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I just became aware of a tick bite that can make people allergic to meat. It's called an "alpha-gal" allergy.
Apparently, you get allergic reactions after eating any mamalian product. I have a neighbor with this condition and it took him a long time to figure out why he was so sick.
he only eats chicken and fish these days.
My wife the vegetarian finds the illness entertaining but since I still enjoy eating meat, I find it very scary.
The tick is a lonestar tick. A friend of mine got bitten by one a few years ago and hasn't been able to eat any type of mammal since. poultry and seafood are fine but even that has to be cooked seperate from any pork, beef, deer, etc... as in one can't eat chicken off a grill that had just had steaks on it.
It seems to be a fairly recently discovered problem I believe and the ticks are moving northward. I live in MD and they are around here. Also is where my friend picked it up.
My daughter had severe dairy allergies since childhood to the point that when I was nursing her I myself could not eat dairy or she would have a reaction.
Continued throughout her childhood and adulthood. At 30 years old she joined that Guard and went to Basic in Texas. After only 2 weeks, she was in the Infirmary and had to be put on IV. They suspected an allergy and she was given leave to go home and be tested. Beef (red meat) allergy, which doctor said that a dairy allergy can change into. No more dairy allergy. She was given an Involuntary Medical Discharge.
We have read up on this. Is it possible that she was bitten by a Tick in Texas during Boot Camp, rather than her Dairy Allergy just morphing into a Red Meat Allergy? We will probably never know for sure.
It is not just beef but even trace amounts in soups, stews, or commercial products containing it, and she has to look at ingredients on labels. She cannot eat lamb, goat, or any other red meat. Pork, the other WHITE meat, is no problem in addition to Fowl or Fish.
Personally, I think she was bitten by a Tick in Texas and this is what caused it.
Unfortunately, here in AR and other places where the ticks are plentiful, it's rather surprising how many health care professionals are not aware of this allergy, and either are hiking groups, etc. and there are many (MANY!) tick diseases like Ehrlichia, Babeseiosis, Rocky Mountain Spotted Tick Disease, Tularemia, etc.
I believe I got Alpha Gal from the same tick which gave me Rocky Mountain spotted tick disease, but not really sure. Many tick bites do bestow a "variety" of different bacteria. And I've been bitten more than once due to living in woods/rural area and being a gardener, hiker, and also having a lot of dogs and horses.
One of my dogs had Ehrlichia, and while you cannot catch it from a dog, the chances that the same tick may have jumped off you to your dog, or vice versa, is entirely possible. I now realize that the veterinarian who treated my dog SHOULD HAVE alerted me to this possibility and at least said something about my being alert to it, and perhaps a visit to my PCP would have been in order. However, I never did get Ehrlichia and have tested negative for it since.
Of course you can get these things just by that Fall leaf pile raking, so please do be careful. Wear long pants, tuck into boots, spray down. Ticks aren't just things people get from camping.
Alpha Gal is not a tick disease, however. It's a carbohydrate that gets into your blood that doesn't belong there. All mammals have alpha gal in their blood except Humans and Old World Monkeys. So it's an allegy, it sets you up to have a strong allergenic response to the carbohydate that is alpha gal that is in mammals, gelatin, etc.
After a number of years of eschewing mammalian meat, I thought I could chance a slice of meatloaf. Big mistake. I was quite ill for 72 hours. I got retested and my numbers were still bad.
The good thing with Alpha Gal is that if you don't get rebitten, and/or you bring your #s down by not eating mammal stuffs, chances are it may leave your system eventually, and/or your numbers will be so low as to permit a few cheats here and there. Unfortuantely that hasn't been the case for me.
I have no problem with diet, I eat a lot of fish, fowl, tofu, eggs, veggies and fruit. I am able to tolerate diary, though not everyone is. My cholesterol has gone down and my weight is better........so I guess it's good.
Unfortnatey some of these can give you long term problems and/or trigger autoimmune type illnesses so you are fighting the after-effects for the rest of your life sometimes. Not everyone but some. rocky mountain gave me some pretty bad arthritic type ailments so I guess I'm not one of the lucky ones.
GO to health department page of your state and most likely there will be some good education pieces on tick diseases in your state. Like in AR, there is very little lymes disease. But the other ones are rather common. Unfortuantely most people are often not aware that they were bitten and do not have outward signs, or did and are not aware of what those are, and are often instead diagnosed with a flu or sometthing, so they don't receive the care required. STUDY the symptoms because they are often similar to thyroid, fibromyalgia, autoimmune illnesses, etc. If these tests do not give answers, ask to be tested for the tick diseases.
Sorry for the long post but one of my "things" is to educate people about tick illnesses now.
Last edited by pavedwithgold; 11-21-2020 at 04:38 PM..
Unfortunately, here in AR and other places where the ticks are plentiful, it's rather surprising how many health care professionals are not aware of this allergy, and either are hiking groups, etc. and there are many (MANY!) tick diseases like Ehrlichia, Babeseiosis, Rocky Mountain Spotted Tick Disease, Tularemia, etc.
I believe I got Alpha Gal from the same tick which gave me Rocky Mountain spotted tick disease, but not really sure. Many tick bites do bestow a "variety" of different bacteria. And I've been bitten more than once due to living in woods/rural area and being a gardener, hiker, and also having a lot of dogs and horses.
One of my dogs had Ehrlichia, and while you cannot catch it from a dog, the chances that the same tick may have jumped off you to your dog, or vice versa, is entirely possible. I now realize that the veterinarian who treated my dog SHOULD HAVE alerted me to this possibility and at least said something about my being alert to it, and perhaps a visit to my PCP would have been in order. However, I never did get Ehrlichia and have tested negative for it since.
Of course you can get these things just by that Fall leaf pile raking, so please do be careful. Wear long pants, tuck into boots, spray down. Ticks aren't just things people get from camping.
Alpha Gal is not a tick disease, however. It's a carbohydrate that gets into your blood that doesn't belong there. All mammals have alpha gal in their blood except Humans and Old World Monkeys. So it's an allegy, it sets you up to have a strong allergenic response to the carbohydate that is alpha gal that is in mammals, gelatin, etc.
After a number of years of eschewing mammalian meat, I thought I could chance a slice of meatloaf. Big mistake. I was quite ill for 72 hours. I got retested and my numbers were still bad.
The good thing with Alpha Gal is that if you don't get rebitten, and/or you bring your #s down by not eating mammal stuffs, chances are it may leave your system eventually, and/or your numbers will be so low as to permit a few cheats here and there. Unfortuantely that hasn't been the case for me.
I have no problem with diet, I eat a lot of fish, fowl, tofu, eggs, veggies and fruit. I am able to tolerate diary, though not everyone is. My cholesterol has gone down and my weight is better........so I guess it's good.
Unfortnatey some of these can give you long term problems and/or trigger autoimmune type illnesses so you are fighting the after-effects for the rest of your life sometimes. Not everyone but some. rocky mountain gave me some pretty bad arthritic type ailments so I guess I'm not one of the lucky ones.
GO to health department page of your state and most likely there will be some good education pieces on tick diseases in your state. Like in AR, there is very little lymes disease. But the other ones are rather common. Unfortuantely most people are often not aware that they were bitten and do not have outward signs, or did and are not aware of what those are, and are often instead diagnosed with a flu or sometthing, so they don't receive the care required. STUDY the symptoms because they are often similar to thyroid, fibromyalgia, autoimmune illnesses, etc. If these tests do not give answers, ask to be tested for the tick diseases.
Sorry for the long post but one of my "things" is to educate people about tick illnesses now.
You also have to be aware that many tick diseases do not have a test to identify them. That is a problem if you have symptoms of, for example, lyme disease but the test they use is negative. It doesnt mean you dont have lyme disease. Where I live there are 8 strains of lyme but only a test for 3 of them. MDs and vets get very dependent on test results and many will refuse to treat the patient. Dog, horse, or human.
The alpa gal allergy comes from the bite of the lone star tick. That tick use to be found down south but has expanded its range northward so now its thru out new england too. It also produces a rash that is nasty and many dermatologists have never seen it. The CDC hasnt been able to determine the causative organism. And there are emerging diseases. One in dogs, horses etc.
An acquaintance of mine developed this very thing.....so it can happen!
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