Alpha Gal, the "tick(?) meat" allergy

[Foxx]

I read a couple of articles about the tick meat allergy and have a friend who has tested positive for having it (the test is a scale, not binary--I don't know what her specific results were), but I wasn't convinced that it actually existed until testing positive for it myself (well, there's a lot of uncertainty about it, so I'm still not entirely sure what's going on, though I did test solidly positive for it).

What's particularly strange (aka: created in a lab) about this allergic reaction is that it's delayed (most people experience reactions 3-6 hours after eating mammal meat) and the reaction is to a carbohydrate ("galactose-alpha 1,3-galactose (alpha-gal), an oligosaccharide"1) that exists in the meat, rather than to a protein.

Some background information:

http://www.sott.net/article/231168-UVa-Research-Finds-Link-Between-Tick-Bites-Red-Meat-Allergy

Richmond - The ticks were so bad last summer that Dr. Fred Robinson, a retired cardiologist, could hardly go for a walk in his yard in Midlothian without coming in to find a tick somewhere on his body.

They were a nuisance, but he now suspects they also are to blame for an unusual allergic reaction he has developed to beef.

It sounds improbable, but allergy doctors say patients such as Robinson are cropping up more and more, and research is pinning down a plausible explanation for what may be happening.

Much of that research is being done at the University of Virginia, where studies are also trying to help patients whose only remedy so far is to give up beef or other red meats.
...
Cases such as his seem to be becoming more common, said Dr. Scott P. Commins, an assistant professor of medicine and an expert on allergies and immunology. Commins is part of a team overseeing several tick-bite meat-allergy studies at UVa.

Commins and his mentor, Dr. Thomas Platts-Mills, have coauthored several published papers on the topic since 2009. The latest paper, published in the May issue of The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, suggests that tick bites are a cause - and possibly the only cause - of the allergic reactions to red meat.

"We think there is something in the saliva [of ticks] that triggers some people's immune systems to make an antibody," Commins said.

Antibodies are substances the body makes to defend itself against potentially harmful bacteria, toxins and other harmful invaders. Allergic reactions occur when the allergic class of antibody binds to the substance it recognizes (i.e. the allergen), a process that results in the release of histamine, Commins explained. It is histamine that can cause swelling, hives and breathing problems.

Researchers believe the tick bite causes production of an antibody to a carbohydrate called alpha-gal, which also happens to be present on red meat.

Why do there seem to be more cases now?

Part of it may be that past cases went unrecognized.

"The unique thing is these people react four to six hours after they eat the food, so they don't associate the food ingestion with the allergic reaction," said Dr. Michael Blumberg, a Richmond allergist at Virginia Adult & Pediatric Allergy & Asthma. "I am sure we missed a lot of people ... in the last 10 years. We didn't realize this as a probable cause."

There also may be more ticks, and more ticks with the bacterium in their saliva.
{As far as I'm aware, they have not determined that it's a bacteria that causes this allergy and I haven't seen one named anywhere}

"One thought is that the range of ticks, just like the land they occupy, is more now than it was 15 or 20 years ago," Commins said.

For the latest paper, Commins and his coauthors screened hundreds of human blood samples from populations in the United States where tick bites are common and uncommon and from tropical areas in Africa and Central America where tick bites are common. They also created maps that show overlapping areas where meat allergy cases are occurring and where tick populations are increasing, suggesting a correlation.

Commins and his research team are also studying people with the allergy in controlled laboratory conditions.

For some people, any red meat is a trigger.

"It doesn't really matter for patients whether its beef, or pork or lamb or buffalo or venison. And it's hard to think of something that would cross all those different kinds of animals," Commins said. "So it seems that it's really just the fact that these sources of meat all come from mammals."

_http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/253939

...
"It's so new that we don't know exactly the full story of how people develop this reaction and the history of the allergy," Matos said.
...
The Asthma and Allergy Center also has identified patients who have had milder symptoms, such as chronic itching or vague intestinal problems, who test positive for the allergy. In some instances patients had gone decades without knowing the cause of their discomfort.
...
Researchers discovered some patients had a bad reaction after taking Erbritux, the anti-cancer drug at the center of the insider trading allegations against Stewart. Some of these patients would have anaphylaxis.

Researchers, who included Commins' boss Dr. Thomas Platts-Mills, ultimately showed the negative reactions to the drug were associated with an allergic reaction to a sugar called galactose-alpha-1,3-galactose, or alpha-gal for short.

A study about it was published in 2008 in the New England Journal of Medicine. Ultimately the drug manufacture changed the way Erbritux was made to stop the problem.

But because nearly all common allergies are reactions to proteins, not sugars, Commins said he was extremely interested in the discovery.

Areas in the Southeast appeared to be unusually hard-hit by the severe reactions to Erbritux, so Commins decided to investigate how common the alpha-gal reaction was among anaphylaxis patients where the cause was unknown. About 20 percent of anaphylaxis patients don't know the cause.
...
The connection to ticks

Figuring out why patients had suddenly developed a severe allergy to meats in which alpha-gal was present was the next step.

Commins quickly realized that the geographic range of the Lone Star tick matched the geographic location of people who had developed this allergy. Both were in the Southeast.

"It just fits perfectly," he said.
{"Fitting perfectly" without establishing a causation effect doesn't make it true}

Commins started asking his patients about their exposure to tick bites and chiggers.

"A lot of science can be serendipity," he said. "My boss [Platts-Mills] goes out in the woods a lot. He got chigger bites or seed ticks. He developed this allergy. So we started to make the connection."
{"Serendipity" has led many people astray}

Masters too has had a lot of tick bites and chigger bites. Last year, prior to her July 4, 2009, reaction, she said she was bitten by about a dozen ticks and hundreds of chiggers.

Commins said outdoor enthusiasts, including hunters and hikers, are often the type of people diagnosed with the allergy. He strongly believes it is related to the seed tick bites that people get by the hundreds. These are the bites from the newly hatched tick larva, as opposed to a mature adult tick. Often, he said, people in this area call these tiny ticks chiggers.

It's unclear what in the seed ticks is causing people to develop the allergy.

"My honest gut feeling is it is something in the saliva," Commins said.
{aka, not a fact}

He said that unlike Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever, he doesn't think it is an infectious disease carried by the seed tick. Instead he thinks something in the saliva triggers the antigens in the alpha-gal sugar.
...
But for now, the only solution to treating the allergy is avoiding meat products. For Masters and many others, this includes avoiding foods made with beef broth.

From these two articles, it doesn't look like they've actually established a causation effect between the ticks and the alpha gal allergic reaction. I've lived in the Southeast USA for a number of years off and on for the last 5 years and been bitten by some, but not what I'd consider a large number of, ticks and what I thought might have been chiggers but may have been the very small ticks that Commins talks about in the roanoke.com (Roanoke is a city in Virginia) article, so I do think there might be something to that.

This is dealing more with the probable conspiracy side:

http://www.sott.net/article/248657-Are-Ticks-Being-Genetically-Engineered-To-Make-People-Allergic-To-Meat

Significantly, meat-induced anaphylaxis is the first food-induced severe allergic reaction due to a carbohydrate rather than a protein. It is also the first time anaphylaxis has been noted to be delayed rather than occurring immediately after exposure. This was an intentional design by the genetic engineers who have studied population complaint and historical records on insect bites to acute and primary care practitioners knowing that the majority of the population would not suspect the reactions to be caused or born from tick bites if they were sufficiently delayed.

Researcher and entomologist Jaime Lombard says the ticks have been in circulation for a few years however the latest crop released are becoming more potent. "Scientists have been experimenting on ticks since the 1960s because of their ability to spread disease. Since then, genetically engineered ticks have become more potent and scientists can create human disease almost at will," he stated.

This last part may explain why some people have had this allergy for decades (there are just a few comments of people who have had this for a long time in this Huffington Post article: _http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/09/alpha-gal-meat-allergy-lone-star-ticks_n_2102340.html) and why more people might be getting it now and potentially having more severe reactions.

There's some evidence that doesn't seem to line up well with the Lone Star tick theory (maybe similar to Lone gunmen theories?):

http://www.sott.net/article/253713-Ticked-off-about-a-growing-allergy-to-meat

Tick bites have long been synonymous with bad news, responsible for transmitting diseases such as Lyme disease, Ehrlichiosis, and Rocky Mountain spotted fever, but this must be a carnivore or BBQ lover's worst nightmare. A growing body of research suggests that bites from a particular tick are causing an unusual allergic reaction to meat. At an allergy meeting last week, for example, a diagnostics lab presented evidence that the highest prevalence of the allergy is in the southeastern United States, where the tick primarily thrives. Yet American BBQ lovers and carnivores elsewhere may not rest easy; the allergy mysteriously afflicts people living in parts of the United States, even Hawaii, where the tick does not live.

The meat allergy, known as alpha-gal for a sugar carbohydrate found in beef, lamb, and pork, produces a hivelike rash - and, in some people, a dangerous anaphylactic reaction - roughly 4 hours after consuming meat. But unlike other common food allergies, the alpha-gal allergy has been found only in people who have been bitten by ticks - specifically the lone star tick, previously best known for causing a condition called southern tick-associated rash illness, the symptoms of which include rash, fatigue, headache, fever, and muscle pains. "You have to have a tick bite to then trigger the immune reaction," Stanley Fineman, an allergist and president of American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI).
{Yet the evidence doesn't completely back up this conclusion, so it sounds like he's trying to fit the data to the theory}
...
Allergy researcher Thomas Platts-Mills of the University of Virginia (UVA) in Charlottesville has been studying the alpha-gal reaction since 2002, when he began investigating an unusual sensitivity to the cancer drug cetuximab, which contains the same alpha-gal sugar as meat. Cancer patients who demonstrated an allergic reaction to the drug were nearly exclusive to the southeastern United States and were also found to have high levels of alpha-gal antibodies, Platts-Mills explains. Furthermore, some of them, along with other noncancer patients in the same region, also reported having severe allergic reactions after eating meat. Platts-Mills later published the relationship between alpha-gal antibodies and the cetuximab allergy in The New England Journal of Medicine.

But Platts-Mills only began to suspect the connection between the alpha-gal antibodies and the ticks after he was bitten by several ticks while hiking and contracted the allergy himself in 2007. His antibody levels jumped significantly after the tick bites, he found. In 2009, he and UVA colleague Scott Commins reported the link between alpha-gal and the meat allergy in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology - and suggested a possible link between the ticks and alpha-gal based on a more than 80% rate of reported tick bites among the patients before exhibiting symptoms.

In 2011, Platts-Mills and others were able to confirm that the bites cause an increase in alpha-gal antibodies. But so far, he says, no one is sure exactly which substance in the tick saliva is responsible for the development of alpha-gal antibodies.
...
Although the initial cases of alpha-gal allergy were found in lone star tick-laden regions, incidences of the allergy are no longer limited to this tick's favorite haunt, says Michelle Altrich, the clinical laboratory director of Viracor-IBT Laboratories, one of two main reference labs offering a diagnostic assay for the alpha-gal allergy. Last week, at ACAAI's annual scientific meeting in Anaheim, California, researchers from Viracor revealed that although the highest number of reported cases of alpha-gal allergy were found in the southeastern United States, the allergy - which has affected about 1500 people and counting - has also been seen in large numbers well outside known lone star tick areas.

"We were curious to know whether the prevalence of the allergy actually overlaid with the tick or if it was different," Altrich explains. Of the samples submitted for testing, she says, "we saw a trend in positive results to the southeastern U.S. with the tick, but interestingly we also found positive rates varying from 4% to 23% outside of the tick area. We've actually had positives as far west as Hawaii." Why that is isn't clear, Altrich says. One possibility is that those diagnosed with the allergy in places like Hawaii were actually bitten while traveling in a high-tick area like Tennessee, she says.

Another possibility is that the ticks are growing in number and their territory is spreading to adjacent states. The distribution, range, and abundance of the lone star tick has increased steadily in the past 20 to 30 years, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - likely concurrent with an explosion of populations of deer, the tick's primary host. Platts-Mills says the increasing number of cases may also be explained in part by the sheer number of bites inflicted by this particular species of tick. "This tick is very aggressive. Its larval forms will bite humans, whereas none of the other American tick larvae will do that," he says.

Preventing the tick bites is the only way to stop the allergy before it starts - but Platts-Mills says once a person has the allergy, there is some evidence that if they don't continue to get bitten they will eventually get better. But until then, it's best to pass on the BBQ.

So they seem pretty certain that tick bites at least cause an increase in antibodies, but still don't have a mechanism for causation and the data for who has the allergy suggests that it may not be exclusively the Lone Star tick, or possibly ticks being the cause at all.

The first time I ate grass fed beef in February or March of 2011 after having not eaten it for 7 years (possibly having eaten no red meat for 7 years, but definitely at least beef--4 of those 7 years I was vegan, no meat at all), I got hives. I don't recall if they were a delayed reaction and I didn't have them again, so I just thought it was some strange reaction after not having eaten beef for so long. Summer of 2011 I was in the Southeast again and got bitten by something at various times (probably some ticks, maybe some other bugs) and started to feel worse without any clear cause. So it's possible that I got the allergy long ago when living in the Southeast, but moved and probably didn't get bitten by many, if any, ticks for around two years, along with being out of the Southeast, and didn't have as much as an allergic reaction as I might have had before, but then got bit more and it got worse. It's hard to really determine the specifics without the mechanism of causation, at least for me.

Some more information:
_http://allergytomeat.wordpress.com/frequently-asked-questions/

When certain people are bitten by ticks or chiggers, the bite appears to set off a chain of reactions in the body. One of these reactions is the production of an allergic class of antibody that binds to a carbohydrate present on meat called galactose-alpha-1,3-galactose, also known as alpha-gal. When a person with the alpha-gal antibody eats mammalian meat, the meat triggers the release of histamine. Histamine is a compound found in the body that causes allergic symptoms like hives, itching and, in the worst case, anaphylaxis (a reaction that leads to sudden weakness, swelling of the throat, lips and tongue, difficulty breathing and/or unconsciousness).

In addition to the classic allergy symptoms, some of our patients report significant gastrointestinal distress or gynecological symptoms. These symptoms can take the form of abdominal cramping and pain, heartburn, diarrhea, nausea or vomiting and in some cases uterine cramping with spotting. It is not uncommon for a patient who has anaphylaxis to lose consciousness while moving their bowels. Some patients have reactions that are characterized almost entirely of GI or gynecological symptoms while others may not experience these types of symptoms at all.

My symptoms mainly consisted of fatigue, rapid heart rate, some difficulty breathing, nausea, reflux, bowel problems, and I think sometimes more classical symptoms like sneezing and possibly mucus production (hard to isolate this with certainty). For some reason, I think magnesium made it worse--I'm really not sure why this might have been the case, but I had really a negative response (very rapid heart rate and felt pretty awful) to it one evening, though something else could have been going on. Cutting out mammal meat and butter has helped quite a bit, though I may still be having lingering effects or some other issue as not everything's cleared up yet. Right now, I'm on chicken and duck, ghee and duck fat, and fish at times. I've been completely off mammal meat for about a month and off butter for about a week.

What I don't understand is the variation of symptoms in different people and why, if it's supposed to be a histamine release, aren't the symptoms more regularly classical allergy symptoms for everyone? I'm not an expert on allergy mechanisms, so perhaps I just don't understand due to lack of knowledge in this area.

_http://allergytomeat.wordpress.com/frequently-asked-questions/

Do humans have alpha-gal?

No, we do not. During the evolution of our species, the enzyme that leads to the production of alpha-gal was inactivated. The only mammals that do not have it are humans, old world monkeys and great apes.

I think I have this allergy but I only have a reaction after eating beef. Is that possible?

Yes. We have seen many people who only react to only one or two of the mammalian meats. We do not know for sure exactly why this happens. We believe that there is a connection between the fat content of the meat and the way the body reacts to it. Meats with more fat like hamburgers seem to cause more reactions than lean meats like venison.

Because I wasn't entirely convinced about this alpha gal allergy when I got tested, I asked to be tested to beef and pork via blood as well (both positive) and beef, pork, and lamb via skin. The skin tests weren't as clear--beef was the largest and they determined it was positive, but the pork and lamb were smaller and the doctor considered them negative. I didn't get a blood test for lamb.

And another question comes up with this--why do some people who have tested positive for alpha gal react to some meats, but not others?

It's also interesting that, anecdotally, leaner meats cause fewer reactions.

_http://allergytomeat.wordpress.com/frequently-asked-questions/

Why do I have this allergy?

We do not yet know why certain people develop this allergy while other people do not. We believe that bites from ticks (either adult or nymph) can cause some people to develop this antibody response. Fortunately, it seems as though the antibody levels drop over time in patients who avoid additional tick bites. How long this takes varies widely for each individual.

It can go away over time with avoiding tick bites? Really strange.

_http://allergytomeat.wordpress.com/frequently-asked-questions/

What do the test results mean?

You will receive a number that indicates the amount of alpha-gal specific antibody you have in your blood. Any number above 0.35 is considered to be positive. A higher number does not necessarily indicate worse symptoms but, in general, people with lower numbers (2-3 IU/mL) seem to be able to tolerate small amounts of lean meat without much difficulty.

My result was 6.5. Viracor (one of the testing companies) gives a range here:

_http://viracoribt.com/Test-Catalog/Detail/Galactose-alpha-13-galactose-Alpha-Gal-IgE-30039

Assay Range
Class IgE (kU/L) Comment
0 <0.10 Negative
0/1 0.10-0.34 Equivocal
1 0.35-0.69 Low Positive
2 0.70-3.4 Moderate Positive
3 3.5-17.4 High Positive
4 17.5-49.9 Very High Positive
5 50.0-99.9 Very High Positive
6 ≥100 Very High Positive

_http://allergytomeat.wordpress.com/frequently-asked-questions/

What about dairy?

There is a small amount of alpha-gal in dairy products (milk, yogurt, cheese, butter, cream, etc.). Most people who test positive for this allergy are still able to eat dairy without problems. However, if you have any lingering symptoms or just do not feel “right” after giving up mammalian meat, you might consider avoiding dairy as well. Some people with really bad reactions have found that to be helpful. If you are feeling fine, we suggest keeping milk in your diet as it may offer some amount of tolerance to alpha-gal.

What about gelatin?

Gelatin is a substance made from animal products. It is in many foods including certain candies, marshmallows and other desserts. Some medications are also put in gelatin capsules. Gelatin does have alpha-gal in it. We have heard from at least one person who had a reaction after eating candy with gelatin in it. If you are particularly sensitive to mammalian meat products, you might consider avoiding gelatin.

I think I can confirm at this point that butter is also a problem for me. Ghee seems to be doing well for me so far, for the most part, but I'm not entirely certain about it, especially whether it's entirely free of the alpha gal. There aren't really many options for fat left without ghee, though, as it's not really easy or affordable to buy duck fat in america, as far as I'm currently aware.

_http://allergytomeat.wordpress.com/frequently-asked-questions/

Is it possible that the allergy is caused by hormones, pesticides or other chemicals found in meat?

While certain people with this allergy report having fewer or less severe reactions after eating all natural meat, we have also heard from people who have had severe reactions after eating wild meat from animals they hunted or all natural meat from reputable sources. It is possible that the chemicals found in industrially produced meat exacerbate certain people’s reactions but the connection is unclear at this time.

I suspect that being paleo and ketogenic probably help (since they help with basically everything else) along with eating healthy meat, but I was also eating healthy meat, in ketosis, eating bone broth, and still having problems.

So at this point, I'm pretty sure that this allergy actually exists and that I have it. I think ticks probably play some role in it, but it's really quite a strange thing with a lot of questions still unanswered, as far as I can tell. I'm also still pretty early in the testing phase of this hypothesis, so I don't have a very conclusive set of n=1 results yet.

1_http://www.clinicalmolecularallergy.com/content/pdf/1476-7961-10-5.pdf
(quick view of the pdf):_https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:r7pTHeCSYjQJ:www.clinicalmolecularallergy.com/content/pdf/1476-7961-10-5.pdf+&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESiPMa7fS_R48Duu5mYkiLfJi-6iV3TXAVA4a9_TzCItdp_FRBLc8yu3X6099MrQvICJW2-0uVxSzln49BALN8Ys_wPRsSrHJ-20corA_36jP-6bK_WgeAYRB8jH5vbAdO1m0ct2&sig=AHIEtbTCIGZLc6q1fNom4Ge0VM30Kd9-TQ

 

[Guardian]

This is just a thought, but I wonder if bacteriophages could be triggering an auto-immune reaction in some people? They've started using it on a LOT of beef.

 

[Foxx]

This is just a thought, but I wonder if bacteriophages could be triggering an auto-immune reaction in some people? They've started using it on a LOT of beef.

That's possible and in the past couple of years I've eaten some beef cold cuts that were supposed to be grass fed and possibly organic (can't remember for certain now), though almost all my meat was from farms and I was still having problems even with that. Perhaps something like the bacteriophages or a vaccine started the process? Maybe the ticks make it worse some how? I don't know about the mechanics of autoimmune disorders either.

 

[Z...]

I think the whole thing is quite bizarre. It seems like something unleashed out of the lab.
FWIW if I were you I would test once again just to be sure. Not sure which method of testing was used, but in my experience a lot of serologic tests give false positives so better to be sure with something as serious as this.

 

[Foxx]

I think the whole thing is quite bizarre. It seems like something unleashed out of the lab.
FWIW if I were you I would test once again just to be sure. Not sure which method of testing was used, but in my experience a lot of serologic tests give false positives so better to be sure with something as serious as this.

Thanks for the suggestion, H.E.! I'll get tested again to check on it, though I think based on the results I've been getting after having cut all the potential allergens that it's probably accurate.

 

[WIN 52]

This was an intentional design by the genetic engineers who have studied population complaint and historical records on insect bites to acute and primary care practitioners knowing that the majority of the population would not suspect the reactions to be caused or born from tick bites if they were sufficiently delayed.

Researcher and entomologist Jaime Lombard says the ticks have been in circulation for a few years however the latest crop released are becoming more potent. "Scientists have been experimenting on ticks since the 1960s because of their ability to spread disease. Since then, genetically engineered ticks have become more potent and scientists can create human disease almost at will," he stated.

This is quite disgusting. Just almost wants to make a person agree to destroy the whole system, for the sake of ending this nightmare, me included. But then again, how does 2D perceive our attacks on them, for food.(For you veggies, plants are dimensional entities also.)

I will have to contemplate this also. Thanks FOXX

I am going to work with the thyroid/brain cell theory firstly.

http://www.sott.net/article/256361-Newfound-brain-cells-linked-to-high-blood-pressure

 

[Z...]

though I think based on the results I've been getting after having cut all the potential allergens that it's probably accurate.

I agree, this is usually the best test, but just to be 100% sure -if not too expensive - do it, sometimes our brain does strange things.

 

[Foxx]

though I think based on the results I've been getting after having cut all the potential allergens that it's probably accurate.

I agree, this is usually the best test, but just to be 100% sure -if not too expensive - do it, sometimes our brain does strange things.

Ok, thanks H.E.! It'd be interesting to see what value it comes up with a second time as well.

 

[Z...]

what sort of method for testing is being used, could you get more info on this?

 

[Foxx]

what sort of method for testing is being used, could you get more info on this?

You may be looking for something more specific than this, but it was a blood test and also a scratch test with beef, pork, and lamb (covered in the long original post, if you didn't see that part). The blood test probably came from here:

_http://viracoribt.com/Test-Catalog/Detail/Galactose-alpha-13-galactose-Alpha-Gal-IgE-30039

though i think there's a second lab that does the testing. I think they test for IgE (I'm not sure what this mean exactly, though I tested positive on beef and pork specifically as well as the alpha gal) antibodies.

Should I contact them and ask them for how they determine it specifically in blood?

 

[Z...]

Ok viracoirbt link clarifies it - its an immunoassay.

 

[dugdeep]

Geez, Foxx, I'm sorry to hear this. When I first started reading about this meat allergy spread by ticks last year I wondered about its origins and how devastating this would be for someone in our group.

Two things come to mind. First, I'm wondering if loading up on amylase, carbohydrate digesting enzymes, would help when consuming meat. It seems to me that if you could break down the carbs into their structural galactose before it reached the lower digestion you might get by without a reaction. It looks like, from looking at images of galactose-alpha-1,3-galactose (alpha gal) that it is bonded with alpha bonds, not beta bonds, meaning it is digestible and wouldn't require cellulase enzymes, only amylase. You can get lots of different types amylase enzymes at supplement dispensaries. Might be worth a try.

Second, I wonder if it would be possible to treat yourself with a homeopathic preparation consisting of a dilution of the tick saliva. Sounds pretty far out, I know, but I've heard of homeopaths getting some pretty exotic remedies. I'm no expert in homeopathy, but I understand that often by treating with mega-dilutions of the offending substance, once can cure themselves. Might be worth talking to a good homeopath about it.

I really hope you're able to get to the bottom of this, Foxx.

 

[adam7117]

Dude - that is not cool. As I was reading this, a thought occurred to me - maybe R-alpha Lipoic Acid can be of assistance here. From personal experience, this supplement has very healing properties and really helps with adverse food reactions. Apparently, it is useful in allergy management - along with other supplements already recommended on this forum.

It also helps to induce ketosis - as I discovered not too long ago. Or at least that's what Ketostix seem to indicate.

Alpha Lipoic Acid, A Novel Therapeutic Agent for Intervention of Childhood Allergies
_http://www.medical-library.net/content/view/1545/41/

Material and Methods

A retrospective review of consecutive 416 infants and children who had undergone mineral hair analysis from April 2002 to December 2003 were carried out. Of these, 42 patients were noted to have severe allergies, classified into the following categories:

• 13 (age range: 4 to 9 year): had chronic tic-like cough not responding to conventional anti-allergic treatment.
• 18 (age range: 8 month to 5 year): had severe asthma dependent on inhalational steroid yet experiencing frequent exacerbation.
• 11 (age range: 10 month to 3 year): had intractable eczema involving large areas not responding well to topical steroid and frequently associated with disturbed sleep. All of these severely allergic patients showed elevation of one to multiple heavy metals in their hair. These were caused by ingestion of contaminated fish or from transplacental passage of heavy metal from asymptomatic mother during pregnancy.

These patients were treated by avoidance of the sources of heavy metals implying the abstinence of fish, and a regime of Alpha Lipoic Acid, supplementary zinc and magnesium, and vitamin B complex.

The mean duration of treatment was 79 days. The response of the severely allergic patients to this novel regime was good, with 78% having an excellent response. Apart from the complete eradication of the allergy, the overall health of the patients such as growth, sleep.

Maybe this is about heavy metal toxicity and not ticks?

 

[Gimpy]

I feel for you Foxx.

Is there any way you can substitute palm oil or coconut oil to keep getting the fats you need?

Please be aware that blood work on allergens, unless its from a meticulous lab, only test for 'life threatening' allergens. I'm allergic to many foods, but none except tree nuts show up as serious on a blood test. In reality I can't eat dairy, wheat, corn, soy, tomatoes....basically any grain or legume, along with dyes, preservatives, additives, and artificial sweetners. Tree nuts cause allergic shock, so that is the only one that 'stands out' on an allergy test.

Don't give up, can you eat straight up fat? Like lard? I know that sounds gross, but I've actually done this in a pinch.

 

[lwu02eb]

Really sorry to hear you're having these problems Foxx.

I'm with you on your suspicions, epeciall in light of 'scientists' warning that the world will have to become vegetarian in the near future:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2012/aug/26/food-shortages-world-vegetarianism

Two birds with one stone - force people into vegetarianism and remove the risk of people improving their physical and psychological health by being on a meat/fat based diet.

We also know that that they've started full bore on genetically modified mosquitoes:

http://rt.com/usa/news/florida-mosquitos-disease-fever-472/

Potentially pretty worrying stuff, especially when you consider, as you've said, how 'incompetent' they're being understanding it and explaining it (deliberate?).

Keep us up-to-date with your progress.