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04 May 2009
Connection Between Ticks and Red Meat Allergy?
Just came across this article about an Australian doctor who is researching the connection between tick bites and red meat allergy. Hmm...
How very odd. I am almost 100% sure that my son was not bitten by a tick before we discovered his beef and lamb allergies at about 1 year. I've wondered if there is a neurological component to food allergies, which might correlate if the tick injects a neurotoxin. Libby
I developed a slowly increasing intoleance to red meat, over a period of about 5 years; now I am unable to eat any meat at all. Things that fly and things that swim are fine, but not even organically raised, naturally farmed New Zealand red deer, steers raised the same way in the US, not rabbit or veal stock and even lard causes me problems. I have also developed an allergy to tick spit, as every tick bite I get develops into an oozing sore. None stay on more than 12 hours, I am that careful, but if bitten, even nibbled, I have an itchy oozy sore for weeks.
So this makes perfect sense to me. Question is: who in the US is even looking into meat allergies, much less tie between meat and tick allergies?
I have exactly the same symptoms as described in the article--an allergy to mammal meat (a bad case of hives about 2 or 3 hours after I eat meat, not that I eat it any more) and a terrible allergy to tick bites. The meat allergy developed only after several years of living in the country -- and being bitten regularly by ticks. So the connection makes sense. As for a cure or even an effective treatment -- well all I can come up with is avoiding meat and moving back to the city!
I started having "mystery" reactions back in May: rapid heart rate, flushing, difficulty breathing that I spent six months trying to pin down before I realized I was getting sick 3 hours after eating red meat. I live in Charlottesville where, at the University of Virginia, there is a study on the tick bite/meat allergy problem. I was fortunate enough to be seen there and was quickly diagnosed as having had multiple episodes of delayed anaphylaxis as a result of the antibodies in question.
We are interested in reactions to red meat (mammalian meat) and have found that in many cases this is related to being bitten by ticks, seed ticks, chiggers, etc. Feel free to email me at spc7w@virginia.edu
I use to be able to eat red meat with no problems. And I ate it for 30 odd years with no problems.
In 2001 / 2002, I developed an allergy to ALL red meat and by-products (i.e.) beef, kangaroo, sausages, salami, etc...
We moved into a tick prone area and two years later I developed a meat allergy.
Connection? Who knows! Although I would expect so, since I had a very bad tick bite in the year before I developed the allergy, and many little tick bites before and since.
Typical reaction is: stomach cramps, loose bowels, shivering, sweating, red welts, itchiness, throat closing, trouble breathing and basically going into a full-blown anaphylaxis shock. All of these happen one after the other. The first sign is hot itchy inner ears, and it goes down hill from there.
I have avoid all red meat since my last attack in 2004.
I am also lactose intolerant but I don’t think dairy and my red meat allergy is connected. The lactose issues stems from Ulcerative Colitis.
I have been recently diagnosed with being allergic to red meat as well. I went to the UNC Chapel Hill Allergy clinic in North Carolina and was diagnosed by Dr. Maya Jerath. She has done some research on the tick connection to the red meet allergy. She was great and very nice. I would recommend them to anyone! She actually tested me for this allergy and the test came back positive. She says there is not a test to test specifically for this type of allergy, but there is what they call a serogate test that they use. If this test comes back positive then it is indicative of you being allergic to red meets. Good luck to all that also have this type of allergy.
My boyfriend and i Live in kentucky by a lake, and we had a terrible infestation of deer ticks last year. we were bitten many times. There was a point where we couldn't even walk out into the driveway without LITERALLY HUNDREDS of these things crawling up our legs. we are now both allergic to red meat. does anyone know if there is a cure for this???
12 comments:
Interesting. I've often wondered if there's a connection between red meat and dairy allergies....
How very odd. I am almost 100% sure that my son was not bitten by a tick before we discovered his beef and lamb allergies at about 1 year. I've wondered if there is a neurological component to food allergies, which might correlate if the tick injects a neurotoxin. Libby
Our son is allergic to milk and now beef and pork also. He has been bitten by ticks many times, we live in the woods.
I developed a slowly increasing intoleance to red meat, over a period of about 5 years; now I am unable to eat any meat at all. Things that fly and things that swim are fine, but not even organically raised, naturally farmed New Zealand red deer, steers raised the same way in the US, not rabbit or veal stock and even lard causes me problems. I have also developed an allergy to tick spit, as every tick bite I get develops into an oozing sore. None stay on more than 12 hours, I am that careful, but if bitten, even nibbled, I have an itchy oozy sore for weeks.
So this makes perfect sense to me. Question is: who in the US is even looking into meat allergies, much less tie between meat and tick allergies?
I have exactly the same symptoms as described in the article--an allergy to mammal meat (a bad case of hives about 2 or 3 hours after I eat meat, not that I eat it any more) and a terrible allergy to tick bites. The meat allergy developed only after several years of living in the country -- and being bitten regularly by ticks. So the connection makes sense. As for a cure or even an effective treatment -- well all I can come up with is avoiding meat and moving back to the city!
Esther said...I too am allergic to beef, it just started two months ago a week after having a tick latch onto me.
Yes, this is being studied in the US.
Take a look at this article.
http://vonpirquet.blogspot.com/2009/05/seed-tick-bite-could-create-serious.html
I started having "mystery" reactions back in May: rapid heart rate, flushing, difficulty breathing that I spent six months trying to pin down before I realized I was getting sick 3 hours after eating red meat. I live in Charlottesville where, at the University of Virginia, there is a study on the tick bite/meat allergy problem. I was fortunate enough to be seen there and was quickly diagnosed as having had multiple episodes of delayed anaphylaxis as a result of the antibodies in question.
We are interested in reactions to red meat (mammalian meat) and have found that in many cases this is related to being bitten by ticks, seed ticks, chiggers, etc. Feel free to email me at spc7w@virginia.edu
I use to be able to eat red meat with no problems. And I ate it for 30 odd years with no problems.
In 2001 / 2002, I developed an allergy to ALL red meat and by-products (i.e.) beef, kangaroo, sausages, salami, etc...
We moved into a tick prone area and two years later I developed a meat allergy.
Connection? Who knows! Although I would expect so, since I had a very bad tick bite in the year before I developed the allergy, and many little tick bites before and since.
Typical reaction is: stomach cramps, loose bowels, shivering, sweating, red welts, itchiness, throat closing, trouble breathing and basically going into a full-blown anaphylaxis shock. All of these happen one after the other. The first sign is hot itchy inner ears, and it goes down hill from there.
I have avoid all red meat since my last attack in 2004.
I am also lactose intolerant but I don’t think dairy and my red meat allergy is connected. The lactose issues stems from Ulcerative Colitis.
I have been recently diagnosed with being allergic to red meat as well. I went to the UNC Chapel Hill Allergy clinic in North Carolina and was diagnosed by Dr. Maya Jerath. She has done some research on the tick connection to the red meet allergy. She was great and very nice. I would recommend them to anyone! She actually tested me for this allergy and the test came back positive. She says there is not a test to test specifically for this type of allergy, but there is what they call a serogate test that they use. If this test comes back positive then it is indicative of you being allergic to red meets. Good luck to all that also have this type of allergy.
My boyfriend and i Live in kentucky by a lake, and we had a terrible infestation of deer ticks last year. we were bitten many times. There was a point where we couldn't even walk out into the driveway without LITERALLY HUNDREDS of these things crawling up our legs. we are now both allergic to red meat. does anyone know if there is a cure for this???
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