Doctors often miss symptoms of meat allergy linked to lone star ticks, CDC finds

NBC ^ | 7/27.23 | Erika Edwards

[DallasBiff]

At least 42% of 1,500 doctors surveyed had never heard of alpha-gal syndrome, a tick-borne illness that can cause potentially life-threatening allergy to red meat.

A potentially life-threatening allergy to red meat may impact almost half a million Americans, but many doctors have no idea what it is or how to treat it, according to research published Thursday.

Two reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveal significant gaps in knowledge about alpha-gal syndrome, even as the condition is rising in the population.

[DallasBiff]

Everything old is new again, first it was peanuts now it is red meat.

Stop eating those Porterhouses, according to the libs, eat your bugs, damn it.

[mabarker1]

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose...

[Right Brother]

Tricked by circumstances.

[Worldtraveler once upon a time]

--- "Doctors often miss symptoms of meat allergy linked to lone star ticks, CDC finds"

Doctors often miss life-threatening symptoms of mRNA injection issues linked to the CDC....

[Sacajaweau]

if they miss it...how do they know it exists.

[Ezekiel]

At least 42% of 1,500 doctors surveyed had never heard of alpha-gal syndrome

All of that education -- in a demographic fixated on charts no less -- yet they've never learned of the hot-crazy matrix.

[budj]

Two things worry me.

1. A Texan driving his Suburban on ice, and

2. A Texan ordering chicken in a steak house.

[meowmeow]

Anyone who lives in an area with ticks should read up on this.

[Persevero]

It’s a real thing, a family member has it, she just has to stick to other proteins.

[logi_cal869]

Symptoms below (c/o cdc, fwiw). Very interesting for reasons I’m not elaborating here for now.

AGS reactions can include:

Hives or itchy rash
Nausea or vomiting
Heartburn or indigestion
Diarrhea
Cough, shortness of breath, or difficulty breathing
Drop in blood pressure
Swelling of the lips, throat, tongue, or eye lids
Dizziness or faintness
Severe stomach pain

Symptoms usually appear 2–6 hours after eating meat or dairy products, or after exposure to products containing alpha-gal (for example, gelatin-coated medications). People may not have an allergic reaction after every alpha-gal exposure.

[logi_cal869]

Yes.

[con-surf-ative]

It is a real thing. My brother in law, Texan by birth and cowboy, who also happens to be a surgeon, contracted this a couple of years ago. He has to carry an epi-pen because he will go into anaphylactic shock if he ingests any red meat. He lives on poultry and fish now.

[Honorary Serb]

....eat your bugs, damn it.....

Shellfish allergy!!!!

[reasonisfaith]

The only question is what lab did they make it in before releasing it into the environment.

[vetvetdoug]

Veterinarians were making the connection between ticks and dog allergies to meat almost thirty years ago. We thought the allergies were directly related to the beef though and switched the dogs to another source of protein. First we tried deer but they too are reactive to alpha gal as was lamb, and so fowl and fish were the ones that stopped the allergies. Then around 2011 a physician discovered the protein and alas, the human side is now aware of the condition.

[mabarker1]

👍✅

[bgill]

There it is, another ploy to stop cattle farts and for people to eat plant burgers.

[Pollard]

I've had it for close to 20 years. It's the only known delayed food allergy. Most take effect in minutes.

I started waking up at 2am with the hives. We tried new laundry detergent, new sheets. We finally just noticed that it happened on ribeye night. A couple/few months prior, I had cleaned up 5 acres for the mo-in-law and got a lot of tick bites so that had to be the source.

You can get over it by consuming a tiny amount of red meat and a time and slowly increasing it. Get bit by another Lone Star and you may lose all that gain though.

I just brought home NY strips for dinner since I'm not having a problem with it right now but four months ago, I had a reaction to 2-3 oz of beef after raking and burning leaves and getting a couple of tick bites. Most were seed ticks which aren't a problem but I did pull one Lone Star off of me. I burn leaves to get rid of the ticks but they didn't dry off enough to burn before it got warm enough for ticks to emerge. I live right up against the National Forest and my property is still pretty wooded. Once the rake/burn is done, I do a perimeter of Sevin granules on the gravel driveway around the place and I mostly stay inside of that zone.

I don't do ribeye anymore. I've had pork ribs, corned beef hash, burgers and all beef hot dogs set me off in the past.

Worst reaction that was definitely into anaphylactic zone was from ham. The ham from a home grown heritage pig. I passed out twice.

Normally it's just wake up at 1-2 am with the hives, take a benadryl and scratch for a couple hours and go back to bed. I'm wiped out the next day though. I do have an epipen and had it sitting next to me the last time I had a reaction because it was slightly past just itchy.

I got back from that level by getting a package of deli sliced roast beef. Ate a half a slice one day, full slice the next, 2 slices the next day and so on. Then it was on to small pieces of steak and then continuing with increasing the amounts. Felt a little funky one morning after but that was it.

Learned that from a study done in Turkey of all places. Not many ticks there but I guess a couple of people traveled to where ticks were and got bit. Only two of them but they were willing to take part in the trial. I don't know what kind of selection of fish there is in Turkey. I imagine they have poultry. I think red meat is the mainstay for meat though.

The trial started with 10 drops of beef extract and goes up to actual beef, 0.5 mg, 1 mg, 2 mg, 4 mg etc. Both had one reaction so they took a step back in dosage and continued.

Successful Beef Desensitization - https://www.researchgate.net/publication/312956156_Successful_beef_desensitization_in_2_adult_patients_with_a_delayed-type_reaction_to_red_meat

Make that three adults now. Like I said, I started with half a slice of that small round deli roast beef. Chopped and formed in 20% solution etc. Had no idea how/if it not being straight up beef would make a difference but it worked.

I used to eat a whole ribeye, 6-8 oz maybe. My typical serving of meat is 4 oz or so these days. Never had a problem with dairy or eggs even though they technically have some alpha-gal fats.

The male participant began eating 100 grams daily which is pretty much a full adult serving.(quarter pounder) He quit seeing the doctor at that point so he might have gone further.

The NY Strips for tonight are 8 oz so I'll eat half and have the other half for lunch tomorrow at work. 4 oz is 113 grams.

I would say tell your family member to try this but I don't know how bad they have it. I've read about people who into full anaphylactic shock by eating a piece of fish/chicken that was simply cooked on the same grill that beef had been cooked on.(read it on the web in msm articles of course) It's really up to the individual, their level of allergy and desire to eat red meat. YMMV

I skipped right past the 10 drops of extract thing and went to whatever half a slice of deli roast beef is. Land-O-Frost I think. Four inch rounds, very thin. Having it been just the hives on all but one unusual occasion, I wasn't too worried. I may be a little crazy and hard headed too.

I'm ok with fish but here in MO, it's catfish or something frozen and shipped here. I like chicken but I'm not eating it every meal for the rest of my life. Tofu, hellno. I like rice and beans but also not enough to eat most meals. I've got a small herd of meat goats but haven't been able to harvest one yet. They're very lean like venison. Still want steak though. If I could get ribeyes here as good as the ones I used to get in FL, I'd probably work my way up to those but the beef here sucks compared to what FL gets. Crazy since I drive by beef cattle all the time.

[Bikkuri]

"2. A Texan ordering chicken in a steak house."

Reminds me of when I went to an Indian Curry restaurant in Japan and ordered beef curry....

[21twelve]

I know a rancher that didn’t eat any chicken. I don’t know if he forbid his family from it (it was never served at home), but his wife said she would sneak a chicken lunch when she went into town. Which happened every three months.