June 3, 2025 • 26 mins
Aired May 18, 2025: Lisa Foxx interviews Mom Lesley-Ann Stone, whose son HAD life threatening food & environmental allergies, until he was treated at the Institute. Lisa also talks to Food Allergy Institute Founder, Dr. Inderpal Randhawa about how his process works and how he helps get folks in 'food allergy remission' so that they are FREE of any issues.
The Food Allergy Institute is based in Long Beach, California with 300+ employees, and the Tolerance Induction Program has over 8,000 graduates from all over the world. There is no food allergy program like this in the world, where upon graduation the patient can eat whatever they want in whatever quantity they want. Currently, the Tolerance Induction Program treats patients up to the age of 25. Lesley-Ann's son Sam, who is now 12 years old, graduated from the program in 2018. He had multiple, severe, life-threatening food allergies, including peanut, tree nut, milk, egg, sesame and mustard seed along with 13 different environmental allergies. Sam now eats freely and consumes his allergens regularly with no reaction whatsoever. How exciting is THAT?!! He lives a life in 100% food freedom!!
Dr. Inderpal Randhawa is a 5-time board certified physician. He is the Founder of the Food Allergy Institute and the Tolerance Induction Program. Dr. Randhawa is also the Founder of the Translational Pulmonary & Immunology Research Center (TPRIC), a non-profit organization that challenges conventional approaches to rare and orphan diseases. Distressed by watching parents suffer the loss of a child to fatal allergic reactions, he proposed to find groundbreaking solutions and change the status quo. His early experience in lung transplant immunology coupled with his collaboration with national allergy and immunology specialists, led him to develop the safe, targeted solutions now offered through the Food Allergy Institute (FAI). FAI was founded in 2015, a cutting-edge clinical care and research center that is revolutionizing food allergy treatment.
To find out more...here is a link to Food Allergy Institute:
www.foodallergyinstitute.com
Here is a link to Resilience & Hope: A Food Allergy Podcast:
https://linktr.ee/resilienceandhopepodcast
Here is a link to Translational Pulmonary & Immunology Research Center:
www.tpric.org
The Food Allergy Institute is based in Long Beach, California with 300+ employees, and the Tolerance Induction Program has over 8,000 graduates from all over the world. There is no food allergy program like this in the world, where upon graduation the patient can eat whatever they want in whatever quantity they want. Currently, the Tolerance Induction Program treats patients up to the age of 25. Lesley-Ann's son Sam, who is now 12 years old, graduated from the program in 2018. He had multiple, severe, life-threatening food allergies, including peanut, tree nut, milk, egg, sesame and mustard seed along with 13 different environmental allergies. Sam now eats freely and consumes his allergens regularly with no reaction whatsoever. How exciting is THAT?!! He lives a life in 100% food freedom!!
Dr. Inderpal Randhawa is a 5-time board certified physician. He is the Founder of the Food Allergy Institute and the Tolerance Induction Program. Dr. Randhawa is also the Founder of the Translational Pulmonary & Immunology Research Center (TPRIC), a non-profit organization that challenges conventional approaches to rare and orphan diseases. Distressed by watching parents suffer the loss of a child to fatal allergic reactions, he proposed to find groundbreaking solutions and change the status quo. His early experience in lung transplant immunology coupled with his collaboration with national allergy and immunology specialists, led him to develop the safe, targeted solutions now offered through the Food Allergy Institute (FAI). FAI was founded in 2015, a cutting-edge clinical care and research center that is revolutionizing food allergy treatment.
To find out more...here is a link to Food Allergy Institute:
www.foodallergyinstitute.com
Here is a link to Resilience & Hope: A Food Allergy Podcast:
https://linktr.ee/resilienceandhopepodcast
Here is a link to Translational Pulmonary & Immunology Research Center:
www.tpric.org
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, as Slissa Fox, and this is the iHeart So
Cal Show.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Okay, so I know that May is kind of wrapping up,
but did you know that May is Food Allergy Awareness Month.
I got a direct message on Instagram from Leslie Ann Stone.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Hi Leslie.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Leslie reached out and wanted to talk about what happened
to her son, Sam, who developed life threatening food allergies,
but how the program of the Food Allergy Institute, based
right here in Long Beach essentially helped save her son's life.
We're going to dive into Sam's whole story and hear
about it from the doctor, doctor and DePaul Rendauwa, who
founded the institute, the Food Allergy Institute, And I just
(00:39):
got so many questions. Hi, doctor Rendawa, good to be here,
Thank you for being all with us, and so yeah,
I want to find out how how y'all connected. But Leslie,
let's start with Sam's story. I mean, food allergies I
know so common. I don't know personally much about it,
but I know very common.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
And very scary. But talk about what happened with your
son Sam.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Sure, Thank you Lisa for having us. Sam was diagnosed
with multiple severe, life threatening food allergies. Right after his
first birthday, we gave him a little bit of peanut butter,
which led to a catastrophic, very scary reaction, and we
went immediately to the er where they confirmed that this
(01:19):
was an allergic reaction and we were referred to an
allergist in our area locally in LA who told us
basically to avoid his allergiens. And he was allergic to
we learned through testing peanut, tree, nut milk, eggs, sesame seed,
and mustard seed a ton so we saw yeah. When
(01:40):
he was one and carried an EpiPen in the benadryl
and basically anywhere we went outside of the house was
a cause for concern. And we would go back to
this allergist every year around Sam's birthday to test and retest,
and by the time Sam was three, the doctor told
us don't come back for another two years because his
allergies were going away. And that was not an answer
(02:02):
to me that that life of avoidance. We were living
a life that was so restricted and so sheltered and
avoid avoid, avoid his allergens.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
And Lesland probably like paranoid.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
You can't go to a restaurant, you go to someone
else's house like you know to be like kind of
crazy and strict and say ask a million questions and say, well,
make sure you didn't have this. We brought our own food, right,
I mean paranoid, paranoid.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Exactly, exactly. A lot of anxiety, a lot of anxiety,
one hundred percent. I felt like any time I left
the house it was like going to the airport. I
was packing a bag with all kinds of variables and
contingencies and it was it was scary. And I pressed
our allergies for something that we could do for Sam,
and he said, there is a doctor in Long Beach
(02:45):
affiliated with Long Beach Children's Hospital that is seen and
he has a program and you should call for information.
And we did and we were invited down to Long
Beach Children's Hospital where doctor Randawa was giving a presentation
about the tolerance induction program and his food Allergy Institute.
(03:07):
And we learned about this amazing program and we joined
when Sam was three. We were in the program for
two years, and after two years, he is now in remission.
Sam is now twelve, so he's been in remission for
just about seven years now and he has no problems whatsoever.
(03:28):
Oh my gosh, in complete food freedom. Doctor Randallah is
my hero.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
And he's doing amazing things. He has patients that fly
in from all over the world for this program based
in Long Beach and it is exploded to three hundred employees.
And he is just brilliant. And I will let him
talk more about the program and in depth. But he
saved my son's life. He saved my son's life.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Can we say the s word? Did he cure? Are
you curing food allergies here at doctor Randowa?
Speaker 4 (04:00):
That's a great question, Lisa, I mean to our patients
and their families, it sure seems like it, right, I mean,
we call we use the word remission. As you know,
as a physician and a scientist, we kind of use
that word cure very carefully, but certainly for our patients. Remember,
take take Sam's story here. He was anaphylactic to a
(04:21):
whole bunch of things. He now eats those same things unlimited,
no restrictions, like anybody else. Right, So you know, I
can completely see how in his mind and in Leslieann's mind, Hey,
I'm curing. But as a scientist, you know, how do
we you know, how do we get to that cure word?
We you know, it's just more research, a little bit
more discovery. I'm quite certain in the next two to
(04:43):
three years we will probably get to that point where
we use that word.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
We love that word, we love that word cure and
just helping people live a quote unquote normal life. And
I love on the website it's Food Allergy Institute dot com.
Food Allergyinstitute dot com. It says foo should be enjoy
not feared. And doctor Randawa, you are a five time
board certified physician. You're the founder of the Food Allergy
Institute and the Tolerance Induction Program. So let me ask
(05:10):
you first, when did this all start for you and
when did this has become the area that you really
wanted to hone your skills and focus on as a doctor.
Speaker 4 (05:17):
Yeah. Absolutely, I mean I was, you know, years into training.
Getting five boards just take quite a bit of time.
I'm a transplant immunologist, so my world was in the
ICU and dealing with lung transplants and other major organ transplants,
and I was just really shook by what I saw
when these kids came in in anaphylaxis. You know, I mean,
you see it once it bothers you you see it,
(05:38):
you know, several dozen times in a short period of time,
and it just really kind of took me to a
place that was pretty dark, and I said, you know,
why can't we do something for these kids. We can do,
you know, transplants. How come we can't do anything for
these kids? And that's when it all began. And you know,
this is going back twenty years, and my first and
an initial goal was to make sure that whatever we did,
(05:59):
it had to be a real meaningful impact, meaning it
couldn't just be some sort of band aid. It actually
had to turn this disease date off. And really in
the next three to four years, put in a lot
of hard work in the laboratory, designed a lot of
the tests that allow us to see and understand how
severe food allergies can be. It also tells us how
(06:19):
much food will trigger reactions. This is the kind of
work that is not easy to do, but ultimately this
led to our first couple thousand patients being treated. That
allowed me to build a technology base. So this is
machine learning and AI way before it was ever popular. Now,
so this is going back fifteen years and now we
use that technology to treat our patients every single day.
We have over twenty thousand patients in our system historically
(06:43):
and there from all over the world, and literally they're
doing most of this program safely at home. They hit
remission and then they reach what we call food freedom,
which is awesome.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Okay, a million questions, so doctor, So, for example, like
with Sam walk us through or Leslian walk us through,
what happens when the patient comes in? What is the process?
How does the process start? We start with testing and
are they taking are they getting shots? Are they taking pills?
Are they what's the therapy?
Speaker 1 (07:12):
How does it all work?
Speaker 4 (07:13):
Yeah? Exactly right. So we have to be very very
specific with these patients, right because if you take one
hundred patients who have food allergies, every single one of
them is different. They have a different immune system, a
different level of reactivity, and we have to dial that
into data. So, yes, they come in for their first visit,
we are running about four hundred parameters of testing for
(07:34):
zero zero on every single patient that gets fed into
our AI system. The AI system will actually predict how
allergic they are to what different proteins, and it will
also create the alignment of all biosimilar proteins. So that's
kind of really the most critical term to look at
when we when we started this program in this research
years or is ago, we have to identify what proteins
(07:56):
plant proteins, animal proteins that are in nature in food
that we eat that are biosimilar to things like peanut
or biosimilar things like walnut. And we've done that successfully.
Once a patient gets their data back, we'll actually utilize
very specific biosimilar proteins. We produce them in our manufacturing
facility all under regulation. Patients will take these products at
(08:18):
home and then they'll return for specific challenges to actually
clear these foods out. And how it's particularly promising and
amazing is this. We'll take somebody who's anaphylactic to peanut,
just like Sam, and we will take their response to
peanut and we will lower it fifty, sixty, seventy or
eighty percent without ever giving them peanut. That's what biosimilar
(08:40):
protein matching does. So in a matter of a few months,
you then go from being totally anaphylactic to food to
something like peanut, and we will then get that patient
up to a sixty or seventy five peanut challenge. Imagine
the volume of peanut that giving this patient who once
reacted to dust. That's how our system works. That's confident.
(09:00):
We are to prove that these patients consume these foods,
can consume these foods in an unlimited way, and that
is what the terms production program does for every one
of our patients.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
So fascinating.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
So, doctor, are you saying that at the Food Allergy
Institute that you were essentially giving people like a fake
peanut protein, like an alternate peanut protein, to teach the
body how to not be allergic to the peanut protein
kind of a thing.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
That's right. So, as a transplant I of anologist. The
first thing I looked at and is, if you look
at the world of transplant, we have to be very
careful how we match people. When you're receiving an organ
and you're receiving a transplant, that donor organ must have matched.
There's these matching parameters. Those are all based on protein
that proteins that have to be biosimilar. I took the
same model and said, let me go find all the
(09:47):
biosimilars to dairy and milk. Let me go find all
the biosimilars to peanut and other allergens. And we've now
done that. For all primary allergens. We treat patients from
six months of age to thirty years of age. We've
done the successful now agatting for twenty years, and we're
about to expand our age range here in the next
few years.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
My gosh, and God bless you for doing that. How cammon,
are these allergies and are they mostly Is it mostly
nuts and dairy? What are the most common ones that
you experienced for people that are coming in.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
Oh, it's a huge problem. Least thank you. I mean
two percent, literally two percent of the entire US population,
both pediatric and adult, is horribly anaphylactic to peanuts, Like
it's that common. And then if you look at the
general numbers, about thirty five million people, so about one
in ten people has a serious food anaphylactic reaction. This
(10:34):
is not a sensitivity where you can't have a little
bit of this or have a little bit. These people
walk around with an epiped and an adrenaline shot because
if they get exposed, they're gonna be a big trouble.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
And so essentially are those the primary of the people
who come to see with the food the Food Allergy Institute.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
People who got it really bad, where it's.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Life threatening, or can I come to you if I
just have an annoying seafood, I get a rash if
I have a shellfish or something like that. Only for
hardcore people who are it's life threatening.
Speaker 4 (11:03):
I mean, to be to be fair, I'd say that's
probably the vast majority of who we see, because you know,
to them, you know, it's it's very difficult to live
life the way they do. You know, It's funny. I
saw this movie the other day and some comment was
made where they saw a doctor and the doctor said,
what's simple, Just avoid wheat, milk, and sugar. And he
was like, well, then what's left? You know? I mean
(11:24):
imagine when when you when you when you start telling
people just avoid everything and you're allergic to five or
six things, your life not only your your food and
your diet, but your whole life becomes extremely restricted. So
that is the typical story. We get those patients, but
absolutely we get lots of patients who come in who
just have a shellfish allergy. We treat that very effectively.
(11:44):
And as much as that seems like a little thing,
I mean again, if you're in your twenties and you're
working and you try to get your career going, and
you can't eat at you know, all the right places
when you have to, you know, you know, have a
happy hour or have a certain business meeting. It does
make a big difference when you can actually just live
in eat freely like a non allergic person.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Well, and again, the chance of cross pollination, cross contamination
at these restaurants and anywhere you know, outside of your
home where you can can completely control it. Yeah, nerve racking,
just like with the Leslie and countless moms and parents
go through. Let me ask this doctor who pays for it?
Is it covered by insurance? Is it expensive to fix
the food allergies? Talk about price and who covers it?
Speaker 4 (12:24):
Absolutely? So, you know, when I started this program, I
initially started as a nonprofit organization. I have funded the
vast majority of this work myself, and around twenty eleven
we had the opportunity to kind of get this into
an actual commercialized state. But I always was committed to
try to keep this as reasonably priced as possible, so
about half the cost of the program is covered by insurance.
(12:47):
The most you know, were continuing to work hard on that.
But remember patients are only in active treatment for just
a few years. I mean, as Leslie I mentioned two years.
Some of the more severe cases can go three to
four years. Primary cost is really during the active treatment time.
Once you're in remission, that cost drops pretty precipitously. But again,
about fifty percent of it's covered by insurance.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Okay, and Leslie and does Sam thank you every day
or every other day or every time he eats a
peanut butter sandwich. Every time that he can eat a
peanut butter sandwich's like, thank you.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
Mom, I'm having peanut butter.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
I love peanut butter.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
Halloween, Halloween, and birthday parties. Those are the biggies Halloween
and b He can eat the cake, he can eat
the candy, he can participate in everything.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
And then doctor, So, since Leslie and son Sam is
in remission as you call it, from his food allergy,
his severe life threatening his one severe life threatening food
allergy allergies, how do we watch that moving forward for
the rest of his life, the rest of his healthy life.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
How do we watch it keep an eye on things?
Speaker 3 (13:47):
You know?
Speaker 4 (13:47):
The beauty of doing this through advanced technology AI machine
learning is that we ask the patients to come back
once a year for a few years, and we're going
to run their data yet again, right, so we're able
to really understand what deep remission looks like. And so
when you're kind of finished the program, most patients are
actually eating some amount of save It's peanut every couple
(14:10):
of weeks when they kind of go deeper into remissions.
They're eating it once a month and that's all they
have to do. Literally, just eat this stuff once a
month and they will stay into this very deep state
of remission or you know, as some people call it,
a curative state, which is just phenomenal. Right, But we
don't stop there. We're going to continue to track these
patients for decades and our ultimate goal is to find
(14:31):
the off switch. And that's really where I use that
word cure. And as I mentioned earlier, I'm pretty sure
in the next two to three years, based on the
total number of data we've accumulated and how we're studying this,
that we can probably find what that BOS switch looks like.
And I mean, to me, I think that just be.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
Phenomenal, so exciting.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Yeah, and then doctor, did you say that you are
you able to treat patients remotely for this?
Speaker 4 (14:54):
Yeah? In fact, ninety nine percent of this program is
done at home. You don't have to come in here
that often. Most of our patients, if they're like say,
flying here from the East Coast or another country, they're
coming in about four to five times a year. And
remember we are actually treating all of these allergies simultaneously.
So all of the work, all the data science, all
of it's modeled, all of that treatment is happening on
(15:15):
a daily basis. For a couple of years, you come
in three or four times a year. Next thing, you know,
a couple of years go by, you're good to go
and you're in remission.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Okay, So they would need whoever's listening all over the country,
all over the world. You would need to be seen
at the Food Alergy Institute if you have life threatening
food allergies, you can get help, but you have to
be there in person first at their facility.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
In Long Beach. But then but you can do a
lot of it remotely after that.
Speaker 4 (15:40):
Yeah, correct, it's not one hundred percent remote, but you know,
I'd say the vast majority of the treatment itself is
done simply at home.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Okay, And what are your goals in terms of I mean,
aside from the cure, which would be amazing, and I'll
be like I knew him when I knew him when Leslie,
and I knew him when No, But aside from trying
to find a cure for all these food allergies, who
are you looking to seek? Who are you seeking to help?
Who do you want to know about what you're doing
there on Long Beach? Who are you wanting to come find?
Speaker 4 (16:07):
You?
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Does people who are in a terrible situation with their
allergies simple as.
Speaker 4 (16:11):
That, you know, it's as simple as that. But it's
also I think it's just critical. You know, we're a
point in time right now where you know, imagine if
you've lived with this diagnosis for you know, six months,
or you look for it with it for twenty years.
There's a major trust issue that I think these families
have with the classical healthcare institutions. You know, when organizations
(16:35):
say they're working on something and some you know, major
cures around the corner, and years go by and nothing changes,
and your child continues to have reactions and we have
to be serious about that. These kids are ending up
in the er, in the hospital, and sometimes these reactions
can be near fatal or fatal, and that's what these
families have to live with every single day. Our message is, look,
it's not just talk, right, this is clear evidence of treatment.
(17:00):
We've been doing this work for a long time. We're
the trusted source that comes to the food allergy diagnosis
and food allergy treatment. That's what we want to get
out there. Ultimately, we are expanding. We've had one location
outside of Long Beach in San Diego now for about
three years. We'll be expanding to the up the west
coast here in San Francisco this summer and to the
East coast early part of next year and hopefully beyond.
(17:23):
We have to get out to the thirty five million
people who deserve. They simply deserve better, and that's our
job to get to them.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
They deserve to not being fear and they deserve a
better quality of life. Right we all do, but certainly
to not let this food allergy life runding food allergy.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Cripple their life, cripple their life, cripple how they live
their life.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
Yep.
Speaker 4 (17:41):
Super well, yeah, well said, I mean, and I can
tell you so many stories. I mean, I think Lesliean
does it so well. But ultimately, remember when they finish
our program, not only do they have what we call
food freedom, unlimited consumption of these proteins without worry about
reactions or things of that nature, their whole life has changed.
They don't have to spend hours a week eating labels,
They don't have to socially isolate themselves. They don't have
(18:03):
to have all of the strain and stress on the
family members who are just sometimes making mistakes right, they
can't get every single thing right. All of that is gone.
And that's why it's such a life changing form of
treatment when you get into remission, and.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
So exciting and so exciting for like Leslie and Son,
and you know, Leslie, I was reading over reading back
at what Sam had. Again, multiple severe life threading food
allergies had past tense, including peanut, trinut, milk, egg, sesame,
and mustard seed, along with thirteen different environmental allergies as well.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
My gosh, poor guy, touch on that.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
Oh gosh, we didn't realize at first that he had
so many environmental allergies. He was a kid in preschool,
and kids, as you know, get sick in preschool. They
have runny noses, they're coughing. It's very Joermy. So we
just assumed that those symptoms that Sam had early in
life was just from being around other toddlers and young kids.
(19:02):
But no, it was his his environmental allergies. And doctor
Randalla and the team at the Food Allergy Institute took
all of that on and went hand in hand with
his food allergies in treatment, and he became a very
healthy kid quite quickly through their looking at those environmental allergies.
And we're talking about allergies to cats, grass oaks.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
All the reasons why we were all sneezing in springtime. Yeah,
but I.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
Would let doctor I will let doctor Randawa talk about
the treatment for environmental allergies. I'm not going to get
into the science behind that because I am not the expert.
I'm with the experts to talk about that. But I
noticed the treatment for the environmental allergies his health turning
around in a matter of two months. I saw a
dramatic change. And Sam is a really healthy kid now.
(19:52):
He rarely gets sick. Doctor Rendalla, I don't know if
you want to elaborate on your treatment for environmental allergies
as well.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
Well, yeah, you know, and absolutely so. You know one
thing you have to recognize about patients who have food
food allergies for food anaphylaxis is that the majority of them,
like certainly over fifty percent of them are going to
have one or two of the problems. They're going to
have asthma, and often it's pretty significant asthma. They're going
to have exzema, and again often pretty significant exzema. And thirdly,
(20:21):
they just have a really significant amount of nasal eye
ocular kind of itchy eyes, itchy nose, what we call
what we typically call hay fever. And so it's important
that when we are doing the work we're doing here
in the Torrent seduction program that we look at all
those systems, because all those systems are working toward that
same primary immune system. And our job here is very simple.
(20:42):
We need to take this anaphylactic immune system and promote
it towards tolerance, and then promote it towards permission, you know,
three basic steps. And so when we look at the
patients who have pollen based allergies, just like SAM, we
can actually find the same biosimilar type proteins that are
shared between something like grass and something like peanut, and
we will tie that into our AI system, and indeed
(21:04):
we will treat the patients through something called SLIT, or
we call sublingual aminotherapy. It's a simple spray and the
spread under the tongue. It's kind of what allergy shots
you know, similarly can do, but here we control it
in our own specific way. They do that while they're
on the actual food based program, so at the end
of the program, you know, not only do they not
have their food allergies anymore, they actually don't have a
(21:26):
lot of these other types of allergic diseases either.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
So fascinating.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
I feel like doctor Randaua when you talk, I feel
like you're inspiring people to want to become scientists to
help people. I mean, it's just incredible, inspiring, so inspiring, airing,
especially if you can use your talent and the knowledge
that you have obviously at the Food Allergy Institute to
help people and help save lives. So it's essentially such
a huge thing that's happening anyone with any I guess, right,
(21:49):
you can find out if I think I saw on
the website you have a quiz, right, you can take
a quiz to see for maybe even eligible to be
a part.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Of what you're the work you're doing there.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
How does that part of it work when they go
to the Food Food Allergy Institute dot com.
Speaker 4 (22:01):
That's why we have lots of information about food allergies
as a whole. I mean, our goal is to be
a true advocate, right, I mean, you have a lot
of people out there who may think they have food allergies.
We want to give them information, help them make the
right diagnosis. And of course for those who actually suffer
from food anaphylaxis, they can come on check out our website.
They can take a relatively quick quiz that will give
(22:23):
them pretty good information as to what's going on with
the food alergies and are they a good candidate for
the Tarlent production program. And then behind that we have
an amazing enrollment team works, you know, basically all the
time to give you more and more information that can
be done digitally also by phone, and that's one of
the first steps you take when you're trying to figure
out if this is the right program for you.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Wonderful and your big success story, Sam, one of many
success stories Leslie and I know you're doing a new
podcast essentially all about this resilience.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
And hope a food allergy podcast.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
So are you having on other moms people who have
gone through the program. What types of guests are you
having on the pod that are focused on I'm assuming
a lot of success stories, right, or just people want
to share the plight of having a child with these
tribal allergies.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
Yes, I am so grateful to have this podcast in
partnership at the Food Allergy Institute, and essentially every episode
highlights somebody who helped meet Sam on our journey from
diagnosis through remission to today. I also do bring on
other parents who are in the program, have graduated the program,
(23:29):
their kids are in remission too, and highlighting people who
have very unique stories in the program. For example, I
have a dear friend in Michigan who completed the program
with three of her kids. They would commute in from
Michigan to Long Beach and they are all three in remission.
But I also bring on our preschool director who was
very instrumental to us when Sam was in preschool and
(23:51):
we were in the program. I bring on a registered
dietitian of a friend of mine who talks about food behaviors.
And once you're in the program and you're insion, you
introduce new foods and having that food freedom brings on
a lot of anxiety for the parent and for the child.
And what can you do to introduce new foods and say, well, hey,
(24:12):
now it's okay to eat these foods, and now it's
okay to have the recent peanut butter cup. It's it's
totally safe. Let's go to the store and pick out
candy and things. We discuss things of that nature, but
we also talk about some hard stuff about the anxiety
of being a food allergy parent and what that reality
is like for the family, for a marriage. It's very, very,
(24:34):
very personal, and I have met people through it from
all over the country who've connected with me on Instagram
through the podcast through our Instagram handle, and it's been
very very rewarding to start to build this community of
food allergy parents around the Tolerance Induction Program and the
Food Allergy Institute. WOW.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
And so about interest you if you're listening to you
know some of the food alogy or someone with a
child with food algy, there is more than just help available.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
These people are gonna get you all fixed up and
taken care of.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
Especially if you live anywhere in the southern California area
or able to come to Long Beach. My gosh, you
can listen to Leslie's podcast, Lesliand's podcast Resilience and Hope,
the Food Allergy podcast on the iHeart radio app.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
Yes, Leslie, Leslieanny, and then of course the doctor.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
My gosh, you are wonderful doctor Interepoul Randawa from the
Food Allergy Institute, and also the trans You say that one,
you say that one.
Speaker 4 (25:27):
It's a mouthful Translational Pulmonary and Immunology Research Center. We
call it tea perk for short, tea.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
Perk for short.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
Okay, wow, I am just blown away by all this information.
Thank you so much for all that you are doing
to save lives and help people live a much better life.
Who are just have these crippling food allergies and environmental allergies.
So lots to know, lots to learn about, continue to
learn about. But help is waiting for you. If this
is you, it's Food Allergy Institute dot com, Food Allergy
Institute dot com and Leslie Ann's podcast Resilience and Hope,
(25:57):
a food allergy podcast, available on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
You guys, you're amazing. Thank you, Thank you for.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
Doing much alsa Thank you. You are amazing. Thank you
for the opportunity, Thank you
Hi, as Slissa Fox, and this is the iHeart So
Cal Show.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Okay, so I know that May is kind of wrapping up,
but did you know that May is Food Allergy Awareness Month.
I got a direct message on Instagram from Leslie Ann Stone.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Hi Leslie.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Leslie reached out and wanted to talk about what happened
to her son, Sam, who developed life threatening food allergies,
but how the program of the Food Allergy Institute, based
right here in Long Beach essentially helped save her son's life.
We're going to dive into Sam's whole story and hear
about it from the doctor, doctor and DePaul Rendauwa, who
founded the institute, the Food Allergy Institute, And I just
(00:39):
got so many questions. Hi, doctor Rendawa, good to be here,
Thank you for being all with us, and so yeah,
I want to find out how how y'all connected. But Leslie,
let's start with Sam's story. I mean, food allergies I
know so common. I don't know personally much about it,
but I know very common.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
And very scary. But talk about what happened with your
son Sam.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Sure, Thank you Lisa for having us. Sam was diagnosed
with multiple severe, life threatening food allergies. Right after his
first birthday, we gave him a little bit of peanut butter,
which led to a catastrophic, very scary reaction, and we
went immediately to the er where they confirmed that this
(01:19):
was an allergic reaction and we were referred to an
allergist in our area locally in LA who told us
basically to avoid his allergiens. And he was allergic to
we learned through testing peanut, tree, nut milk, eggs, sesame seed,
and mustard seed a ton so we saw yeah. When
(01:40):
he was one and carried an EpiPen in the benadryl
and basically anywhere we went outside of the house was
a cause for concern. And we would go back to
this allergist every year around Sam's birthday to test and retest,
and by the time Sam was three, the doctor told
us don't come back for another two years because his
allergies were going away. And that was not an answer
(02:02):
to me that that life of avoidance. We were living
a life that was so restricted and so sheltered and
avoid avoid, avoid his allergens.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
And Lesland probably like paranoid.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
You can't go to a restaurant, you go to someone
else's house like you know to be like kind of
crazy and strict and say ask a million questions and say, well,
make sure you didn't have this. We brought our own food, right,
I mean paranoid, paranoid.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Exactly, exactly. A lot of anxiety, a lot of anxiety,
one hundred percent. I felt like any time I left
the house it was like going to the airport. I
was packing a bag with all kinds of variables and
contingencies and it was it was scary. And I pressed
our allergies for something that we could do for Sam,
and he said, there is a doctor in Long Beach
(02:45):
affiliated with Long Beach Children's Hospital that is seen and
he has a program and you should call for information.
And we did and we were invited down to Long
Beach Children's Hospital where doctor Randawa was giving a presentation
about the tolerance induction program and his food Allergy Institute.
(03:07):
And we learned about this amazing program and we joined
when Sam was three. We were in the program for
two years, and after two years, he is now in remission.
Sam is now twelve, so he's been in remission for
just about seven years now and he has no problems whatsoever.
(03:28):
Oh my gosh, in complete food freedom. Doctor Randallah is
my hero.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
And he's doing amazing things. He has patients that fly
in from all over the world for this program based
in Long Beach and it is exploded to three hundred employees.
And he is just brilliant. And I will let him
talk more about the program and in depth. But he
saved my son's life. He saved my son's life.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Can we say the s word? Did he cure? Are
you curing food allergies here at doctor Randowa?
Speaker 4 (04:00):
That's a great question, Lisa, I mean to our patients
and their families, it sure seems like it, right, I mean,
we call we use the word remission. As you know,
as a physician and a scientist, we kind of use
that word cure very carefully, but certainly for our patients. Remember,
take take Sam's story here. He was anaphylactic to a
(04:21):
whole bunch of things. He now eats those same things unlimited,
no restrictions, like anybody else. Right, So you know, I
can completely see how in his mind and in Leslieann's mind, Hey,
I'm curing. But as a scientist, you know, how do
we you know, how do we get to that cure word?
We you know, it's just more research, a little bit
more discovery. I'm quite certain in the next two to
(04:43):
three years we will probably get to that point where
we use that word.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
We love that word, we love that word cure and
just helping people live a quote unquote normal life. And
I love on the website it's Food Allergy Institute dot com.
Food Allergyinstitute dot com. It says foo should be enjoy
not feared. And doctor Randawa, you are a five time
board certified physician. You're the founder of the Food Allergy
Institute and the Tolerance Induction Program. So let me ask
(05:10):
you first, when did this all start for you and
when did this has become the area that you really
wanted to hone your skills and focus on as a doctor.
Speaker 4 (05:17):
Yeah. Absolutely, I mean I was, you know, years into training.
Getting five boards just take quite a bit of time.
I'm a transplant immunologist, so my world was in the
ICU and dealing with lung transplants and other major organ transplants,
and I was just really shook by what I saw
when these kids came in in anaphylaxis. You know, I mean,
you see it once it bothers you you see it,
(05:38):
you know, several dozen times in a short period of time,
and it just really kind of took me to a
place that was pretty dark, and I said, you know,
why can't we do something for these kids. We can do,
you know, transplants. How come we can't do anything for
these kids? And that's when it all began. And you know,
this is going back twenty years, and my first and
an initial goal was to make sure that whatever we did,
(05:59):
it had to be a real meaningful impact, meaning it
couldn't just be some sort of band aid. It actually
had to turn this disease date off. And really in
the next three to four years, put in a lot
of hard work in the laboratory, designed a lot of
the tests that allow us to see and understand how
severe food allergies can be. It also tells us how
(06:19):
much food will trigger reactions. This is the kind of
work that is not easy to do, but ultimately this
led to our first couple thousand patients being treated. That
allowed me to build a technology base. So this is
machine learning and AI way before it was ever popular. Now,
so this is going back fifteen years and now we
use that technology to treat our patients every single day.
We have over twenty thousand patients in our system historically
(06:43):
and there from all over the world, and literally they're
doing most of this program safely at home. They hit
remission and then they reach what we call food freedom,
which is awesome.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Okay, a million questions, so doctor, So, for example, like
with Sam walk us through or Leslian walk us through,
what happens when the patient comes in? What is the process?
How does the process start? We start with testing and
are they taking are they getting shots? Are they taking pills?
Are they what's the therapy?
Speaker 1 (07:12):
How does it all work?
Speaker 4 (07:13):
Yeah? Exactly right. So we have to be very very
specific with these patients, right because if you take one
hundred patients who have food allergies, every single one of
them is different. They have a different immune system, a
different level of reactivity, and we have to dial that
into data. So, yes, they come in for their first visit,
we are running about four hundred parameters of testing for
(07:34):
zero zero on every single patient that gets fed into
our AI system. The AI system will actually predict how
allergic they are to what different proteins, and it will
also create the alignment of all biosimilar proteins. So that's
kind of really the most critical term to look at
when we when we started this program in this research
years or is ago, we have to identify what proteins
(07:56):
plant proteins, animal proteins that are in nature in food
that we eat that are biosimilar to things like peanut
or biosimilar things like walnut. And we've done that successfully.
Once a patient gets their data back, we'll actually utilize
very specific biosimilar proteins. We produce them in our manufacturing
facility all under regulation. Patients will take these products at
(08:18):
home and then they'll return for specific challenges to actually
clear these foods out. And how it's particularly promising and
amazing is this. We'll take somebody who's anaphylactic to peanut,
just like Sam, and we will take their response to
peanut and we will lower it fifty, sixty, seventy or
eighty percent without ever giving them peanut. That's what biosimilar
(08:40):
protein matching does. So in a matter of a few months,
you then go from being totally anaphylactic to food to
something like peanut, and we will then get that patient
up to a sixty or seventy five peanut challenge. Imagine
the volume of peanut that giving this patient who once
reacted to dust. That's how our system works. That's confident.
(09:00):
We are to prove that these patients consume these foods,
can consume these foods in an unlimited way, and that
is what the terms production program does for every one
of our patients.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
So fascinating.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
So, doctor, are you saying that at the Food Allergy
Institute that you were essentially giving people like a fake
peanut protein, like an alternate peanut protein, to teach the
body how to not be allergic to the peanut protein
kind of a thing.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
That's right. So, as a transplant I of anologist. The
first thing I looked at and is, if you look
at the world of transplant, we have to be very
careful how we match people. When you're receiving an organ
and you're receiving a transplant, that donor organ must have matched.
There's these matching parameters. Those are all based on protein
that proteins that have to be biosimilar. I took the
same model and said, let me go find all the
(09:47):
biosimilars to dairy and milk. Let me go find all
the biosimilars to peanut and other allergens. And we've now
done that. For all primary allergens. We treat patients from
six months of age to thirty years of age. We've
done the successful now agatting for twenty years, and we're
about to expand our age range here in the next
few years.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
My gosh, and God bless you for doing that. How cammon,
are these allergies and are they mostly Is it mostly
nuts and dairy? What are the most common ones that
you experienced for people that are coming in.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
Oh, it's a huge problem. Least thank you. I mean
two percent, literally two percent of the entire US population,
both pediatric and adult, is horribly anaphylactic to peanuts, Like
it's that common. And then if you look at the
general numbers, about thirty five million people, so about one
in ten people has a serious food anaphylactic reaction. This
(10:34):
is not a sensitivity where you can't have a little
bit of this or have a little bit. These people
walk around with an epiped and an adrenaline shot because
if they get exposed, they're gonna be a big trouble.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
And so essentially are those the primary of the people
who come to see with the food the Food Allergy Institute.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
People who got it really bad, where it's.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Life threatening, or can I come to you if I
just have an annoying seafood, I get a rash if
I have a shellfish or something like that. Only for
hardcore people who are it's life threatening.
Speaker 4 (11:03):
I mean, to be to be fair, I'd say that's
probably the vast majority of who we see, because you know,
to them, you know, it's it's very difficult to live
life the way they do. You know, It's funny. I
saw this movie the other day and some comment was
made where they saw a doctor and the doctor said,
what's simple, Just avoid wheat, milk, and sugar. And he
was like, well, then what's left? You know? I mean
(11:24):
imagine when when you when you when you start telling
people just avoid everything and you're allergic to five or
six things, your life not only your your food and
your diet, but your whole life becomes extremely restricted. So
that is the typical story. We get those patients, but
absolutely we get lots of patients who come in who
just have a shellfish allergy. We treat that very effectively.
(11:44):
And as much as that seems like a little thing,
I mean again, if you're in your twenties and you're
working and you try to get your career going, and
you can't eat at you know, all the right places
when you have to, you know, you know, have a
happy hour or have a certain business meeting. It does
make a big difference when you can actually just live
in eat freely like a non allergic person.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Well, and again, the chance of cross pollination, cross contamination
at these restaurants and anywhere you know, outside of your
home where you can can completely control it. Yeah, nerve racking,
just like with the Leslie and countless moms and parents
go through. Let me ask this doctor who pays for it?
Is it covered by insurance? Is it expensive to fix
the food allergies? Talk about price and who covers it?
Speaker 4 (12:24):
Absolutely? So, you know, when I started this program, I
initially started as a nonprofit organization. I have funded the
vast majority of this work myself, and around twenty eleven
we had the opportunity to kind of get this into
an actual commercialized state. But I always was committed to
try to keep this as reasonably priced as possible, so
about half the cost of the program is covered by insurance.
(12:47):
The most you know, were continuing to work hard on that.
But remember patients are only in active treatment for just
a few years. I mean, as Leslie I mentioned two years.
Some of the more severe cases can go three to
four years. Primary cost is really during the active treatment time.
Once you're in remission, that cost drops pretty precipitously. But again,
about fifty percent of it's covered by insurance.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Okay, and Leslie and does Sam thank you every day
or every other day or every time he eats a
peanut butter sandwich. Every time that he can eat a
peanut butter sandwich's like, thank you.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
Mom, I'm having peanut butter.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
I love peanut butter.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
Halloween, Halloween, and birthday parties. Those are the biggies Halloween
and b He can eat the cake, he can eat
the candy, he can participate in everything.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
And then doctor, So, since Leslie and son Sam is
in remission as you call it, from his food allergy,
his severe life threatening his one severe life threatening food
allergy allergies, how do we watch that moving forward for
the rest of his life, the rest of his healthy life.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
How do we watch it keep an eye on things?
Speaker 3 (13:47):
You know?
Speaker 4 (13:47):
The beauty of doing this through advanced technology AI machine
learning is that we ask the patients to come back
once a year for a few years, and we're going
to run their data yet again, right, so we're able
to really understand what deep remission looks like. And so
when you're kind of finished the program, most patients are
actually eating some amount of save It's peanut every couple
(14:10):
of weeks when they kind of go deeper into remissions.
They're eating it once a month and that's all they
have to do. Literally, just eat this stuff once a
month and they will stay into this very deep state
of remission or you know, as some people call it,
a curative state, which is just phenomenal. Right, But we
don't stop there. We're going to continue to track these
patients for decades and our ultimate goal is to find
(14:31):
the off switch. And that's really where I use that
word cure. And as I mentioned earlier, I'm pretty sure
in the next two to three years, based on the
total number of data we've accumulated and how we're studying this,
that we can probably find what that BOS switch looks like.
And I mean, to me, I think that just be.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
Phenomenal, so exciting.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Yeah, and then doctor, did you say that you are
you able to treat patients remotely for this?
Speaker 4 (14:54):
Yeah? In fact, ninety nine percent of this program is
done at home. You don't have to come in here
that often. Most of our patients, if they're like say,
flying here from the East Coast or another country, they're
coming in about four to five times a year. And
remember we are actually treating all of these allergies simultaneously.
So all of the work, all the data science, all
of it's modeled, all of that treatment is happening on
(15:15):
a daily basis. For a couple of years, you come
in three or four times a year. Next thing, you know,
a couple of years go by, you're good to go
and you're in remission.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Okay, So they would need whoever's listening all over the country,
all over the world. You would need to be seen
at the Food Alergy Institute if you have life threatening
food allergies, you can get help, but you have to
be there in person first at their facility.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
In Long Beach. But then but you can do a
lot of it remotely after that.
Speaker 4 (15:40):
Yeah, correct, it's not one hundred percent remote, but you know,
I'd say the vast majority of the treatment itself is
done simply at home.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Okay, And what are your goals in terms of I mean,
aside from the cure, which would be amazing, and I'll
be like I knew him when I knew him when Leslie,
and I knew him when No, But aside from trying
to find a cure for all these food allergies, who
are you looking to seek? Who are you seeking to help?
Who do you want to know about what you're doing
there on Long Beach? Who are you wanting to come find?
Speaker 4 (16:07):
You?
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Does people who are in a terrible situation with their
allergies simple as.
Speaker 4 (16:11):
That, you know, it's as simple as that. But it's
also I think it's just critical. You know, we're a
point in time right now where you know, imagine if
you've lived with this diagnosis for you know, six months,
or you look for it with it for twenty years.
There's a major trust issue that I think these families
have with the classical healthcare institutions. You know, when organizations
(16:35):
say they're working on something and some you know, major
cures around the corner, and years go by and nothing changes,
and your child continues to have reactions and we have
to be serious about that. These kids are ending up
in the er, in the hospital, and sometimes these reactions
can be near fatal or fatal, and that's what these
families have to live with every single day. Our message is, look,
it's not just talk, right, this is clear evidence of treatment.
(17:00):
We've been doing this work for a long time. We're
the trusted source that comes to the food allergy diagnosis
and food allergy treatment. That's what we want to get
out there. Ultimately, we are expanding. We've had one location
outside of Long Beach in San Diego now for about
three years. We'll be expanding to the up the west
coast here in San Francisco this summer and to the
East coast early part of next year and hopefully beyond.
(17:23):
We have to get out to the thirty five million
people who deserve. They simply deserve better, and that's our
job to get to them.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
They deserve to not being fear and they deserve a
better quality of life. Right we all do, but certainly
to not let this food allergy life runding food allergy.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Cripple their life, cripple their life, cripple how they live
their life.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
Yep.
Speaker 4 (17:41):
Super well, yeah, well said, I mean, and I can
tell you so many stories. I mean, I think Lesliean
does it so well. But ultimately, remember when they finish
our program, not only do they have what we call
food freedom, unlimited consumption of these proteins without worry about
reactions or things of that nature, their whole life has changed.
They don't have to spend hours a week eating labels,
They don't have to socially isolate themselves. They don't have
(18:03):
to have all of the strain and stress on the
family members who are just sometimes making mistakes right, they
can't get every single thing right. All of that is gone.
And that's why it's such a life changing form of
treatment when you get into remission, and.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
So exciting and so exciting for like Leslie and Son,
and you know, Leslie, I was reading over reading back
at what Sam had. Again, multiple severe life threading food
allergies had past tense, including peanut, trinut, milk, egg, sesame,
and mustard seed, along with thirteen different environmental allergies as well.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
My gosh, poor guy, touch on that.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
Oh gosh, we didn't realize at first that he had
so many environmental allergies. He was a kid in preschool,
and kids, as you know, get sick in preschool. They
have runny noses, they're coughing. It's very Joermy. So we
just assumed that those symptoms that Sam had early in
life was just from being around other toddlers and young kids.
(19:02):
But no, it was his his environmental allergies. And doctor
Randalla and the team at the Food Allergy Institute took
all of that on and went hand in hand with
his food allergies in treatment, and he became a very
healthy kid quite quickly through their looking at those environmental allergies.
And we're talking about allergies to cats, grass oaks.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
All the reasons why we were all sneezing in springtime. Yeah,
but I.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
Would let doctor I will let doctor Randawa talk about
the treatment for environmental allergies. I'm not going to get
into the science behind that because I am not the expert.
I'm with the experts to talk about that. But I
noticed the treatment for the environmental allergies his health turning
around in a matter of two months. I saw a
dramatic change. And Sam is a really healthy kid now.
(19:52):
He rarely gets sick. Doctor Rendalla, I don't know if
you want to elaborate on your treatment for environmental allergies
as well.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
Well, yeah, you know, and absolutely so. You know one
thing you have to recognize about patients who have food
food allergies for food anaphylaxis is that the majority of them,
like certainly over fifty percent of them are going to
have one or two of the problems. They're going to
have asthma, and often it's pretty significant asthma. They're going
to have exzema, and again often pretty significant exzema. And thirdly,
(20:21):
they just have a really significant amount of nasal eye
ocular kind of itchy eyes, itchy nose, what we call
what we typically call hay fever. And so it's important
that when we are doing the work we're doing here
in the Torrent seduction program that we look at all
those systems, because all those systems are working toward that
same primary immune system. And our job here is very simple.
(20:42):
We need to take this anaphylactic immune system and promote
it towards tolerance, and then promote it towards permission, you know,
three basic steps. And so when we look at the
patients who have pollen based allergies, just like SAM, we
can actually find the same biosimilar type proteins that are
shared between something like grass and something like peanut, and
we will tie that into our AI system, and indeed
(21:04):
we will treat the patients through something called SLIT, or
we call sublingual aminotherapy. It's a simple spray and the
spread under the tongue. It's kind of what allergy shots
you know, similarly can do, but here we control it
in our own specific way. They do that while they're
on the actual food based program, so at the end
of the program, you know, not only do they not
have their food allergies anymore, they actually don't have a
(21:26):
lot of these other types of allergic diseases either.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
So fascinating.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
I feel like doctor Randaua when you talk, I feel
like you're inspiring people to want to become scientists to
help people. I mean, it's just incredible, inspiring, so inspiring, airing,
especially if you can use your talent and the knowledge
that you have obviously at the Food Allergy Institute to
help people and help save lives. So it's essentially such
a huge thing that's happening anyone with any I guess, right,
(21:49):
you can find out if I think I saw on
the website you have a quiz, right, you can take
a quiz to see for maybe even eligible to be
a part.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Of what you're the work you're doing there.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
How does that part of it work when they go
to the Food Food Allergy Institute dot com.
Speaker 4 (22:01):
That's why we have lots of information about food allergies
as a whole. I mean, our goal is to be
a true advocate, right, I mean, you have a lot
of people out there who may think they have food allergies.
We want to give them information, help them make the
right diagnosis. And of course for those who actually suffer
from food anaphylaxis, they can come on check out our website.
They can take a relatively quick quiz that will give
(22:23):
them pretty good information as to what's going on with
the food alergies and are they a good candidate for
the Tarlent production program. And then behind that we have
an amazing enrollment team works, you know, basically all the
time to give you more and more information that can
be done digitally also by phone, and that's one of
the first steps you take when you're trying to figure
out if this is the right program for you.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Wonderful and your big success story, Sam, one of many
success stories Leslie and I know you're doing a new
podcast essentially all about this resilience.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
And hope a food allergy podcast.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
So are you having on other moms people who have
gone through the program. What types of guests are you
having on the pod that are focused on I'm assuming
a lot of success stories, right, or just people want
to share the plight of having a child with these
tribal allergies.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
Yes, I am so grateful to have this podcast in
partnership at the Food Allergy Institute, and essentially every episode
highlights somebody who helped meet Sam on our journey from
diagnosis through remission to today. I also do bring on
other parents who are in the program, have graduated the program,
(23:29):
their kids are in remission too, and highlighting people who
have very unique stories in the program. For example, I
have a dear friend in Michigan who completed the program
with three of her kids. They would commute in from
Michigan to Long Beach and they are all three in remission.
But I also bring on our preschool director who was
very instrumental to us when Sam was in preschool and
(23:51):
we were in the program. I bring on a registered
dietitian of a friend of mine who talks about food behaviors.
And once you're in the program and you're insion, you
introduce new foods and having that food freedom brings on
a lot of anxiety for the parent and for the child.
And what can you do to introduce new foods and say, well, hey,
(24:12):
now it's okay to eat these foods, and now it's
okay to have the recent peanut butter cup. It's it's
totally safe. Let's go to the store and pick out
candy and things. We discuss things of that nature, but
we also talk about some hard stuff about the anxiety
of being a food allergy parent and what that reality
is like for the family, for a marriage. It's very, very,
(24:34):
very personal, and I have met people through it from
all over the country who've connected with me on Instagram
through the podcast through our Instagram handle, and it's been
very very rewarding to start to build this community of
food allergy parents around the Tolerance Induction Program and the
Food Allergy Institute. WOW.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
And so about interest you if you're listening to you
know some of the food alogy or someone with a
child with food algy, there is more than just help available.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
These people are gonna get you all fixed up and
taken care of.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
Especially if you live anywhere in the southern California area
or able to come to Long Beach. My gosh, you
can listen to Leslie's podcast, Lesliand's podcast Resilience and Hope,
the Food Allergy podcast on the iHeart radio app.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
Yes, Leslie, Leslieanny, and then of course the doctor.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
My gosh, you are wonderful doctor Interepoul Randawa from the
Food Allergy Institute, and also the trans You say that one,
you say that one.
Speaker 4 (25:27):
It's a mouthful Translational Pulmonary and Immunology Research Center. We
call it tea perk for short, tea.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
Perk for short.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
Okay, wow, I am just blown away by all this information.
Thank you so much for all that you are doing
to save lives and help people live a much better life.
Who are just have these crippling food allergies and environmental allergies.
So lots to know, lots to learn about, continue to
learn about. But help is waiting for you. If this
is you, it's Food Allergy Institute dot com, Food Allergy
Institute dot com and Leslie Ann's podcast Resilience and Hope,
(25:57):
a food allergy podcast, available on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
You guys, you're amazing. Thank you, Thank you for.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
Doing much alsa Thank you. You are amazing. Thank you
for the opportunity, Thank you
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