Break Free from Food Allergies: Understanding OIT & XOLAIR® Treatment Options

For most people, allergies are annoying. Their hay fever might give them the sniffles, or that banana might make their throat itch a little bit. But if you’re living with a serious food allergy, it’s an entirely different story. 

Even a small, accidental exposure can reshape the trajectory of your day, and maybe even your life. That can mean living with a level of stress or fear that you can’t quite shake. 

That’s where Chad W. Mayer, DO, John Frith, DO, and our team at Allergy and Asthma Institute of Southeast Michigan come in. At our office in Farmington Hills, Michigan, we offer treatment designed to minimize the severity of your food allergy. 

We work with you to find the right treatment for you based on your allergen, symptoms, and other factors. We tailor a treatment plan to you, which might include oral immunotherapy (OIT) or XOLAIR®. 

The goal: Small exposures don’t create big reactions

Dr. Mayer and Dr. Frith develop food allergy treatment plans to retrain the body. Right now, when you get exposed to that allergen, you have an extreme, potentially even life-threatening reaction. 

While OIT and XOLAIR work differently, they both have the same goal. As you proceed with treatment, it should help to reduce your body’s allergic response. Eventually, many people reach a point at which an accidental exposure doesn’t trigger a major reaction. 

We have multiple options we can use to help your body reduce its reactivity. We’ll look at two of them today. 

Oral immunotherapy (OIT)

During OIT, we work to slowly, carefully introduce the allergen to your system. This way, your body isn’t sent into shock if it encounters it in the wild. 

The first day of oral immunotherapy is somewhat intensive. You spend the day with us so we can move you through rapid desensitization. This means taking a tiny dose of the allergen, then being carefully monitored by our team. If your response is stable, we repeat that several times.

Rapid desensitization helps us set the baseline for your treatment program. From there, we work to gradually increase your daily dose to the point where your body has better tolerance for the allergen. 

Studies have shown that the majority of people have decreased allergic reactions after using OIT for peanut, milk, and egg allergies. 

XOLAIR®

While OIT works to desensitize you to a specific food, XOLAIR (generic: omalizumab) works broadly in your body to mitigate your allergic response. If you have multiple food allergies, it might be a better fit for you. 

XOLAIR is an injectable medication that works by controlling immunoglobulin, proteins that play a key role in your allergic reactions. 

When allergists first started using XOLAIR to address food allergies, Dr. Mayer was on the leading edge. That means he has extensive experience helping people use this medication to reduce their body’s response to allergen(s). 

If you want to break free from food allergies, you have options at your fingertips. Talk with our team so we can recommend a treatment program for you. 

Contact the Allergy and Asthma Institute of Southeast Michigan to schedule an appointment today.