After the tick bite, something strange happened. She had to give up meat

It started with pain in the joints and gas. Later there was a strange rash in various parts of the body, conjunctivitis, tingling in the mouth, and swelling in the left arm. Kristina Carlson’s diagnostic process took months. Nobody thought to combine all these ailments with an allergy to meat – an allergy that a woman never had. At least never before a tick bite.

1. The woman suffered from various pain ailments for months. She was diagnosed with, inter alia, for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and herpes zoster
2. Carlson was found to suffer from alpha-gal syndrome, a rare type of allergy caused by eating red meat
3. The factor responsible for the aggressive response of the immune system to products of this type transferred to it by a tick
4. More information can be found on the Onet homepage

A tick bite is most often associated with the risk of developing Lyme disease or tick-borne encephalitis. Meanwhile, it can also lead to a strong allergic reaction. All because of a certain molecule that ticks can transfer to humans. The immune system recognizes it as a foreign and fights it by making antibodies. At the next opportunity (contact), this struggle may turn into an open war, even with the use of even such a powerful “weapon” as anaphylactic shock.

Unusual symptoms after a tick bite

Before that happens, however, a human has to be bitten by a tick. This was the case of Kristina Carlson, who pulled the torso out of the skin after a mountain hike in September 2020. The woman quickly forgot about the incident, especially since a month later she began to struggle with unpleasant ailments.

First, there was pain in the joints and flatulence. The doctor ruled out RA, and blood tests showed nothing alarming. The strange symptoms did not pass, however, and there were other ailments: conjunctivitis and a rash on the face. The diagnosis of herpes zoster has not been confirmed, and the skin lesions have not disappeared. More than six months have passed since the first symptoms of a strange disease.

It wasn’t until Carlson signed up for another specialist that the medical history nurse asked her if she had been recently bitten by a tick. The woman remembered the trip and confirmed. When detailed laboratory tests were performed, it turned out that Kristina’s body contained antibodies related to galactose-alpha-1,3-galactose (alpha-gal for short) – a sugar found, among others, in in red meat that the woman did not shy away from.

The rest of the article is available under the video.

How does a tick cause an allergy?

In Carlson’s case, alpha-gal entered the body through a tick bite of the species Amblyomma americanumwhich is, among others, in the state of New York and in some areas of the east coast of North America (in Europe, another species is responsible for this type of disease – Ixodes ricinus).

The immune system recognizes the molecule as an ‘invader’ and makes antibodies against it (immunoglobulin E, IgE) that attach to the white blood cells that fight infection. When these cells react again with alpha-gal from any other source (most often food, specifically beef, pork, or lamb), the antibodies recognize it and trigger a strong immune response.

Creating IgE “can be considered loading a gun”, while “eating mammalian flesh is pulling the trigger” – explains Scott Commins, an immunologist at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine.

Alpha-gal syndrome symptoms

An allergic reaction to meat can vary greatly. There are people who will eat a double burger and experience “only” tingling in their mouths or itchy skin, but there are also those who will eat fried beans with a trace of animal fat and experience anaphylactic shock, a state of immediate life-threatening condition.

A 32-year-old man, who is the first and so far the only Polish “case” described in professional literature, experienced as many as five anaphylactic reactions within three months. Most were associated with abdominal pain, hives on the trunk, forearms and legs, but shortness of breath and throat tightness also appeared in one episode.

What is common to allergic people is the time when allergy symptoms appear. It is, unusually, lagging behind. Sensitization symptoms appear on average three to eight hours after consuming meat or animal products, it often lasts even longer, and they wake up sick people at night.

For example, in Kristina Carlson, most of the symptoms (eye irritation, joint pain, hand swelling or skin lesions) appeared within a day after eating red meat, but the tingling in the mouth earlier, just after a meal (sometimes even minor wounds appeared inside the mouth).

In turn, in the aforementioned Pole symptoms occurred within three to six hours after eating beef, pork or lamb (after the man’s chicken, nothing happened). Interestingly, this time was shortened (up to two or three hours), when he ate the meat with alcohol (amount comparable to one glass of wine) or was physically active shortly after a meal (90 minutes cycling), and most when both coexisted.

This is a major obstacle in recognizing the relationship between the consumption of a specific product and an allergic reaction. This has a direct impact on the diagnostic process of alpha-gal syndrome, which takes months or even years. The low awareness of the problem among healthcare professionals also does not help. Many doctors do not even know that this type of allergy exists, which in some sense should not be surprising, since alfa-gal syndrome was first diagnosed in the USA in 2008. In Poland, the first case was described last year.

Red Meat Allergy – Can It Be Treated?

Unfortunately, there is currently no known effective treatment for reducing red meat allergy symptoms caused by the presence of alpha-gal antibodies in the body. The medications that are used (e.g. epinephrine for anaphylactic reaction, antihistamines or corticosteroids for a milder form of allergy) are measures intended to remedy the effect, not to cause the problem.

The only way, then, is to avoid products that may contain “unlucky” sugar. These are mainly red meat, gelatin, and dairy products derived from some mammals and all agents that contain ingredients from such source (including medicaments and hygiene products).

Reassuringly, the hypersensitivity to alpha-gal may subside over time. According to the observations of cases of the disease in American patients (over 36 thousand people), the sensitization wears off after about four or five years. Scott Commins explains this by the fact that the cells of the immune system that make up the IgE response do not appear to be transformed into long-term (active for decades, sometimes throughout human life) immune memory cells.

The only exception is people who are exposed to multiple tick bites, e.g. foresters, surveyors, hikers in the mountains, forests and other green areas where arachnids like to live. In them, such a long-term immune response may develop, so they should take special care of themselves, protecting themselves from being bitten.

We encourage you to listen to the latest episode of the RESET podcast. This time we devote it to self-compassion – a trend that has developed very strongly in the United States, but is still in its infancy in Poland. What is it and how does it affect our daily functioning? You will hear about this and many other issues related to self-compassion in the latest episode of our podcast.