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Alpha-Gal Syndrome

mayoclinic.org

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Re: Alpha-Gal Syndrome

#111

Post by DantesKite »

MadAhab wrote: post #103
switz wrote: post #17

What a coincidence. I was bitten by a lone star tick last week. I didn't notice it until several days later when I found it fully engorged. I did check myself entirely after I was in tall grass, but I think it was stuck to my clothes and bit me later on. I sent it in to the PA tick research lab[0] and it came back negative for the presence of Lyme disease, ehrlichiosis, tularemia and RMSF. It seems as though they can…

Alpha-gal light sufferer here - light because my reactions are usually somewhat light hives, however I also have practiced avoidance nearly perfectly for years. I'll try to answer your questions, but I'm not a medical professional so this is not medical advice etc etc. What to do in the meantime until the 30-days the allergy takes to develop? 100% avoidance of all things you mentioned would probably be safest. Why av…

I wonder if completely abstaining from any red meat for a year would be enough to reduce whatever antibodies are being created to the point where you could eat red meat again.

Re: Alpha-Gal Syndrome

#112

Post by DantesKite »

KronisLV wrote: post #42
layoutIfNeeded wrote: post #39

Why don’t we make ticks extinct?

That's a good question. Here in Latvia they actually make any walk in long grass somewhat problematic, as well as letting animals like dogs inside for whatever reason. I actually got lyme disease a few years ago - had a period of pretty lethargic behaviour and noticeable joint pain. Blood work helped figure out its presence in my body and a course of antibiotics thankfully made me better. Now, i'm not precisely sure…

I think a better long-term solution that would have less cascading effects would be a cure for Lyme Diseases and the accompanying symptoms that follow years afterwards. Sorry you had to go through such a brutal disease. I've seen what it can do to people in the long-term and it can be devastating

But it would requi.re such advanced medicine that doesn't exist today. Although I'm all for tick pest control (up to a certain point).

Re: Alpha-Gal Syndrome

#113

Post by DantesKite »

js8 wrote: post #41
layoutIfNeeded wrote: post #39

Why don’t we make ticks extinct?

Well, while I am fine with trying to make some infectious diseases to become extinct, I would be careful here, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Pests_campaign . In any case, apparently somebody else wondered about that too: https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/wkyax/if_we_cou... However, it's conceivable that in the future we will figure out how to carry out large-scale vaccinations of tics, so we eradi…

I'm completely with you on this.

I believe treating the disease is better than eliminating species with cascading effects we don't entirely understand.

But it seems like killing ticks is much, much easier than completely curing a disease, so it's a short-term solution people approach instead. Not an ideal paradigm in my opinion.

Would love to live in a world where parasites live in the ecosystem, but we're utterly immune to them, as opposed to a world with no parasites.

Re: Alpha-Gal Syndrome

#115

Post by forgingahead »

LinuxBender wrote: post #81
r0m4n0 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea honestly I think a reasonable fear (at least I can relate). I have been van-life the past year and have seen my fair share of ticks. Just general advice that has been effective for me (I’m sure you can probably find this online) Before any hike, deet or other repellant on your skin and clothes/shoes. Know where they hang out and try not to go into deep grass. After a hike, shed all your clothes and shoes carefull…

Also avoid passing under low hanging branches. Ticks will hang out on a branch and wait for animals or humans to pass by underneath and then drop off onto them.

Ticks: The Drop Bears of the Arachnid family: https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/news/2021/04/drop-be...

Re: Alpha-Gal Syndrome

#116

Post by MadAhab »

DantesKite wrote: post #111
MadAhab wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alpha-gal light sufferer here - light because my reactions are usually somewhat light hives, however I also have practiced avoidance nearly perfectly for years. I'll try to answer your questions, but I'm not a medical professional so this is not medical advice etc etc. What to do in the meantime until the 30-days the allergy takes to develop? 100% avoidance of all things you mentioned would probably be safest. Why av…

I wonder if completely abstaining from any red meat for a year would be enough to reduce whatever antibodies are being created to the point where you could eat red meat again.

Most anecdotes I read said the 8-15 year (I'm year 9) scale for the allergy to fade if at all, I don't recall what they said they had for reactions/accidental allergen dosages during their years though.

Accidental allergen exposures happen once in a while, as you get used to the diet and learn hidden sources of allergen, they happen less. There's been no point in time when I thought I had to test if the allergy had gone away yet because I can usually remember a recent small or big hive from the past year. Right now I think I'm at least 1.5 year without hives, probably thanks to quarantine forcing a more controlled diet.

Since about my second year of being allergic I've been very well adjusted to my fish/bird meat only diet and have no insatiable desire for a steak so I'm OK waiting another few years before purposefully trying anything dangerous.

Re: Alpha-Gal Syndrome

#117

Post by armchairhacker »

donatj wrote: post #108

> The bite transmits a sugar molecule called alpha-gal into the person's body Is this similar to a prion disease, but a malicious sugar instead of protein?

A bit. It's more an allergy, like a peanut or shellfish.

Prions change the affected protein itself. This alpha-gal protein triggers a broken immune response where your body learns to identify regular animal protein as a foreign invader, so henceforth whenever you eat animal protein you get an immune reaction.

Re: Alpha-Gal Syndrome

#118

Post by jeffffff »

levi_n wrote: post #57
Diederich wrote: post #16

My wife had this from late 2007 until mid 2009 and nearly died from it. She was one of the early, benchmark cases. We went to Mayo clinic in Rochester in the summer of 2008 and they had no luck identifying her symptoms. An exceptional allergy doctor near our home in Arkansas did endless research and mostly figured out what was going on. After my wife came off of beef in mid 2009 her symptoms completely disappeared. P…

12 years on, does she still have reactions if she eats beef? Does she (or maybe did she) have any reactions to other mammal proteins (milk, pork, etc)?

i seriously doubt that she would risk testing this out

Re: Alpha-Gal Syndrome

#119

Post by devb »

omarhaneef wrote: post #101
Diederich wrote: post #16

My wife had this from late 2007 until mid 2009 and nearly died from it. She was one of the early, benchmark cases. We went to Mayo clinic in Rochester in the summer of 2008 and they had no luck identifying her symptoms. An exceptional allergy doctor near our home in Arkansas did endless research and mostly figured out what was going on. After my wife came off of beef in mid 2009 her symptoms completely disappeared. P…

So I take it she didn't react right away or you would have figured it out. She didn't take a bite of beef and immediately feel something go wrong. She just slowly declined over time after the bite of beef?

From the article (not that far in!): Signs and symptoms of an alpha-gal allergic reaction are often delayed compared with other food allergies.

Re: Alpha-Gal Syndrome

#120

Post by jagraff »

donatj wrote: post #108

> The bite transmits a sugar molecule called alpha-gal into the person's body Is this similar to a prion disease, but a malicious sugar instead of protein?

No. Prions are misfolded proteins - they replicate by inducing correctly folded proteins to misfold when they come in contact. As a result, misfolded proteins build up in the brain, continually inducing even more proteins to misfold, eventually building up to a critical mass and causing neurons to die.

By contrast, alpha-gal seems to trigger an immune response, which induces the immune system to create antibodies against it. It seems that something in red meat is similar enough to alpha-gal that it also triggers this new immune response, causing an allergy. But it doesn't cause a build up of alpha-gal in the body over time.

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