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Bites from the Lone Star tick can cause you to develop an allergy to meat

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X

XiaNaphryz

LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Lone-Star-Tick-Bite-Triggers-Red-Meat-Allergy-270422991.html

A bug can turn you into a vegetarian, or at least make you swear off red meat. Doctors across the U.S. are seeing a surge of sudden meat allergies in people bitten by a certain kind of tick, and one allergist on Long Island says she's seen 200 cases.

This bizarre problem was only discovered a few years ago but is growing as the ticks spread from the Southwest and the East to more parts of the United States. In some cases, eating a burger or a steak has landed people in the hospital with severe allergic reactions.

Few patients seem aware of the risk, and even doctors are slow to recognize it. As the Long Island allergist said, "Why would someone think they're allergic to meat when they've been eating it their whole life?"

The culprit is the Lone Star tick, named for Texas, a state famous for meaty barbecues. The tick is now found throughout the South and the eastern half of the United States.

Researchers think some other types of ticks also might cause meat allergies; cases have been reported in Australia, France, Germany, Sweden, Spain, Japan and Korea.

The bugs harbor a sugar that humans don't have, called alpha-gal. The sugar is also found in red meat — beef, pork, venison, rabbit — and some dairy products. It's usually fine when people encounter it through food that gets digested.

But a tick bite triggers an immune system response, and in that high-alert state, the body perceives the sugar the tick transmitted to the victim's bloodstream and skin as a foreign substance, and makes antibodies to it. That sets the stage for an allergic reaction the next time the person eats red meat and encounters the sugar.

Louise Danzig, a 63-year-old retired nurse from Montauk, experienced it last summer.

Hours after eating a burger, "I woke up with very swollen hands that were on fire with itching," she said. As she headed downstairs, "I could feel my lips and tongue were getting swollen," and by the time she made a phone call for help, "I was losing my ability to speak and my airway was closing."

She had had recent tick bites, and a blood test confirmed the meat allergy.

"I'll never have another hamburger, I'm sure," Danzig said. "I definitely do not want to have that happen to me again."
Click to expand...

At the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, "I see two to three new cases every week," said Dr. Scott Commins, who with a colleague, Dr. Thomas Platts-Mills, published the first paper tying the tick to the illness in 2011.

One of the first cases they saw was a bow hunter who had eaten meat all his life but landed in the emergency department several times with allergic reactions after eating meat. More cases kept turning up in people who were outdoors a lot.

"It seemed something geographical. We thought at first it might be a squirrel parasite," Commins said. "It took us a while to sort of put everything together" and finger the tick, he said.

Dr. Erin McGintee, an allergy specialist on eastern Long Island, an area with many ticks, has seen nearly 200 cases over the last three years. At least 30 involved children, and the youngest was 4 or 5. She is keeping a database to study the illness with other researchers.

"It is bizarre," she said. "It goes against almost anything I've ever learned as an allergist."
Click to expand...

Doctors don't know if the allergy is permanent. Some patients show signs of declining antibodies over time, although those with severe reactions are understandably reluctant to risk eating meat again. Even poultry products such as turkey sausage sometimes contain meat byproducts and can trigger the allergy.
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D

Dicer

Banned
"I'll never have another hamburger, I'm sure," Danzig said. "I definitely do not want to have that happen to me again."
Click to expand...

I can't see Danzig as a vegetarian, me either keep that bug the fuck away from me.
 
Douche McBaggins The 3rd

Douche McBaggins The 3rd

Junior Member
What the fuck? How does this even happen? I can't process this. This can't be real. Just had a burger today and if I got bit by one of those things, I'd wonder if life would ever be worth living again.
 
S

Sydle

Member
I can't remember the last time I was this wary of a bug. Putting this up there with the brown recluse, but I'm thinking I could get over some rotting flesh easier than never being able to enjoy a burger or steak again.

I will donate money to the cause of eliminating that tick. Fuck them.
 
D

duderon

rollin' in the gutter
My friend actually had this happen to him and he was a huge fan of bacon. He said the allergy might last for months, years, or forever.
 
B

black_13

Banned
First they brought lime disease and now this? Ticks really are about the worst things.

Only I love living in a cold climate is that most of them die off around here once winter freeze hits.
 
K

Kyne

Member
fuck me.

this is what it must have been like in legend of korra when people's bending was taken away.
 
S

SolarPowered

Member
No no no no

Someone saw off Long Island so we can save the five boroughs. Lord knows NYC doesn't need another thing to be depressed about. I know the rest of America will appreciate Long Island's sacrifice too.
 
B

Big Dog

Member
Just a few weeks ago my dad went to the doctor and was diagnosed with meat allergies. I wonder if he has ever been bitten by one of these ticks before...
 
D

duckroll

Member
Sounds like the plot from some high concept scifi novel about how nature evolves to protect itself from mankind. :p
 
X

XiaNaphryz

LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
Big Dog said:
Just a few weeks ago my dad went to the doctor and was diagnosed with meat allergies. I wonder if he has ever been bitten by one of these ticks before...
Click to expand...

Better hope he didn't have any ticks on any of his stuff and that they didn't get on to you!
 
J

Joe

Member
SolarPowered said:
No no no no

Someone saw off Long Island so we can save the five boroughs. Lord knows NYC doesn't need another thing to be depressed about. I know the rest of America will appreciate Long Island's sacrifice too.
Click to expand...

two of the boroughs are coming with us then ;)
 
D

Dragoon En Regalia

Member
Something had to counterbalance the possibility of ebola treatment. I could live without meat if this happened to me, but it'd be tough at first, both for the diet and for my palate.
 
ramuh

ramuh

Member
I'm smoking a beef brisket and two racks of ribs tomorrow with a bbq sauce I made. F this noise.
 
N

Nelo Ice

Banned
Just the news I wanted to read as I'm about to go to Orlando for 5 months!. Anyway guess I'm getting tick repellent. Anything else I should know? I'll be working at Disney World and be outdoors a lot. But besides that guess avoid the hell out of grassy areas and hiking?.
 
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