Helpful Alpha-gal Resources

While my primary care physician was familiar with alpha-gal syndrome and didn’t hesitate to order an alpha-gal syndrome blood test upon my request, she didn’t have much advice to give me when the test results were positive. I was told to avoid mammalian meat, but I already knew that about the alpha-gal allergy. 

Primary care physicians tend to be generalists who know a bit about a whole lot of medical conditions. But they aren’t typically experts in any specific area, especially when it comes to a relatively new food allergy caused by the lone star tick that’s largely isolated to one half of the country. So it’s no surprise that the CDC shared these results from a survey of 1,500 primary care physicians, pediatricians, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners: 

• 42% of the healthcare workers had not heard of alpha-gal syndrome,
• 35% reported they were “not too confident” in their ability to diagnose or manage patients with AGS, and
• among those who were aware of AGS, 48% said they did not know the correct diagnostic tests to order (Hint: It’s alpha-gal panel test code 10555 at Quest Diagnostics and test code 650003 at Labcorp)