The syndrome, which can make you allergic to red meat, is spread by a type of tick that has become more common in Rhode Island. What should you know to stay safe?

Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.

It’s almost summer, which means barbecues and beach days, but also ticks. You probably know that ticks carry Lyme disease, but now they’re also spreading a disease that you might not have heard of…

Meg Talikoff and Nat Hardy from our Possibly Team are here to tell us what we need to know. Hey guys!

Nat Hardy: Hey there!

Meg Talikoff: Hi Megan!

Megan Hall: So, before we talk about this other mystery disease, can we go over how ticks spread illness in general?

Meg Talikoff: Sure! Let’s hear it from Dr. Thomas Mather, a professor at The University of Rhode Island  who is one of the most recognized tick experts in the country.

Thomas Mather: When a tick feeds, it doesn’t just suck, it spits and sucks. And when they initially spit, they secrete a cement substance so that they’re stuck in your skin.

Nat Hardy: While they’re there, they transfer everything in their saliva into our blood. Including their diseases.

Megan Hall: And that’s how we get infections like Lyme Disease?

Nat Hardy: Exactly.

Megan Hall: So, what’s the deal with this other sickness?

Meg Talikoff: You’re talking about alpha-gal syndrome. That’s alpha as in Alpha Male, and gal as in gal pal.

Nat Hardy: It’s kind of a cool name. But everything else about it is terrible.

Meg Talikoff: First off, it’s not a bacteria or a virus, it’s an allergy.

Nat Hardy: If a tick with alpha-gal bites you it can make you allergic to a specific type of sugar called alpha-gal. And that sugar is found in most products that come from mammals..

Megan Hall: So a tick bite could make you allergic to meat or cheese?

Nat Hardy: Exactly.

Megan Hall: And how seriously allergic? Is it a headache situation or is it dangerous?

Meg Talikoff: It varies from person to person. But often it’s extremely serious. A lot of people learn that they have alpha-gal syndrome when they go into allergic shock.

Nat Hardy: One scary thing is that it doesn’t kick in right away. You eat red meat, and you feel fine. But then a few hours later, your body freaks out.

Meg Talikoff: Stephanie Turner from Bristol, Rhode Island had her first serious alpha-gal experience in 2018.

Stephanie Turner: On June 7th, I had a steak salad. And I woke up at 3 am. I had like a histamine rush, so I could feel this heat just go *woosh* and then I was just broken out in hives, and getting sick to my stomach. I woke up my husband, at three in the morning, and I honestly was like, I can’t breathe.

Megan Hall: That’s terrifying. Is she okay now?

Nat Hardy: She’s figured out how to stay safe. But alpha-gal really changed her life.

Meg Talikoff: Going out to eat can be nearly impossible for her.

Stephanie Turner: When I get a chicken bahn mi, and it says chicken pâté, it doesn’t say chicken pâté made with pork fat.

Nat Hardy: She was also a huge traveler before her diagnosis.

Stephanie Turner: It absolutely breaks my heart that I will not be able to experience a culture through their food.

Meg Talikoff: She has to cook separate meals for her family and herself every night. And she’s learned the hard way that mammal products are in things you’d never think of.

Nat Hardy: Like, people use bone char to filter sugar. And there are mammal products in all sorts of over the counter medicines.

Megan Hall: Wow. I can’t believe I hadn’t heard of alpha-gal. Is it rare?

Meg Talikoff: For a long time, it was. Now, not as much.

Megan Hall: Why?

Nat Hardy: Alpha-gal is spread by lone star ticks. And lone star ticks didn’t used to be that common in New England.

Meg Talikoff: In Rhode Island, they were mostly confined to a small and isolated place called Prudence Island.

Megan Hall: So what changed?

Nat Hardy: Thomas thinks it’s all about deer.

Thomas Mather: All of the types of ticks that are increasing, rely on white tailed deer as a reproductive host.

Meg Talikoff: And so as deer became more common throughout Rhode Island, Lone star ticks have moved from Prudence Island to the mainland, too.

Megan Hall: So what do we do?

Nat Hardy: The same stuff you do to prevent Lyme disease. Do daily tick checks, don’t walk through tall grass.

Meg Talikoff: And consider spraying your clothes with a tick repellent called permethrin. It lasts through 70 rounds of laundry and it really works.

Nat Hardy: If you do get bitten by a tick, you can send a picture of it to Thomas’s lab. Just look up URI TickSpotters.

Meg Talikoff: An expert will tell you what type of tick it is, and what the best next step is for you.

Megan Hall:Thanks, Meg and Nat!

That’s it for today. You can find more information, or ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, at askpossibly.org. You can also subscribe to Possibly wherever you get your podcasts or follow us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, X, or Bluesky at  “askpossibly”

Possibly is a co-production of Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society, Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative, and the Public’s Radio.

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