Allergies to red meat emerge, an attack launched by vegans? … well not exactly

Over the year, the hot topic in the news is an emerging red meat allergy in America. An allergy that those suffering from were not born with, but rather developed. The many questions you might be asking right now include what exactly causes it, how does it work and more importantly, is this somehow all linked to vegan CIA members who seek to eliminate all meat eaters?

Read on to find out!

So what exactly is red this red meat allergy plaguing the trending page of many news sources? This allergy is more specifically called alpha-gal allergy and is linked to an allergic response to the alpha gal sugar molecule (galactose-alpha-1,3-galactose). This molecule is found in all mammalian meat with the exception of certain species of monkey and more importantly, humans.

Alpha-gal is molecule found in high abundance in mammalian meat. Therefore those who find themselves unlucky enough to be allergic to Alpha-gal must avoid almost all red meats, hence why an Alpha-gal allergy is nicknamed the "red meat allergy."

But what is an allergic reaction?

Simply put, an allergic reaction is caused by an incorrectly triggered immune response which detects the allergen, in this case alpha-gal, as a dangerous pathogen (such as a virus or bacterium). This causes extreme responses, such as hives, swelling, difficulty breathing, and abdominal pains as muscles contract and in the worst case scenario, anaphylactic shock.

So what induces the Alpha-gal allergy?

Over the past months scientists have luckily been able to link a potential culprit: none other than the most disgusting, and revolting creature, the tick! (nasty). As if a tick bite was not bad enough scientists believe that a specific species known as the lone star tick is responsible for transmitting alpha-gal into the human body. The person unlucky enough to be introduced to this molecule will slowly develop an immune response against alpha-gal and thus an allergy to red meat.

The lone star tick

As if this was not scary enough, scientists still are not really sure what causes this allergy to develop in humans at a molecular level, thus there is no real cure for it at the moment. However, the one major positive to take away from this article is that the outbreak of meat allergies MOST likely is not linked to vegan CIA members, hopefully.

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