A man suddenly has a cardiac arrest at home and the cause of his medical emergency is a mystery! Let’s solve the mystery together and learn about shock, septic shock, anaphylactic allergies and more! Scroll to about the 14 minute mark to finally hear he has Alpha Gal.
Virginia bill would make alpha-gal syndrome reportable to CDC
Triggered by a bite from the lone star tick, alpha-gal syndrome (AGS) can cause severe allergies to red meat, including beef, pork, and lamb. Currently, most states don’t keep track of AGS cases. A bill has been proposed in Virginia, directing its Board of Health to report those cases to the CDC. The following information was forwarded to us by Tick-Borne Conditions United.
Virginia Alpha-Gal Syndrome Advocacy
***Please do not call or email if you are not from Virginia!***
House Bill 93 would direct the VA Board of Health to add Alpha-gal Syndrome (AGS) to the list of diseases required to be reported to the Centers for Disease Control.
H.B. 93 was introduced by Delegate Otto Wachsmann who has suffered from alpha-gal himself. He is prepared to work hard to get his bill through the Virginia House of Delegates in time for “crossover” to the Senate by February 13 in order to have a chance to pass the General Assembly this year. But he needs all of our help to make this happen!
Please take a minute to reach out to your state delegate and ask them to support H.B. 93
You can call or email, but calls get significantly more attention than emails. This bill could be considered any day, so please take action today!
Introduce yourself! “Hello, this is Jane Smith from ___, Virginia.”
Tell them why you are calling/emailing: “I am calling today to ask you to support a bill that is very important to me/my family. House Bill 93 would add alpha-gal syndrome to the list of diseases required to be reported to the Centers for Disease Control. Alpha-gal syndrome is a serious tick-borne condition that causes an allergy to mammal meat and mammal products.”
Tell them why you care: “This bill is important to me because….. (give a very short accounting of your experience with alpha-gal and how hard it is to get good information and find doctors who know about it, food you can safely eat and medicine that is safe for you.) “
Tell them why they should care: “Virginia a hotspot for alpha-gal syndrome. While nobody knows the true extent, in some areas of the state, up to 3 percent of the population is suspected to suffer from the disease and could have potentially life-threatening allergic reactions. Many go undiagnosed! Adding the disease to the list of conditions required to be reported will help document the extent of this disease in VA and track its spread so that public health resources can be focused accordingly.
Complete the ask: “Can I count on Del. X’s support for H.B. 93 and is there any further information you need?”
Public health warnings about vector-borne diseases in the US are heating up. In a May editorial, scientists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) made a plea for a vaccine against West Nile virus, which is spread by mosquitoes and has no treatment. By midsummer, the CDC reported that as many as 450 000 people in the US may have a meat allergy from the bite of the lone star tick, while other CDC scientists warned that mosquitoes are becoming resistant to the insecticides used in abatement efforts. Mosquitoes struck in August, when public health officials reported 11 cases of locally acquired dengue fever in Florida and Maryland’s first known case of locally acquired malaria in more than 40 years.
Meanwhile, the most common vector-borne disease in the US, Lyme disease, is on the rise.
“Lyme disease is definitely increasing in the US as the environmental niche of the deer tick and deer populations expand,” John N. Aucott, MD, director of the Lyme Disease Research Center at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, told JAMA in an interview. The incidence of Lyme disease in the US nearly doubled from 1991 to 2018, from 3.74 cases to 7.21 cases per 100 000 people, based on confirmed cases reported to the CDC. But the true numbers are believed to be much higher.
According to the nonprofit organization Fair Health, US private insurance claims with a Lyme disease diagnosis increased 357% in rural areas and 65% in urban areas from 2007 to 2021. Using insurance claims, the CDC estimates that as many as 476 000 people in the US are diagnosed with and treated for Lyme disease each year.
“In the last 20 years, the numbers of Lyme disease have really exploded,” said Linden Hu, MD, director of the Lyme Disease Initiative at Tufts University School of Medicine. “We’ve seen people get Lyme disease just from stopping at a rest stop in Massachusetts. So the number of people at risk is greater than it was before.”
(See link for article)
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**Comment**
There is very little hope within this article.
Summary:
Climate change clap trap continues to be regurgitated and blamed for what we are experiencing, despite ticks being ecoadaptive and the last species to die on planet earth.
PTLDS is emphasized only due to the fact there is “no known treatment,” so vaccines can be pushed.
The article gives false hope by stating the NIH has announced $3.2 Million in funding to support research on PTLDS; however, what isn’t mentioned is this money will do NOTHING to help patients. It will simply line the pockets of biased, bought out researchers who will continue with the accepted, politically motivated narrative.
The falsely low number of 10-20% who continue with lingering symptoms is regurgitated when the number is upwards of 40-60%.
Hu managed to mention the fact that persistent infection after treatment is one hypothesis for PTLDS along with immune responses and autoantibodies.
And Aucott also managed to mention that due to his magnetic imaging studies which showed there is underlying biology to explain patients’ symptoms, it is not psychosomatic.
Of course nothing would be complete without a huge section on vaccines. (This is getting very old) It’s also a good time to reflect upon the conflict of interest disclosures:
The article made Lymerix seem like the answer to all of life’s ills when in fact it was yanked off the market for causing Lyme-like symptoms. To those who tout the narrative, Lymerix, like all other vaccines, is “safe and effective.”(This too is getting extremely old)
But, there’s a new vaccine to save humanity in the pipeline! Yay! This “antitick vaccine” encodes a cocktail of 19 proteins in tick saliva. What could possibly go wrong?!
Hu is developing lotinaner, used in the veterinary world, of which the FDA has given an alert about potential neurological adverse events, muscle tremors, ataxia, and seizures.
Aucott mentioned that the “classic” bullseye rash is a myth as only 20-30% have a bullseye pattern, and that many have no rash at all. So, sorry all you suckers that didn’t fit in the box, were told you had a spider bite, and sent home empty-handed to suffer in silence. Oops!
Aucott mentons testing problems: test results take 4-8 weeks before an antibody test is definitive, and following treatment – serology results will remain positive.
Wormser of course dissuades from prophylactic treatment unless a confirmed deer tick has been attached for 36 hours – the notion of which has been proven to be false. He’s more worried about staph than people getting Lyme/MSIDS and living a nightmare. Plus, there are other antimicrobials in the toolbox that can be used that wouldn’t promote resistance.
The article falsely blames climate change and the Lone Star tick when other ticks are involved, or even NO ticks at all. They have only discovered that tick saliva contains trace quantities of the sugar alpha-gal a known human irritant that many believe induces an allergic response.
But alpha-gal is also is used in the manufacture of foods, personal care products, medical devices and drugs — including vaccines. Source
The questions begging to be asked are: why are they putting this known human irritant in things that humans ingest?And why the sole emphasis on ticks when it’s in plenty of other things including vaccines, and is only believed to be caused by ticks?
It should come at no surprise whatsoever that the media is suddenly pushing a fear narrative over a meat allergy.
Two years ago during Covid lockdowns, I wrote about climate control freaks, facetiously anticipating a future headline: “Bad CO2 Day, Lockdowns Enforced.” A joke that would never happen, right? Well . . .
Last month President Biden was asked on the Weather Channel if he was ready to declare a national climate emergency and responded, “We’ve already done that.”
Asked again if he declared a climate emergency, he said, “Practically speaking, yes.” There is no official emergency, but the president certainly thinks we need one.
The fawning press gave him a break—he didn’t really mean that, did he? But the notion of a national emergency today isn’t farfetched.
The United Nations website blares: “What you need to know about the Climate Emergency.” The European Parliament has declared one. So have hundreds of jurisdictions in at least 39 countries, including the U.K., Canada, Japan, and Bangladesh.
Climate-activist teenager Greta Thunberg gave away the game in 2019 when she said, “I want you to panic,” and, “I want you to act as if you would in a crisis.” Emergencies are an excuse to do whatever you want.
U.S. presidents can declare national emergencies, as spelled out in the 1976 National Emergencies Act, but they must be explicit:
“When the President declares a national emergency, no powers or authorities made available by statute for use in the event of an emergency shall be exercised unless and until the President specifies the provisions of law under which he proposes that he or other officers will act.”
I’ve searched far and wide for such provisions and can’t find them.
No matter, we’re living as if we’re already under emergency conditions. As of Aug. 1, the Biden administration has halted the sale of lightbulbs with less than 45 lumens of brightness per watt.
In September 2022, the California Independent System Operator—which runs the state’s power grid, attached to sporadic renewables—declared an “energy emergency alert,” urging residents to ration power from 4 to 9 p.m.
In March, the European Union mandated energy consumption be cut by 11.7 percent by 2030. Brits are urged to turn their heat off at night for “emissions savings.”
The Swiss considered jail time if your thermostat is set above 66 degrees in the winter.
This nonsense could never happen in the U.S., could it? Well, in 2016, New York University professor Matthew Liao suggested, “Possibly we can use human engineering to make the case that we’re intolerant to certain kinds of meat.”
He even suggested deploying a “Lone Star tick where, if it bites you, you will become allergic to meat.”
Add to the mix the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, which has an “ambitious target in 2030” of no meat, no dairy, no private vehicles, and only “three new clothing items per person per year.” Plus one short flight every three years.
Who are these kooks? “A global network of nearly 100 mayors” including 14 in America: Austin, Texas; Boston; Chicago; Houston; Los Angeles; Miami; New Orleans; New York; Philadelphia; Phoenix; Portland, Ore.; San Francisco; Washington and Seattle. Michael Bloomberg is the president of the board. Better stock up on socks while you can.
When you declare an emergency, anything goes. The Biden administration pushes electronic vehicles, and this summer we had a glut of them—inventories were 92 days, double what is typical.
As of midyear, Ford had 116 days of unsold Mustang Mach-Es.
Maybe because saner Americans are becoming preppers and loading up on good old gasoline-fired cars before California’s Advanced Clean Cars II Regulations, which other states follow, outlaws them in 2035. Vroom, vroom.
Emergency-preparedness edicts abound: Gas stove bans. No plastic bottles for sale at San Francisco Airport. A new proposal from New York City’s Department of Environmental Protection would effectively ban coal- and wood-fired pizza ovens.
A city official reports that fewer than 100 restaurants would have to install prohibitively expensive emissions controls, so it must be a real emergency if New York is tracking down these last few ounces of ‘carbon’.
Climate lockdowns still sound like crazy-town, but the urge to curtail individual freedom is visible in countless government, media, and think-tank blueprints for a controlled future.
Saner minds should prevail—the Climate Emergency Act of 2021 evidently died in committee—but we need constant diligence to stand guard against the climate-excuse assaults on our liberties.
To show how adolescent this has become, last year Swiss Environmental Minister Simonetta Sommaruga suggested that residents “shower together” to save energy. OK, now we’re getting somewhere.
Numerous studies indicate that it is not the free alpha-gal sugar that is responsible for alpha-gal syndrome, more commonly known as red meat allergy, but the attached tick proteins — and not just from the lone star tick.
By Angelo DePalma, Ph.D.This article was originally published by The Defender — Children’s Health Defense’s News & Views Website.
Editor’s note: This is part 3 (read part 1 and part 2) of a three-part series on red meat allergy, a serious, lifestyle-limiting disorder that causes individuals to experience mild- to life-threatening allergic symptoms several hours after eating red meat. Also known as alpha-gal syndrome (AGS), meat allergy has no cure — the only “treatment” is to avoid certain meats and animal products.
However, the alpha-gal sugar by itself does not cause AGS.The culprit is specific proteins in tick saliva attached to alpha-gal. Since none of the four “ingredients of concern” discussed in part 2 — gelatin, albumin, glycerin, and stearate — contain tick proteins, they cannot induce AGS.
More than 35 studies conducted in 19 countries have established the tick-AGS connection.
Additional studies strengthen the AGS-tick-protein connection. A 2015 Japanese paper reported that 24 of 30 patients with red meat allergies were sensitized to a specific alpha-gal-linked protein in tick saliva.
Two drugs mentioned in part 1, heparin (a blood thinner) and cetuximab (a cancer drug), may cause serious reactions in individuals with AGS but these episodes are similar to reactions after eating meat: they are a manifestation of AGS, not the cause. If they caused AGS this effect would be widespread among people taking these drugs, and would certainly have been noticed decades ago.
We also noted in parts 1 and 2 the special case of gelatin, a common ingredient in drugs and vaccines, which also causes allergic reactions in individuals with AGS.Since the alpha-gal sugar can only cause AGS when it is attached to specific tick proteins, gelatin by itself is highly unlikely to cause the illness.
If gelatin in injected drugs caused meat allergy someone would have noticed decades before 2009, when AGS was first described.
Another clue that alpha-gal protein, and not sugar, causes AGS is the unusual hours-long delay in symptomatology after eating meat. In contrast, allergies to common foods usually occur within minutes of exposure.
According to one hypothesis, alpha-gal attached to fats, as opposed (or in addition) to proteins, may be responsible for the delayed allergic response because fats take longer to digest than proteins.
Another possible explanation for the delay is the time required to digest meat, remove alpha-gal, and attach it to another molecule that can carry it into and through the bloodstream.
Some evidence suggests that after digestion and release, alpha-gal enters the bloodstream either directly attached to or surrounded by fats.
How about injectable drugs, like vaccines?
We also know from parts 1 and 2 that many vaccines contain alpha-gal, so connecting AGS to vaccines seems reasonable.
But if vaccination caused AGS the association would have been apparent decades ago.
Meat allergy is still extremely rare, with only around 110,000 “suspected cases” reported in the U.S. in the 13 years between 2010 and 2022. This calculates to fewer than 8,000 cases per year, or an incidence of about 2.5 cases per 100,000 people per year (based on the average U.S. population of 310 million during that time period).
During those same 13 years, Americans received more than a billion vaccine doses, including 667 million COVID-19 shots.
There are approximately 50 million U.S. children ages 12 and under. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) vaccination schedule lists 29 different injections through age 6 (excluding COVID and flu), and compliance is between 80% and 90% for the various shots.
This means U.S. children in that age group have already received more than 1.2 billion vaccine doses.
About half the U.S. population receives a flu shot annually. Over those 13 years, Americans received more than 1.86 billion flu shots.
Adding up all the doses (and for now ignoring all other vaccinations) and dividing by 12 years, we see that every year Americans receive, on average, 311 million doses of vaccines but experience just 8,000 cases of meat allergy.
That comes out to 1 case of meat allergy for every 39,000 shots.
Also, note that the four “ingredients of concern” have been used in oral and injected medicines for decades, but meat allergy has been known only since 2009. If exposure to gelatin, albumin, stearate and glycerin caused meat allergies to any significant degree this would surely have been noticed before 2009.
Finally, all biotech therapies at some point use products from cows to sustain the engineered cells that express these products. Although many processes have switched to animal-derived component-free cell culture media, 64% of current biomanufacturing processes still use “classical media,” which include bovine-derived ingredients.
Recombinant protein treatments have been used since the mid-1980s, and virtually all are injected or infused, typically at very high doses.
If injected cow-derived vaccine ingredients caused meat allergies they would have been identified and confirmed long before 2009.
This is not to vouch for the safety of vaccines generally but to emphasize that avoiding vaccines will not protect you from meat allergies.
One could also argue that, like the “four ingredients of concern” in vaccines and other injected drugs, tick species that transmit AGS have also been around for eons. If they were the sole cause of meat allergy someone should have noticed before 2009.
The same could be said for Lyme disease, which was first described in the medical literature in 1975 after a cluster of cases emerged around Lyme, Connecticut. The infectious Lyme agent, a bacterium, was only identified in 1981.
But according to genetic studies that microbe — the Lyme spirochete — has been around for at least 60,000 years. A sharp rise in the deer population, particularly in the northeastern U.S., has increased the natural host population for Lyme-carrying ticks. At the same time deforestation has brought people and deer — and the ticks they carry — closer together.
These factors might also explain the mysterious emergence of AGS in 2009 although ticks have been plaguing humans since Biblical times.
What if you’re not in ‘lone star territory’?
The lone star tick is found primarily in about 30 U.S. states within a geographic region bounded by Maine at its northeast corner, Florida (southeast), Texas (southwest) and Missouri (northwest).
This creature shares its extensive habitat with about half the U.S. population, as shown in Figure 1:
Figure 1. Habitat of the lone star tick. Credit: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But AGS is a worldwide problem and in every instance, an endemic tick is the culprit.
Separate alpha-gal-carrying tick species have been found in Japan, Sweden and Australia. In the U.S., at least four tick species other than the lone star tick have been implicated.
A 2019 study confirmed three of these and added a fifth species to the suspect list.
So tick bites generally, and not the lone star tick, in particular, appear to be responsible for alpha-gal sensitization.
The message to people who enjoy the outdoors is simple: living outside the lone star tick habitat provides no guarantee against contracting AGS as this allergy is found all over the U.S.
What do antibodies tell us?
AGS diagnosis relies on patient history, skin tests, oral food or drug challenges and the presence of immunoglobin E (IgE) antibodies, which are mainly involved in allergic responses. But 30+% of Americans already carry AGS-specific IgEs and only a tiny fraction become allergic — so the IgE test provides very little actionable information.
All humans also carry IgG, IgM and IgA antibodies to alpha-gal-linked proteins. These antibodies make up about 1% of all the antibodies carried by humans.
These antibodies normally provide immunological defense against pathogens and “foreign” chemicals entering the body. Their presence signifies exposure to alpha-gal proteins but carries no clinical significance in terms of AGS.
The only difference between merely carrying antibodies and getting sick is a tick bite.
And therein lies the main mystery behind AGS: What is the biological switch that causes allergy in sensitized individuals, and how is it activated? What factors in tick saliva cause previously asymptomatic antibody carriers to get seriously ill?
Scientists believe that activation of basophils, a type of immune cell involved in allergy, initiates this process. Basophils release histamine, a well-known mediator of allergic reactions.
Independent of IgE status, evidence of basophil recruitment and activation very nearly confirms that someone has AGS and not merely antibodies, according to a 2019 paper.
The authors concluded:
“The basophil activation test should be considered as an additional diagnostic test before performing time-consuming and potentially risky oral provocation tests. The [test endpoints] were the best parameters for distinguishing patients with alpha-gal syndrome from subjects with asymptomatic alpha-gal sensitization.”
Conclusion
People who enjoy red meat are understandably concerned about an AGS diagnosis. Vegetarianism is not for everyone, and the potential presence of minute quantities of allergy triggers in non-meat foods can also be a source of ongoing anxiety.
Examination of the available evidence on how people develop AGS leads to conclusions that may surprise some readers:
The main culprit in sensitization and allergy is not the free, unbound alpha-gal sugar but alpha-gal attached to specific tick proteins.
Until further evidence is found: no tick, no AGS.
People with AGS may also experience severe reactions to products containing the “four ingredients of concern,” but these reactions are a consequence, not a cause, of AGS.
Many vaccines contain alpha-gal according to the CDC but it is unclear whether this is the free alpha-gal sugar or alpha-gal attached to proteins (most likely from cows). Regardless, the attached proteins are not from ticks so, according to the current paradigm, they cannot cause AGS.
Most news reports implicate the lone star tick to the exclusion of other tick species, which may lead to a false sense of security for individuals who live outside that species’ natural habitat. The safest course is to avoid encounters with ticks whenever possible.
Sensitization, as determined by a test for alpha-gal IgE antibodies, only rarely means a person will develop AGS. The overwhelming majority of people with IgA, IgE, IgG and IgM antibodies to alpha-gal will never develop a food allergy.
A basophil activation test can confirm AGS in individuals with alpha-gal antibodies whose response to eating meat is mild or sporadic.
https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2022/11/02/when-alpha-gal-syndrome-is-not-related-to-a-tick-bite/ This person doesn’t ever remember a tick bite and lives in CA. “Since my alpha-gal diagnosis, I have been diagnosed with multiple other food and medication allergies, including an uncommon allergy to PEG (polyethylene glycol) and polysorbate. Neither one has a diagnostic test. In addition, my Alpha-Gal test is now negative, but my sensitivity and reactions are still severe.”
Madison Area Lyme Support Group 
