A tick bite triggered a life-threatening food allergy

Then the hives started to spread from my neck to my shoulders and back. My throat also felt strange.

Kuusniemi turned the car around and drove Jorvi to the emergency room. Soon he was surrounded by a group of nurses and doctors. He heard someone say, “first priority.”

Kuusniemi had a life-threatening anaphylactic allergy attack.

There was no obvious reason for the seizure. Kuusniemi had eaten pork dumplings for lunch, among other things.

Dangerous the allergy attack was in October 2021. Kuusiniemi was diagnosed with an alpha-gal allergy a few months later in January.

In retrospect, Kuusniemi suspects that the symptoms started already in 2015. He had severe digestive tract symptoms, the cause of which was sought with examinations and imaging. No explanation found yet.

The symptoms got a new feature in January 2019. Kuusniemi woke up in Lapland at night with hives after eating game. Even then, he didn’t connect the reaction to the food, and especially not to the tick bites he’d gotten over the years.

Kuusniemi had never heard of alpha-gal allergy and did not know how to connect the symptoms to food or ticks.

Only after receiving the diagnosis did Kuusniemi begin to suspect a connection.

He thinks the allergy started in Suvisaaristo, where he spent a lot of time after returning to Finland from the United States in 2014.

There were a lot of ticks around the leisure apartment. A dozen of them could stick to the skin during the summer. Kuusniemi doesn’t remember seeing a tick on himself anywhere else.

“I can’t say exactly when and which tick bit me.”

Kuusniemi had been eating meat for decades. How can a tick bite affect the body so that it starts to consider familiar food a threat?

The explanation is a sugar molecule called alpha-gal, which is present in the saliva of some tick species.

A tick bite can sensitize the immune system to alpha-gal. When the body encounters the same molecule again, the immune system can trigger an allergic reaction.

Alpha gallium is present in the tissues of many mammals, but not in humans. An allergy is often just called a meat allergy, because you can get an allergic reaction from, for example, beef, pork or lamb.

However, alpha gallium is also found in other mammalian products, such as dairy products and gelatin.

“In Finland there has not been a study in which alpha-gal allergy antibodies were measured in the population and then the symptoms of those with a positive result were investigated,” says the specialist by Johanna Mandel From the Skin and Allergy Hospital of HUS.

“That’s why we don’t know how common alpha-gal sensitization is in Finland.”

In the HUS area, alpha-gal has been studied for years in connection with unexplained allergic reactions and stomach pain attacks. There have been a few dozen patients.

Kuusniemi belongs to a closed peer group on social media with around 70 members.

Mandelin thinks that the cases may be slightly increasing, but there is no data to prove it.

Swedish professor Marianne van Hagen group found that 5.9 percent of 24-year-old Swedes surveyed in the general population were sensitized to alpha-gal.

Van Hage emphasizes that sensitization is not the same as alpha-gal syndrome. A person can have alpha-gal-specific IgE antibodies in their blood without allergic symptoms.

Van Hage hopes that the alpha-gal allergy would be better known in Finland as well.

Now Kuusniemi’s hunting spouse’s freezers are full of game that Kuusniemi can no longer eat.

The diagnosis changed the Dining Table thoroughly. In addition to mammalian meat, Kuusniemi has had to give up dairy products and beware of gelatin.

The passionate cook had to rethink some of the recipes. Kuusniemi misses cheese and game the most.

New favorites have been found instead. Duck breast has become a delicacy. Instead of cheese, the bread ends up with hummus, avocado or sardine pate.

When visiting Kuusniemi, friends are saddened by the additional trouble. For restaurants, he has a card that says what he can’t eat. In France, the restaurant staff once panicked when they saw the card. He just said:

“Do you have fish? Yes. Can you grill it in olive oil? Well, give me that and just olive oil and lemon.”

Suitable food was arranged.

One Kuusniemi would like people to understand that.

“In my opinion, this allergy should not be called a meat allergy, because it creates a completely wrong image.”

According to Kuusniemi, the designation sometimes also makes health professionals think that the allergy is only related to meat. Alpha gallium can therefore also be found in other mammalian products.

Small amounts of alpha-gal in dairy products or medicines may not cause a reaction. Not all alpha-gal allergic people have to give up dairy products. According to Mandelin, they can cause symptoms in the most sensitive, but it is not common.

The researcher ponders in the New York Timescould eating mammal meat maintain chronic inflammation in the arteries of a person sensitized to alpha-gal even when he has no obvious allergy symptoms.

Allergy has changed Kuusniemi’s relationship with mites.

He hasn’t retreated indoors or given up yard work. The ticks are still constantly on my mind. Mushroom picking and berry picking have decreased, although he still goes to the forest.

When going to the garden, Kuusniemi covers her skin even more carefully and uses tick repellent.

“I still do pleasant yard work, but I protect myself carefully up to the neck and make sure the cuffs are closed tightly. And I check for ticks every night.”