Alpha Gal

Brad developed a deadly allergy to red meat in 2005. Prior to, he had always eaten steak without the slightest evidence of a sensitivity. One evening, he ate a steak and at 3am woke up with swollen glands and lymph nodes, vomiting, diarrhea, and a gradual closing of the throat. After going to hospital for a healthy dose of epinephrin he decided to get tested at the allergist. The diagnosis was that he was allergic to something in red meat. He has since had two more anaphylactic episodes after accidentally consuming a beef product (once in a broth and once in biscuits that I made that had 2% beef tallow as the last ingredient).

There has been a lot of emphasis on this new allergic disorder lately called Alpha Gal ( (short for galactose-alpha-1,3-galactose, which is a sugar carbohydrate in red meat). Alpha Gal is caused by the bite of the lone star tick and the incidence is 32% higher in the southern states than anywhere else in the country. To date, there are approximately 1500 people in the US with this acquired allergy.

The crazy thing about the Alpha Gal allergy is the it manifests with symptoms of allergic reaction three to six hours after the person eats meat. Symptoms include asthma, anaphylaxis, sneezing, nausea, hives and headaches.

Yesterday, in the faculty lounge, there was a dip with chipped beef in it. Brad ate about 4 crackers full before he realized it was beef. I was in a meeting and he was proctoring an exam and simply sent an email saying he ate beef and we'll need to watch in about 6 hours. Super nonchalant about it all. So, I of course proceeded to yell at him a bit via email and told him to let the school nurse know so that she was prepared should he begin to go into anaphylaxtic shock. He is stubborn and did not, but he did let Julia (Front office) know in case some kids came running saying something was wrong with Mr. Cooke. She, of course, made him go straight to the nurse. The thing with Brad's reaction is that it takes so long to start. So, there is a drug regimen that he can take once the symptoms start so that he won't have to take Epi..but, all those drugs are really expired. So, long story short, I had to drive him to Patient First b/c we couldn't get in with an allergist immediately. After 3 hours there, they released him with 4 vials of epi and new pills. We went to Chipotle after that and then went home to wait. Luckily, and confusingly, nothing happened. No reaction at all. So weird.

So, he emailed the two researchers at UVA who are doing a study on this allergy to see if he could talk with them and possible become part of the study. Crazy stuff.

Lone-Star Tick