way to finding the cause that will first be vehemently denied, then ridiculed, and finally accepted.” —Tetyana Obukhanych, PhD, author, Vaccine Illusion

“A compelling work on a subject that is taboo to the mainstream media.” —Lawrence Solomon, columnist, Financial Post; executive director, Energy Probe

From the Publisher