Tick vector causing meat allergy

[Kaptainkriz]

Glad to meet you! No intolerance to milk, I'm a human garbage disposal, previously gobbling Malted Milk Shakes wherever I could.
My response appears purely pulmonary at this time.

Welcome to the fold, fellow alpha gal haver. Mary Jane's Farm is okay.

Sounds like you have more than just alpha gal going on. Most of us with it can still have dairy. Sounds like you also have lactose intolerance.

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[Kaptainkriz]

No pen yet, but plan to get one. I do carry albuterol from before we figured out what it was. I can imagine how this gets old fast...I'm already getting bombarded.

Did they give you an epi-pen? Carry it!

If they didn't, advocate for being given one. My reaction to alpha-galactose has reached anaphylaxis. Better to have an epi-pen and not need it because your reactions stay more mild than to die of anaphylaxis all for want of an epi-pen.

Some of us react to cross contaminated food, others of us don't. I'm luckily a don't so I have to ingest red meat containing the alpha-galactose sugar to have my airway close. You may not be so lucky.

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[theinfamousj]

No pen yet, but plan to get one. I do carry albuterol from before we figured out what it was. I can imagine how this gets old fast...I'm already getting bombarded.

If you need any trail meal ideas, feel free to reach out. I have had alpha-gal officially for 6 years, because that is when I was finally able to get tested.

Though 19 years ago my doctor prescribed me an epi-pen saying, "I don't know how you can be allergic to meat, but you are. So stop eating it." (there was no such thing as alpha-gal back then) I haven't eaten meat in the resultant 19 years.

If there is anything I can shortcut for you, please let me assist you in having an easier time of it than I did.

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[theinfamousj]

PS: I still miss bacon and jerky.

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[jencamp]

I'm somewhat skeptical that a tick bite can cause a meat allergy.

[Kaptainkriz]

Introduction of galactose-alpha-1,3-galactose carbohydrate into the human blood stream is what causes the allergy in some individuals. The antibodies in the blood stream are easy to test for. Tick bites from the Lone Star Tick in the US have been implicated but not proven to be the vector. I can verify that I'm newly very allergic to products containing even traces of read meat or dairy and correlated in time with being bitten by the tick in question which remained attached to my butt for ~24hrs after hiking in Northern SNP. There may be another vector, and this tick may not be the vector. There are far worse things that are transmitted by ticks like Powassan Virus. In all my life I've only seen one of these spotted ticks - it was very cool looking. I'd call them rare compared with the hundreds I've plucked off over the last 4 decades. Skepticism drives the science and the collection of data to help determine the causes of things we don't understand yet. Right now, all we have is the correlation.

I'm somewhat skeptical that a tick bite can cause a meat allergy.

[Zed]

This episode of Radiolab discussed Alphagal. Lonestar ticks are quite common here where I am.

http://pca.st/Ywun