Cape Cod Healthcare: Alpha-gal is Spreading Fast on Cape Cod and the Islands
By Laurie Higgins, Cape Cod Healthcare
Most people who live on Cape Cod know to be cautious about ticks, with the tick-borne illness Lyme disease often at the forefront of their minds. But a newer threat – alpha-gal syndrome, spread by the lone star tick – is surfacing in the region, especially on Martha’s Vineyard.
“The lone star tick is the number one tick on Martha’s Vineyard,” said otolaryngologist Edward Caldwell, MD, at Cape Cod Ear, Nose and Throat Specialists in West Tisbury, Hyannis and Mashpee. “It causes allergy in all three stages of its life cycle: adult, nymph and larva. All can cause bites, and all can cause you to become antigenically allergic to alpha-gal, which is the allergen in beef and red meat.”
Dr. Caldwell owns a farm on Martha’s Vineyard and spends a lot of time outside. In addition to being a physician who treats alpha-gal, he also suffers from it himself. Last summer, he started having symptoms. After eating red meat for dinner, he would wake up at 2:30 a.m. with severe gastric distress and a sense of doom. At first, he thought he was suffering from reflux, but when his wife suggested that maybe it was alpha-gal, he decided to get tested.
“I decided to do a full panel and then I found out that I was positive for alpha-gal,” he said. “I eliminated beef and pork from my diet and it was a miracle. I felt much better.”
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