I have a friend with this. He pointed out to me that, technically, he can eat red meat as long as it's primate. We are apparently the only mammals without the protein in question that causes the allergic reaction. I believe I explained to him about prions, just in case he got any ideas...
Alpha-Gal Syndrome
131–140 of 155 posts
Re: Alpha-Gal Syndrome
#132Based on my understanding that Covid-19 significantly impacts the blood and red meat is a primary source of important nutrients pertinent to blood health, I googled "alpha gal covid" and there are a few articles that turn up, such as: The antibody response to the glycan α-Gal correlates with COVID-19 disease symptoms https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jmv.26575 U.S. Pharmacy Chain Will Not Give COVID-19 Vacc…
In response to the pharmacy link: I suffer from alpha-gal allergy and researched mRNA vaccine ingredients prior to getting the Moderna vaccine. I was perfectly fine. There's also a /r/alphagal reddit thread discussing the vaccine they got and reactions where the majority of people said the same. Classic flu style vaccines like J&J's covid vaccine can use either a pig or chicken egg base - the pig being potentially ri…
Thank you.
Re: Alpha-Gal Syndrome
#133My 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?
In agreement with the other reply: the symptoms came on fairly slowly, though for some reason the symptoms left quite quickly when she stopped eating beef.
Re: Alpha-Gal Syndrome
#134My 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…
How often was she eating beef before mid 2009? Thanks and sorry that you all went through this.
Don't recall exactly, certainly not much, because at the time she preferred a very green, vegan diet. She would eat steaks with me from time to time.
Re: Alpha-Gal Syndrome
#135My 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)?
She started eating beef again about three years ago, very slowly at first. Of course she had a tremendous fear of doing so, but was able to get past it to experiment.
This was also driven by some long term low to very low iron levels, and supplements weren't doing the job. She had to get some iron infusions, which isn't a pleasant procedure.
Once she started eating beef again, her iron levels came right up.
In fact we just got back from Safeway with several pounds of medium lean ground beef for dinner tonight and tomorrow.
Re: Alpha-Gal Syndrome
#136I'm curious what the probability of contracting the allergy is from a single tick bite? Is it the sort of thing where the chances are low, but if you live in an area or engage in activities where you're getting a lot of bites, your risk is elevated? Or is it the sort of thing where any bite at all carries significant risk?
Mine was from one bite, it depends on the tick and maybe the person too. Some people get bit many times a year and don't get AGS or other tick borne illnesses. They're just lucky I guess
Re: Alpha-Gal Syndrome
#137My 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…
What does her diet look like now? Has her health improved with a meat less diet?I worry if I get this I won't be able to eat much at all, already have celiac disease and lactose intolerance.
Her diet and health are now exceptional. Her diet includes beef a couple times a week because she struggles with iron deficiency.
Re: Alpha-Gal Syndrome
#138I had my first allergic reaction to red meat in 2013. My diet currently consists of some form of chicken at every meal, or ground turkey. It was 6 months of torturous experimentation to figure out why my stomach was burning like lava after every meal. When I had something important to do that day I knew I could eat bread or crackers to avoid a food reaction. The allergy is rare in my home state so I had to see a doct…
Sorry your reactions are digestive :( I feel lucky to have skin hives only in response to this - worst being lips and tongue occasionally.
Ask your doctors to become educated on it, though I'm not sure it'll do much good to you it may help the next guy they see with AGS. Send them the nih.gov papers linked in these comments.
Re: Alpha-Gal Syndrome
#139My 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…
That's wild - so glad you guys figured it out in time. What was the process like of narrowing it down first to an allergy, and then to beef (?!)? Was there a protocol in place or was your doctor pretty much improvising?
The process was chaotic and 'improvising' is certainly an appropriate characterization.
In truth, the awesome doctor only lightly suggested this as a possibility. I worked with her (the doc) pretty closely. We were both reading large volumes of medical studies, and creatively coming up with things to test/check for. My wife was too sick to substantively participate. She was also taking care of our young, autistic son.
I suggested to my wife that she cut out all mammal proteins, and she was fine with it, just to try. We got lucky and her symptoms cleared up in a few weeks.
Re: Alpha-Gal Syndrome
#140This is very real. I live in a part of Sydney Australia, where this is s prevalent and ongoing concern. I know a few people with the affliction. Imagine having a deathly allergy to peanuts, but nobody understands, or cares, or doesn't believe it's real. You inform them and the food they serve you can kill you. You can't go anywhere, you can't eat out, you can't even take a flight (not that we are now, but just imagin…
That sounds like a very extreme sensitivity to another food or maybe the timing was just coincidental and it was something they ate earlier. My and most people's alpha gal response is usually delayed by hours, supposedly due to food having to digest and break down food components into alpha-gal.
Another explanation is allergies and panic attacks also go hand in hand from what I've heard. Panic attacks cause breathing problems and can easily be confused with anaphylaxis or make real anaphylaxis even more terrifying than it already is. Feeling fear that a threat is ever present when you have any food allergy is real, but manageable.