The carrot and the tick
Dec. 30th, 2025 11:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
baroque_mongooseFor some reason, the subject of allergies seems to have come up a lot recently in different places. Last night, for instance, I learnt that Mel Blanc, who famously voiced Bugs Bunny (as well as a number of other characters), was allergic to carrots. However, he felt rather strongly that you couldn't fake the sound of someone biting into a carrot; so, for all the years he voiced Bugs, every time Bugs took a bite out of a carrot he would bite an actual carrot, then say his lines, then spit out what he could and deal with any subsequent consequences. I call that dedication far beyond the call of duty.
And then there was the person elsewhere who caused me to roll my eyes so hard I risked making myself dizzy. She knew perfectly well she had a lot of skin allergies, and she was complaining because she'd had a massive flare-up under her arms... because she'd used her mother's aerosol deodorant. I'm also someone with a lot of skin allergies, and my immediate reaction (which I was at least polite enough not to type) was "how on earth can you be so incredibly stupid?!" If you know you have skin allergies, you simply do not take that sort of risk. I spend quite a lot of time having to remind myself that this person is actually in her early thirties, not 15 or 16, given the way she habitually acts.
Thankfully I have only one serious food allergy; it rather blindsided me by not developing till I was in my late forties, but at least it's something which is easy enough to avoid. However, one of my Three Musketeers (and I had perhaps better not say which one) has a rather inconvenient allergy; he's allergic to mammal meat. Fish or fowl he can eat, but even cheese sets him off occasionally, and a couple of years ago he had quite a nasty episode which was brought on by a dish of seafood containing - unbeknown to him until it was too late - a very small amount of meat stock. (Fortunately someone he was with had some antihistamines, so he didn't have to go to hospital.)
I'd never heard of this before, because it's not at all common in these isles; but recently I found out that it's a well-known phenomenon on all the major continental land masses. This particular allergy is called alpha-gal, and it is caused by a tick bite. There are several species of ticks which are able to cause it; I don't think any of them live in the UK, but my friend's been about a bit (not to the USA, as far as I know, which is where it seems to be most common, but certainly to several countries). When I found this out, my already low opinion of ticks descended still further. I remember ticks. We were always having to pick them off the dog in the summer. What you did was you soaked a cotton wool pad in whiskey or vodka and laid it over the tick, which would then get rolling drunk and fall off. You could then pick the nasty little vampire bug up and dispose of it suitably.
Well, obviously, if you have alpha-gal allergy you avoid mammal meat, so my friend is quite safe with me because I just feed him vegan; but unfortunately it's not quite as simple as that. The allergy was originally identified because medical scientists were trying to work out why some people were sensitive to a particular anti-cancer drug... and, when they did identify it, it turned out to be not just that. There is a disturbing amount of medication which is made using animal products, and at the moment (I very much hope this changes in future) it is impossible, or at least very difficult, to avoid those. In the USA there are now some medicines available which are specifically designed to be safe for people with alpha-gal allergy, but I have no idea if either a) you can get them here or b) if so, you're allowed to have them because you're a vegan. (And, indeed, while "vegan" automatically means "safe for alpha-gal allergy", the converse is not true. Fish, birds, and even reptiles could have been used.) I have a personal beef (pun entirely intended) in that many of my medications contain lactose, which is invariably of animal origin (lactic acid is not), and which isn't even strictly necessary. I do not want to be swallowing lactose, even in tiny amounts; but I need the medication to keep me alive.
My friend is perfectly cheerful and doesn't appear to miss eating (most) meat at all; he's also quite a fan of some of the substitutes I've been able to recommend him. He's also in excellent health generally. But still, it is an awkward allergy to have, if only because it limits what medication he can potentially be prescribed if he needs it in future. I suspect not everyone with this allergy is anything like so sanguine about it.
Alpha-gal allergy is on the increase worldwide. I am hoping very much that at least there will be a silver lining in the form of the development of good non-animal-based medications. But for the moment, I'm about to explain to my friend how to make his own seitan; I suspect that will make him even more cheerful!
And then there was the person elsewhere who caused me to roll my eyes so hard I risked making myself dizzy. She knew perfectly well she had a lot of skin allergies, and she was complaining because she'd had a massive flare-up under her arms... because she'd used her mother's aerosol deodorant. I'm also someone with a lot of skin allergies, and my immediate reaction (which I was at least polite enough not to type) was "how on earth can you be so incredibly stupid?!" If you know you have skin allergies, you simply do not take that sort of risk. I spend quite a lot of time having to remind myself that this person is actually in her early thirties, not 15 or 16, given the way she habitually acts.
Thankfully I have only one serious food allergy; it rather blindsided me by not developing till I was in my late forties, but at least it's something which is easy enough to avoid. However, one of my Three Musketeers (and I had perhaps better not say which one) has a rather inconvenient allergy; he's allergic to mammal meat. Fish or fowl he can eat, but even cheese sets him off occasionally, and a couple of years ago he had quite a nasty episode which was brought on by a dish of seafood containing - unbeknown to him until it was too late - a very small amount of meat stock. (Fortunately someone he was with had some antihistamines, so he didn't have to go to hospital.)
I'd never heard of this before, because it's not at all common in these isles; but recently I found out that it's a well-known phenomenon on all the major continental land masses. This particular allergy is called alpha-gal, and it is caused by a tick bite. There are several species of ticks which are able to cause it; I don't think any of them live in the UK, but my friend's been about a bit (not to the USA, as far as I know, which is where it seems to be most common, but certainly to several countries). When I found this out, my already low opinion of ticks descended still further. I remember ticks. We were always having to pick them off the dog in the summer. What you did was you soaked a cotton wool pad in whiskey or vodka and laid it over the tick, which would then get rolling drunk and fall off. You could then pick the nasty little vampire bug up and dispose of it suitably.
Well, obviously, if you have alpha-gal allergy you avoid mammal meat, so my friend is quite safe with me because I just feed him vegan; but unfortunately it's not quite as simple as that. The allergy was originally identified because medical scientists were trying to work out why some people were sensitive to a particular anti-cancer drug... and, when they did identify it, it turned out to be not just that. There is a disturbing amount of medication which is made using animal products, and at the moment (I very much hope this changes in future) it is impossible, or at least very difficult, to avoid those. In the USA there are now some medicines available which are specifically designed to be safe for people with alpha-gal allergy, but I have no idea if either a) you can get them here or b) if so, you're allowed to have them because you're a vegan. (And, indeed, while "vegan" automatically means "safe for alpha-gal allergy", the converse is not true. Fish, birds, and even reptiles could have been used.) I have a personal beef (pun entirely intended) in that many of my medications contain lactose, which is invariably of animal origin (lactic acid is not), and which isn't even strictly necessary. I do not want to be swallowing lactose, even in tiny amounts; but I need the medication to keep me alive.
My friend is perfectly cheerful and doesn't appear to miss eating (most) meat at all; he's also quite a fan of some of the substitutes I've been able to recommend him. He's also in excellent health generally. But still, it is an awkward allergy to have, if only because it limits what medication he can potentially be prescribed if he needs it in future. I suspect not everyone with this allergy is anything like so sanguine about it.
Alpha-gal allergy is on the increase worldwide. I am hoping very much that at least there will be a silver lining in the form of the development of good non-animal-based medications. But for the moment, I'm about to explain to my friend how to make his own seitan; I suspect that will make him even more cheerful!
