Alpha-gal syndrome, also called the 'red meat allergy,' is spreading. Lone star and black-legged ticks are to blame.

Cases of suspected alpha-gal syndrome based on confirmed laboratory evidence. (CDC map via The Conversation)

Despite being unable to jump or fly, ticks are surprisingly good at hiding in vegetation and attaching to people as they walk or hike past. When a tick attaches to a person's flesh and begins to suck blood, the tick injects its saliva -- and anything it contains -- into the person's body. Certain ticks expel alpha-gal sugar molecules into their host's body, which can, months later, leave the person allergic to specific proteins.

"This delayed allergic reaction is called alpha-gal syndrome. While it’s commonly called the 'red meat allergy,' that nickname is misleading, because alpha-gal syndrome can cause strong reactions to many products, beyond just red meat," writes entomologist Lee Rafuse Haines for The Conversation. Dairy products, gelatin and even some prescription medications can trigger a response.

Alpha-gal syndrome isn't a disease; it's a reaction to the "alpha-gal sugar molecule [that] exists in the tissues of most mammals, including cows, pigs, deer and rabbits. But it’s absent in humans," Haines explains. "When a big dose of alpha-gal gets into your bloodstream through a tick bite, it can send your immune system into overdrive to generate antibodies against alpha-gal. In later exposure to foods containing alpha-gal, your immune system might then launch an inappropriate allergic response."

Once a person is exposed to the alpha-gal sugar protein through a tick bite, it can take months for an allergic reaction to occur. Syndrome symptoms can "range from hives or swelling to crushing abdominal pain, violent nausea or even life-threatening anaphylactic shock," Haines adds.

Alpha-gal syndrome is commonly blamed on the lone star tick bites, but other ticks can spread it as well. In North America, tick bites from the lone star tick and the black-legged tick, also called a deer tick, can cause alpha-gal syndrome. Scientists are also looking at other species of ticks found in the U.S. as possible culprits.

Even as alpha-gal syndrome spreads in the U.S., not all medical professionals have experience with it. Haines writes, "A study in 2022 found that 42% of U.S. health care practitioners had never heard of alpha-gal syndrome." 

The reasons Amish have dramatically lower allergy rates than the rest of the world may point to a global cure

The Amish still use horses and buggies for transportation. 
(Photo by Crystal Tubbens, Unsplash)

 

Examining why Amish children and adults have dramatically lower allergy rates when compared to the national average is allowing scientists to explore the origins of allergic protections and develop a cure for the global surge in allergies over the past century.

"Despite the increasing rate of allergic diseases, both in industrialized and in developing countries, the Amish remain exceptionally — and bafflingly — resistant. Only 7% of Amish children had a positive response to one or more common allergens in a skin prick test, compared with more than half of the general U.S. population," reports Meeri Kim of The Washington Post. 

Amish Americans are Christians who embrace a more simplified lifestyle that often excludes modern conveniences and technology. Kim reports, "Many live on single-family dairy farms — and use horses for fieldwork and transportation. As of 2024, around 395,000 Amish live in the United States, concentrated mostly in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana."

A team of human genetics researchers at the University of Chicago are examining what prevents Amish children from forming allergies "in the hopes of developing a protective treatment that could be given to young children," Kim explains. "For instance, a probiotic or essential oil that contains substances found in farm dust, such as microbes and the molecules they produce, could stimulate children’s immune systems in a way that prevents allergic disease."

Since the beginning of the 1900s, the number of people to develop allergies, "including hay fever (allergic rhinitis), asthma, food allergies and eczema — has increased dramatically," Kim explains. "The 1960s saw a sharp increase in the prevalence of pediatric asthma, a condition in which the airways tighten when breathing in an allergen." In more developed countries, food allergies to peanuts, eggs and cow's milk have also increased. 

While scientists have considered several theories on why Amish children have far few allergies, the University of Chicago researchers are "beginning to identify the protective agents in Amish dust that prevent allergic asthma," Kim reports. Researchers think developing an allergy preventative for children based on the proteins found in Amish barn dust could dramatically reduce the ever-increasing rate of global allergies.

N.H. and Vermont on the lookout for tick that can cause a meat allergy, a species moving north with climate change

Inside Climate News graphic; click on the image to enlarge it.

A tick that can cause an allergy to red meat may be expanding its territory to  northern  New England due to climate change.

When a lone star tick—so-called for the distinctive white spot on adult females' backs—bites a human, sometimes it "transmits a sugar molecule called alpha-gal that triggers an allergic response to lamb, pork and beef and, in some cases, other animal products. There is no cure, and the reactions range from eczema and a runny nose to difficulty breathing that can prove deadly," Claire Potter reports for the Valley News in West Lebanon, N.H., and White River Junction, Vt. "The tick also carries ehrlichiosis, Heartland virus disease, southern tick-associated rash illness (STARI), Bourbon virus disease and tularemia."

Though individual lone star ticks have been found in Vermont and New Hampshire, scientists believe they hitched a ride with migrating birds, since no breeding tick populations have been found locally. But that day isn't far off: lone star ticks have already spread as far north as Massachusetts and New York. Because of climate change, "We’re expecting them to make their way here," Eliza Doncaster, the vector management coordinator at the Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets, told Potter.

Alpha-gal-triggered meat allergies are becoming more common. That's not just because lone star ticks' habitat is expanding; because of climate change, they're living longer in the year, sometimes even surviving over the winter, and breeding more. So all tick-borne diseases are going up, as are diseases caused by similar pests. In fact, diseases from ticks, fleas and mosquitos tripled between 2004 and 2018.

Does someone in your community have an alpha-gal-triggered meat allergy? Check and see with this self-reported interactive map (note: the map shows cases entered by site users and is not verified). And here are some tips from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on how to avoid tick bites (see graphic also).

Weekly reports on increasing tick-borne allergy to red meat

Map shows cases entered by site users and is not verified.
Click on the image to enlarge it or click here for the interactive version.

A tick-borne allergy to red meat is becoming more common, the Adair County Community Voice in Kentucky reported Oct. 31 in a pair of front-page stories: one on the main front and the other leading its occasional Health and Wellness section.

The allergy is caused by a sugar molecule called alpha-gal. Anna Buckman writes: "Dr. Kourtney Gentry Gardner, an allergist-immunologist in Bowling Green, diagnoses about five people a month with the alpha-gal allergy, and it’s becoming increasingly more common, she says."

People bitten by the Lone Star tick, especially those bitten repeatedly, are at risk of "having allergic reactions to the molecule, which is found in most mammalian or red meat," Buckman notes. "It is relatively new to the allergy world," having been identified in scientific literature only 10 years ago.

Close-up of the Lone Star tick, which
is much larger when it is full of blood.

Buckman deals with the science but brings the story home by writing about some local victims, illustrating the varying manifestations of the allergy: "Tiffany Bean can no longer hang out at summer gatherings where friends grill burgers because, following a tick bite, she developed a food allergy so severe that she even has reaction being around the fumes of cooked beef. . . . Rick Wilson is also allergic to red meat but can eat dairy products. He only had occasional reactions when he was still consuming red meat."

"Five-year-old Joshua Wethington doesn’t like dairy-free pizza, but that’s the only kind he can have. Because of a tick bite at some point in his short life, he is so allergic to red meat that allergists recommended removing dairy from his diet because it is a byproduct of cows." Joshua’s mom, Dana Wethington, told Buckman, "I’m having a hard time getting him to eat things because it doesn’t taste the same to him."

Other differences: "Bean went from just having an itchy tick bite to having a stomach illness for
hours or breaking out into a rash if she consumed anything with alpha-gal. She has lost 40 pounds due to the allergy," Buckman reports. "Joshua got hives all over his body every day that he consumed red meat. Wilson experienced severe itching and nearly passed out during one of his few reactions. Speak to three people with alpha-gal and you’ll discover one thing is certain: it’s complicated. The only similar experiences that Bean, Wilson and the Wethingtons have are the difficulty of living with the allergy and dealing with its affects when they go out publicly."

Joshua Wethington (Adair Co. Community Voice photo)

Bean told Buckman, “People don’t seem to take it seriously. You tell people that you have it and that you could die from it, and people are like, 'Oh no, you can’t die from eating a hamburger or bacon.' Well, yeah, you can."

Alpha-gal victims use technology to help each other, including a smartphone app ("Is it Vegan?"), a Facebook groups ("The AlphaGal Kitchen" and "Alpha-Gal Support Kentucky") and an interactive map that locates cases (above).

"Recommended by a member on a Facebook support group, the Munfordville Pool Hall and Grill is a relief to alpha-gal sufferers and also sets a great example for other restaurants for being allergy-friendly in general," Buckman writes. "The pool hall has designated one fryer where no red meat or cheese is prepared. They have designated skillets to cook foods for separate consumption because people with alpha-gal allergy can have a negative reaction from even the residue from a mammal."

Pool-hall employee Justin Minton told Buckman that employees acted after noting that several people in the community have the allergy. "Speaking from experience, going to Subway is pretty much the only place my grandpa can go," Minton told Buckman.

Even though "people with alpha-gal are helping one another with useful information, Kandace Webster, an advance-practice registered nurse at T.J. Health Columbia Primary Care, "urges sufferers to seek professional guidance," Buckman reports.

Analysis shows big increase in diagnoses of food allergies, especially in rural children

A new analysis of private insurance claims shows that more people are suffering from allergies these days, and that those allergies are more severe — especially in rural areas. The analysis was conducted by the nonprofit organization FAIR Health, which maintains a database of billions of medical and dental claims from 150 million people with private insurance. The search showed that anaphylactic reactions, especially to peanuts, have increased by almost five times from 2007 to 2016. Anaphylaxis is a systemic allergic reaction that can be fatal if not treated quickly.

An interesting result of the analysis was that there was a larger increase in claims from rural areas than in urban or suburban areas. Though both urban and rural allergy-related claims decreased in 2016, rural claims increased 110 percent while urban claims increased 70 percent over the entire 10-year period. That is intriguing because numerous studies have shown that children growing up in rural areas are less prone to allergies, possibly because the increased exposure to nature gives their immune systems a workout and makes them less likely to react to environmental triggers such as peanuts or eggs.

FAIR Health Inc. chart; click on it to enlarge it.

The analysis doesn't examine whether rural residents had increased rates of private health insurance coverage over that time period, and if so, how that affected the incidence of insurance claims. The rural rate climbed above the urban rate in 2014, the first year that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was in full effect. FAIR Health plans to release a white paper in October examining "geographical and gender variations and costs of services, among other factors," Sumathi Reddy reports for The Wall Street Journal.

Experts have plenty of theories about the cause of the increase and severity of allergies. "The increase could be related to the increasing use of antibiotics, rising rates of Caesarean sections that affect the microbiomes of babies, and an increasingly sterile environment, says Hugh Sampson, director of the Jaffe Food Allergy Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. All have altered the good bacteria in our intestinal tracts, which alters the programming of our immune systems," Reddy reports. Sampson says another problem is that parents have been told to avoid giving highly allergenic foods such as peanuts to small children, an approach that appears to have backfired. Allergies to peanuts and tree nuts have at least doubled in the U.S. over the past 20 years.

Farm dust helps children raised on dairy farms have reduced allergies and asthma, study says

A study published Thursday in Science says that "growing up on a dairy farm protects children from allergy, hay fever and asthma." Using mice as subjects, researchers said "that chronic exposure to low-dose endotoxin or farm dust protects mice from developing house dust mite induced asthma." Researchers said children growing up on dairy farms "breathe air containing bacterial components, which reduce the overall reactivity of the immune system."

The research is related to the hygiene hypothesis, "where a lack of exposure to microbes as a tyke leads to more allergy and asthma," Rachel Feltman reports for The Washington Post. "There's increasing evidence that farms have the best germs for preventing respiratory problems and allergic reactions later in life. One study found that just 25 percent of children living on Swiss farms reacted to common allergens like dust mites, pollen, animals and mold, while 45 percent of children in the general population reacted." Among Amish children, the rate is 8 percent.

"Scientists believe that the bacteria native to farms, especially ones that house livestock, may trigger something in children who live nearby," Feltman writes. "Scientists induced dust mite allergies in mice, then showed that exposure to dust from a dairy farm made early in life made them immune. Then, they studied the mechanism that was protecting the mice, making their mucous membranes less likely to react to the allergens. They found a protein called A20, which the mice were producing when exposed to the farm dust. When the researchers knocked out the A20 in their subjects' lungs, the farm dust stopped protecting them from allergic reactions." (Read more)

Tennessee House passes anti-meth bill to further limit purchases of pseudoephedrine

The Tennessee House passed an anti-methamphetamine bill Wednesday to limit the amount of pseudoephedrine, a key ingredient in making meth. It would make the number of tablets that can be purchased without a prescription to 48 per month and 240 a year. The bill, which passed 81-17, would lowers the current monthly cap of 75 but falls short of what other major players in state government want. 

"Opponents of the bill argued that legitimate purchasers should not face even more restrictions when most of the methamphetamine used in Tennessee is made outside the state," Chas Sisk reports for The Tennessean. "But supporters said tighter limits will discourage meth production in Tennessee, which ranks second in the nation in meth lab seizures."

The bill now goes to the Senate, which has argued for even lower limits, having pushed for a maximum of 40 tablets per month and 120 tablets per year without a prescription, Sisk reports. Gov. Bill Haslam also favors that limit. He is a Republican, and the GOP controls both legislative chambers. (Read more)

Tennessee governor's anti-meth bill, to limit purchases of pseudoephedrine, starts to move

Gov. Bill Haslam

Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam's bill to fight methamphetamine makers and dealers, by limiting sales of cold medicine containing pseudoephedrine, was approved Wednesday by the House Criminal Justice Committee. The measure, which is expected to pass the House but could run into problems in the Senate, would limit the purchase of tablets to 48 a month and 240 a year without a prescription.

Some senators have said they want to require a prescription for purchases, or declare the medicine a controlled substance, but "House Majority Leader Gerald McCormick (R-Chattanooga) said he would pull the bill back from a final vote rather than allow a prescription requirement," Chas Sisk reports for The Tennessean.

Rural residents are less sensitive to allergens than those of metropolitan areas, study finds

Ragweed is a common allergen.

Rural residents are less sensitive to allergens than people in metropolitan areas, according to a study by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. The study found that in metro areas, "50 percent of the population was sensitized to at least one allergen, but only 40 percent in rural areas," Nicholas Bakalar reports for The New York Times. "Outdoor allergens like grass and ragweed affected 37.8 percent of the urban population, but less than a quarter of people in non-metropolitan areas, possibly because respiratory allergies are associated with air pollution."

"Researchers gave blood tests to 8,124 people, 856 of them children under 6, to detect immunoglobulin E antibodies, or IgEs," Bakalar writes. "The presence of an IgE antibody that reacts to a specific substance increases the risk of having an allergy-related illness ike allergic asthma, hay fever or rash." (Read more)