TICK BITE (Lonestar) Changed my Life | MEAT ALLERGY Living with ALPHA GAL Syndrome

Hey folks, welcome back to another gorgeous day here on the Stony Ridge Farm. We are on 150 acre first generation farm project here in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains and I have been bitten by the lonear tick. So today what we're going to do is talk to you a little bit about what's going on with the Lonear tick and the affliction that I have and a lot more people are coming down with this. This is called Alpha Gal. It is an affliction which prevents you from eating pretty much any type of red meat. We'll talk a little bit more about the types of meat that we can eat and that we can't eat. A lot of people think this is Limes disease or Rocky Mountain spotted fever or something like that. It's not, but it is a tickornne illness. And if you guys are experiencing this or if you know someone experiencing this, please click that share button, subscribe to the channel. We'll keep you updated and we'll keep you updated on this beautiful farm that we have here behind us here on the Stony Ridge. This is probably 14 weeks into Alpha Gal. And I'm going to tell you guys what I've done to change my life to make it a little bit better since my diagnosis of Alpha Gal after being bit by the Lonear tick. Let's get down and dirty with this. We're just going to kind of go over everything. You might be able to hear the cows mooing in the background. That's right. I am a cattle rancher/cattle farmer, whatever, depending on where you come from in the country or you're either a rancher or a farmer. I am a farmer here in North Carolina and I've got about 55 cows over there on the ridge over the hill. I was diagnosed about 12 weeks ago, maybe maybe 16 weeks ago with Alpha Gal. And I want to talk to you about the symptoms that I had, what your symptoms might be. Please share those below if somebody shared this video with you or if you're experiencing this uh and tell us your story. How did you get over it if you did get over it? So, Alpha Gal is a uh it's a protein. It is a sugar in protein from what I've read and I've done a lot of research on this that makes you react. In other words, you have an inflammatory response in your gut. And in your gut, it's attached to everything. That's your microbiome. That's your body. That's what goes on inside you. So, what you put in your mouth, believe it or not, is what you're made of, right? And if you put something in your mouth that affects how you um process things or that is unprocessable, then you're going to have inflammation. And that's what I experienced. And that's how I was diagnosed with Alpha Gal. So, my symptoms were weeks and weeks and weeks of fatigue. I felt really bad. I felt a tightness in my throat. I didn't know what the heck it was was going on. I still feel that little bit of tightness in my throat. I felt bloated when I got done eating. I just felt like, ah gosh, I'm so full and I just ate a little bit. And you know, I was actually I'm a single guy and I was actually out on dates and I would explain this to the person I was on a date with and they're like, "Well, you didn't eat very much." I'm like, "I just can't eat anymore." And then 3 minutes later, I was hungry again. I looked puffy. And maybe we can roll a little bit of footage of Puffy Josh. But I looked like puffy. I I felt puffy. My fingers were kind of swollen. My belly was swollen. My face was swollen. I just felt so icky. Icky really is the only word I could really use to describe it. I felt like crap, like pure garbage. And I was having some digestive issues, meaning I had a little soreness in my esophagus. Uh when I swallowed, it felt weird to me. I felt like I could feel it all the way down. I no longer have that feeling anymore. And uh man, so many people have so many different reactions to this. So, my stepfather has had Alpha Gal. Two or three of my neighbors right in here have had Alpha Gal. And it's super common around here. So common that when churches have these Brunswick stews, they make a chicken Brunswick stew along with a beef Brunswick stew because so many people have this affliction. Now, I want you guys to comment down there as to whether you think this is some kind of biological thing that may have been created by man. I don't know, and I can't speak to that fact, but I've get gotten tons of comments that for and this is not fact, but I've got a lot of comments that Bill Gates had something to do with this and they bioengineered ticks to uh cause people to not be able to eat meat. I don't see where there's any benefit to that, but there have been stranger conspiracy theories out there, guys. I don't know. Post comments, tell me what you think. Make it rain down there. Tell me what you think. Um, I don't blame Bill Gates for my alpha gal. I just don't. Maybe I should. I don't know. I And if Bill, if you're watching right now, I don't blame you for it. I don't I I don't know what it is or where it came from, but it's here. Much like limes disease and much like Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Limes disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever are two other tickborne illnesses that are pretty common in this area and my father has had both of those. Ticks are rampant in our area here. Ticks are rampant because there's so many deer. The overpopulation of deer and this this is like the trifecta of everything. the overpopulation of deer, the introduction of coyotes, which has taken away a lot of the ground foul that would be eating these ticks. In other words, I don't see any quail anymore. I never see any quail. I never hear any quail. There aren't any quail left. Quail are what help control all those little bugs. If you go deer hunting and you you uh get a deer, when as soon as you raise their leg up to look at their stomach, they are absolutely wrapped up, covered in ticks. And I'm not talking about six ticks. I'm talking about 600 ticks. Anywhere the deer are walking, that's where we're getting ticks. So, just something to to let you guys know. There is some uh a product that I put on me myself now. It's from Murphy's uh oil and it's a uh a spray-on product that I put on my skin. I don't advise putting like deep woods off or anything like that on your skin. Put it on your clothing if you want to do that. Just protect yourself. And in areas like this, and it's all the way up to Ohio, it's down in Florida. It's in Arkansas. It's making its way out west. It's everywhere. Protect yourself. A number one thing is if it itches, investigate. And the tick that bit me had set up camp in my belly button, which was odd. It was just strange to me that a tick had set up camp in my belly button. And I noticed something itched, but I really didn't investigate it as well as I should have. And after that tick was on there for around 24 hours, then I had the problem. So, there's a lot to think about here. There's also the tick bite that brings the little bullseye up. Um, this is not the same kind of tick. I don't know what the heck or where the heck it came from, but again, it's called the Lonear tick. We'll get a picture of a Lonear tick up here for you. They got a little dot on their back. Now, what did I do to control my symptoms? And I started feeling better almost immediately. I think that first uh diagnosis when I found out I knew what I had going on and I knew how to to uh to navigate it. I started doing research and I started reading up on what to eat, what I couldn't eat, what I could eat. And basically anything with fins or feathers or shellfish from my research is what I am supposed to be able to eat. No pork, no beef, no lamb, no rabbit, no squirrel. And squirrel hunting is uh is really popular here. No deer, no elk, no bison, no bear, no none of that stuff. Can't eat any of that stuff. So, what I start doing, I'm sick of eating chicken. I'm going to tell you that right now. I'm sick of chicken and fish. All I want to do is eat a fililet minan right now. Like, that's what I want to do, but I can't. I just can't. That also means no cheese. No cheese, no dairy, no ranch dressing. that's really popular around here for dipping your French fries in or whatever. No creamy anything. No butter, none of that stuff. So, I'm having to go plant-based on my butter products, stuff like that. No milk, nothing like that. I didn't drink a whole lot of milk to start with, but I have to drink almond milk now if I'm going to drink milk. Cream in your coffee needs to be almond milk pretty much. Uh, or some plant-based source. Now, that's where all these conspiracies kind of are birthed from is that um we're trying to get away from eating meat. Well, you can still eat chicken and fish, and that's meat, okay? And shellfish. From what I can tell, I've eaten crab, and I've had no problems whatsoever. Even artificial crab meat, which I think is cod. I've had no problems whatsoever. So, I cut out all of my red meat, all my beef. Pretty much, that's all I was eating is beef and pork. I cut it all out. No more bacon. No more bacon. No more bacon. That's Oh, no. It's horrible. But no more bacon. No more sausage. Eating turkey sausage. That's just fine. It It's been great. So, I dropped right around 30 lbs initially. After 2 to 4 weeks, I lost all that inflamed inflammatory response. From what I could tell, I was retaining fluid, retaining water, and I dropped that. I got back out on my mountain bike cuz I started feeling better again. I got out, I walked, walk, walk, walk, walk, walk. I get these comments all the time that I could be driving or I could ride this piece of equipment or that piece of equipment on the other side of the farm and it's a ways over there, man. It's a half a mile to the cows. Walk, walk, walk, walk, walk. Guys, get up. Get out and just go for a walk. Clear your mind of all of this ridiculous crap that's being fed to us through screens. Take some downtime from your screen. Listen to a podcast. Go for a little walk. Listen to nature. What? take the earbuds out and go listen to nature. And that's what I did. Um, so I dropped the weight. I started eating just chicken and fish. And I kind of alternate. I'll eat fish for a couple days and chicken for a couple days. It's just me here on the farm, so that's what I'll do. No cheese sticks and no bacon, of course. Um, and I started feeling better. Now, here I am another month later after feeling better and losing the weight. I am starting to experience the same problems again. Those same problems that uh were were bothering me before. The feeling of bloatedness, the feeling of puffiness. I am starting to experience the same stinking problems again. So, I've got to go back to my doctor and I got to get retested for Alpha Gal. This time I'm I did a pork, lamb, and I'll tell you about all the labs you need to get here in a minute. But I did a pork, lamb, and beef allergy test, and I tested positive for allergies for all of those and positive for alpha gal. This time, I'm going to go back and I'm going to do a chicken, a shellfish, and a uh and a fish allergy. I don't know if you can do fish allergy, but I'm going to try I'm going to do poultry for sure to see if this is making me to where I have to be vegan and I have to go all plant-based. And I don't want to do that. I just disagree with the whole idea of 100% plant-based. It's just an unsustainable world. It's all packaged food. It's all most of it is uh manufactured. And I don't agree with that at all. I hate the idea of having to do that. But I'm going to keep you guys updated. I do feel a little more inflamed after several weeks of eating right and doing well. Uh again, I think I'm at about 16 weeks right now. So, you know, pushing that 4 month mark. Uh typically, you can get retested um after about 6 months. And sometimes this will last 6 months and sometimes it'll last a year, sometimes it'll last two years. Some people's reaction is anaphilaxis, which means they eat it, and you guys have probably seen it in the news, someone died from this. It's anaphilaxis. They eat beef or whatever and they have an anaphylactic reaction, their throat swells shut and that's lifethreatening. So, I have to keep an epipin with me everywhere I go just in case. Some people have an extreme reaction even to walking by the cows out here. I don't have that reaction. Some people can drive by Burger King and have a reaction. I don't know, guys. Where the heck did this come from? Where did it come from? This is my experience with Alpha Gal. Now, let's talk about treatments and let's talk about what labs you need to do. So, what I ask my doctor for and if you guys are having any of these symptoms, you may want to ask your doctor for this. And if your doctor says, "I don't want to I don't want to do that," then you need a new doctor. Okay? Because uh you know, I'm just going to say I'm a registered nurse uh of over 16 years now. And I'm going to say that there are good doctors and they're bad doctors. just like there are good mechanics and bad mechanics. Just like a good tire store or a bad tire store. Um there are good doctors and there are bad doctors. And if your doctor won't listen to you, he's not he or she is not worth having. So we we'll just put that out there. And I think every physician watching this would probably agree. If you're a physician or if you've experienced any of this, please post down there and let me know and share with everyone else as well what you did and what lab work you did. But I got tested for all tickborne illnesses. So limes disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, alpha gal. I got tested for beef, lamb, and pork allergy. I do think you should add chicken to that and shellfish allergy to that just in case it's all of the above. I don't know if it's going to be all the above and if it's going to prevent us from eating meat all together. Treatment wise, this is not an antibiotic treatment type um um illness, okay? This is a syndrome. It's called alpha gal syndrome. It's a syndrome of allergy to meat. And for some reason, and as we get older and as we progress through life, often times we'll develop allergies to different things. So, consult your physician on this. I don't think if it were me, I'd go taking a pile of antibiotics cuz you don't take antibiotics for an allergy, right? You just don't. I think coming down the pipeline, we're going to have some good Western medicine on this and we're going to have some good Eastern medicine on this. And the eastern medicine that I'm talking about is a procedure where they do acupuncture and they do it in your ear. You get you get little needles put in your ear and it's cured many many many people. And that's my next step. I'm actually going to go back. I'm going to get tested again for Alpha Gal. I'm going to get tested for beef, lamb, pork, chicken, and every other meat allergy I can think of. Also, I'm going to get tested for celiac disease. I want to make sure that this isn't caused by gluten allergy. Whether this has triggered a gluten allergy for me, I don't know. And I don't I'm not that guy. I am what I would perceive is not the guy that wants to go to the doctor. I I feel like I'm a strong grown man that doesn't whine and doesn't cry about health afflictions. I suck it up and I get it done, but I couldn't suck it up on this one. I could not suck it up. So, cure-wise, there it has been proven that this uh acupuncture procedure, and I forget what it's called, but I'll post it right down here across the bottom. It's a procedure, and you need to go to a certified acupuncturist that's certified in that procedure. Don't just go to any willy-nilly acupuncturist. Go to one that's certified in that procedure. The needles stay in your ear and they're teeny tiny little things. They stay in your ear. You get a little cover. You can't wash it or anything like that, which is gross to me, but I'm going to do it. Um, and supposedly that cures a lot of people. Now, the fear, the real fear is once that gets cured, if you get bit by that tick again, another Lonear tick, it can come back and it can come back worse. If you have Alpha Gal and you get bit by another tick, it can get worse and worse and worse. So the real thought process here is test yourself, protect yourself, eat right for this affliction. It is a syndrome. There's no magical miracle cure that's going to make it go away immediately. But the uh I've heard very very good things about the acupuncture. So, if you're dealing with this affliction or you know anybody dealing with this affliction, what I did first of all, no fried food, no fast food because all this stuff is cooked with everything else. No fried food, no fast food, chicken and fish and shellfish only. You can't eat rabbit. You can't eat squirrel. You can't eat any type of wild game. Okay? Be very, very wary of that. Ask your physician to test you and be sure that you get a couple EpiPens just in case you do have Alpha Gal and this reaction hits you. You don't know where you're going to be or what's going to happen. So, keep it with you and be smart, guys. That is my take. And I'm an RN and I'm a farmer and I have Alpha Gal. And I want you guys to understand my story and we'll keep you guys posted on this. A lot of people, millions and millions of people are coming down with this affliction. I don't know. Share your conspiracies. Tell me what you think. I'd love to hear what you think about it. Uh this is not me whining because oh, I feel bad. This is me sharing something with you that I think is super important because it's beginning beginning to be very very prevalent in our communities, especially our rural communities and our communities in town where these deer are. So if your children are outside playing in the yard and there's deer in the yard, they have a chance of getting bit by a tick. They could have alpha gal. They could have limes disease. They could have any of these tick born illnesses. So if your children are experiencing any of these things, which is super crazy and super horrible, please get them tested. I don't want to freak everybody out and have you run into the doctor to get checked for everything. But if you're having these symptoms and you're not feeling right and you're and you're out there in the world where ticks could be biting you or you picked a tick off of you or you found a tick on you, don't freak out, but pay attention to it and pay attention to the symptoms. My first symptoms were bloating. My second symptoms was uh fatigue. Felt really really tired. a little bit of throat tightness, uh, difficulty swallowing, acid reflux, odd symptoms, odd symptoms, but the biggest symptom was fatigue. Big- time fatigue. The middle of the day, I just felt absolutely horribly exhausted. Guys, thank you so much for joining me. Thank you for listening to my story. Hopefully, this helps you. Click that share button, click that like button, share this with like-minded people, and then turn on that little bell. Click that little bell down there. and it'll notify you when I post another video, either here on the farm working, getting jobs done, or telling you an update on this. I am going to go get tested in a week and I'm going to go get the uh acupuncture. So, I will be your test dummy for Alpha Gal. Thank you guys. We'll see you next time on the Stony Ridge Farm. I appreciate you.