IT'S NOT JUST LYME

The number of biting ticks is on the rise, along with rates of the diseases they carry. Here's what you need to know.

- JEANNE ERDMANN

Late one night in January 2018, Nikki Smith, 39, was lying in bed watching television when suddenly her chest hurt, her blood pressure plummeted, and she thought she was going to pass out. Scared for her life, she went with her husband to the ER, where a battery of tests ruled out heart problems. She was sent home with advice to try to lower her stress level.

Smith, a retail manager in Kentucky, went through this several times over the next two years-doctors blamed stress and eventually diagnosed her with a panic disorder. But Smith was also plagued by a variety of gastrointestinal problems, which her doctors believed were due to complications from gallbladder surgery. Her symptoms, she says, had "no apparent triggers or rhyme or reason." Antidepressants didn't help.

Meanwhile, her seasonal allergies worsened, and one ear began to fill with fluid that felt as if it was constantly moving. Allergy tests turned up sensitivities to beef, pork, lamb, and cow's milk. Smith was surprised because she'd eaten these without incident for decades and hadn't experienced hives, swelling, or difficulty breathing, symptoms typically linked to food allergies. She left with a list of foods to avoid and a prescription for an EpiPen.

Finally, in May 2021, Smith visited a new gynecologist and mentioned her newfound allergies. The doctor suspected alpha-gal syndrome (AGS), an allergy to red meat and anything containing mammalian products that is linked to, of all things, tick bites. Smith lives in a heavily wooded area. "I probably had three tick bites the summer before that January," she says. Her test for AGS came back positive.

LYME, HOLD MY BEER