How a Tick Bite Can Give You Red Meat Allergies
A disease that’s lurked for years, undiagnosed in many Americans
We’ve known for decades that ticks, the tiny blood-sucking arachnids found in tall grass or forests on hikes, carry diseases like Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and Lyme disease. These diseases pose long-term challenges to our health; the effects of Lyme disease can linger for a lifetime.
New research adds to that litany of threats. Tick bites may also inflict a widely unknown condition that introduces an incurable allergy to red meat.
More specifically, tick bites can cause our body’s immune system to see certain components of red meat as a threat, and attack it. An infected individual may become allergic to commonly enjoyed entrees like hamburgers, steaks, and meatballs.
The condition is called alpha-gal syndrome, and a new study suggests that there may be far more sufferers in the United States than previously suspected. The study reports that the number of cases is on the rise, and diagnoses occur outside the range of the tick species historically associated with this syndrome.
It all starts with a type of sugar molecule that most of us eat almost every day.
