The American Gastroenterological Association has released new clinical guidance to help physicians and patients identify whether unexplained digestive symptoms are due to alpha-gal syndrome, a food allergy that is caused by lone star tick bites.

The AGA Clinical Practice Update was published in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology.

Alpha-gal syndrome is an allergy that causes your body to react to eating meat from mammals and products made from mammals. Symptoms usually start 2-6 hours after eating the mammalian meat or food. 

Clinicians should consider alpha-gal syndrome in patients with unexplained gastrointestinal symptoms of abdominal pain, diarrhea, nausea and vomiting, particularly those who live or have lived in an alpha-gal–prevalent area. (This includes the Southeast, mid-Atlantic, Midwest and East Central U.S. regions.)

For patients with suspected alpha-gal, there is a blood test that looks for immunoglobulin E antibodies (IgE) to alpha-gal. Patients with these antibodies may have alpha-gal allergy. The main treatment for alpha-gal allergy is to not eat foods that contain alpha-gal. This includes mammalian meat, fat and products made from them. 

PRESS RELEASE SOURCE: American Gastroenterological Association