Don't be an Alpha-Gal

ProMED tells the sad tale of a repatriated Arkansasan who started a BBQ restaurant and then came down with the tick-bourne meat allergy you may have heard of in a keto horror story somewhere:

Alpha-gal (galactose-alpha-1,3-galactose) is a sugar molecule found in most mammals, but not in humans. Kennedy said because the molecule is foreign to our bodies, when it gets introduced, say, through the saliva of a tick, it can result in serious allergic reactions to red meat and other mammal byproducts like milk or gelatin.

"So when a tick bites you, it injects saliva. Therefore, it's possible that's the route of first sensitization that's required for allergy," Kennedy said. "It is a vector-borne type of allergy that we didn't even know existed until 2007."

But how exactly does the illness manifest from the tick to human? Researchers aren't really sure.

"I wish we knew who would be at most risk, and that's another thing that needs to happen as far as the research goes," [Kennedy] said. "I've lived in Arkansas my whole life, and I can tell you I've had millions of tick bites, right? And I don't have alpha-gal. So why do my patients have it, when they get a tick bite? Is it the tick? Is it the person? What happens there?"

There is apparently some hope of recovery if you leave the range of the lone star tick and see an allergist.