Doctors estimate that about 1.5 million Americans suffer from a life-threatening cow’s milk allergy. This allergy is very different from lactose intolerance and is much more serious.

Now local researchers claim to have found a solution to milk allergies using artificial intelligence. It is an innovative method for treating children with food allergies.

At the doctor’s office, 11-year-old Vivek Peterson takes a big bite out of his chocolate ice cream cone. It’s part of his treatment for a severe cow’s milk allergy. He avoided dairy products for most of his childhood.

“I was the only child with allergies and the only child who wasn’t allowed to eat it,” he said.

This was more than just an inconvenience. Even the ingestion of a drop of cow’s milk could lead to a fatal anaphylactic shock. The threat was insidious.

“There is dairy in everything. There is milk in everything,” said Vivek’s mother, Priti Shah.

Then a friend told her about the Food Allergy Institute in Long Beach, where scientists are using artificial intelligence and biosimilar proteins like goat and mare’s milk to retrain the immune systems of patients with food allergies.

“We give it to patients in a predictable way. So before we give them cow’s milk, their system is already shut down. And then, within just a couple of months, they’ve gone from never having cow’s milk before to consuming about 300 ml of raw cow’s milk at a time,” said Dr. Inderpal Randhawa of the Food Allergy Institute.

The biosimilar milk is measured in gummy bear-sized portions. Randhawa said this method is very different from administering small amounts of allergen to desensitize a patient. Instead, individual doses are administered based on AI calculations based on 20 years of research.

“We simply take their blood. We run hundreds of markers through their blood. Compare it to the thousands and thousands of patients before them and find a way to downregulate their immune system to the point where they no longer react anaphylactically,” he said.

All 214 patients in the study achieved remission within about a year. Although there is still some maintenance required, all patients – like Vivek – can safely eat dairy products.

“I was disappointed with a few things, but I was happy with a few other things, like the ice cream,” Vivek said.

The tolerance induction program for children costs about $4,500 per year, depending on needs. Vivek’s mother says it’s a huge relief that her son can safely handle milk.

“He’s living his best life now. It’s incredible. He can have anything he wants,” Shah said.