Lyme disease, science, and society: Camp Other

Saturday, July 23, 2011

7 NC Teen Develops Red Meat Allergy After Tick Bite

http://www.necn.com/07/23/11/NC-teen-develops-mysterious-meat-allergy/landing_health.html?&apID=3aca58cd7234448db6b71f59f1aae82f

ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. (AP) — About a year ago, 15-year-old Andrew Treadway of Currituck got a tick bite while camping near Charlottesville, Va.

The bite did not appear serious. When he returned to his Moyock home, his mom looked for the tell-tale bulls-eye rash indicating Lyme disease and the flulike symptoms from Rocky Mountain spotted fever, but all appeared normal.

Little did they know that the tick bite would later trigger an allergy to red meat. Today, the Treadways want others to know about the newly discovered allergy that puzzled their family for months.

Making the connection between the tick bite and the allergy was not easy. Several months after the tick bite, the teenager began complaining of unexplained stomach aches and migraines. Ann Treadway said she was baffled by what was causing the problem.

The real alarm came a little later when the family went camping with friends...

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7 comments:

  1. CO,

    Thanks for posting this as it is potentially life-saving information. I have read elsewhere about the allergy to red meat that some people develop, and was very curious as to the possible cause(s). I didn't realize until now that it is most often associated with a certain tick or that people with existing allergies are more vulnerable.

    I have also noticed that many people (myself included) develop an intolerance to gluten only after being infected with Lyme disease.

    Rita A

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rita A,

    You might want to see this post I made months ago:
    http://campother.blogspot.com/2011/04/tick-bite-you-stick-to-eating-fish-and.html

    I cited research papers on the phenomenon there... It's known that it's not just the Lone Star tick which can produce this allergy - an Ixodes tick from Australia can also lead to the same red meat/pork allergy, too. So there may be more than one kind of tick which can produce the condition; we don't know how many yet.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I too developed an intolerance to wheat and too many other foods to mention. My food intolerances, not allergies, were brought on by my severe candida related problems. The candida problems developed because my immune system had been arrested by the borrelia. Because of a series of other events brought on by the candida, the body's immune system starts to attack the foods it sees most frequently...it sees the food as an invader. Going to an allergist for IgE immune testing proved useless for me. My reactions all occured around 24 hours after ingestion.

    ReplyDelete
  4. GoodyBoxP,

    Welcome to Camp Other! Interesting username you have there...

    I'm sorry you've developed intolerance to wheat and many other foods. I know that's hard and makes cooking meals and eating out difficult, then dealing with symptoms a pain if you get accidentally dosed... I know, because I've been there myself, and I cannot tolerate gluten so I avoid it.

    Questions for you: How much antibiotic were you taking for how long when the Candida began? Could it be that the antibiotics themselves could have triggered a Candida problem? Once found, did you take Diflucan or other anti-yeast medication? I know it has helped a lot of people - that and to move to a no sugar, low carb, high protein diet and lots of probiotics for a while.

    Independently of this, Borrelia can have an impact on allergies because of its impact on the immune system.

    ReplyDelete
  5. CO,

    I'm not exactly sure how this relates to the immune dysfunction that may result from having Lyme disease, but I have a "gut" feeling that this finding is relevant to more than just celiac disease:

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21787225

    Quote:

    Several animal models have been recently developed to recapitulate various components of the complex process that is celiac disease. In addition to the increasing diversity of murine models there are now monkey models of celiac disease. Mouse strains and protocols have been developed that are now just beginning to address the complex interactions among the innate and adaptive immune responses to gluten, as well as gluten-dependent autoimmunity in celiac disease. The most important conclusion that these models have provided us with so far is that while all three components (innate gluten sensitivity, adaptive gluten sensitivity, and autoimmunity) are independent phenomena, all are necessary for celiac disease to develop.

    (end quote)

    Just as in celiac disease, the interplay between various factors (some yet to be identified) may be key to solving the puzzle of why some people become so ill while others don't -- with or without treatment.

    Rita A

    ReplyDelete
  6. I have this meat allergy myself. I have had it for about 4 years now. It took me over a year just to figure it out.
    I have not been formally tested but I have not had a reaction since I quit eating any mammalia meat.

    ReplyDelete
  7. David, sorry to hear that you're also suffering from this allergy. You might want to check out this link and comments:

    http://campother.blogspot.com/2011/04/tick-bite-you-stick-to-eating-fish-and.html

    ReplyDelete

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