Allergic to Meat? 12 Unusual Allergic Reactions Revealed
New finding suggests many more people may be allergic to red meat than thought.
March 3, 2010— -- In the world of allergies, there are a few common culprits to which many sufferers can relate. Pollen, peanuts and even egg and wheat are some that are widely known and, hence, widely understood. They're annoying for sure, but at least their victims can take solace in the fact that they are not alone in their misery.
But what of those whose allergies fall outside of the mainstream. For example, those allergic to meat?
"We've been looking into this for a couple of years, but it was really unclear how widespread it was," said Dr. Scott Commins, an allergist and immunologist at the University of Virginia. On Sunday, Commins presented the findings of his latest research on meat allergies before those gathered at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology (AAAAI) in New Orleans.
What Commins and his colleagues found in their preliminary study of 60 patients was that some people may have an allergy to a carbohydrate naturally found within meat. He said that while allergies to certain proteins in meat has been documented before, such cases are very rare. But the idea that there is another component of meat that can spur allergies means that the pool of people within the population who have a meat allergy may be more than previously suspected.
It gets stranger. Commins said the patients with this allergy that he studied experienced a peculiar delay in symptoms.
"Initially they will experience nothing," he said. "About three to four hours in, they'll start experiencing some itching, which often proceeds to hives."
Commins said that in some patients the reaction can get even worse, progressing to breathing difficulties, acute onset diarrhea and cramping.
While more details on this allergy will only come with additional research, Commins said the preliminary results suggest that people with certain blood types -- specifically B and AB -- may be less likely to have this type of allergy than those with other blood types. He also said the research shows that those who have been bitten by ticks or certain other blood-sucking insects may be more likely to have this allergy.
"What is it about tick or chigger bites that causes the production of this antibody?" he said. "We don't think it is something infectious, as with Lyme disease and other conditions, but we are certainly keeping an open mind."
Dr. Clifford Bassett, assistant clinical professor of medicine and otolaryngology at The Long Island College Hospital, SUNY-HSCB, in Brooklyn, N.Y., who was not involved with the research, called the study "thought-provoking," particularly in patients whose allergies have no conventional explanation, a condition shelved under the description "idiopathic anaphylaxis."
"This condition, idiopathic anaphylaxis, often goes with no concrete cause for it," he said. "We should consider this [research] in evaluating this condition."
Below, we explore 11 other unusual allergies with which a few must contend -- in some cases on a daily basis.
Michaela Dutton, 21, has aquagenic urticaria, which causes her to get hives when her skin comes in contact with water. While physical urticarias are not uncommon -- people can develop hives within minutes in response to ordinary stimuli including heat, cold and pressure -- sensitivity to water is far less common.
Dutton said she broke out in a red rash and white blisters after she took a bath about a week after her son was born three years ago. Although she ignored the reactions at first, her symptoms worsened and she went to see a doctor and a dermatologist who told her she had a water allergy.
"It's horrible," Dutton said. "I couldn't believe it at first," Dutton said.
"Water induced urticaria is very unusual -- there are not many cases ever reported," said Dr. Thomas Casale, chief of allergy and immunology at Creighton University and executive vice president of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. "The mechanism has not really been defined."
It is certain, however, that people with aquagenic urticaria produce histamine from mast cells in the skin which causes redness, rashes and hives if they touch water. Dutton's sensitivity is such that she can only bathe for about 10 seconds each week and cannot drink water, juice, tea or coffee, opting for diet cola instead. She is also restricted from eating certain fruits and vegetables.
"It's not a problem with water in the body. It's when [water] is applied on top of the body," Casale said, citing additives as a possible cause for the allergic reaction seen on the skin.
Dutton, who lives in Walsall in the UK, also must be careful when holding her 3-year-old son. Her allergy was triggered after his birth and even his tears can cause hives.
"He doesn't really understand," Dutton said. "If he falls asleep I have to watch he doesn't dribble on me."
Physical urticarias tend to occur in individuals starting in their 20s and 30s but it is impossible to predict how long the condition will last.
"Some of these can be time limited but some can last for quite a few years," Casale said.
Most urticarias are treated with antihistamines but Casale said that because they are so rare, there have been no major breakthroughs in treatments.
"If you put an ice cube on somebody that has cold urticaria, they're going to have a big welt right where the ice cube was," said Casale. And it's not just the cold. "It could be heat, could be sunlight. It could be vibration. It could be pressure."
In fact, some cases of heat-induced hives might be confused with exercise-induced anaphylaxis because exercise can raise body temperature.
Casale found the two could be distinguished for diagnosis by either heating the patient using a warming blanket or placing the patient's hand or leg in hot water. Only those with heat urticaria will develop hives.
An even smaller number of people with the condition may be diagnosed with aquagenic urticaria, meaning they are allergic to water.
"I actually saw a patient probably six or seven years ago. We put water on her and, boy, she just broke out in hives where the water hit her," said Casale, although he thought the reaction might have been provoked more so by the temperature of the water than the water itself.
There's no treatment for physical urticaria and "we still don't have a really good clue as to how [the hives] come about," said Casale. "These syndromes aren't extremely common and they're very difficult to study."
One problem with diagnosing the allergy is the rash could come a week after contact with nickel, so not everyone associates the symptoms with the potentially problematic object, said Jacob.
The number of allergy patients testing positive for a nickel reaction is on the rise in the United States. Many clinicians have attributed the increase, especially in men, to a growing number of ear and other piercings.
About 19 percent of patients with allergic dermatitis are sensitized to nickel, reported the North American Contact Dermatitis Group in data from 2003-2004. The number of such patients was much smaller in 1985-1990 -- about 11 percent.
How does one become sensitized to nickel? As Jacob explains it, for some people the intimate contact between the skin and the nickel used in earrings and ear posts can do the trick.
"In general, the first time you're in contact with nickel, you don't get a rash," said Jacob. But your immune system remembers the metal and eventually, after more exposure, you reach an "elicitation threshold" when "your skin is primed to react."
Jacob says she wants the American Academy of Dermatology to help push for regulations to limit the amount of nickel in products with prolonged skin contact, just as was done in Europe in the early '90s.
Henna is a normally reddish-brown or greenish-brown vegetable coloring derived from lawsone, an ingredient found in the leaves of the henna shrub. Normal henna rarely causes allergic contact dermatitis, but darker henna containing an added chemical also found in hair dye called p-phenylenediamine, or PPD, can instigate severe skin problems and additional allergies.
In some cases, the tattooed skin of those who are allergic to PPD will swell and blister, with the contours of the bumpy skin conforming to the shape of the original tattoo.
"When they add the black hair dye at significant concentrations … we're seeing people with blistering and scarring to it," said Jacob.
It's not unusual for people who react to black henna to also react to hair dye, sometimes as a result of the black henna encounter.
While PPD in small amounts is still allowed in hair dyes, it has been banned from skin products in the United States since 1938. Still, henna artists hoping to capitalize on the popularity of the black coloring can mix the dangerous paste on their own.
"When you see somebody with a stand that says 'henna,' ask them what color the stain is when the paste comes off the skin," explained Catherine Cartwright-Jones, a retired henna artist and webmaster for the Henna Page. If the stain on your skin is black, "you've got aproblem."
"Even I was skeptical," said Dr. Harvey Leo, a pediatric allergist and immunologist at C.S. Mott Children's Hospital in Ann Arbor, Mich. "Chocolate allergies are really rare," he explained, adding that most reactions to chocolate either are not true allergic reactions or they come as a result of exposure to nuts or milk in the chocolate chunks.
However, after some persistence by Paciocco, a skin test and a food challenge showed Gabriele, indeed, hadthe allergy.
"I was shocked because I love chocolate," said Paciocco. "And I felt bad. He can't have a chocolate bar?"
In the end, both parent and doctor agreed persistence paid off in confirming an unusual and potentially dangerous allergy.
"I don't think patients should be afraid to challenge their doctor," said Leo.
"Dr. Leo and I have a really good relationship, so I feel really comfortable with him," added Paciocco. "You should always listen to that intuition."
Most often reported with running or jogging, the exercise-allergic person might get hives, swelling, trouble breathing, low blood pressure, itching, nausea, a headache or wheezing.
Because some of the symptoms occur commonly during normal exercise, some people with exercise-induced anaphylaxis might not realize they have the problem.
In addition, for some people, the reaction only comes when exercise is combined with a certain food. Casalenoted several early reports of exercise-induced anaphylaxis from people who ate celery before they exercised.
"They could exercise, they were fine. They could eat celery, they were fine. They eat celery, then they exercise -- then they have an anaphylactic reaction," said Casale, who studied the phenomenon in the 1980s.
As is typical with most allergic reactions, the symptoms of exercise-induced anaphylaxis result from chemicals -- including histamines -- that are released by mast cells in the body. But Casale said researchers have yet to figure out why exercise, or the food/exercise combination, triggers the mast cells to act.
Still, doctors say there are ways for the afflicted to exercise and stay safe. You can exercise with a buddy, carrying adrenaline, and in the case of those with food triggers, avoid meals for two to four hours before and after exercise, Casale suggested.
"I think most people, when they think of anaphylaxis or allergic reactions, they're thinking about insects like wasps and bees," said John Klotz, an entomologist at the University of California, Riverside. But these caterpillars exemplify the range of creatures out there that don't need to sting you to cause a reaction.
Klotz is publishing a review of reports on dozens of animals and insects, including the hairy caterpillars, that can cause a severe allergic response.
"I thought it would be a good way of heightening awareness of the problem," he said.
Deemed as forest pests in Europe, the processionary caterpillars -- named as such because they form long lines when heading into or out of their nests -- have been implicated in numerous individual and group incidents.
See Video Of Drastic Measures to Control Processionary Caterpillars in Europe
In June 2004, more than 40 people who were sitting under an infested oak tree in the region of Saarland in Southwest Germany were sickened by the caterpillars although only a few actually touched them.
"Someone could inhale them [the hairs] or ingest them, and in some cases they could penetrate the skin," said Klotz. Some children have been hospitalized after eating the creatures. "A lot of times they'll pick up something furry and curious like a caterpillar, and you know, sometimes ingest them, just out of curiosity."
"In the area where this thing is going on, tick bites are much more common than people realize," said Platts-Mills.
The ongoing research is being closely followed by other allergists intrigued by the findings.
