Is DEET the Answer?

So, how do you go about protecting yourself and family from tick bites?  The CDC says the best way is to stay out of the woods!  Actually their ideas are pretty good.  Do things like staying out of really brushy areas, tall grass and overhanging limbs.  Stay in the center of trails when hiking and check yourself (and others) carefully for creepy-crawlers at the end of the day.  Bathe as soon as possible and really check "everything" for ticks.

Another way to protect yourself is by using an insect repellant that contains DEET.  But before you do, you need to know some things about this chemical.  First, there is some thought that DEET may have been responsible for a lot of Gulf War, the Iraq War and OEF veterans being sick.  The US Government doesn't believe this and has fired at least one USDA researcher and ended any further research relating DEET to Gulf War Syndrome. In fairness to our government, the research indicated that DEET had to be used in conjunction with another chemical that our soldiers were taking to defend against nerve gas.(http://www.getipm.com/government/moss.htm)  However, we should ask ourselvesthe question: What is the effect of  using DEET with the medications you are taking now?

Another problem with DEET is that it melts plastic and synthetic fibers used in clothing.  Be careful with that $200 sleeping bag!  So, if you do use DEET, don't "slather" it all over; put a drop or two on the palm of one hand, rub your hands together and then run your hands along the areas you want protected. I use deet all the time, but I use just a hint of it.

http://www.cdc.gov/ticks/avoid/on_people.html

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• Bug Repellent, DEET, and Your FR Clothing
• Ticks: A Dangerous Enemy on the Farm
• Tennessee Department of Health says prepare for Ticks in order to Prevent Illness
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• Consumer Reports: Insect Repellents
• Bug spray: Best products, what to avoid and more to know this mosquito season
• Bug spray safety

Beware the Lone Star Tick

The tick Amblyomma americanum (Lone Star tick) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

..If you live in the southeastern United States and have been outside, you have been exposed to the Lone Star tick.   This little creature is capable of real mayhem in terms of human and animal health and should be fastidiously avoided!  If you work or play in the woods, you are open to a host of diseases and conditions carried by this one animal.

One of those conditions is Alpha-GAL allergy.  This is not a well known allergy even among allergists and if you have the signs, you may have to insist that your doctor actually take you seriously. Doctors and allergists are just now waking up to the fact that this is a real life threatening situation because the body's reaction to it is anaphylaxis.

Here's a scenario:  You come home from a day in the woods with an itchy spot somewhere on your body and upon close examination you find that there is a little dot that upon even closer examination is a tick that looks something like the illustration.  No matter, you pluck it off and write it up to not using an insect repellent.

A couple of weeks later you have a big steak with all the trimmings for dinner and go to bed happy as a lark.  At 2:00 a.m. you are awakened by a persistent itch in your armpits or around your waistline.  You also have diarrhea.  When you turn the bathroom light on you notice that you have red patches all over your body and all of them are beginning to itch like crazy.  They look something like this....

From Google Images - Health-Tap

My friend you are in anaphylactic shock.  You are having a life threatening episode and my doctor tells me that when this happens I should chew a couple of benadryl, administer an epi-pen and head for the nearest emergency room.

What is it? What do a tick bite, a steak (or a hamburger or whatever meat you ate) have to do with anaphylaxis?  Your tick bite may have injected you with an enzyme that makes you react this way  to eating meat.  Make an appointment, wrestle your non-believing doctor to the mat and insist on a Beef AB.IGE blood test. You might as well ask for a similar test to pork as well.  You may even show an allergy to gelatins at this point.

If you are right and test positive, the only answer at this point that I know of is to totally abstain from consuming any mammal meat. That includes any beef or pork or even llama - any animal except fish and poultry (and perhaps kangaroo...)  I'm sorry but that's it.

Here are some good sites for reading up on this for your own research.  And remember - Eat more Poultry...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha-gal_allergy
http://alpha-gal.org/
http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/20/health/meat-tick-bite-allergy/

And a host of other sites you can see by googling alpha-gal.