Women's Health - USA (2019-06)

JUNE 2019

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Theresa Epperly was getting ready for bed after a cook-

out in the summer of 2015 when her throat started to

close up. The 38-year-old’s lips swelled and a rash

sprang up across her skin. At the ER, doctors diagnosed

idiopathic anaphylaxis—medical-speak for “You’re

having a potentially lethal allergic reaction, but we

don’t know why.”

We ek s later, it happ ene d aga i n. Then she ex p er i-

enced a third attack, and blood tests revealed that Ep-

perly had alpha-gal syndrome, an allergy to red meat

caused by a bite from the Lone Star tick. Epperly began

piecing it together: She had pulled off one of the bugs

two years before her first reaction—which happened a

few hours after she’d had steak at the cookout at Lake

Te n k i l le r i n Ok l a hom a.

What’s the link? When a Lone Star tick bites, it

changes the victim’s immune system, resulting in the

development of an allergic sensitivity to alpha-gal—a

sugar found attached to the fats and proteins of animals

the tick feeds on. When the person eats red meat (some-

times years later), their system launches an attack,

causing symptoms that can range from heartburn to a

life-threatening reaction. In some cases, eating dairy or,

in a few very sensitive individuals, consuming products

that contain mammal-derived ingredients like gelatin

may cause issues, says allergist Onyinye Iweala, MD,

Ph D, of t he Un iver sit y of Nor t h C a rol i na at C hap el Hi l l.

As Lone Star ticks spread from the southeast to the

rest of the U.S., red-meat allergy is becoming more

common. One in five people living in hot spots now

show signs of it, according to a study in the Journal of

Allergy and Clinical Immunology, and it’s the leading

reason for anaphylaxis in one Tennessee clinic, besting

peanuts and beestings.

By Carrie Arnold

HEALTH FLASH: LYME DISEASE ISN’T THE ONLY THREAT

FROM THE TINY BUGS. A POTENTIALLY DEADLY ALLERGY

HAS ALSO BEEN LINKED TO THE BLOOD-SUCKING

CRITTERS. HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW.

Ticked Off

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WOMEN’S HEALTH / 7 7