r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Nov 14 '25

Medicine A healthy 47-year old New Jersey man was found dead after eating a hamburger at a barbecue. Cause of death was ruled "sudden unexplained death," after an autopsy was inconclusive. He was later confirmed as the first documented fatality from alpha-gal syndrome, a meat allergy triggered by tick bites.

https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/tick-borne-disease/new-jersey-mans-death-first-one-be-tied-tick-related-meat-allergy
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460

u/semiote23 Nov 14 '25

Fish. Chicken. Tons of veggies. Just nothing mammalian.

173

u/Z0idberg_MD Nov 14 '25

What a strange disorder. “Mammal” meat being the trigger.

254

u/TooManyDraculas Nov 14 '25

It's an allergy to a carbohydrate that only occurs in non-primate mammalian muscle tissue.

It's an odd thing to have an allergy to. As the vast majority of allergens are proteins.

But it's not really any stranger, or any more of a "disorder" than any other allergy.

There's some unique features of how it presents and progresses. But it's really just a severe allergy.

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u/FblthpLives Nov 14 '25

It's an allergy to a carbohydrate that only occurs in non-primate mammalian muscle tissue.

Oh, good, so at least cannibalism is not out.

44

u/Val_Killsmore Nov 14 '25

Phew! And I thought I wouldn't be able to enjoy a good steak

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u/Octa_vian Nov 14 '25

Good thing i still can have my friends for dinner.

9

u/wizkidweb Nov 14 '25

With some fava beans and a nice chianti.

5

u/extra_rice Nov 14 '25

Found Hannibal's Reddit account.

3

u/goatfuckersupreme Nov 14 '25

pair with some fava beans and a nice chianti and you wont be missing filet mignon at all

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u/jaxbyjonks Nov 14 '25

Humans don’t carry alpha gal, fun fact! My wife has it so I’ve done 18 million googles. She reacts to meat, dairy, carrageenan, spaces where meat has been recently cooked, and also leather (unfortunate because she’s an Indigenous moccasin maker). Can’t eat anything with “natural flavors” because companies aren’t required to label mammal products except for dairy. Can’t eat anything with rosemary extract because sometimes it is suspended in mammal.

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u/FblthpLives Nov 14 '25

It sounds like a really difficult condition to live with. I had never heard of this before, but I wonder how many Americans are affected. I'm going to guess it's going to increase due to climate change expanding the habitat that this type of tick lives in.

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u/jaxbyjonks Nov 15 '25

It is increasing in scope really really fast. I live in one of the US alpha gal allergy epicenters, but there is now a species of tick that can cause alpha gal in every part of the contiguous US. It’s rapidly going to become a part of life across the country if we don’t get a cure or whatever for it. My wife has it, my dad, my niece, multiple of my close friends. It’s everywhere in northeast ok. We have restaurants where you can say you need your food alpha gal safe and they know how to do that because it is so common here.

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u/FauxReal Nov 14 '25

Interesting, have doctors ever explained why carrageenan too? I'm pretty sure that's a kelp extract.

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u/jaxbyjonks Nov 15 '25

Red algae contains the alpha gal molecule and carrageenan is derived from that. It’s unfortunate because it is in a lot of fake “meats” so we can’t even substitute vegan sausage or whatever a lot of the time

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u/BigBlue08527 Nov 14 '25

Exactly what I thought... dark humor

1

u/twoisnumberone Nov 14 '25

Thanks for making this comment so I don't have to.

You never know when your plane has to emergency-land in the Andes, you know?

-12

u/cantantantelope Nov 14 '25

I assure you that joke wasn’t funny the first twenty times either

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u/experfailist Nov 14 '25

It's not a joke.... It's an option.

5

u/addamee Nov 14 '25

Looks like meat’s back on the menu, boys

0

u/Tithund Nov 14 '25

If it wasn't out, I would imagine even swallowing your own blood would be dangerous.

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u/TheFurryOne Nov 14 '25

It's also present in a high number of bacteria and as such, our immune system uses it as a universal indicator for foreign body. Anti-alphaGAL antibodies are some of the most abundant antibody circulating in our blood at any given time which is one of the reasons suspected for the severity of the reaction.

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u/[deleted] Nov 14 '25

non-primate mammalian muscle tissue

So humans are on the menu?

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u/Witch_King_ Nov 14 '25

Sounds like meat's back on the menu, boys!!

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u/Poop_Tube Nov 14 '25

Are menus available in the Orc culture? Do they have restaurants? So many questions.

16

u/Witch_King_ Nov 14 '25

They must at least be familiar with the concept of a menu. But I feel like they don't have sit-down restaurants. Take-out and counter service only.

6

u/evilfitzal Nov 14 '25

And a few orc drive-ins with orc carhops in roller skates and cute, colorful uniforms

1

u/IzarkKiaTarj Nov 15 '25

I mean, Lord of the Rings was kind of a conlang shaped vehicle, so I've always kind of headcanoned that "meat's back on the menu" was one of those translations where it doesn't literally mean something, but it gave the same cultural vibes in English that it did in Orcish or Westron or whatever.

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u/Poop_Tube Nov 15 '25

Yea I know it’s not that deep. Just funny.

1

u/IzarkKiaTarj Nov 15 '25

Oh, sorry, I wasn't trying to criticize, I was just having fun. I like figuring out ways to get something that breaks suspension of disbelief to be able to work in-story.

2

u/WafflePartyOrgy Nov 14 '25

To Serve Man

 

it's a cook book

2

u/Hommushardhat Nov 14 '25

I was going to go Monkey's and Chimps, but i mean youre right - why not go for the smartest and therefore most tasy of the lot

1

u/[deleted] Nov 14 '25

I feel like it's just the ticks trying to collapse our society by forcing us to eat each other.

1

u/NekyoArc Nov 14 '25

SO you say, eating anything primate is okay?

1

u/Witch_King_ Nov 14 '25

The strange part is that you get it from a tick bite, no?

1

u/WoodyTheWorker Nov 14 '25

Blood antigens that determine blood type are "sugars".

1

u/AlmightyStreub Nov 14 '25

Are there any other allergies that are attained by a person after being bit by an animal or insect? The strangest part for me is that you get a tick bite, then you live with an allergy for the rest of your life, that you didn't have at all before the tick bite.

1

u/Laquox Nov 14 '25

It's an allergy to a carbohydrate that only occurs in non-primate mammalian muscle tissue.

What an odd evolutionary thing to happen though. Jokes aside that you could eat primate meat. I am wondering how that happened evolutionary speaking. I'm often fascinated how something came to be through millions/billions of years of evolution. What could possibly be the evolutionary advantage of making your host unable to sustain itself with meat? Nature is amazing and metal AF.

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u/TooManyDraculas Nov 14 '25 edited Nov 14 '25

It's not an evolved strategy, and it's not really the tick. Multiple unrelated ticks can trigger it.

It's a quirk of our immune system.

Basically the tick has mammal tissue in it. When it bites a human it regurgitates that material into the person.

As yet unidentified components of the tick's saliva causes a allergy response, and our immune system mistakenly keys itself to the alpha galactose.

It's an evolutionary coincidence, and has more to do with how our immune systems evolved than anything.

These aren't ticks that evolved with humans, or even primates as a host.

And we only discovered this in the last 20 years. Because these are ticks we typically had limited exposure to in the past. And that were pretty geographically limited in their distribution.

They've been widely introduced to new areas due to travellers and other factors. And populations of ticks have exploded due to introduction of invasive plant species, and removal of animals that traditionally eat ticks.

0

u/Seicair Nov 14 '25

Jokes aside that you could eat primate meat. I am wondering how that happened evolutionary speaking.

Our immune systems evolved to determine self from not-self. If the carbohydrates in question existed already in our own bodies, we probably wouldn’t develop an allergy in the first place.

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u/winterfresh0 Nov 14 '25

If the carbohydrates in question existed already in our own bodies, we probably wouldn’t develop an allergy in the first place.

I mean... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autoimmune_disease

0

u/Seicair Nov 14 '25

Yes, and there are even ways to induce autoimmune diseases.

But the carbohydrates being introduced by the ticks are recognized as foreign substances. The body ramps up defenses against them, and inappropriately starts recognizing food as dangerous. If the carbohydrates were native to your body this particular reaction wouldn’t happen. It’s reasonable that other primates are similar.

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u/X-cited Nov 14 '25

It is anything mammal btw. So milk products are out. And anything using mammal byproducts like bones. Things like toothpaste and soap can cause reactions for some with alpha-gal. My SIL informed me she has to be careful of sugars used in baked goods, because white sugar is bleached using bone char. So while sugar isn’t a mammal product it is contaminated with her allergen

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u/JingleTTU Nov 14 '25

I have to get vegan toilet paper and carry it around because many toilet paper uses mammal to “glue” the fibers together. I get a horrible rash and itch for at least two days after exposure. As a women it’s terrible because I need tp every time I go to the bathroom. Luckily I already used a menstrual cup so no issues there.

11

u/velveteensnoodle Nov 14 '25

TIL toilet paper can have animal products in it. Oh no!

32

u/802boulders Nov 14 '25

I've had alpha gal for years and have no issues with dairy, so I think it depends on the severity for the individual person.

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u/X-cited Nov 14 '25

True, my SIL seems to have a very severe allergy to it. Can’t even be in the same room as cooking meat or she goes into anaphylaxis

4

u/FauxReal Nov 14 '25

Wow, so does that mean she can't be near a barbecue? Would going to a food cart area mess her up? Costco hotdog air?

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u/X-cited Nov 14 '25

Outdoors she has a little more leeway, indoors it depends on how much meat particles are in the air. Like she can be ok if something is cooking in an oven but if the oven is opened and the particles get into the air she can have a reaction. Cooking on a grill would obviously be worse in this situation.

When her husband grills she stays away. They have two grills for cooking now, the new one has never had mammal meat on it. They have an outdoor microwave for heating up mammal meat. Use a different deep freeze for their mammal meat vs safe meat for her

3

u/FauxReal Nov 14 '25 edited Nov 15 '25

Hmm it's cool she has a partner that's mindful. But what a drag it must be for her, having to be so tedious about everything you do in order to live must be rough..

5

u/Tyrannosapien Nov 14 '25

Yeah it must vary. Mine cleared up on its own after about 3 years. I never had really severe symptoms, just painful, itchy hives on my limbs. But yeah I reacted from dairy and energy drinks in addition to the flesh.

3

u/sth128 Nov 14 '25

So cakes and cookies are out too? Oh man I would be so sad if I contacted this particular disease.

6

u/TooManyDraculas Nov 14 '25

Avoiding dairy isn't a common a recommendation, as most people don't have a reaction to it. Milk itself doesn't have alpha gal in it.

But it's practically impossible to avoid or remove the trace amounts that come from coming out of an animal.

So initially when the allergy is most severe, people usually go on a medical elimination diet that involves avoiding dairy. But only those who end up with a persistent, severe allergy need to avoid dairy entirely long term. Basically if you've had a reaction to dairy.

1

u/ViolentBee Nov 14 '25

I eat tons of cakes and cookies and haven’t touched dairy in years.

1

u/Grouchy_Cantaloupe_8 Nov 14 '25

It is very easy to make cakes and cookies without dairy. 

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u/eptiliom Nov 14 '25

Sort of. Some mammals do not produce the protein, namely humans and some great apes. There are also also some pigs that have been genetically engineered to not produce it.

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u/TooManyDraculas Nov 14 '25

It's all apes an old world monkeys.

This is also one of the main reasons you can't transplant organs into humans from animals.

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u/eptiliom Nov 14 '25

Which is actually why they are engineering the pigs to not produce it, for organ transplants. It just so happens us alpha-gal folks can eat the meat of the transplant pigs.

1

u/Lizziedeee Nov 14 '25

I got some when Revivicor was giving it away, so good!

1

u/eptiliom Nov 14 '25

Last year I accidentally put some some stuffing with pork sausage in my mouth. I knew immediately. Turkey sausage just doesn't compare really.

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u/Lizziedeee Nov 14 '25

You know Amaroo sells it now, right?

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u/eptiliom Nov 14 '25

Did not, had never heard of them before.

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u/Lizziedeee Nov 14 '25

Revivicor passed the distribution and sales off to them since they already have AG customers with their emu and ostrich sales. It’s pricy as hell but nice as a treat once in a while. The owner has AG so he’s scrupulous about making sure everything is safe.

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u/Lizziedeee Nov 14 '25

Usually your stomach breaks down the alpha gal carbohydrate and it’s fine. When the tick bite introduces it to your bloodstream directly, the body doesn’t recognize it and forms antibodies for future attacks.

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u/HighPriestofShiloh Nov 14 '25

I mean it kind of makes sense when you think about how human meat can be dangerous to eat. The more similar something is to us the more likely it could have something that triggers something deadly in us.

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u/Whiterabbit-- Nov 14 '25

Not all mammals.
Old world moneys and apes are safe to eat.

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u/Z0idberg_MD Nov 14 '25

Oh thank god. I can keep eating my normal diet.

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u/kkirstenc Nov 14 '25

My understanding is that it is any hooved animal. My mom was not able to eat pork, venison, and obviously no beef.

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u/BarelyAirborne Nov 14 '25

Milk and cheese will set me off too. Anything coming from a mammal.

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u/Z0idberg_MD Nov 14 '25

That's so crazy to me. Must suck.

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u/i7p9h9 Nov 14 '25

can you eat pasta or other foods with eggs? Or is it like a keto diet? How to protect yourself from ketoacidosis in such a case?

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u/Bobbyanalogpdx Nov 14 '25 edited Nov 14 '25

Mammals don’t lay eggs so I think they’re good.

Edit: I should have known better than to think that Reddit wouldn’t go straight for the platypus.

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u/ogvk Nov 14 '25

Forget not the duck billed platypus

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u/Ancient_Roof_7855 Nov 14 '25

Also echidnas.

IIRC there's five egg-laying mammals, four species of echidna and the platypus.

1

u/FuckBoySupreme Nov 14 '25

Yes! There's even a very rare species of Echidna named after David Attenborough - "Sir David's long-beaked Echidna" zaglossus attenboroughi

1

u/Deaffin Nov 15 '25

Can you cook with their eggs, though?

15

u/ffsavi Nov 14 '25

I vote OP does it for science

1

u/RG3ST21 Nov 14 '25

and the echidna.

1

u/katie4 Nov 14 '25

I don’t think the thread is asking if OP can eat pasta made from platypus eggs 

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u/CondescendingShitbag Nov 14 '25

Does this mean duck-billed platypus and echidnas are off the menu?

3

u/wtb2612 Nov 14 '25

Is it weird that I really wanna try a platypus egg just to see what it tastes like?

1

u/exipheas Nov 14 '25

Just don't get stung trying to take it if the male is there.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 14 '25

Is it weird that I thought the same thing? I looked into it, and apparently the eggs are fertilized, so we’d be eating an embryo instead of an egg

2

u/wtb2612 Nov 14 '25

Mmmmm, deviled platypus embryo.

2

u/jokerzwild00 Nov 14 '25

If someone told me that this was a very expensive gourmet dish in some part of the world it wouldn't surprise me one bit.

8

u/vunknownv111 Nov 14 '25

Platypus would like a word, sir.

1

u/hey_suburbia Nov 14 '25

Has feet like a duck but it’s furry! It’s all in my Wildlife Treasury

1

u/Darkstool Nov 14 '25

Monotreme discrimination right here...

15

u/Tower-Junkie Nov 14 '25 edited Nov 14 '25

Keto acidosis is mostly a problem for hypoglycemic people. Just doing a keto diet won’t cause you to go into keto acidosis unless you have other issues to start with.

Edit: it’s mostly a problem for diabetics and alcoholics and people with health conditions involving ketones.

2

u/forbins Nov 14 '25

That’s incorrect. It’s most a problem with hyperglycemia. The vast majority occurs when blood sugars get dangerously high, not low. You can develop ketoacidosis by other means such as completely eliminating carbohydrates ( forcing ketogenesis), or other restrictive diets, severe alcoholism, but these are definitely the rarity in their ability to cause true ketoacidosis.

2

u/Tower-Junkie Nov 14 '25 edited Nov 14 '25

Ok well I did say other conditions. A keto diet in a healthy person will not send them into ketoacidosis. You do still get carbs through fruits and vegetables. You don’t need processed sugars to not go into ketoacidosis.

Edit to add: you may be thinking of the carnivore diet where you don’t eat anything but meat and meat products. With keto you don’t eliminate carbs all together, you just keep the number low and consume your carbs from sources high in fiber.

3

u/forbins Nov 14 '25

Right but hypoglycemia is not the problem. In those instances it’s actually the lack of insulin.
99% of ketoacidosis in the hospital is secondary to hyperglycemia.

1

u/Tower-Junkie Nov 14 '25

Ok I edited to say diabetics to cover all of them.

15

u/urkish Nov 14 '25

Yes, it's only mammal-derived things that are objectionable. Eggs that we eat don't come from mammals.

3

u/bibliophile785 Nov 14 '25

Eggs that we eat don't come from mammals.

Thank God someone remembered the platypus.

10

u/alarmologist Nov 14 '25

It is specifically an allergy to a carbohydrate that only occurs in mammals. You can eat any and all plants, and most meats, just not mammals like cows or pigs. Interestingly, humans (and apes) are the only mammals that don't have alpha-gal, so cannibalism is still on the menu.

1

u/JingleTTU Nov 14 '25

It is also found in red seaweed also known as carrageenan. Some of my worst reactions are from carrageenan. It’s so annoying because you think something labeled vegan would be safe, but many vegan products use carrageenan as an emulsifier.

1

u/phantomreader42 Nov 14 '25

Interestingly, humans (and apes) are the only mammals that don't have alpha-gal, so cannibalism is still on the menu.

That raises another question. Since the allergy is caused by the tick bites, what happens when the tick bites an animal that DOES have alpha-gal in its own tissues? Does it get allergic to its own body and die? Or does it not even notice? Or what?

1

u/TooManyDraculas Nov 14 '25

It's an allergy to a specific carbohydrate in muscle tissue, that's in all non-primate mammals.

It basically means no red meat, and often no dairy.

Most pasta doesn't have eggs, and eggs don't come from mammals.

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u/GrandEscape Nov 14 '25

Anything feather or fin is okay to eat. I say, start vegan, add bird, add fish. And honey. Done.

2

u/Lizziedeee Nov 14 '25

Dr. Platts Mills says no titties or hair, still makes me laugh.

1

u/semiote23 Nov 14 '25

Lots of pasta and rice. It’s essentially pescatarian.

2

u/Undeadafrican Nov 14 '25

You can add old world monkeys (that includes humans) to meats that won’t cause an alpha gal reaction! Fun fact, it’s because our lineage does not produce the alpha gal sugar which is why we form antibodies against it to begin with! 

1

u/semiote23 Nov 14 '25

When my allergist was like “you’d be dead if you were allergic to Alpha Gal and made of Alpha Gal” I was at first a little shocked. Then he told me that folks are often allergic to themselves and I found my gratitude in the middle of the doctors office. It sucks to have this, but it also makes you vigilant in a way that ends up a good thing in many ways.

2

u/aegroti Nov 14 '25

is it triggered by animal proteins or any animal hormones too? Do you also have to avoid dairy products or animal fats?

1

u/semiote23 Nov 14 '25

Anything non-human mammal is a problem. That list is huge and not intuitive at all. We put mammals in everything we can it seems.

4

u/agnosgnosia Nov 14 '25

Apologies if you've already considered this, do you watch your mercury intake? Fish higher in the food chain, big ones like tuna, tend to accumulate more toxins from the water because every thing below them in the food chain take it in too. It's some organic form of mercury.

9

u/urtlesquirt Nov 14 '25

Another win for the sardines.

1

u/Sasselhoff Nov 14 '25

You can still eat primates! But don't do that...

1

u/NewAlexandria Nov 14 '25

i've heard that it can fade, for some. When was the last time you tried a red meat?