Red Meat Allergies Caused By Tick Bites Are On The Rise (npr.org) 125
Tick bites can cause all sorts of nasty afflictions. And if you're bitten by a Lone Star tick, here's one more to add to the list: a red meat allergy. NPR reports: About 10 years ago, Dr. Scott Commins, an allergist and associate professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, was among the first physicians to identify the allergy in patients with tick bites. Back then, there were just a few dozen known cases. That has increased dramatically. "We're confident the number is over 5,000 [cases], and that's in the U.S. alone," Commins says. There are also cases in Sweden, Germany and Australia -- likely linked to other species of ticks. In the U.S., the Lone Star tick has expanded its range beyond the Southeast, and there are documented cases of alpha gal meat allergies farther north -- including New York, Maine and Minnesota. "The range of the tick is expanding," says Commins. So is awareness about the red meat allergy it can cause. "We have a blood test, and the word is getting out."
Let the healing begin (Score:1)
Not you though, vegans. Nobody likes you.
Re:Let the healing begin (Score:5, Funny)
>Not you though, vegans. Nobody likes you.
You've cracked it, right there. There is no "lone star tick induced meat allergy" - it's just a convenient cover story to allow people to survive being vegetarian in Texas. :-D
Vegan Conspiracy! (Score:3)
Now we know what all those Vegans were doing slinking around in the woods!
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In nutritional science pork, like wild board, is a red meat - something about being richer in myoglobin than white meat in poultry or fish. Maybe related? But why would primates be different? I've heard we're very biochemically similar to pigs.
At any rate there's obviously only one solution - bushmeat being as difficult to get as it is, your friend will ultimately have no choice but to turn to cannibalism. My condolences to your family.
Re: Let the healing begin (Score:1)
Not you though, vegans. Nobody likes you.
Here we see that what really irritates meat eaters, far more than ticks, are vegans. I guess it's the tiny prickings of conscience.
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People are more receptive to what others have to say when the people trying to spread behavioral change don't preach about being better than everyone else.
Re: Let the healing begin (Score:1)
I should have said "a few meat eaters", specifically those who denigrate vegans. It seems like many of them protest too much and appear to be trying to convince themselves as much as their audience, similar to some of those holy men who loudly extol family values. I don't speak for vegans, I'm not a vegan.
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Nothing really wrong with vegans actually, they are quite tasty.
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You can cut down on meat without mentioning it to anybody, you know. This would cut down on people commenting on stuff. I know, facebook generation, can't do anything without letting the world know.
This time, they've gone too far! (Score:5, Funny)
Burn down nature! It's a luxury we can no longer afford!
The Giving Plague (Score:2)
The first thing I thought of was The Giving Plague [davidbrin.com] by David Brin
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The first thing I thought of was The Giving Plague [davidbrin.com] by David Brin
In real life there are multiple factors that can disqualify you from donating blood. Having received a blood transfusion is one of them.
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The first thing I thought of was The Giving Plague [davidbrin.com] by David Brin
In real life there are multiple factors that can disqualify you from donating blood. Having received a blood transfusion is one of them.
Depends. In the U.S., it's a year deferral, I believe. (Same deferral I got due to spending a week in Bangalore.)
However, in the U.S., having received a transfusion in Britain is a lifetime ban on donating blood, due to a certain prion disease that hit Britain pretty hard a few decades ago. Variant CJD may take decades to show up, but can be transmitted by blood in all that time.
Brin's story (his usual political hobby-horses beaten to splinters aside) is very good, but he made a mistake on the religion
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Is someone choosing to dedicate their life to ease the suffering of others really a vile individual? Compare that to the people in the story that act altruistically because they are forced to by a disease, are they really better humans?
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He was planning to murder his friend, not "thinking about it", but making actual preparations, when his friend caught a lethal plague and died first.
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in the U.S., having received a transfusion in Britain is a lifetime ban on donating blood, due to a certain prion disease that hit Britain pretty hard a few decades ago.
In Australia, just having lived in the UK back then will bet you a lifetime ban on donating blood.
It has been twenty years and I'm fine..... MMMMooooooooooo!
Re: The Giving Plague (Score:2)
You can so long as you wait 12 months after receiving either a blood transfusion or an organ. Others are accepted as well after a 12 month suspension, such as: renting the four dirtiest hookers you can find and having a fivesome, receiving buttsex, and receiving gonorrea. Clamydia, herpes, and genital warts are not crimes however, so you don't have to wait 12 months to donate, as you've already been punished.
Some crimes are beyond redemption, however, including exchanging bodily fluids with an Englishman or
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Notta problem (Score:5, Funny)
It's okay, I only eat vegetarian ticks.
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It's okay, I only eat vegetarian ticks.
I honestly thought meat allergy was a slur for vegetarians. At least that is how I have used it ;)
PETA (Score:4, Interesting)
Can we tell if this tick has been genetically modified by PETA?
Re:PETA (Score:4, Insightful)
If the tick has been stolen out of someone's yard despite being microchipped, then kept in a cage for a couple of days before being killed by blunt force trauma from half a brick, then, yes. PETA have been at work.
Re:PETA (Score:4, Insightful)
In other words: yes, we can tell if this tick has been genetically modified by PETA. It hasn't.
I realize that was probably a joke, but people say some crazy shit about PETA sometimes...
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I realize that was probably a joke, but people say some crazy shit about PETA sometimes...
People in PETA say some crazy shit sometimes.
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I realize that was probably a joke, but people say some crazy shit about PETA sometimes...
Sadly, a lot of the crazy shit is true.
The Bacon! (Score:2)
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You just need to cook it longer until it's black. There aren't any black meat allergies. But you are what you eat, so your chances of being arrested might go up.
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The only people claiming burnt meat is a carcinogen want to keep Burnt Ends all to themselves. Forget that!
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My friend has this problem, it's all mammals except for maybe apes, monkeys, chimps.
Semi-related anecdotes (Score:5, Interesting)
My wife spent a few years working in Southeast Asia. While there she started having symptoms like what you'd expect with lactose intolerance, except that she had always been able to drink milk without issue. She tried cutting milk out, but the symptoms continued. After talking with a local doctor, she found out that there was something different about the way they raised cows there, that the symptoms she was experiencing were not uncommon among Westerners who moved to the region, and that the reason the symptoms were persisting was because they could be caused by any cow-based product, not just milk.
She had to cut out all beef, milk, and other cow-based products while she was there for a few years. By the time she got back to the West, she hadn't had cow's milk in over two years, so her body had lost the ability to process lactose entirely, leaving her well and truly lactose intolerant at that point. As for the issues with beef? So far as we know they disappeared as soon as she got back, though she was understandably gun shy about eating it for a few years. It wasn't until nearly a year into our marriage (three years after she had gotten back to the States) that I could convince her to even try beef again.
Anyway, it's interesting to see how different establishments respond when she mentions she's lactose intolerant. She'll usually try to avoid the topic by simply asking if a dish contains milk or cream, rather than trying to explain things. If they ask why and she has to say the words "lactose intolerance", half of them react as if she had said she could die at any moment, at which point she needs to clarify that, no, she doesn't have an allergy and they don't need to scrub the kitchen down. The other half reacts dismissively, at which point she rattles off this line about loving milk and cream even though they don't love her, which usually convinces the wait staff that she isn't one of those people falsely claiming an intolerance for ideological/nutritional reasons.
But, by far, my favorite reaction from a wait person was this time that we were ordering dessert at a decent restaurant and my wife asked if there were any desserts she'd be able to have, having mentioned earlier in the meal that she was lactose intolerant. After rattling off the list of desserts and acknowledging that each had cream, the waitress finished the list by saying, "I'll need to check on the creme brûlée, since I don't think it has cream in it." We didn't have the heart to tell her that it literally had "cream" in the name, and the waitress even asked "are you sure?" when we told her it definitely had cream in it.
Hanlon's Age [Re:Semi-related anecdotes] (Score:1)
"Don't attribute to external forces what can be explained by getting old."
Often stuff just plain breaks down in the body as one gradually grows older. It's like an old car: every other month something new goes wrong, and some things gradually get worse. Therefore, oddities may not necessarily have an external cause. Your medicine cabinet typically grows ever larger as you age.
Our bodies haven't evolved to live past 45 or so. Half of Johann Sebastian Bach's children died quite early, and that was common ba
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While I agree that age can explain many issues, including some cases of food intolerance, I fail to see the relevance here. As I said, the one issue (a beef intolerance) went away as soon as she left the region, which would serve as a contraindication to age being the cause, and the other (a lactose intolerance) has a well-established cause that applied to her: she didn’t ingest lactose for several years.
Really, I’d suggest that your quote is a false truism. Rephrased, it’s saying nothing
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A) It’s just my wife. Not me. I rather enjoy dairy.
B) She’s tried Lactaid pills on more than one occasion. At least so far, they haven’t worked for her for some reason. If you have any additional advice we might be able to try, I’m all ears. She’d love to be able to eat real pizza and ice cream again.
C) What ridiculous requests? I said that she asks if a dish contains milk or cream. That’s all I mentioned. What she usually does with that info is simply choose a different
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B) She's tried Lactaid pills on more than one occasion. At least so far, they haven't worked for her for some reason. If you have any additional advice we might be able to try, I'm all ears. She'd love to be able to eat real pizza and ice cream again.
Have you checked for the rarer caesin allergy rather than lactose? Caesin obviously isn't affected by lactase enzymes (so the pills or lactoe removed milk won't help) but sufficiently cooked milk doesn't hae it (but does retain lactose). Also trying goat or she
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Good question. We haven’t checked explicitly for it, but from what I understand I don’t think that’s the problem. Lactaid milk works for her even though the pills didn’t, and she’ll still react to baked goods that contain enough (normal) milk, though she’s fine with any quantity of sheep and goat milk products.
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Interesting-- I had similar experiences after a couple years in Thailand. Didn't eat much beef while there, but the milk and yogurt were not my friends.
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Oh, the waitress was fine. I just thought it was funny that a waitress was clueless enough to not know there was cream in a dish with cream in the name, that's all. Plus, had they offered to make something specifically for my wife, she'd have turned them down anyway. She'd feel guilty eating something like that if she caused them an undue burden. In that particular situation, she resolved it by simply ordering a nice glass of port instead, which she enjoyed while I had dessert.
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I hear you. While I'm fortunate enough not to have any dietary restrictions, I know what it feels like to have them assume things after someone else orders first. We found that places would often omit the dairy ingredient from both of our dishes, even though I said nothing on the topic when placing my order. They simply assumed that I didn't want cheese on my tacos or dressing on my salad because my wife asked them to leave it off hers. These days, she oftentimes makes a point of jestfully feigning envy at
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Exactly. A blogger I follow has a kid with a dairy allergy. When he was four, they took him to the doctor's office to do a controlled test to gauge the severity of the allergy. The doctor started with a single teaspoon of milk. After swallowing it, the kid apparently had time to say, "Mommy, I feel weird", before immediately passing out and going into anaphylactic shock. To say the least, he has a severe allergy.
As I said in my original post, I don't appreciate people who make my wife's life difficult by fa
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By the time she got back to the West, she hadn't had cow's milk in over two years, so her body had lost the ability to process lactose entirely, leaving her well and truly lactose intolerant at that point.
This doesn't sound right to me. You can't prevent lactose intolerance by drinking more milk -- if that worked then I wouldn't be lactose intolerant today. By the same token, you can't induce lactose intolerance by removing lactose.
Your body will produce lactase according to your genes. Humans are weird that so many of us continue to produce it through adulthood, but even so less than half of us do. Most mammals lose it shortly after weaning. It's normal for humans to lose it right around the beginning
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You can't prevent lactose intolerance by drinking more milk -- if that worked then I wouldn't be lactose intolerant today. By the same token, you can't induce lactose intolerance by removing lactose.
So, yes and no. You're right that you can't prevent it by drinking milk, but drinking milk does indeed prevent one cause of it. Swap "lactose intolerance" for "malnutrition" or some other condition that can be caused by a deficiency. If I suggested that failing to eat regularly could result in malnutrition and you rebutted that you knew someone suffering from malnutrition despite them eating regularly, it'd be fallacious to conclude that I was wrong about a lack of eating causing malnutrition based on what
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We’re neither apologizing for you, nor do we have an issue with you making a choice to not consume dairy. That’s perfectly fine. And I’m fine with people being lactose intolerant too, regardless of the reason. What I have an issue with are people who claim to have a condition when they don’t, since it makes it harder for people with actual conditions to be taken seriously. If having issues with liars who make my wife’s life more difficult than it needs to be makes me an asshole
I can't say I'm surprised (Score:5, Funny)
The Lone Star Tick joins a long list of blood-sucking parasites from Texas. Most of the others, however, have been politicians.
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The Lone Star Tick joins a long list of blood-sucking parasites from Texas. Most of the others, however, have been politicians.
However: More of them, at least the politician type, come from California.
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No, he thinks your response is lame because it actually is lame.
Here's what you did: steal my comment, substitute your own bete noir, then flatter yourself that you're clever.
You aren't.
I bet you think, "I know you are but what am I?" is the heart and soul of witty repartee.
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Ticks will save the planet (Score:2)
We all know we eat too much meat for the practice to be sustainable, but even once one admit it, it is not easy to give it up.
But here come ticks to the rescue. Once allergic to meat it is much easier to become vegan. Ticks will save the planet!
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We all know we eat too much meat for the practice to be sustainable, but even once one admit it, it is not easy to give it up.
This is true or untrue depending on where you live. Or are you aggregating all people across the globe into a single entity? Seems unfair to deprive a sparsely populated area because other areas maxed out their population. That would put an interesting spin on the immigration debate though.
Hello? (Score:2)
Your name is liquid_schwartz and you made no joke or reference to the "Lone Star" tick name.
Granted it's spelled "Lone Starr" in the movie, but still.
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Obviously, the thing to do is to start eating ticks. Ignore the tiny cries of "SPOON!"
Mysterious acquired allergies (Score:2)
I have always liked all seafood (yes, even uni), but about ten years ago, with no warning, I developed an allergy to mussels. Could this have come from some random insect bite?
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Uni is an odd one. I've tried it and I still don't know if I like it or not.
Dogs... (Score:3)
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i sure as fuck hope so. if demand for red meat drops, my bbq addiction will become just that much cheaper.
Re:Eating Meat (Score:4, Informative)
Have you ever seen a wild animal killed and eaten by a wild predator? Torn apart while not necessarily yet dead?
And then there are the wild animals that die of starvation, freezing, disease, etc..
In comparison, most domestic food animals live good lives and die quick deaths.
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most domestic food animals live good lives
Have you ever been in a battery cage warehouse? The noise is deafening. The stench will likely make you vomit.
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I don't know why batteries would need cages, mine are mostly immobile with a few exceptions, but no - I haven't.
I have however been to places with free range cows where the noise also can be deafening periodically and the stench is a bit rich (I don't vomit easily), but then the animals have chosen to congregate to a certain sport so not the noise nor the aroma can be too bad for the animals involved.
I've also visited many places where birds choose to live in groups, ducks recently and sea birds of differen
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[Yorkshire accent] Well we had it tough ...
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And then there are the wild animals that die of starvation, freezing, disease, etc..
That was normal for humans too until recently. Until well into civilisation, made possible by farming, and using domesticated animals.