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GREENVILLE, N.C. (WITN) – Ticks are a parasite that no one wants to treat, but now we have more than Lyme disease to worry about.
There is a certain type of tick that is very common in eastern North Carolina that can cause a weird allergic reaction. One that could completely turn your diet upside down. James Gardner, the Pitt County Vector Control Officer, says that when ticks are ready to go out, they'll climb to the top of a blade of grass and stay there, with the little hooks coming out, and wait for someone to brush. "
As if we needed more reasons to avoid being bitten by tics, there is one that is teeming with danger.
" The Lone Star tick is probably the most common tick in Carolina from the East, "says Gardner.
Something that many people do not know is that only female ticks bite. When it comes to the Star Loan tick, females have a stain obvious white on them These are the ones that are very dangerous
This particular external parasite can cause a little known allergy called alpha-gal syndrome, but the cases increase dramatically.
"I do not really know when I got bitten, "says Lori Blackburn." I had my first episode in 2005. It was a very different feeling from what I had felt before: I had symptoms of stomach upset, nausea, my skin had become bright red everywhere, even the whites of my eyes is d red evenu and it lasted about 30 minutes or so, I really felt like I was going to die and I did not know where it was coming from.
Blackburn says for years, she underwent a lot of tests, but the doctors were at a loss.
After seven long years, she finally got an answer
"The alpha-gal allergy is a very very strange disorder that was recently discovered," says Dr. Sherif Taha, allergist-immunologist at Allergy Partners in Greenville. . "It is an allergy to some carbohydrate part of the mammalian meat, including beef, pork, lamb.All mammals on all fours, you may be allergic."
It is essentially an allergy to red meat. bitten by the tick, the tick transmits saliva into the blood that contains this carbohydrate we call alpha-gal, "says the doctor. "You have an allergy to this carbohydrate, you build an allergic antibody to that carbohydrate in your blood, when you eat meat, you have to digest the meat, and then that part of the carbohydrates comes out and causes the allergic reaction. "
Symptoms develop when meat strikes your digestive tract.
" It's a delayed food reaction, so it would happen about four to six hours after I'd eat, "says Blackburn.
"We have also seen people allergic to milk and dairy products," says Dr. Taha.
To make the Lone Star tick even more daunting, it's not just the alpha-gal that
"There is a Heartland virus, a STARI virus (rash disease associated with the southern tick), the Bourbon virus, there are several viruses that these ticks carry," says Gardner.
Dr. Taha says that because this allergy is still so new in the medical world, many doctors do not know it.It tries to educate doctors and patients to know what to watch for. 19659004] "We see a lot of patients now, the area is very s infested, "says Taha.
There are signs to watch out for if you think you have this allergy. You've been bitten by a tick, a few hours after eating red meat, you start to feel the symptoms described above, and you live in the south-east where the Lone Star tick is widespread.
Because ticks can carry a variety of viruses, Gardner also recommends keeping all the ticks that bite you by placing them in a bag in the freezer. If you start developing symptoms, this tick can be sent for testing.
The good news for alpha-gal patients is when they remove mammalian ingredients from their diet, they feel comfortable
eating mostly birds and fish, "Blackburn told WITN." as well as I live. "
Dr. Taha says that if patients can be strict in their diet, they can go back down and after a while, a year or a few years, they can eat red meat again. 19659004] Gardner says that the best way to avoid being bitten by a checkmark, uses something with at least 20% DEET.
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