Allergist Scott Commins, MD, PhD, in medicine’s division of rheumatology, allergy and immunology, has been featured in USA Today explaining a rare meat allergy from tick bites.
Dr. Scott Commins in medicine’s division of rheumatology, allergy and immunology says mammalian meat that contains a type of sugar called alpha-gal can trigger an allergic reaction.
In a USA Today article published June 21, 2017, Dr. Commins says doctors first noticed the strange reaction, which is sometimes called alpha-gal syndrome, a little over a decade ago and were able to slowly piece together that those who developed the meat allergy had one thing in common: Lone star tick bites.
“Part of me feels as though we have just kind of scratched the surfaces of what tick bites can do,” says Dr. Scott Commins in the article . “I don’t have the data for that, but just this hunch that they seem to be able to modulate our immune system in ways we may not understand.”
Dr. Commins was one of the first physicians to study the allergy and its connection to the lone star tick and conducts research at the UNC Thurston Arthritis Research Center. To read the full article, go to: bit.ly/TickAllergy.