Tick Bite May Be Responsible For Sudden Meat Allergies

If you go up to the East Coast and get bitten by a tick, you might just come back home a vegetarian.

That's what people are saying about the Lone Star tick, who resides not in Texas as the name suggests, but on the East Coast and the bible belt. Allegedly, one bite from this tick may cause severe meat allergies in its' victims.

A bite from the lone star tick, so-called for the white spot on its back, looks innocent enough. But University of Virginia researchers say saliva that sneaks into the tiny wound may trigger an allergic reaction to meat -- agonizing enough to convert lifelong carnivores into wary vegetarians.

"People will eat beef and then anywhere from three to six hours later start having a reaction; anything from hives to full-blown anaphylactic shock," said Dr. Scott Commins, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. "And most people want to avoid having the reaction, so they try to stay away from the food that triggers it."

Cases of meat allergies have been popping up all over the East Coast, and this tick has been cited as the most likely cause. Out of the nearly 400 cases reported, roughly 90% of the victims have had a history of tick bites.

Wow, out of all the things you can catch from a tick bite, this is probably one of the scariest.