I thought I kept getting food poisoning. It turned out, a tick bite changed how my body reacts to red meat and pork.

The author has been living with alpha-gal syndrome for 18 months. The condition, usually caused by a tick bite, prevents him from being able to eat pork and red meat.

Courtesy of Zack Barnes.

When I broke out in hives on a Friday afternoon, I didn't know what was going on inside my body. This wasn't the first time something like this happened, so I knew all the questions the doctor would ask: New detergent? No. New lotion? No. New soap? No. New food? No.When it came to new foods, I had consciously decided to stay away them in recent months. This restriction came about because I kept being jolted awake in the middle of the night with what I thought was food poisoning. These frequent sicknesses made me start to worry about food safety. When I did eat out, I always made sure the meat was fully cooked before taking a bite (which is especially challenging because I am colorblind). At home, I religiously used a meat thermometer when cooking to make sure the meat was cooked through. I always wash my hands after touching meat, and I never let food sit out for longer than two hours. No matter the steps I took, I was still getting sick.With the arrival of hives, I was determined to figure out what was going on. After sending in pictures of my stomach full of hives to my dermatologist's office, I was ordered to take a blood test. After that, I finally got my diagnosis: alpha-gal syndrome.What is alpha-gal syndrome?Alpha-gal syndrome is a meat allergy often caused by being bitten by a lone star tick. I live in Tennessee, where getting tick bites has been common my whole life. This tick bite likely happened when I was cutting my grass.Unlike other food allergies, people with alpha-gal often do not have a reaction until several hours later, when food is being digested. That delayed reaction is why it is so hard to diagnose alpha-gal without a blood test. Looking back on that afternoon when I developed hives, I remember having had a burger for lunch. By the time I got home for work that day, the allergy had set in, and hives were appearing on my skin.