Alpha-Gal Syndrome: Beyond the Tick
Alpha-Gal Syndrome: Beyond the Tick Dr. Robert W. Malone The accepted story of alpha-gal syndrome (AGS) is simple. A tick bites a person. During feeding, the tick introduces alpha-gal, a carbohydrate found in most mammals but not humans, along with a complex mixture of salivary proteins that alter the immune response. The immune system becomes sensitized. Months or years later, the patient develops allergic reactions to beef, pork, lamb, dairy products, gelatin, medications, or other mammalian-derived substances. The story is elegant. It is also incomplete and best treated as one of many alternative hypotheses for the cause of the clinical syndrome known as alpha-gal syndrome. The first question is obvious. If ticks cause alpha-gal syndrome, why did the disease only appear or be recognized in the late 2000s? The lone star tick did not suddenly appear in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, or the southeastern United States. It has occupied those regions for centuries. Millions of...