Alpha Gal syndrome only pertains to red meat from 4 legged animals with hoofs ( excluding monkeys) and that would be pork, beef, lamb, venison, elk, goat, rabbit, reindeers and other four legged animals with hoofs as they have complex alpha galactose carbohydrate which are not found in birds, duck, turkey chicken as well as human beings, so when a lone star tick bites a 4 legged animal with hoofs, their saliva would have the complex carbohydrate alpha galactose which is transferred to a human being like me when they bite me. That complex carbohydrate get injected into my body as an allergen, and I will react by producing antibody, clinically will and can have delayed anaphylaxis called alpha gal syndrome. Patients are told not to eat any red meat from these animals and to avoid milk, ice cream cheese gelatin if their numbers are h high. Initially, I was told to avoid milk but can eat cheese, However, I had some almond float ( made with gelatin twice) and I did react very severely. After af ew weeks, I am allowed to use regular milk in my coffee and I do eat cheese.
However, I have a very complex body in that I suffered from hives, bronchospasm ( asthmatic attacks) when exposed to certain allergen thruout my life. I react to all kinds of insects, grass, fragrance, cats etc etc and cannot eat raw carrots, peaches unless canned, cooked, watermelon, cantaloupe etc.
Last year , a test became available for laboratories and allergist( under study for years) which can show whether oneâs chronic urticaria ( hives) is allergic or the so called non allergic urticaria. When the test result is very high like mine,(10 being top normal, beyond 10, it is considered autoimmune. Mine is 25) they consider it as autoimmune disease in which our normal immune system, instead of protecting our body against invading microorganism such as virus or bacteria, which under normal conditions cannot be triggered to produce antibody that attack our own body cells, made a mistake and attack the very cells they are meant to protect. There are many varied autoimmune disease. of which my current type 2 diabetes is one ( I have never been a pre diabetic, do not have the physique or the lifestyle of a diabetic, was 100 lbs soaking wet) , yet I developed type 2 diabetes when under stress 4 years ago. Gluten enteropathy is a type of autoimmune disease.
My test shows that I not only have very high alpa gal result ( not seen by my allergist) but I also have positive antibodies against pork, beef lamb. So, whether I am reacting bec of alpha gal or auto immune disease against the last 2 meals of a small bowl of almond float made with gelatin - (6tablespoon spoon of gelatin , sugar and 24 ounce of eval milk was my recipe), my allergist cannot tell. Of course, I had a bowl yesterday but had dinner in a restaurant and cannot be 100% sure that my food was not contaminated.
During my husbandâs lifetime, I was very careful in not contaminating his food with gluten. I often had separate utensils and cookware which are difficult to clean ( pasta cooker, waffle makers, etc) .
I am lucky that my poms cannot suffer from alpha gal.
Hope this in the simple laymanâs term explains to whoever is interested in the topic.
