How to Become a Vegetarian Against Your Will
The Lone Star Tick and the Sudden Emergence of Alpha-Gal Syndrome - Part I
In 2007, an allergist named Erin Mcgintee saw a new patient, Dave, who was recovering from a mysterious illness. An otherwise healthy man in his mid-thirties, Dave was wrenched from his sleep the previous night by a trifecta of abdominal cramps, a full-body rash, and a vicious bout of nausea. Of the three, nausea had the tightest grip. In an effort to make it to the toilet before his dinner made its second but far-less-appetizing appearance of the night, Dave jumped out of bed and took a step toward the bathroom. But one step is as many as he would take.
After regaining consciousness, Dave went to see Dr. McGintee. McGintee was sure that she was looking at a severe allergic reaction, otherwise known as anaphylaxis, which is the body’s multi-system response to any foreign substance or pathogen that it deems a threat. In most cases, anaphylaxis presents itself in the presence of an allergen like pollen, shellfish, dust, bee venom, tree nuts, or any otherwise-innocuous substance. But Dave’s case was abnormal. He didn’t have any known allergies. Even stranger, his attack had occurred in the middle of the night, hours after he had gone to bed. Almost everyone who experiences anaphylaxis begins presenting symptoms of a reaction only minutes after interacting with the inciting allergen. Dave’s case didn’t add up.
Still, McGintee’s preliminary assessment of the symptoms was a sure-footed one. This was clearly an allergic reaction to something—but the identity of the culprit was less conspicuous. Without a specialist like McGintee, Dave may have spent months in medical purgatory. But fortunately for him, McGintee was familiar with a collection of similar cases that baffled U.S. clinicians throughout the early aughts. Ultimately, she determined that Dave’s affliction was most likely a rare allergy named alpha-gal syndrome.
Alpha gal is not a justice league character. It’s actually not a superhero at all. Alpha-gal, or galactose-α-1,3-galactose, is a sugar molecule that is found in most red meats. When you swallow a piece of meat—whether it’s beef, pork, lamb, or venison—you’re also swallowing the alpha-gal molecule. Typically, this isn’t a problem. However, in rare cases, where alpha-gal is directly introduced into the bloodstream, the immune system is stirred into action, producing alpha-gal-specific antibodies, which then lie in wait, attacking the molecule at the next opportunity. The uncommon nature of this particular allergy, including the delayed reaction it produces, makes it a difficult one to diagnose. Many cases, at least at first, are incorrectly attributed to other allergies or autoimmune disorders that are known to cause the body to attack healthy cells by mistake. But as cases of alpha-gal syndrome increased over the last two decades, and doctors became more familiar with its symptoms, clinicians like Dr. McGintee became better at accurately making alpha-gal diagnoses. But where did this allergy come from? How could so many people be allergic to red meat? And why had no one heard of it before now?
It’s really hot. And not just here but everywhere. Last week, it was 104 F in the United Kingdom, which is the country’s hottest recorded temperature since record-keeping began in 1659. In India, March and April were the two hottest months the subcontinent has ever seen. At one point, it was so hot that a colossal landfill just outside of Mumbai known as Deonar caught fire and cloaked the city of Mumbai in a putrid cloud of smoke that could be seen from space, shuttering schools and businesses for six days.
Nearly 7,000 miles away, face-melting heatwaves also rolled across the American Midwest. It was 110 F in Houston, TX, just over a week ago. These are extreme temperatures, but they’re not once-a-century anomalies. They’re a part of a warming trend that we’re just beginning to see the effects of. The average global temperature has increased every decade since 1880 (about 0.5 F total). But more alarmingly, the rate at which the temperature is increasing today is twice what it was a century ago. By 2100, scientists project the planet’s atmospheric temperature will be anywhere from 1 C to 5 C hotter than it is now.
This is bad news for a few reasons. A one-degree increase in Earth’s average temperature may not seem like much, but it’s enough to raise the height of the planet’s oceans by 2.3 meters, or eight feet, which will displace nearly 500 million people who live in coastal regions. Major droughts and generally unpredictable global rainfall will put further pressure on the already strained agricultural centers of the developing world, adding to the number of climate refugees who will be forced to leave behind lands that are either sterile, underwater, or both. These individuals will then turn to wealthy nations for food security, which will further destabilize global social, economic, and political systems. This is currently the best-case scenario. The reality for humans will likely be much worse. But not all of Earth’s organisms will fair as poorly.
If ticks are capable of love, the object of their affection would most likely be any verdant patch of land that is warm, damp, and dark. We know ticks prefer this kind of environment because it’s exactly where they are found. As summers grow longer, wetter, and hotter, ticks will be among the primary beneficiaries.
In most of the country, tick season—the time of year when populations of adult ticks reach their greatest numbers—stretches from early spring to late fall. But, in general, the window is getting wider. As temperate climates see warmer weather, tick seasons are stretched by weeks or even months. In the hottest parts of the U.S, ticks have always thrived year-round. But a growing number of states outside this “year-round” goldilocks zone are now being annexed into the region as rising temperatures cause its borders to expand. Soon, there may be no part of the country and no time of the year that is tick-free.
Among the thousands of American tick species that will benefit from a warming climate, the lone star tick stands out. For one, it has a defining physical characteristic: the adult female has a white dot that sits directly in the center of her back, like a wayward drop of paint that just happened to find the tick in the right place at the right time. But looks aside, the tick is of great interest to humans for another reason. It also happens to be the primary vector of alpha-gal syndrome.
Dang. I had a GIANT steak last night!