“Red meat allergy” from tick bites is spreading both in US and globally
“Red meat allergy” from tick bites is spreading both in US and globally
Woke ticks are out to turn the US South into soyboys
(did I do that right?)
Good news! You don’t have to wrestle with the ethics of eating animals anymore! (Your immune system will make the decision for you)
Poultry and fish are still fine though.
Those have a much lower carbon footprint per kg of meat though
Eh fish is just full of heavy metals and microplastics at this point, better to stick with just the poultry.
I know some folks with this and sometimes pork particularly any that is slow cooked.
But that's variable from person to person depending on the severity of the immune response
Without moral conviction supporting it not being able to eat the deliciousness that is red meat would suck major balls.
i already don't buy meat and I'm shit scared of this allergy mainly because carageenan is a fantastic sustainable thickener and gelatin alternative
Pretty sure I'm allergic to carageenan. It's in chocolate milk and whenever I drink that it becomes difficult for me to breath
barring an allergy to dairy, cocoa solids, or cacao butter, that's definitely a likely culprit
it's probably not hard to find chocolate syrup without carageenan (Hershey's doesn't have it for example) but I'm not surprised commercial premixed chocolate milk has it as a stabilizer, since chocolate syrup has this annoying habit of settling out at the bottom of milk
You definitely shouldn't be drinking that if your throat is swelling, carry Benadryl in your wallet in case you do. You should probably get an allergy test too...
It certainly does its job effectively, but I would be cautious with it considering it might be pretty bad for the gut or at least exacerbate stuff like IBD: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38892712/
2 darkly amusing related articles you can find from that one: the first one can be summarized as asking the question "how has no one looked into the safety of this yet?" And the second one years later asking "how has there still not been anyone looking into the safety of this yet?"
it's definitely not an easily digestible substance, lol. I imagine some Beano could help in many cases
I just assumed carageenan was considered benign since people have been eating seaweed forever, but now that I think about it, there could be other stuff in the seaweed that prevents the carageenan from causing issues (even if it's just the added mass reducing its concentration).
Vegans have resorted to biological warfare!
Huh, I thought it was only the lone star tick that did that.
Edit: I just went down a weird wiki rabbit hole and found out that it's commonly mistaken for pork-cat syndrome.
My father got lymes disease (not the red meat version) and that scared me so bad as a kid I'm always extra vigilant against the nasty little creatures and now I gotta be even more so? Damn.
I think Justin Timberlake just got Lyme disease
“Red meat allergy” from tick bites is spreading both in US
HAH
and globally
fuck
Went fishing with a buddy in the South. We were dressed to protect ourselves, and I was so paranoid with ticks, I even secured the opening to my boots and pants. Definitely saw them crawling. A bunch of shirtless hicks came up to us and asked us where our fishing spot was so they can try. I told them about the ticks, and they just shrugged and repeated the question.
You can't avoid ticks especially in the South, you just live with them. It's silly to think you're going to avoid entire activities because of them. Just examine yourself before you go to bed. I've pulled 10 ticks off me this year, definitely a record.
Drag thinks that story probably happened in the northern hemisphere, not the south
At this point I think I'm immune to ticks. I work outside in the woods often and my coworkers get tons of ticks. I rarely get them maybe once or twice a whole year and they are barely hanging on. My coworkers take a lot more precautions than I do, but still get way more than me. It's weird.
Anyway more red meat for me I guess
Ha same here.
The first notable occurrence was when I was around 9 and and we were hiking in the woods. My brother and me we both in shorts and t-shirts and running around together. When we got home my mum found a tick on him and after some more searching she removed 14 ticks from my brother. So she called me in immediately after that, but even after stripping me down naked and thoroughly searching I had 0 ticks.
And that kind of scenario has repeated over and over. Had a BBQ with some friends under a tree. Multiple people reported having ticks the next day. Not me.
Still haven't had one ... ever.
Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought it was more of a generalized mammal meat allergy rather than just read meat.
I live in a tick-heavy region of the USA where allergy is now fairly common. As in, introverted homebody me with a small social circle, but I know at least 5 people who have contracted it. 20+ years ago, the first time I heard about it, there was a degree of skepticism in the general population, but it's at the point now where almost everybody knows someone who is affected by it.
If there's any good news to be had, some people have discovered that it lessens in severity or even goes away after some time (usually takes many years).
the article explains that it extends beyond red meat yes:
Often this allergy is triggered by eating red meat. But the allergy also can be set off by exposure to a range of other animal-based products, including dairy products, gelatin (think Jell-O or gummy bears), medications, and even some personal care items. The drug heparin, used to prevent blood clotting during surgery, is extracted from pig intestines, and its use has triggered a dangerous reaction in some people with alpha-gal syndrome.
'Alpha gal syndrome' lol
I thought the term 'red meat' meant it came from mammals?
Yes, red meat is mammal meat. People sometimes call pork white meat because of the color, but it's classified as red meat in regards to health and diet.
There's plenty of good news for cows
Yeah it kinda sucks, but I'm healthier now.
Can you tell us how and what happened?
I was bitten by a tick and the area around the bite became inflamed, so I went to a doctor to test for Lyme. The test came back positive for alpha-gal syndrome.
It's a weird allergy. They think more people have it than are diagnosed because it mostly presents like IBS. There's different levels of safe foods. So milk has the least allergen, meat has more, and organ meat has the highest amount. So if I have milk, my tummy is a little upset later on.
I've no idea what happens if I eat the other stuff though. I've heard of people that didn't know they had the allergy their whole lives, until one day they tried beef liver and went into anaphylaxis from the high concentration of allergen.
Genuinely feels like the next generation is learning how to take the threat of ticks seriously.
Friends of ours have a dog with those issues. He can only eat fish and chicken. No bone for doggy! Most dog treats are off the list, too.
That steak is overcooked.
And what the fuck are we coasting a salad on it for?
There are approaches to resolving alpha gal syndrome:
Maybe there is a god but I'm still not convinced she's on anybody's side.
Nice. Can we breed them?
We're already "helping" in that climate change is significantly expanding their range. I removed 4 Lone Star ticks in a 1-week period earlier this summer on Long Island. There was a time when that kind wasn't even around the area.
Curious Clinicians has a podcast on how this works. Family Practice & Internal Medicine chatting around a mic format.
Your tag to the article makes me imagine some 12 Monkeys style release of infected ticks at DFW.
Party time for cows and cow lovers
I hope for a vaccine that can kill these bastards, or at least the parasites inside them. Plus an expanded Wall of Flesh.
Beef is love, beef is life.
Couldn't agree more.
This isn't caused by a parasite, its caused by the tick injecting alpha-gal that it picked up from other mammals in large enough amounts that it triggers the immune system to create antibodies for it. But yeah, I'd be fine with exterminating ticks.
Wtf
I assume you are talking about the Wall of Flesh. It is a project to release sterile screwflys into the neck of Panama, and have them outcompete viable mating partners. The screwfly eats the living flesh of livestock, pets, and people, and was one of the worst vermin in North America. Unfortunately, the Wall of Flesh has been weakening in the last decade or so.
Oh, no. That's literally the only good food the US has.
heroic little guys
I'm all for eating less red meat, but I'd rather do it myself than rely on an deadly autoimmune response that might also kill me if I have a slice of buttered toast (or anything made from mammal proteins, for that matter), or carageenan, a seaweed-derived thickener.
Edit: also, fuck ticks in particular. They also can carry Lyme which is hard to diagnose and, for many, forever life-changing, and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, which can outright kill you.
Two time Lyme winner here and they have gotten better at diagnosis of it, if they get it early enough they have decent treatment. AMA
Edit: yes fuck ticks. Especially that one that bit me in the middle of the night while I was peeing
that doesn't sound like the right grindset 😤
Yeah I got bit by a tick years ago right above my belt while hiking and even though the ring rash started to develop my doctor said it was a belt allergy and prescribed me topical steroids. Thankfully I basically demanded a Lyme test and even though they’re not super accurate mine came back positive and I got ahead of it.
It can really fuck up life for people, so I recommend that anyone who spends time outdoors in areas where ticks could be remain super vigilant. On doing checks after returning from the outdoors and immediately going to seek medical attention if you see any symptoms of tick bites.
oh that would be great but not many people seem interested in changing their daily habits, or recognizing the harm they are helping to perpetuate. people making that choice might just save the climate yet.
I’d rather do it myself
Climate change is making the decision for us.
If we all had to give up animal products it would suck, but probably hasten the development of cultured meats designed specifically to not set off allergies, or at the very least restore funding to American's science and medicine organizations.
If we get through the next century with meat product allergies as our biggest threat to life, we're going to be soooo fucking lucky.
Well, you're only one animal, and you might die if you get it, but if you don't, lots of animals for sure won't need to die.
Read labels carefully. Some products contain additives such as carrageenan, which is derived from red algae and contains alpha-gal.
Alpha-gal is also found in medications and skincare products. This is dangerous, and not easily solved by simply going vegan.
Having food allergies is exhausting and anxiety-inducing. Deep diving into every single label, fearing cross contamination and being on edge upon stepping outside your bubble or risking a slip up sucks.
Can we go back to guilting people into more sustainable habits instead of celebrating the increased risk of anaphylaxis?
Give them address of Joe Rogan and Jordan Peterson
"I'm pretty sure they already have alpha-gal allergy." (I just learned this thing exists, so I make joke)
lol savage
Why?
Fuck 'em, that's why.