Helpful Resources for People with Alpha-Gal Allergy

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 a relatively new food allergy caused by the lone star tick that’s largely isolated to the Eastern United States.

And so I learned many lessons the hard way. For example, I didn’t know to check my vitamin supplements for gelatin. So it took a while to identify my vitamin c chewable and my vitamin d supplement as the cause of an allergic reaction. And I had no idea that some winemakers use gelatin in the clarification process causing me to feel extra crummy any time I enjoyed a glass of my one-time favorite weekday wine.

These are the resources I wish I’d known about in March 2021, when I first began navigating the vegan + eggs + poultry + fish diet that was forced on me by a lone star tick bite.