Yeah I’m not big on fish that’s farmed in S America. Fish isn’t real filling either, at least not for long. Shellfish is pricey. After a few weeks of chicken, I get sick of it.
The alpha-gal test was pretty cheap last I knew. Doc takes a little blood and sends it off to VA which is where the medical scientists are that discovered it and patented the test for it. They charged $40 for the test but that was years ago.
You could try keeping track of the time between eating red meat and getting the hives. If it’s 5-8 hours, it’s probably alpha-gal.
The hives like the extremities and skin that never sees the sun. Under the arms, behind the legs, the butt, stomach. Usually starts with my hands/fingers.
I’ve been eating brats a lot lately and they haven’t affected me but it’s probably been good timing. I ate two beef hot dogs years back and got hives. Corned beef hash from the can as well.
X aka twitter is currently viral about alpha-gal syndrome like it’s something new. Got videos of farmers allegedly finding boxes of ticks on their property. People claiming Bill Gates is behind it and the ticks are being dropped by planes.
It’s taken 20 years to spread a distance of 1-2 states. Seems about right for tick walking speed. LOL
Where I am was just outside the map of known cases 15 years ago when we moved here. Had no issue for a few years but then it came back as ticks here started to carry it. Could it be a 20 year old science experiment that started on the East coast? Who knows.
I need chickens. They like ticks.
I don’t have Alpha-gal (thank goodness)! Red meat doesn’t bother me at all.
Fish is problematic for me because if you look at origins, other than wild caught Alaska salmon, most are pond raised & the ponds aren’t that clean. I don’t eat Atlantic salmon because that’s usually warm water farmed salmon.
The BEST white fish, & I love it, is catfish, caught off the dock at our lake place. The lake is huge & very clean, used as a water source for several cities. The catfish range from 3 - 20*lbs, with most 5 - 10. Catch a couple of those, filet them out & deep fry catfish ‘chunks’ ... so good! Hush puppies to go along with the catfish is outstanding. My brother has started freezing a couple of pounds of raw fish for me since I don’t make it to the lake very often these days.
* There are much bigger catfish in the lake. The record was caught in 2020 & the fish weighed 121 pounds, 9 ounces, measured 60.5 inches in length, and had a girth of 40.5 inches. People post 60 - 80 lb. cats fairly frequently.