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A tick bite can make you allergic to red meat
Wall Street Journal ^ | August 7, 2014

Posted on 08/09/2014 7:40:55 AM PDT by Second Amendment First

A bug can turn you into a vegetarian, or at least make you swear off red meat. Doctors across the nation are seeing a surge of sudden meat allergies in people bitten by a certain kind of tick.

This bizarre problem was only discovered a few years ago but is growing as the ticks spread from the Southwest and the East to more parts of the United States. In some cases, eating a burger or a steak has landed people in the hospital with severe allergic reactions.

Few patients seem aware of the risk, and even doctors are slow to recognize it. As one allergist who has seen 200 cases on New York's Long Island said, "Why would someone think they're allergic to meat when they've been eating it their whole life?"

The culprit is the Lone Star tick, named for Texas, a state famous for meaty barbecues. The tick is now found throughout the South and the eastern half of the United States.

(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: tick
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To: Ditter
I have lived in Texas my entire life and I have seen many ticks, on myself and on my dogs, I have never seen a tick with a white spot on it.

Same here as far as living here all my life. I remember them in Lee county where I grew up. We had cattle, hogs, sheep, dogs, cats, chickens, turkeys and other animals. I've had those ticks bite me when I was a kid.

61 posted on 08/09/2014 8:04:24 PM PDT by Arrowhead1952 (Guns are like parachutes. If you need one and don't have one, you'll probably never need one again.)
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To: Arrowhead1952

You have seen the ticks with the white spot? Where is Lee County?


62 posted on 08/09/2014 8:57:16 PM PDT by Ditter
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To: Ditter

Lee county is about 70 miles east of Austin and about 100 miles west of Houston. Giddings is the county seat. We called those ticks Lone Star ticks in the 60s.


63 posted on 08/10/2014 5:19:32 AM PDT by Arrowhead1952 (Guns are like parachutes. If you need one and don't have one, you'll probably never need one again.)
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To: Arrowhead1952

So you have been bitten by a Lone Star Tick and you are not allergic to meat?


64 posted on 08/10/2014 6:48:38 AM PDT by Ditter
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To: Ditter

I’ve been bitten many times by Lone Star ticks. I have had tick sickness twice since moving to MO 7 years ago. The first time the sickness cleared up quick with doxy. This most recent, doxy did nothing. I just copied/pasted the below from a TN Gov site on ticks. This is worrisome IMO.

“The lone star tick is not believed to transmit the bacteria that causes Lyme disease (Borrelia burgdorferi),
but it may be associated with a related bacteria species that has not been completely identified.”


65 posted on 08/10/2014 7:48:43 AM PDT by roofgoat
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To: Pete from Shawnee Mission

I love living here in MO, but this state does have some evil insects. My first 2 months here I had a bad case of chiggers. Had no idea what the heck they were.

Chiggers, ticks, Brown Recluse.


66 posted on 08/10/2014 7:59:27 AM PDT by roofgoat
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To: roofgoat

So did the tick bite make you allergic to meat?


67 posted on 08/10/2014 8:05:45 AM PDT by Ditter
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To: roofgoat; Diana in Wisconsin

Chiggers are awful. I have never seen one, but I do see their bites!

Wisconsin; Black Flies, Deer Flies, Winnabago flies (you breath them and choke,) mosquitos. They aren’t everywhere, but they are good reasons to fish in the center of the lake!

Illinois; Democrat politicians. Only escape is to move to another state.


68 posted on 08/10/2014 8:28:08 AM PDT by Pete from Shawnee Mission
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

Most excellent!
Enjoy the game & Regards to you and your significant other!


69 posted on 08/10/2014 8:32:35 AM PDT by Pete from Shawnee Mission
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To: Second Amendment First

About five years ago a colleague of mine collapsed in his bathroom at home. It looked like a heart attack or anaphylaxis so 9-1-1 was called, ambulance etc. It took a few weeks to figure out what happened. A few days prior he had removed a tick and they had burgers the night of the reaction. It’s real. Apparently some folks improve over several months and can resume eating meat.


70 posted on 08/10/2014 8:41:07 AM PDT by IFly4Him
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To: Pete from Shawnee Mission

Your mention of leeches brought back an old and disturbing memory. My husband had to go into a shallow pond to help a cow that was bogged down in the mud. he came home, got into the bath tub and discovered he had leeches all over his body. He started screaming for me to come and get them off of him. Creepy, those were the only leeches I have ever seen.


71 posted on 08/10/2014 8:45:26 AM PDT by Ditter
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To: Ditter

no, just made me sick as hell the last few months. I had started working out pretty hard prior to the bite and felt great. Then after the bite it weakened me and I got the arthritis/joint pain, constant fatigue and headaches. Numbness too. Luckily no brain fog and I have been eating red meat like it’s free!


72 posted on 08/10/2014 8:49:22 AM PDT by roofgoat
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To: Pete from Shawnee Mission

Pete (and Diana from WI)

Regarding black flies. Wife and I were camping on Rock Island (just north of Washington Island). We were the only campers there. We decided to walk the perimeter of Rock Island one morning. We sprayed on Deep Woods off.

Halfway through the walk we were attacked by black flies, a small swarm. We ran forever and they followed us. Kept spraying the Off on us as we ran. Like a scene from Hitchcock’s “The Birds”. But worse.


73 posted on 08/10/2014 8:55:06 AM PDT by roofgoat
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To: roofgoat

A friend of mine was bitten by a tick on Cape Cod. She had all of the symptoms of that tick disease (name escapes me right now) but blood tests said she didn’t have it.

I hope you are doing better.

This new tick disease scares me because at 74 years old, the only health issues I have ever had, have been allergies, some quite severe. My dogs get ticks occasionally so now I will be extra careful to check them.


74 posted on 08/10/2014 8:59:04 AM PDT by Ditter
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To: Ditter
So you have been bitten by a Lone Star Tick and you are not allergic to meat?

My mom, dad, and both my sisters were likely bitten by those ticks. Mom and dad have both passed on, but both sisters and I love red meat. I call BS on this study.

75 posted on 08/10/2014 7:07:45 PM PDT by Arrowhead1952 (Guns are like parachutes. If you need one and don't have one, you'll probably never need one again.)
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To: Arrowhead1952

I have been bitten by plenty of ticks but to my knowledge none of them had a white spot on their back.

About 2 or 3 years ago my dogs got ticks and I found 2 ticks in my bed but MrD and I were not bitten.


76 posted on 08/10/2014 7:54:31 PM PDT by Ditter
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To: Ditter
This is an image of the Lone Star tick. I remember seeing a lot of them, especially on sheep when we had to shear them. I used to take a stick pin, heat it with a lighter and stick it into the white spot. Really made them squirm. Those legs were going 100 mph, but it was stuck to the pin.


77 posted on 08/10/2014 8:01:15 PM PDT by Arrowhead1952 (Guns are like parachutes. If you need one and don't have one, you'll probably never need one again.)
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To: Ditter

I suppose it would be! In boy scouts it was more like “Cool, whats that! Let me look!
Don’t take it off yet!”

Leeches still have medicinal purposes. If someone loses a finger or limb and the reattach it, it swells up and cuts off the blood flow. They use leeches to thin the blood keep it flowing through the reattached part.


78 posted on 08/10/2014 8:06:50 PM PDT by Pete from Shawnee Mission
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