Doctors say tick-borne illness causing red meat allergy increasing in Tri-State Area
CREAM RIDGE, N.J. -- Imagine being told you could no longer eat your favorite foods or partake in your favorite activities because it was life-threatening.
For Craig Smith, 62, of Cream Ridge, that became a reality when he learned he had a tick-borne illness known as alpha-gal syndrome which causes an allergy to red meat and dairy.
The retired laborer who has lived in the rural municipality for 40 years says now whenever he goes outside, he sprays bug spray around his ankles and under his socks.
He believes he was bitten last spring while chopping wood in his yard. He's now afraid to do that activity, as well as gardening.
"It's devastating because I used to be in the woods all the time. I'm scared to go into the woods," Smith said.
Smith said he knew something was off when he was experiencing skin and gastrointestinal issues.
"I would wake up in the middle of the night. My body would be covered with hives. I had one on my neck one time … They would be starting a bunch of small ones and they would morph into a giant sometimes the size of a diner plate hive, hot and itching, very uncomfortable," Smith said.
After about three months of visits to different doctors, Smith says he saw an allergist.
A neighbor mentioned the alpha-gal syndrome, caused by a bite from a lone star tick that has a white mark.
Smith asked the allergist to give him a blood test, and he came up positive for Alpha IgE on the test, which confirmed he had it.
"The allergist said you have to come back in a year and get tested again and just avoid all animal products," Smith said.
Dr. Purvi Parikh of the Allergy & Asthma Network says the tick feeds on the blood of a deer, pig, cow or lamb and then introduces some of those carbohydrates to the human through a tick bite.
"Normally food allergic reactions occur within 30-60 minutes of ingesting the food, whereas here with the alpha-gal syndrome, that means breathing problems, vomiting, dizziness within three to six hours of eating meat, especially red meat," said Parikh.
Smith said like others with alpha-gal, he has to avoid "milk, dairy anything that comes from any mammal."
"The only thing you can eat is chicken, fish and lizards because they come from eggs," Smith said.
His three meat smokers sit collecting dust in his yard, and he's had to pause his lifelong diet of eating red meat and hosting pig roasts with friends.
"People don't understand you can die from it, you can go into anaphylactic shock and your throat closes and you can potentially pass away," Smith said.
He says even his medication for high blood pressure causes a reaction.
"The medication contains animal products so I keep taking that and my brother died from high blood pressure not taking the medication. I'm still taking the medicine although it does bother my stomach every day," Smith said.
- Related story: New York health department urges everyone to avoid illnesses spread by ticks and mosquitoes
Researchers at the UNC School of Medicine report that cases of alpha-gal have risen from 24 since it was discovered in 2009 to around 40,000 today.
Parikh says she's seeing cases locally, too.
"Many are from areas such as Long Island, Westchester, New Jersey that are heavily predominant in ticks," she said.
She adds this is actually one of the only allergies humans can get from a flying insect.
Dr. Tamar Weinberger, an allergist with Hackensack University Medical Center, says unlike most food allergies, which are lifelong, this one can go away with time for some.
"Right now the only treatment is avoidance of the trigger foods, and they are working on a potential desensitization to the allergy," said Weinberger.
Smith isn't losing hope.
"I'm hoping to get back to smoking meat someday," he said.
For now, he says his nutritionist has been crucial in helping him get by.
For tips on how to protect yourself from ticks when outdoors this season, the CDC has information here: cdc.gov/ticks
