title: Alternative and complementary treatment for food allergy.
abstract: Despite increased consumer interest in complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) for the treatment of food allergy, there remains a relative paucity of knowledge regarding the clinical efficacy, mechanisms of action, and safety of most CAM treatments available to consumers. This article focuses on recent advances in CAM for food allergy, including acupuncture, herbal medicine, probiotics, and alternative approaches to allergen immunotherapy. The mechanism of action of several novel approaches to treatment of food allergy is reviewed, but FAHF-2 is the only investigational herbal formulation currently validated for use in human clinical trials.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Division of Allergy and Immunology, University of Virginia, 409 Lane Road, Box 801355, Charlottesville, VA 22908, USA. jaw4he@virginia.edu
authors.forename: Julia Ann
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Wisniewski
authors.forename: Xiu-Min
authors.initials: XM
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D015670:Acupuncture Therapy / Q000379:methods; D000529:Complementary Therapies / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000379:methods*; D005512:Food Hypersensitivity / Q000628:therapy*; D029001:Herbal Medicine / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D007167:Immunotherapy / Q000379:methods; D008516:Medicine, Chinese Traditional / Q000379:methods; D019936:Probiotics / Q000627:therapeutic use