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TICK BITES AND ALPHA GAL SYNDROME · Your Daily Dose

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  Speaker 1: Did you ever get bit by a tick? I have,
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  Speaker 1: many times. And I've tested positive for Lyme's disease many times.
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  Speaker 1: And I've treated it properly many times. But a new
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  Speaker 1: article came out saying, ticking time bomb. Ticks are now
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  Speaker 1: fast becoming a major public health threat. So we'll talk
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  Speaker 1: to you a little bit about that and some new
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  Speaker 1: concepts on how to actually treat this, just in case
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  Speaker 1: you get bit. Stay tuned. Hi, and welcome to Health
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  Speaker 1: Talk with Dr. Len, your daily dose. The information you
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  Speaker 1: hear on this show is informational. It's not meant to
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  Speaker 1: diagnose or treat any disease. Any kind of complete health
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  Speaker 1: conditions must be checked out and discussed with your primary
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  Speaker 1: care physician. Get ready for the good news of the day.
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  Speaker 1: God bless you folks, and here is Dr. Len. Our
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  Speaker 1: daily devotional today comes from the book of Psalms, chapter 34.
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  Speaker 1: I am with you and all around you, encircling you
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  Speaker 1: in golden rays of light. I always behold your face
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  Speaker 1: to face. Not one of your thoughts escapes my notice.
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  Speaker 1: Because I am infinite, I'm able to love you as
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  Speaker 1: if you and I were the only ones in the universe.
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  Speaker 1: Walk with me in intimate love steps, but do not
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  Speaker 1: lose sight of my majesty. I desire to be your
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  Speaker 1: closest friend, yet I'm also your sovereign lord. I created
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  Speaker 1: your brain with the capacity to know me as a
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  Speaker 1: friend and Lord simultaneously. The human mind is the pinnacle
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  Speaker 1: of my creation, but so few use it for its
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  Speaker 1: primary purpose, knowing me. I communicate continually through my spirit,
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  Speaker 1: my word, and my creation. Only humans are capable of
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  Speaker 1: receiving me and responding to my presence. You are indeed
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  Speaker 1: fearfully and wonderfully made. Amen. Stay tuned. 727-916-4215 Locals say
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  Speaker 1: dozens of people in a small Kentucky town have developed
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  Speaker 1: red meat allergy caused by tick bites. After a four-wheeler
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  Speaker 1: ride with her husband, Mackie Jo Pennington sat on her
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  Speaker 1: aunt's porch, not noticing the tiny dots on her pant leg.
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  Speaker 1: As it turned out, those dots were poppy seed side
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  Speaker 1: ticks associated with the nymph stage. I pulled 116 off
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  Speaker 1: me when we got home, Pennington said. They were teeny
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  Speaker 1: tiny little. She believes that Sunday evening in September 2008
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  Speaker 1: changed her life forever. Pennington began to feel sick and
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  Speaker 1: could no longer eat red meat. Years passed before she
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  Speaker 1: was diagnosed with alpha-gal syndrome, a red meat allergy caused
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  Speaker 1: by a tick bite. The syndrome was uncommon when Pennington
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  Speaker 1: was diagnosed in 2014. Remember, this was back in 2008,
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  Speaker 1: six years before this. It's considered one of the fastest-growing
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  Speaker 1: tick-borne illnesses in the country. Seems like I meet somebody
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  Speaker 1: every day or talk to somebody every day who has it,
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  Speaker 1: Pennington said. With an estimated 31 million people bitten by
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  Speaker 1: a tick every year, the number of tick-borne diseases is expanding.
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  Speaker 1: Across the country, ticks are expanding into new territory and
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  Speaker 1: spreading illnesses as they go, including known illnesses such as alpha-gal.
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  Speaker 1: As scientists seek answers, doctors, public health officials, and lawmakers
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  Speaker 1: grapple with how to respond. Ask folks around Columbia, a
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  Speaker 1: town of 4,800 in Adair County, about alpha-gal. Chances are
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  Speaker 1: good they've all had somebody or they know somebody with
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  Speaker 1: the syndrome. In 2018, Pennington attended an Adair County Extension
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  Speaker 1: Service meeting about the syndrome. She estimated that about half
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  Speaker 1: of the roughly 50 people in attendance reported having alpha-gal.
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  Speaker 1: Since then, four other people in her family have developed it.
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  Speaker 1: Nick Roy, Adair County Agricultural and Natural Resource Extension agent,
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  Speaker 1: organized that meeting eight years ago to help educate the
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  Speaker 1: public about the syndrome. named for a sugar molecule found
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  Speaker 1: in non-primate mammals. Hedera County and several other counties around
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  Speaker 1: us appear to have quite a large number of folks
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  Speaker 1: who have alpha-gal. Given the town's proximity to backwoods, lakes,
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  Speaker 1: and rivers that attract outdoor enthusiasts and ticks, it's no
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  Speaker 1: surprise people there are familiar with the problem. Columbia serves
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  Speaker 1: as a gateway to fishing, boating, and paddling in the
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  Speaker 1: Green River and its reservoirs. The Green River rises in
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  Speaker 1: the knobs of the Lincoln County near Hall's Gap. The
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  Speaker 1: lone star tick is Kentucky's most common tick species. However,
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  Speaker 1: the black-legged tick, or deer tick, which is the main
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  Speaker 1: culprit behind widespread Lyme's disease, has also established itself in
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  Speaker 1: the state. Unlike other tick species, lone star ticks aggressively
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  Speaker 1: hunt for hosts, including people, and are most commonly associated
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  Speaker 1: with alpha-gal syndrome. Black-legged ticks and others wait passively in
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  Speaker 1: weeds or grass to latch on to passing hosts. The
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  Speaker 1: Lone Star tick moves about three to five times faster
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  Speaker 1: than typical ticks. It'll travel several yards toward carbon dioxide
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  Speaker 1: and vibrations. Lone Star ticks will run 15 to 30 meters,
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  Speaker 1: about 100 feet, to find you if you sit still
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  Speaker 1: in the woods. Good Lord. Nearby Campbellsville, Kentucky, Dan Berry.
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  Speaker 1: He said he lived in the area for 22 years
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  Speaker 1: and was used to tick bites. He pulled up his
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  Speaker 1: pant leg showing an angry-looking spot with a red center.
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  Speaker 1: This one here has not made me sick or anything.
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  Speaker 1: They've got quite a few big holes in there. It
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  Speaker 1: was one of about 15 tick bites he's gotten this year,
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  Speaker 1: mainly with hunting and fishing. This summer, he said, the
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  Speaker 1: area was crawling with ticks. You'll go mow your yard
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  Speaker 1: and come back and have two or three. I've never
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  Speaker 1: seen anything like it. At the local day-to-day feed store
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  Speaker 1: in Columbia, longtime sale associate Kim Darnell said customers frequently
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  Speaker 1: come in for products to treat their lawn for ticks.
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  Speaker 1: We're seeing a lot of ticks. We've seen a lot
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  Speaker 1: of alpha-gal. My neighbor has it. She's like a tick magnet.
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  Speaker 1: She sprays herself and still gets them. Professor Sonia Swigger,
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  Speaker 1: Texas A & M epidemiologist, said tick-borne illnesses have not
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  Speaker 1: been in the public eye as much as those caused
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  Speaker 1: by mosquitoes. but tick-borne diseases have increased more dramatically than
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  Speaker 1: mosquito-borne illnesses such as West Nile or dengue fever. One
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  Speaker 1: of the harder parts is to get people to be
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  Speaker 1: more conscious and aware of tick-borne pathogens because we don't
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  Speaker 1: have citywide or community-wide tick control. Researchers are trying to
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  Speaker 1: pinpoint what's causing the rise in tick-borne illnesses. Some attribute
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  Speaker 1: the increase to range to milder winters across the United States,
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  Speaker 1: rebounding deer population, and changes in forest and land use.
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  Speaker 1: Jennifer Gallardi, a senior policy analyst for restoring American wellness
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  Speaker 1: at the Heritage Foundation, believes the public health sector should
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  Speaker 1: devote just as much effort to the tick problem as
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  Speaker 1: to reducing mosquitoes. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study
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  Speaker 1: found that tick-borne diseases in the cases more than doubled
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  Speaker 1: from 2004 to 2016. Overall, ticks account for more than
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  Speaker 1: 75% of all diseases caused by vectors. a category that
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  Speaker 1: also includes mosquitoes and fleas. Part of the problem is
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  Speaker 1: tick-borne illnesses are sometimes hard to diagnose. Recent years, researchers
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  Speaker 1: at Connecticut's Agricultural Experiment Station found nearly half or more
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  Speaker 1: of the 2,000 deer ticks collected in 2019 were infected
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  Speaker 1: with Lyme's disease. Some Lyme's disease patients experience post-treatment or
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  Speaker 1: chronic Lyme's syndromes, which ailments include fatigue, body aches, and
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  Speaker 1: difficulty thinking, leading doctors to prescribe some off-labor treatment including
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  Speaker 1: prolonged antibiotic courses and individual clinical judgment to treat ongoing symptoms.
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  Speaker 1: New tick-borne illnesses are compounding the problem for public health officials.
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  Speaker 1: Since 2004, seven new illnesses spread through the bite of
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  Speaker 1: an infected tick have been discovered or recognized. For example,
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  Speaker 1: cases of alpha-gal increased 100-fold from 2014 to 24. Nearly
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  Speaker 1: one in four adults in hard-hit southern states have positive
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  Speaker 1: antibodies to the allergen. Emergency room visits for tick bites
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  Speaker 1: reached their highest level in a decade in many parts
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  Speaker 1: of the country. So... Dr. Comer, who was diagnosed about
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  Speaker 1: 15 years ago, experienced a severe allergic reaction and almost
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  Speaker 1: took her life. She said she mourns her carefree life
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  Speaker 1: before AlphaGal. Right before Thanksgiving is when I was diagnosed.
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  Speaker 1: It just broke my heart because, as you all know,
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  Speaker 1: I love to eat. They say... stay away from red
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  Speaker 1: meat and dairy and you'll be fine. But it's so
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  Speaker 1: much more than that, and the doctors need to understand that.
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  Speaker 1: The women say outsiders rarely grasp what the illness has
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  Speaker 1: cost them. A limited diet, hives, potentially life-threatening reactions, and
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  Speaker 1: being dismissed as complainers. People don't believe you and they
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  Speaker 1: think you're crazy. She recalled how hard it was to
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  Speaker 1: eat out safely at a restaurant, said her meticulous approach
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  Speaker 1: to dining out exacerbated her church-going mom at first. Me
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  Speaker 1: and Mama would go out to eat. I would ask
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  Speaker 1: 100 questions over the menu, and she'd go, order the
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  Speaker 1: damn chicken. All you eat is chicken. Well, do you
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  Speaker 1: have any choice? I wish I had a solution to
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  Speaker 1: avoid it, except you've got to avoid it. There are
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  Speaker 1: a lot of good topical creams available. that can be
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  Speaker 1: used that seem to dissuade them from doing them. I'm
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  Speaker 1: using Gold Bond myself. It seems to help. Treatments, big-time
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  Speaker 1: use of buffered vitamin C. We have specific protocols out
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  Speaker 1: for buffered vitamin C and quercetin for treatment. If you
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  Speaker 1: want help with that, give us a call. I can
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  Speaker 1: get that to you, 727-916-4215. Stay out of the woods,
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  Speaker 1: be careful, and watch what you're doing. God bless. Talk
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  Speaker 1: to you soon.