Sawbones: A Marital Tour of Misguided Medicine - Sawbones: Alpha-Gal Syndrome

Episode Date: September 12, 2023

That thing where you get bitten by ticks and can't eat meat, is that real? Yes, it's real, and it's called Alpha-Gal Syndrome. Dr. Sydnee dives into the fascinating story of how we found out that sometimes, if you get bitten by a certain tick, you become allergic to red meat. Music: "Medicines" by The Taxpayers https://taxpayers.bandcamp.com/

Saubones is a show about medical history, and nothing the hosts say should be taken as medical advice or opinion. It's for fun. Can't you just have fun for an hour and not try to diagnose your mystery boil? We think you've earned it. Just sit back, relax, and enjoy a moment of distraction from that weird growth. You're worth it. that weird growth. You're worth it. Alright, Tommy is about to books. One, two, one, two, three, four. We came across a pharmacy with a toy and that's lost it out. We saw through the broken glass and had ourselves a look around. Some medicines, some medicines that escalate my cop for the mouth. I'm your co-host Justin Macro. And I'm Sydney Macro.

You usually launch in. Yeah, I know. I know, I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know.

I know. I know. That pause was too long. I didn't know how to lead into this. I was just staring at you, willing something to come to me, but I got nothing. Well, I mean, I could have come up with something, but you, I didn't know. I should have warned you.

You should have warned me that you were going to stare at me. I am looking at the title of this episode, and I have no, I earthly idea what this is. I do have to say though, alphaGal syndrome sounds like another way of saying like boss babe. You know, they like, oh me. I'm not hard to work with. I just have AlphaGal syndrome. Yeah, that's what that's when I get Facebook messages from people I knew in high school who are like Hey girl. What's going on? You have Alpha Gal Syndrome.

Are you interested in joining my MLM so that you can be your own boss? I have terminal Alpha Gal Syndrome. I am chronically addicted to finding opportunity and making the life that I want. Hey girl, remember how I ignored you all through high school and had absolutely nothing to do with you ever? Well, do you want some cream? Join my MLM. No, this is nothing to do with MLMs or boss babes. You requested this. I guess you just didn't know what it was called. Yeah, I guess you requested this. Okay, I guess you're right.

You said, said, what's that thing? Is that thing where people get bitten by ticks and have an allergy to me? Is that real? That's what you said. Oh, cool. And it's called alpha gal syndrome. And it is real.

Girl, I'm making my own opportunities. Now I got bit by this. I got bit by this just tick. And now I have terminal alpha gal syndrome. And I'm gonna be making a huge sex cash until I die. It is notgal syndrome and I'm going to be making huge sex cash until I die. It is not terminal. Well, I'm going to be making huge cash until I die. Okay. It's like terminal alpha-gal syndrome. Gotcha. Gotcha. Yeah. I can't shake it. I can't wait for those Facebook messages. Messages. Messages. Messages.

Okay. So I think one of the most interesting and difficult parts about, especially like kind of doing what we do. I mean, I practice medicine anyway. I do that daily, but then we also do a podcast about medical history and we also have to talk about current medical things that sometimes are fake, right? And it is hard, I think, to both be skeptical enough to like show me the evidence, show me the proof, if you want me to accept something as scientific fact, I need the evidence to back that up, right?

This isn't, you know, we don't just believe these things. We know what's real, we know what isn't, and then we're figuring out everything in between. But what's hard is that sometimes really weird stuff is real. Like our bodies are weird. They're weird. The human experience is weird. Yes.

And there are things that on the surface sound made up and aren't. And so if you're going to look at like, you know, sort of modern alternative medicine through the lens of a skeptic, you always have to keep the open mind that sometimes it is true. It is weird. It is weird, but it is true. That's a really hard line to walk, I think, in science is to both be open-minded, but evidence-driven that I will keep an open mind until the facts show me that, no, this is the answer. And I think this is a good story about that, because how in the world did we ever figure out

that sometimes when you get bitten by a certain tick, you become allergic to red meat? How did we ever write? Like, that's a, it's crazy that we were like a house, I mean, I know this cliche, but like, it is like a house episode. It is. And sometimes house was right.

I know in the reality of the show, he was always right. I will tell you that I'm rewatching house currently and in the reality of reality, there are lots of things that are happening that now I'm like, oh man, did I not pick up on how ridiculous that was? Maybe you just willingly ignored it to seek, be fun. Was I a doctor the first time we watched house? Probably not, right?

Oh, I'd have to check. I don't know when it first aired. I mean, this patient has been in the hospital for two weeks and you're just now getting a complete blood count. Why does it take three doctors to get a TSH? I don't know. Yeah, I mean, that's what I'm like. Anyway.

So this story, you know, how many years, do you know how many years? Okay, so how started in 2004, which would have put you? I hadn't graduated med school yet. Okay, so you were like in med school? I was, no, I hadn't started med school. I started med school in 2005. Throughout the run of. Yes.

So I watched it while I was in med school. I didn't know enough to know how wrong it was. Do you know how long it took me to realize the whole thing was planned on Charlotte Holmes? I'm gonna tell you years. I'm gonna tell you years. I'm gonna tell you years. There is literally a character in the first season who is called Moriarty.

Yeah, no, I guess that I didn't have the subtitles on or something because I didn't know that. And years. Yeah, the guy who shoots house, if you're a fan of house and you didn't know this, the guy who shoots house is listed as Moriarty. Spoilers, house gets shot. He does live though, because there's more.

Yeah, there's actually house, house gets shot. He does live though because there's more actually house more That's not and it makes him better. Yeah, actually is what happens in the story. It makes it heals him Listen, I really enjoy house, but I will tell you that a lot of the medicine is not Not totally right. Yeah, anyway We have episodes on TV medical shows by the way if you go back into the yeah the archives I'm sure we've discussed how it's linked. So this story isn't very old. I want to tell you a little bit about Dr. Thomas Platz Mills, who was one of the doctors

who figured this out. He wanted to be a doctor since he was nine. It's kind of cool, so his name is Platz Mills because his grandmother, he went to New Zealand on a trip when he was nine to visit his grandmother. And his grandmother was a very prominent cool physician and it really excited him to see her in action. And he was like, I wanna be a doctor like grandma.

And she had hyphenated her name Plats Mills. And that is why the Plats Mills has carried on in their family line, which is cool, right? It's very cool. It is cool, right? Very cool. It is cool. Yeah, very cool. I'm sitting over here. Yeah, absolutely.

Have we ever tried, we tried to do that, like connect our names, both of us. Yeah, they wouldn't let us at the, at the courthouse. No, they, I mean, they would let me, like, I could have let me, but I would have had like pay a fee that we did not have at the time and go to court to get it. Just, it's, it's very sexist.a would have had to go pay and petition the court to change his name to Smirl McAroy, whereas I could just do it for free right there if I had wanted to.

And even if we both wanted to change our name to Smirl, you still would have had to petition the court to change it. Think about that folks. Yep. Anyway. Sometimes I worry the system is rigged. Yeah. Well, you think, watch the Barbie movie. I saw it. Okay, I get it. Anyway, so he went into the field of allergies and prior to

that sounds like a really bad place for a kid with asthma. Well, you want to a field of allergy. I don't have, I don't believe he has asthma. That was not part of any of the history I read about. I'm just saying that your parents are like, I'm taking you to the field of allergies, I would be really freaked out. He went into the scientific study, allergies and immunology. Anyway, he had fired. Those were the week the wish tried after the pose.

He's going, you know, my field of allergies. What's their eyes, my flap? He had done a lot of research that was important prior to this tick stuff that we're going to get into about dust mites and their allergic reaction and how we have allergic reactions, whereas the allergen figuring out that it was actually in the feces of dust mites and that it causes a lot of people specifically with asthma. Actually, they get a lot of issues from this chronic exposure to this dust mite allergen. Anyway, I know this sounds like, okay,

that is not particularly exciting, but this was really important in helping to understand like the chronic inflammation we might see in the lungs of somebody with this exposure and then how to target treatments to prevent that and to prevent lung damage. And so this was all really important stuff that isn't what the episode is about,

but I'm giving you some context. Like he was a good researcher, he's a good doctor, he figured this stuff out. So anyway, he is working at UVA in the early 2000s on a specifically why are patients getting this reaction to a certain cancer drug? There was this chemotherapeutic agent, Satoxamab, which they were using in patients with certain kinds of colon cancer and certain kinds of head and neck cancers.

And there were some people who had these sort of unpredictable allergic reactions to their first infusion of the medication. And when patients start having an allergic reaction to something and it's inconsistent, you start trying to figure out like, what is it in the medication that is causing the reaction, right? Like what the medicine isn't just one thing. What is in there? What what piece of it is causing this reaction?

And what they had uncovered is that there was a certain carbohydrate in the drug called galactose alpha-13 galactose. Let's say it one more time. Galactose alpha-13 galactose. It does absolutely sound like a marvel film. I have to say. Well, it's alpha gal is what we're going to call it. That's easier. This is why we call it alpha gal because nobody wants to say all that.

So this carbohydrate, specifically, some patients seem to be primed to react to. Like they had, so in order to have an allergic response to something, you have to be primed to it. We've talked about this before, right? Like you encounter the thing, your body creates antibodies to it. And then the next time you encounter the thing, your body attacks it intensely. Yes.

And that's the alert. And then you get all the symptoms of an allergic response. Yes. Okay. So for some reason, these patients who were having the reaction to this chemotherapy drug were primed to react to this carbohydrate.

And not everybody was. And so then you start thinking like when were they exposed to the carbohydrate the first time, right? Because they had to have had a previous exposure. Yes. And this was this was all part of like trying to figure this out at this point. So he is in the midst of doing all this research to figure out where does this allergic reaction come from.

We know that it's this alpha gal, but like why? Quick question. If your kid has a peanut allergy, does this mean that they wouldn't have a reaction the first time they've been there? Now let me say there have been like studies have shown in many cases of peanut allergy specifically, and I'm sure this would apply to other things, but peanut allergies where they do a lot of these studies. There are children who seem to be reacting the first time. Like as far as the parents know, this is their first exposure, which doesn't really make sense,

right? Like, why would that? And we're still trying to figure out, like, it was it some occult exposure, something we didn't realize they occult exposure? No, not like the occult with an O. Yeah, occult. Was it breast milk or just some powder of a peanut or something? Like did they like is there some other because that's what you expect to happen? So, but I don't want to give you the impression that like if your kids never had

peanuts before that that first time you're absolutely safe because there are cases like many cases where kids react the first time that seemingly they're exposed to peanut butter or peanuts or whatever. And we're still not sure when that initial sensitization may have happened. Does that make sense? So this is the way allergies work, but we don't always know about the initial sensitization. So I know.

I know that's like the scariest thing, I think so far about parents know, all of it's scary. But one of the scariest things was the first time we gave our kids peanut butter and The second time that we gave them peanut butter. I didn't know that the first time was who cares, right? First time who cares unless they'd secretly gotten some peanuts, you know, it's our it's also food allergies are weird. Oh You're medical I'm gonna tell you this because we're talking about allergies and so I always think this is important to note and we've talked about this maybe on the show before. Those tests

that you can get through the mail and online and stuff for food allergies don't do them. Oh, okay. If you think you have an allergy go talk to your doctor and they may refer you to a specialist like an allergist to discuss this but don't do those online tests. A lot of them are completely inaccurate, made-up, not standardized. They will tell you all kinds of nonsense that may or may not be true. Yeah. Please don't waste your money on those. That is a big, that is a part of medicine that has a lot of fake stuff and a lot of opportunistic individuals trying to make money, which is to convince you that you have a bunch of food allergies that you might have or you might not have.

They don't know. They're test suck. So, none of it. So, don't do that stuff. This is a real food allergy that we're talking about today. So, anyway, this particular carbohydrate alfagal, It exists in most mammals outside of a certain group, okay, called catarines. Okay. Within that group are, and this is a parve order, which is like a subclassification of an order. You know, there's order. Yeah, kingdom. Yeah, you remember

all that, King's Philip Philip King phylum kingdom phylum Came over came over class order from great Spain From great Spain Family genius species got it nice This is like a sub order So you're just admitting new ones. I've tried it I've tried. I didn't even know how many there were. I started looking into it because it was like, this is a par of order. And I was like, where does par of order fall in the, and then I,

and I was reading a page about this. There are so many different orders under order. And I'm assuming that this is beyond what I usually do in my doctorate job. So in this par of order is us humans, old world monkeys. As we are known. Well, they're called old world monkeys because there's a lot of scientific debate as to whether like we can call these great apes monkeys. You know, they're not monkeys, but they are. And us, well us and then other old world monkeys. Okay, got it. You're not. We don't have this alpha gal in us naturally.

Okay. Like if you ate army, please don't. Please don't. Don't do that. But we don't have this. You've been clear on this. Yes. Don't eat people.

Did we need to say that? Okay. We have. This is an important distinction because we don't have this in us. Okay. So these researchers, platmos and then another researcher, commons, was working with them. They were trying to uncover what exposure prime patients for this reaction to the drug. They thought, was there some sort

of fungus they were exposed to or a parasite? Sometimes those things can trigger future allergic reactions. You know, stuff looks similar, your body misinterprets. There you go. And other researchers at the same time were working on this new red meat allergy that they were observing patients who were having this sort of constellation of allergic symptoms three to six hours after eating certain types of animal products like red meat or pork. And these symptoms were everything from like hives and sneezing, weezy, shortness of breath, anaphylaxis, so like your typical like upper respiratory and then lung-based allergic symptoms, right? That kind of stuff that we associate with, an allergic response. And also things like stomach pain, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting. So like all of that was happening.

And you can imagine how hard this was to figure out, right? Because it was happening anywhere from three to six hours after you ate the meat. It's so rant like it's got to be. That would be tough to because like especially if you've eaten pork your whole life. And then one day you eat pork and six hours later, you're in anaphylaxis, you're not going to think it was the pork. Yeah.

Right. There's nothing in you that's going to end because of the time gap because it's a delayed allergic response. It's got to be.'s going to, and because of the time gap, because it's a delayed allergic response, that's got to be, I mean, it's needle haze tagging. Right. It would be very difficult to link all this together. So, so we're all, so you can see, we're in this moment where like everybody's trying to research this stuff and figure it out.

And then as sometimes happens in these stories, this is wild, that this is, this is how this was partially brought together. A lot of minds went into this, but I wanna focus on plat smells, because this is a cool piece of the story. Something happens specifically to this doctor that helped pull it all together. And I'm gonna tell you what that is.

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And I'm Kirk Hamilton. We're the hosts of TripleClick, a video game podcast for anyone who likes games. Find us at maximumfund.org or wherever you get your podcasts. Bye. He ate bacon for six hours straight and he was like, it's going to be the bacon. See, only possibility while studying, while studying this allergic response to alpha gal in the chemotherapy agent and then within the milieu of all these patients who are getting these red meat allergies, Dr. Platz's mills gets bitten by a tick.

No kidding, really? And develops an allergy to red meat. No, Kit, no. He did, yes. That cannot be real. He did. Are you kidding? I read, listen, I didn't believe it either.

I read that initially in a Wikipedia article and I thought that can't be true. And then I found from 2019, there was an interview in UVA today, because that's where he worked. Work's still, I believe, I think, or did he retire yet? I'm not sure. But anyway, there's an interview at UVA. No, he's not retiring.

He works too hard. Where he talks about this specifically, like it is a first, it is an interview directly with him by Wesley Hester is the author of this article and he talks about his discovery of this allergy and he says, you know, I'm covered in biopsy scars from doing research on myself. Dr. Thomas Platz-Mills, that's direct quote. That's very, that's very death metal. most plots mills, that's a direct quote. That's very, that's very death metal. I have to say that sounds like.

In New York, it's a big quiddin' like those. I'm covered in scars from doing biopsies on myself. He broke out in hives after eating. I broke out in hives after eating lamb. Yep. That's not as good, but yeah. So anyway, that's, I mean like,, how does this just incredible, just incredible? That's wild.

I know, perseverate on that for a second. It's incredible. So anyway, this really, and I think that, you know, a lot of patients will say this too, that when they find a doctor who has been through either the same illness they're going through or like also has some sort of chronic disease that they have to manage on a regular basis. They feel like that those physicians have a better understanding and are better at like listening and hearing out what's happening because they have this personal experience. That's what's so hard though. This story sounds. This is getting a little bit abstract. But if you're a solbona's listener,

I think you'll be able to grok when I'm laying down here. This feels like one of the made-up stories here about made-up treatments and ailments. You know what I mean? Like I had this mystery thing. No one could diagnose it. And just by the randomness happenstance, I happened to figure out that I got bit by this other thing and I made this connection. And that is like a foundational text of snake oil and alternative therapies and stuff, which is wild. I mean, sometimes this stuff happens like humanity is vast and strange and in a world of mysteries. So anyway, he develops an allergy. The same allergy is these chemo patients have the same allergy as the red meat eaters. That's an alpha gal allergy. And a lot of how he kind of pieced all that together like he experienced it and then proved

it through a lot of patient interviews where he had an open mind to like hear this story. These patients had these allergic symptoms. It happened after they yes, had you eaten red meat? Yes, when was it? Okay, it was three six hours, whatever. And then have you been bitten by a tick and the patients would, oh yeah, I actually I pulled one off myself with this day

or whatever. But like again, these are only stories that you would, I mean, most of the time you hear something like that in the clinic or the ER or whatever and you're like, I don't need to know about every time you got bitten by a tick or you know, that you fell off your bike or whatever. Like, I mean, you, you you know you kind of get that sort of cynicism and medicine

like just tell me what's going you know usually it's simple but sometimes it's this complex. These patients really did get bitten by a tick and then at some point eight meat and had an allergic reaction and it was all connected and they didn't know. Now as often happens, I think it's important to say like while Dr. Thomas Platzmelz was figuring all this out with the researchers in his lab and all the patients he was interviewing and all the work that was being done, stateside there were similarly there was a physician or there was a researcher in Sydney, Australia who was doing a lot of the same work. Cheryl Van Nune, an immunologist who works mainly in allergies, was working in an area of Sydney where there are a lot of ticks,

like just an area where I don't know. I don't know how, like, we live in an area where there are a lot of ticks. I feel like everywhere. It's just got one off me like two days ago, and we were waiting at the doctor's office, remember? We were literally sitting in an exam room, and I looked over on Justin's arm and thought, that freckle looks new, and then I pulled it off of him,

and it was a tick. Anyway, so this researcher, Cheryl Van Noon, and had 25 patients in this area all report, hey, we have allergies to red meat, and you have to imagine like some of this, like we are living in an age at this point, it's 2007. So we have the internet. People are finding things out quickly.

We also think we have red meat allergies because of tick bites. And so she actually was studying, why was this happening? Why were we having all of these, all of a sudden these tick bites and what was going on in this red meat allergy because it was kind of a new thing in that area.

And it's really interesting. There had been, as of 2003, this part of Australia had started a fox baiting program. Oh, okay. Because foxes had decimated the local bandicoot population. Oh, no. Yes. And so as they started this FoxBating program to allow the Bandicoots to live, basically, like fewer Foxes, more Bandicoots.

As more Bandicoots were in the area and not being killed by foxes. There was a rise in ticks because ticks like bandicoots. Oh, I didn't know that. So this was like an unintended consequence of save the bandicoot except for the bandicoot carries a lot of ticks. And so the more crash bandicoot never explored and this is never part of it.

The crash bandicoot is covered in ticks. At all times. never explored. Exactly. This is never part of it. The crash bandicoot is covered in ticks. At all times. That is the least surprising thing I have learned. I I mean, you do get close. Obviously, you know that. You get close to crash bandicoot. You will also be covered in ticks. And then maybe those ticks will transfer this allergy to you. Like crash isn't dirty enough. Now he's gotten this other stuff to worry about. So she published a paper explaining this link and like, citing the fact that like, this was a good place to study this

because Australia, and I think this still holds true to this day, although a lot of what I was reading was in the last like, was about two years old. It's not terribly old, but Australia, it seems to have the highest concentration of this specific syndrome syndrome of this allergic reaction To meet from a tick bite anywhere in the world. So So she was publishing this and like directly linking it to the increase in ticks

from the bandicoots and the red meat allergies and these patients had the alpha gal and This obviously, you know, we see this a lot in science, like two different places, same research going on because we're seeing, you know, they weren't necessarily, it wasn't who got there first. They were both doing it at the same time kind of thing. Also, I think this is interesting. She made a free spray that you could like, that you could meet like spray on a tick if it was on you and kill it instantly because based on the idea, and this is always something that we talk about like how to remove a tick because if you squeeze the body of the tick as you're removing it, you're just basically squirting all the tick juice and do you? And so there's always been this thought like we need to be careful like that's why they take

they say to like use the tweezers grab the head and pull by the head. Don't grab the big, especially if like the tick is engorged. Then it's a, you know, then it's a big fat tick body and it's just like a little. Yeah, just action. So don't, so like grab, use tweezers grab the head, pull that way. It's always how they tell you to get them out. And what she was saying is actually there's some evidence that if you kill the tick first, and then pull it off, it's better. Like you're gonna avoid whatever's in the tick getting inside you.

And so this free spray, you just instantly kill the tick and then remove it. So that's out there. You can buy that. That's a product that exists. If you want tick free spray. Man, I hate ticks. I hate ticks so much.

If you're curious likefree spray. Man, I hate ticks. I hate ticks so much. If you're curious, like, what exactly is happening? I don't know if I've elucidated the pathway. The tick bites a mammal that has this carbohydrate. So some other mammal, not human. And then it gets alpha-gal in it. And then it bites you human and injects this alpha gal into you. Your body sees this invader and sends a bunch of antibodies to it, the IgE antibodies if you're curious. A lot of allergies are mediated this way. And so you create this antibody memory, right? Now your body remembers, hey, if you see that alpha gal again,

we hate that, we don't like it. It's an invader. We've got all these soldiers ready to attack it. And so then you eat the red meat that has the alpha gal in it. Your body goes, oh, it's back. And you get this allergic response. So there you go. There you go.

And again, you can see how hard this would be to piece together because of all the time lapses in there and about the fact that you probably have been eating meat most of your life and never had a problem. Right. The main tick that can carry this is the Lone Star tick. There are some chiggers that can, but like where a lot of these cases are getting linked to this Lone Star tick. There are some other ticks that can do this, but this seems to be the one that is the biggest culprit. We have seen AlphaGal in 17 countries and all six continents where there are humans and ticks basically. So the United States and Australia seem to be the most effective.

And again, so far it looks like Australia has the highest, although we are definitely seen arise in the central and southern US. Okay. In the southern area, allergy rates are 32% higher than everywhere else. Wow. Yes. So definitely, if you have the lo and start taking your area, this is something that could happen, which is good to be aware of.

But we don't really know the exact, this isn't like a reportable illness, you know? We don't necessarily keep track of exactly how many cases of alpha gal there are. There are some illnesses that are reportable. So like, if I diagnose HIV or syphilis or something like that, I have to report that like, well, I don't do it. The lab does it. I don't personally do it. But not all illnesses are obviously reportable every time I diagnose somebody with diabetes. Nobody reports that. Right. So this is, this is not a reportable illness. So how many people are walking around with

alpha gal allergy? We don't know exactly. We know that anywhere that there are mammals that have alpha gal, ticks and humans. This is obviously possible. The animals can be cows, pigs, lambs, rabbits, buffaloes, bison, kangaroos. There are lots of animals that obviously have this that might get a tick bite. And then you've got to think about things that have animal products like gelatin. So sometimes you could get these reactions to gummies or to jello or marshmallows or so what do I do?

There are certain tattooing that sometimes there have been some weird cases of people who got like, I think there was one case report of somebody who got a pig valve, like sometimes we'll replace a heart valve and a human with a pig heart valve and that caused this reaction because it's from a pig. Anyway, so you gotta be careful on there. It's certain medications and things that sometimes can contain these things. So my point is people who have been diagnosed

with this allergy need to always inform any sort of healthcare provider you ever get in contact with. You need to make sure you tell them that you have this allergy because while it is unlikely that your doctor is gonna prescribe you a stake, they may prescribe you something else that could have that. And so it's always good to make sure

that's part of your medical history. It takes a long time, historically, to figure this out, like patients took years to get diagnosed with this. Yeah, it's so random, yeah. Yeah Yeah. And now I mean, as awareness has increased and our understanding is more. And also like, you can imagine there were a lot of people who first heard this and were like, that's not real. So, yeah, fair. Hopefully that diagnosis time will get shorter. And it's just a blood test, by the

way. That's how we diagnose it. Yeah, it's a blood test, by the way. That's how we diagnose it. Wow. Yeah, it's a blood test that they can order. Again, you will see like online food allergy tests to tell you like, are you really allergic to red meat? Don't do that. I'm do that. Food allergy tests are difficult, especially like skin tests. We don't do them typically, but there are blood tests for it. Talk to a medical provider. Don't buy this stuff.

Online stuff makes me so mad because a lot of those tests are, they're just not standardized. The information you're getting, it's bad science, it's bad data, it's junk. Go to a healthcare professional. There are, by the way, they've genetically engineered pigs that don't have alpha gallon them now. Oh, really? Yeah. So there are certain pigs that even if you have this allergy, uh, what are they called? Galsafe. Galsafe pigs.

That's a trademark name. That sounds like out. It sounds like a line of pig products just for girls. They're galsafe. Galsafe pigs. We died. We died a pig. No, it's galsafe. You're Your little princesses are going to love this gal safe

Bacon. So and they're working on like how can we cleanse all of these different like medications and everything for many of these products so that we don't have to worry about, you know, about the alpha gal issue. I on a side note, as I was researching this, there is something called pork cat syndrome. Gross. Sounds bad. Which is like a cross reactivity in an allergy to pork and to cat dander, which is different. This is not the same. Pork cat syndrome is not the same as alpha-gal syndrome, but I just like that name. That's the only reason I'm throwing it out there. There is something called port cat syndrome that is real and weird. Anyway, the practical thing that you should take home from this is if you have been bitten by a tick,

if you are observing this, and this should be, I mean, you should be able to like having that in your mind if you have these symptoms and you ate a pork roast three or six hours ago. It's something to consider. Please go see a medical professional to discuss it and ask the right questions.

It can get misdiagnosed as just like irritable bowel syndrome or something like that. When actually it's a very specific allergy you have to something that can be avoided then, right? Or you can eat the galsafepigs instead if you need to. And there are other animals that you can eat that are okay. galsafepigs instead if you need to. And there are other animals that you can eat that are okay. I liked one quote from our main allergist

in this story, Dr. Platz-Mills, that I thought was really important for what we do since we do take a skeptical lens to a lot of things. He said that the thing that has driven my career has been willing to go off the deep end and be totally unaffraid of pushing an idea that other people don't believe. Too many people are afraid of getting involved in an idea that's too far away from perceived normality.

And that's a man, it's a tricky line to walk, but it's important that you let the science lead you. Keep an open mind and let the science lead you. And now often the things we talk about on this show, science has led us very far away from. We know these things aren't real. We know that a lot of the stuff you'll see on Goop is not evidence-based, right? We know that. We have the evidence. But until you've proven something, you've got to allow yourself to ask that question. yourself to ask that question, could that tick by be linked to an allergy to red meat? The answer was yes. And if he hadn't had an open mind enough to ask the question, then we would never have

figured this out. So. Thank you so much for listening to our podcast. We hope you've enjoyed yourself. Thanks to taxpayers for these additional medicines as the intro and outro program. And thanks to you for listening. That's going to do it for us for this episode. Until next time, and I'm just Macaron.

I'm sending Macaron. And as always, don't draw a hole in your head. Alright! Yeah! Maximum fun! A work-road network of artist-owned shows supported directly by you. you