The Smartest Doctor in the Room
Nov 3, 2026 · 1 hr 1 min · 15 segments
Yes, food allergies can be treated. Xolair (omalizumab) is the first FDA-approved treatment for any food allergy beyond peanut, and it can lower the risk of a severe reaction after accidental exposure…
Dean MitchellHostDale UmetsuGuest
Because as we know, again, you being an immunologist, I'm an immunologist, we know we'll get into how with immunotherapy, you're literally changing the T cell, Th1, Th2, this whole immune balance.
Hopefully, as immunotherapy has been done over decades, changing the immune system more permanently.
So with Zolair being a monoclonal antibody drug, you're just, you're getting, you're getting essentially benefit while you're on the medicine.
Now, um, you know, I always, I always like to say, you know, um, food allergies, it was probably for a long time now, the Holy grail of allergy, you know, um, I tease people when I say, you know, back in the day, you know, when I trained at the Columbia's Cook Institute in New York, there was some older attendings there.
You know, people came in, you know, getting allergy shots for their dust allergy where the patients would bring in literally the vacuum dust from their homes.
And they said all their colleagues and other specialties looked at them with disdain.
And I think one of the big turning points for the field of allergy, I have to give a lot of credit to John Hopkins, was the venom immunotherapy because it was more precise.
They were showing the people that would die from a wasp or a bee sting could be protected from immunotherapy injections, you know, it had to be weekly and eventually monthly.
And again, as we started out this podcast, you know, food allergy was like, nobody wanted to touch that.
You know, it's like, Hey, we can't risk even one person dying in a trial, you know, even though thousands and thousands of patients lives are being upended and people die every year too, from these accidental ingestions.
Because as we know, again, you being an immunologist, I'm an immunologist, we know we'll get into how with immunotherapy, you're literally changing the T cell, Th1, Th2, this whole immune balance.
Hopefully, as immunotherapy has been done over decades, changing the immune system more permanently.
So with Zolair being a monoclonal antibody drug, you're just, you're getting, you're getting essentially benefit while you're on the medicine.
Now, um, you know, I always, I always like to say, you know, um, food allergies, it was probably for a long time now, the Holy grail of allergy, you know, um, I tease people when I say, you know, back in the day, you know, when I trained at the Columbia's Cook Institute in New York, there was some older attendings there.
You know, people came in, you know, getting allergy shots for their dust allergy where the patients would bring in literally the vacuum dust from their homes.
And they said all their colleagues and other specialties looked at them with disdain.
And I think one of the big turning points for the field of allergy, I have to give a lot of credit to John Hopkins, was the venom immunotherapy because it was more precise.
They were showing the people that would die from a wasp or a bee sting could be protected from immunotherapy injections, you know, it had to be weekly and eventually monthly.
And again, as we started out this podcast, you know, food allergy was like, nobody wanted to touch that.
You know, it's like, Hey, we can't risk even one person dying in a trial, you know, even though thousands and thousands of patients lives are being upended and people die every year too, from these accidental ingestions.
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