“This disease doesn’t have to be deadly if we just know about it,” McCullick said. “A lot of people could be saved just from the knowledge that needs to get out there.”

First time I heard about it.

  • Makhno@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    As the earth heats up, the environment within which ticks thrive gets larger. It’s neat.

    • Zozano@aussie.zone
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      6 months ago

      So these ticks which force people to become vegan become more common. More vegans = less heat.

      Sounds like a self-correcting mechanism to reduce climate change.

  • Varyk@sh.itjust.works
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    6 months ago

    I remember when it was getting popular in the news, but I didn’t know it was currently at 10th place in the allergy-lympics.

    Does the allergy to red meat wear off or is it permanent?

    I looked it up, it looks like it usually wears off, but as the article states there isn’t enough research yet to say definitively how long it lasts.

    Weeerd.

    What the heck is the biological advantage to a tick making a human allergic to red meat?

    • DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social
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      6 months ago

      Presumably the allergy is a side effect of an actually useful trait.

      Or not. Sometimes random genetic shit just happens, and if it’s not an actual negative trait it doesn’t get selected out.

      • Varyk@sh.itjust.works
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        6 months ago

        Yea I guess so. Why do ticks have alphagal venom?

        Weird…weird.

        I want to know more.

        I wonder if there are other allergies you can get from animal bites?

        I mean cats can make you allergic to cats by biting or scratching you, I know that.

        I just looked it up, but I can’t find any other ones.

        Oh, this thing says that someone with a pollen allergy can become sensitive to a specific flower if they’re frequently bitten by bees that collect nectar from those flowers. Huh.

      • Varyk@sh.itjust.works
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        6 months ago

        Woo doggy. You had it? Did your eating habits permanently change or did your eventually go back to eating meat kebabs wrapped in flank steaks eventually?

        • Sirence@feddit.de
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          6 months ago

          My husband had it.

          We never bought meat to use at home anyways, so in that aspect nothing really changed.

          However it was kinda cumbersome when invited by other people, especially since we live in a backwards place where people consume meat daily. E.g. grandmas kept cooking red meat despite me trying to explain it multiple times and getting offended when he didn’t eat it.
          Oftentimes my husband would just eat a bit of it anyways and then spend the evening in the toilet throwing up, just to avoid the strange drama that telling people you can’t eat meat causes.

          That’s also how we figured out it goes away, since the doctor made it sound like it would be permanent. But eating the bit started to get less bad and then eventually stopped causing any issues. Now he can eat anything people serve again, which is saving us a lot of headache and drama.

          • Tiefling IRL@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            6 months ago

            Oftentimes my husband would just eat a bit of it anyways and then spend the evening in the toilet throwing up, just to avoid the strange drama that telling

            I’m not vegan or even vegetarian, I just prefer a low meat diet, and that about lines up with the response I get when people find out about it. Somehow people just can’t fathom not craving red meat.

          • Varyk@sh.itjust.works
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            6 months ago

            Can I ask which general part of the country you’re in?

            I know the lone Star ticks prevalent in the East, but have heard that it’s traveling Westward and is basically everywhere at this point.

            • Sirence@feddit.de
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              6 months ago

              We’re not even in the US. We assume he got it from a trip to Mexico because he has never been to North America at all.

              • Varyk@sh.itjust.works
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                6 months ago

                Oh, wow. I don’t even think they’re native to Mexico, but they easily could have spread there from Texas. Yikes.

                Thanks

          • Varyk@sh.itjust.works
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            6 months ago

            Glad that it eventually worked out for you guys, that does sound like a pain socially.

            What a bizarre malady, that timeline is wild.

            Thanks for sharing your story!

      • Varyk@sh.itjust.works
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        6 months ago

        There’s no inherent “advantage” so much as it’s a result of the tick feeding off animals with those diseases inside them, and then passing those diseases on via its saliva to later meals like humans.

        • Ptsf@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          Additionally the bacteria that causes Lyme diseases may actually benefit from this relationship. The environment and nature doesn’t make choices just at the benefit of humans, it’s full scale every organism for themselves.

            • Ptsf@lemmy.world
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              6 months ago

              Kind of hard to ~move around~ when you’re that small, so it could be transport related. Plenty of bacteria and smaller organisms hitch a ride on intermediary hosts just for transport reasons, but they could also benefit in other ways tbh, life is weird and creative like that.

    • Ptsf@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      There’s no advantage. The saliva of the tick just happens to contain a sugar molecule that’s also in Red meat and it sets off quite a significant immune response resulting in the affected acquiring a new “allergy” (unwarranted immune response) to the meat. It should theoretically fade with time, but the immune system is a complex beast and works slightly differently in every human.

    • Midnitte@beehaw.org
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      6 months ago

      Can go away, but typically lasts a few years.

      Sort of wish pet tick prevention medicines were available… like… just give me the dog heartworm tablets

      • fracture [he/him] @beehaw.org
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        6 months ago

        yeah as someone on a keto diet and already allergic to soy and coconut… i need this LMAO i’m gonna die if i lose dairy and meat 😭

      • Tiefling IRL@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        6 months ago

        Isn’t that literally ivermectin? As in the horse dewormer that nutcases were taking during COVID because Trump told them to?

        • Midnitte@beehaw.org
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          6 months ago

          No, ivermectin is given in doses to treat infections.

          Something like Frontline is given as a preventative and lasts for months. That lasts for months is why I would care for it to be approved for human use as ticks become a growing concern.

          Though I did mistakenly say heartworm - not all tick preventatives work as a heartworm treatment*

  • BonesOfTheMoon@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    Good thing I’m vegan.

    Edit: the person who downvoted me for simply stating that is a c-u-next Tuesday.