foodconsumer.org: Meat allergy more common than thought

Meat allergy more common than thought
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admin on 03/01/2010 12:28:00
 
Eating meat may trigger anaphylaxis - a severe and potential lethal allergic
reaction, Reuters reported, citing a new U.S. study.
The study of 60 patients who suffered severe allergic reactions induced by some
unknown allergen(s) suggested that the culprit is alpha-galactose, a compound
found in meat and dairy products.
Galactose is commonly found in peas and milk sugar known as lactose.  Milk is a
known allergen but it is not known whether this galactose is responsible for
milk allergy.
This sugar is produced in most mammals but humans make an antibody to it, Dr.
Scott Commins of the University of Virginia, co-author of the study, was cited
as saying.
Dr. Commins and colleagues found immune system proteins called IgE antibodies in
25 of the 60 patients. They said that the IgE antibody is more widely present in
the human populations than expected, meaning that meat allergy should not be as
rare as initially thought.
The allergic reactions in some patients couldn't be explained by the
conventional allergy theory which assumes that an allergic reaction should be
expected in minutes if not seconds of ingestion of an allergen.
Commins explained that because of the presence of IgE antibody to the sugar, the
meat allergy is actually delayed hours after consumption of meat or dairy
products that contain alpha-galactose.
Twenty five patients tested positive for alpha-galactose.
By David Liu
Photo courtesy: wikipedia