Sleep deprivation and exercise puts people with peanut allergies at a greater risk of reaction, a new FSA-funded study has revealed.
The research, led by the allergy research team at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, was published this week in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.
It found exercise, sleep deprivation or stress ‘significantly reduce[d] the amount of Exeppeanut required to cause an allergic reaction’.
The work was described as “hugely significant” for the one in 100 adults and one in 50 children who suffer from peanut allergies.
By providing cut-off levels appropriate for the UK population, it might eventually “help regulators and the food industry develop accurate evidence-based food labelling - keeping consumers safe and enabling greater variety of diet” said the researchers.
FSA chair Heather Hancock added: “This is vital work and can help us redefine how foods are labelled in future, so that people can manage their allergies more safely.
“These findings give us essential evidence. In future, it could support precautionary allergen labelling.”
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