What is Alpha-gal syndrome?: Bizarre tick-borne condition on the rise in the US

Imagine having to turn vegan, not because you want to but because you have to. Numerous Americans have been going vegan after developing a severe allergy to meat and dairy overnight.

Daisy Holstine, one such person who had to undergo the drastic transformation, shared with The Post how she was waking up with her eyes swollen shut, hives all over her body, scalp, hands and even the bottoms of her feet.

Why so? Well, the reason was a lone star tick, whose bites affect thousands of Americans with a bizarre condition that can trigger life-threatening reactions to red meat and dairy.

While not common earlier, cases of Alpha-gal syndrome have been rising in the US recently. Know its meaning, causes and diagnosis below!

What is Alpha-gal syndrome?

Alpha-gal syndrome is a serious, life-threatening allergy and tickborne disease. Alpha-gal is a molecule produced naturally in the bodies of most mammals except humans and in the saliva of some ticks.

When a tick bites, it transfers the molecule from its saliva to a person's blood. This makes the body identify alpha-gal as a threat, triggering the symptoms of an allergic reaction. However, these symptoms appear after people eat red meat or other products derived from mammals.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 110,000 suspected cases of AGS were identified from 2010 to 2022. As many as 450,000 people may be affected by the tick-borne allergy in the United States.

What are the causes of AGS?

AGS in the US is mostly caused by bites of the lone-star tick and rarely from the bites of the blacklegged tick or the western blacklegged tick. The most common areas where the cases occur are the South, East and Central states.

However, recently, the ticks have been spreading far north in New York and Maine as well.

How is AGS diagnosed?

The syndrome can be diagnosed by a medical expert through a physical examination, detailed patient history and a test for antibodies produced in response to the triggering of the syndrome.

In the case of Holstine, who was wrongly diagnosed by her doctors and had to seek the help of ChatGPT to correctly diagnose AGS, she turned to alternative medicine.

Since there is no cure for AGS, except for preventing eating red meat and other mammalian products, Holstine opted for Soliman Auricular Allergy Treatment (SAAT). This is a therapy offered by a chiropractor that involves inserting a tiny needle into a pressure point in the ear connected to the liver, which is believed to play a role in the AGS allergic response. The needle stays in for four weeks, constantly stimulating the point to desensitise the body to the allergens of the syndrome.

Is the method expert-approved? It's still being researched, but a study of 137 AGS patients reported that 96% of them revealed symptom remission after the treatment.