I recently moved to Texas and as an avid outdoorsman was looking at some of the diseases that ticks carried. Was surprised that there was a relatively low occurrence of Lyme in the states ticks and thought I was in the clear… guess that may not be the case. The irony of this disease is pretty unreal - acquiring an allergy to red meat. How un-Texan!
Alpha-Gal Syndrome
11–20 of 155 posts
Re: Alpha-Gal Syndrome
#12This and Lyme are my main(ly irrational) reasons for never hiking outside of, like, Hawaii. And I'm sure a more seasoned HNer can scare me away from that, too. Any news on whether exposure treatments like those for peanut allergies have any effect on alpha-gal allergies too?
You can come hike in Denmark. Over the last decade it has apparently become more efficient to keeps the dairy cows inside and harvest the grass for them. Feels completely wrong, and I never figured out what changes in rules or technology triggered this.
Then you just need a TBE-vaccine and a daily tick-check to make sure you don't get lyme -- and you are good to go exploring our great nation which includes e.g. the one and only "Sky Mountain" [0].
Re: Alpha-Gal Syndrome
#13This and Lyme are my main(ly irrational) reasons for never hiking outside of, like, Hawaii. And I'm sure a more seasoned HNer can scare me away from that, too. Any news on whether exposure treatments like those for peanut allergies have any effect on alpha-gal allergies too?
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 carefully and wash it all. Take a shower and either have someone check you out or do a self inspection.
Some places, like desert climates, I have never seen any. One of the worst hikes I’ve encountered I was in Idaho by a river and must have seen 100. I literally turned around and stopped the hike. I usually start by looking at the tips of grass blades hanging over the trail. As you walk you kinda just scan and after a while you might see them just hanging on the very end with their arms extended. If you don’t see any, there probably isn’t much to worry about.
Ive avoided a bite so far but I also obsess…
Re: Alpha-Gal Syndrome
#14This and Lyme are my main(ly irrational) reasons for never hiking outside of, like, Hawaii. And I'm sure a more seasoned HNer can scare me away from that, too. Any news on whether exposure treatments like those for peanut allergies have any effect on alpha-gal allergies too?
I’ve never heard of ticks anywhere in western Oregon or Washington. I’m sure there are other places without ticks also.
Re: Alpha-Gal Syndrome
#15This and Lyme are my main(ly irrational) reasons for never hiking outside of, like, Hawaii. And I'm sure a more seasoned HNer can scare me away from that, too. Any news on whether exposure treatments like those for peanut allergies have any effect on alpha-gal allergies too?
I feel like it is necessary to be scared of it an amount proportional to how bad it is times the expected chance you get it. And as bad as these are, they're just not likely, and even less likely if you're careful at all.
Agreed- the psychological and physical health benefits attributed by several studies to regular exposure to wooded and rural outdoor spaces is almost certainly worth the risk.
Re: Alpha-Gal Syndrome
#16My 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.
Prior to that, she was extremely ill, on 24 hour O2.
In fact she had picked out the location on our property where she wanted to be buried.
I'm going to bed but I'll be happy to answer any questions in the morning.
Re: Alpha-Gal Syndrome
#17What 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't test for Alpha-Gal presence. Pretty cool service though and it's largely free for PA residents (only ~$50 for the basic panel for any other state). I overnighted it and they had it tested within ~36 hours of receiving it[1]. I mostly sent the tick in for "science", and because I was generally curious.
From my reading, it takes ~30 days for the allergy to begin showing itself. I'm not panicking, but I'd be remiss not to ask – is there anything I can do ahead of time to prevent the allergy's development? I couldn't find much documentation on if there are any preventative measures after finding the tick. I discovered this last week while searching and went down a bit of an internet rabbit hole. It's pretty fascinating and information on it is thin.
Avoiding red meat would be annoying, but I think the real trouble comes from the cross contamination factor[2], i.e. you eat something that was prepared in the same environment as red meat. And since the allergy has a delayed reaction you may not realize it until 6 hours later, when it's no longer on your mind and may be asleep. Some people can't even eat fatty dairy products like ice cream.
[1] For those curious what a result looks like: https://i.imgur.com/kFoyasw.png and https://i.imgur.com/gMsuhXZ.png
[2] https://www.reddit.com/r/alphagal/comments/gule7q/how_much_d...
Re: Alpha-Gal Syndrome
#18This and Lyme are my main(ly irrational) reasons for never hiking outside of, like, Hawaii. And I'm sure a more seasoned HNer can scare me away from that, too. Any news on whether exposure treatments like those for peanut allergies have any effect on alpha-gal allergies too?
I’ve never heard of ticks anywhere in western Oregon or Washington. I’m sure there are other places without ticks also.
Various species (specifically the brown dog tick) are all along the west coast from California to British Columbia.
In this study it mentioned the Lone Star tick specifically though ("In the United States, the condition most often begins when a Lone Star tick bites someone"), and apparently it's not present in either of those states or Canada as far as I or the internet appears to know.
I guess it comes down to your risk aversion - assuming it can come from any tick, there's no 'safe' place to hike in most of North America. Personally I've been outdoors a lot all of my 35 years and ticks haven't been an issue here on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. The Pacific Northwest is probably safe enough.
As someone else mentioned, being outside and exercising is well worth the risk pretty much anywhere. Just be cognizant of the risk, check yourself and hiking partners if you're in a high risk area, etc.
Re: Alpha-Gal Syndrome
#19This and Lyme are my main(ly irrational) reasons for never hiking outside of, like, Hawaii. And I'm sure a more seasoned HNer can scare me away from that, too. Any news on whether exposure treatments like those for peanut allergies have any effect on alpha-gal allergies too?
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…
DEET on skin and permethrin on clothing and shoes is more effective. With the right kind of clothing and thorough permethrin treatment, any ticks that get on you will be dead before they find their way past the clothing to bite your skin. Just don't use it on skin, and keep it away from your cats. DEET can also do nasty things to clothing made from synthetic fibers, which are generally some of the best clothing choices for hiking.
Re: Alpha-Gal Syndrome
#20This and Lyme are my main(ly irrational) reasons for never hiking outside of, like, Hawaii. And I'm sure a more seasoned HNer can scare me away from that, too. Any news on whether exposure treatments like those for peanut allergies have any effect on alpha-gal allergies too?
I agree. I’m never leaving my mom’s basement. Too scary out there.