Ticks are on the Move, Here’s How to Protect Yourself

Summary

Podcast Summary
Chasing Life with Dr. Sanjay Gupta
Episode: "Ticks are on the Move, Here’s How to Protect Yourself"
Release Date: July 21, 2026

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Main Theme

This episode dives into the rise and spread of tick-borne diseases in the United States, focusing particularly on the expansion of the Lone Star tick and its connection to Alpha-gal syndrome—a baffling condition that can turn people suddenly allergic to red meat and dairy. Dr. Sanjay Gupta and guests discuss why tick illnesses are increasing (including climate change), how to recognize different types of ticks and the diseases they carry, and what practical steps listeners can take to protect themselves and their families.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Rise of Tick-borne Illnesses and Changing Risks

• Dr. Gupta begins by referencing recent coverage of foodborne parasites and transitions to the increasing prevalence of tick-borne illnesses, linking this to climate change and expanding habitats for disease vectors (00:03–01:38).
• More emergency room visits for tick bites are being recorded and urban areas (e.g., NYC, Philadelphia, DC) are now at risk—ticks are no longer just a rural or suburban issue (01:38–02:32).
• "Unfortunately, it's true. There is a thing called the tick bite tracker from the CDC ... visits to the emergency room for tick bites are higher than usual across the entire country." – Dr. Gupta (01:38)

2. Types of Ticks & Diseases

• Deer (Black-legged) Ticks: Main carriers of Lyme disease, most active in high humidity and low temperature regions, especially during nymph stage—about the size of a poppy seed (03:18–04:31).
• Lone Star Tick: Aggressive, expanding north and west, associated with Alpha-gal syndrome. Easy to identify: adult females have a white dot on their backs.
• Alpha-gal syndrome is essentially a severe, sometimes life-threatening allergy to red meat and some dairy, triggered by the tick's bite (04:31–05:00).
• "Their bite can cause what's called Alpha-gal syndrome. That makes some people severely allergic to the Alpha-gal molecules, which are naturally found in red meat and dairy." – Dr. Gupta (04:18)

3. Prevention & Protection Advice

Dr. Gupta offers clear, practical protection strategies (05:00–06:10):

• Wear long sleeves and pants in grassy/wooded areas (even backyards)
• Treat clothes (not skin) with permethrin-based products
• Use approved insect repellents for skin
• Check your body, clothing, and pets for ticks immediately after coming inside
• Shower within 2 hours to reduce disease risk
• If bitten, use tweezers to gently remove the tick—don’t leave mouthparts behind
• "Showering within two hours of coming inside has also been shown to reduce the likelihood of developing Lyme disease, could reduce your risk of other tick borne illnesses as well." – Dr. Gupta (05:38)

4. Case Study: Martha’s Vineyard – Life Changed by Lone Star Ticks

• Patrick Roden Reynolds, a public health biologist, describes how tick anxiety is reshaping daily life even in resort destinations (07:20–07:28).
• "People don't want to go outside anymore. They don't want to go hiking. They are scared to go gardening or even walk the dog." – Patrick Roden Reynolds (07:20)
• Lone Star ticks are fast, aggressive "active hunters" and are particularly hard to kill. A single female can lay 3,000–8,000 eggs (08:03–08:53).
• The spread of the Lone Star tick: once limited to south of the Mason-Dixon line, now found as far north as Maine, as west as Nebraska and Texas.

5. Alpha-gal Syndrome: Mechanism and Impact

• One tick bite can “turn” your immune system against red meat; reactions come hours (2–6) after eating, making it hard to diagnose.
• Symptoms: from mild stomach pain to severe anaphylaxis (trouble breathing, hives, rashes).
• "The crazy thing about this tick is that a single tiny bite from a Lone Star tick can make your immune system treat steak like a poison." – Dr. Gupta (09:08)

Personal Story: Tom Murphy (10:31–11:10)

• Tom shares a firsthand account: “I had a steak dinner with my son and Chris ... About two or so in the morning, I woke up and I was having trouble breathing. A lot of trouble breathing.”
• His wife recognized the symptoms and gave him Benadryl; the next morning they visited the ER, eventually receiving the Alpha-gal diagnosis.

6. Community Adaptation: Food Culture Overhaul

• Rebecca Miller, local farm owner, describes the social and culinary shift as Martha’s Vineyard adapts to widespread Alpha-gal syndrome (at least 700 cases in a year, up from 2 in 2020):
  • Special diets, new recipes, alternative dairy and cheese products are now the norm (12:31–13:09)
  • "I started making Alpha Gal friendly options ... buying alternative dairy, plant based cheeses." – Rebecca Miller (12:48)
  • Restaurants met with health officials; Alpha-gal resources, recipes, and clear “Alpha-gal friendly” labeling have become routine.
• "The whole island changed as a result of those little tiny ticks." – Dr. Gupta (13:09)

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• Tick Anxiety Hits the East Coast:
  “People don't want to go outside anymore. They are scared to go gardening or even walk the dog.” – Patrick Roden Reynolds, 07:20
• Alpha-gal Syndrome Summed Up:
  “A single tiny bite from a Lone Star tick can make your immune system treat steak like a poison.” – Dr. Gupta, 09:08
• Surprise Community Adaptation:
  “I started making Alpha Gal friendly options from our kitchen and … buying alternative dairy, plant based cheeses.” – Rebecca Miller, 12:48

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Important Timestamps

• 00:03–01:38 – Introduction, rising disease risk, climate change link, listener question
• 03:18–04:31 – Types of ticks, geographic spread, disease primer
• 05:00–06:10 – Practical prevention tips and CDC resources
• 07:20–08:53 – Patrick Roden Reynolds on social impact in Martha’s Vineyard
• 09:08–10:31 – Explanation of Alpha-gal syndrome’s unique mechanism
• 10:31–11:32 – Personal story: Tom Murphy’s frightening overnight allergy reaction
• 12:31–13:09 – Community adaptation and food culture change on Martha’s Vineyard

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Conclusion & Practical Takeaways

Tick-borne diseases are rising, spreading, and changing lives—often in surprising ways, such as triggering meat allergies in entire communities. But practical steps (protective clothing, repellent, tick checks) can dramatically lower your risk—even as tick habitats expand. The episode closes with a reminder: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

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Contact:
For questions or suggestions, record a voice memo and email it to PagingDrGupta.com or call 470-396-0832.

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This summary encapsulates key facts, voices, and recommendations from the episode. Use it to stay safe this summer—and to help friends and family understand this fascinating and important health challenge.

Transcript

[A]

Hey there.

[B]

Welcome to Paging Dr. Gupta. This is my favorite time of the week. I get to answer your health questions and hear from you. And a lot of you have been calling in about a very specific topic, the outbreak of cyclosporiasis. That's the foodborne illness that causes severe diarrhea. Now, if you listen to Friday's episode, you know the culprit here is cyclospora. That's a parasite transmitted by consuming contaminated foods, mostly fresh produce or contaminated water. Now, what wasn't a big part of Friday's conversation is climate change, which some studies have now linked to a rise in gastrointestinal illnesses like this one. Why is that? Well, the Cyclospora parasite thrives in hot, wet places. And those types of places are becoming more widespread. And as our planet warms, in fact, there's a lot of disease carrying pathogens that simply prefer those conditions. Bacteria house flies, ticks. And that brings us to our question for today. It comes from my colleague Ari Shapiro, who is co host of the podcast Engagement Party along with Audie Cornish.

[C]

Hey, Sanjay. Obviously, summertime, we're all supposed to be careful of ticks when we go outside, but I feel like there are more tick borne diseases. Obviously Lyme disease, but then I'm hearing about this tick borne disease that turns people vegan. Can you tell me what's going on there? Is it just more media coverage? Are there actually more ticks, more tick borne diseases? Help me out. I'm spending time outside the summer and I don't want to freak out about it. Thanks.

[B]

Okay, thanks for the question, Ari. Unfortunately, it's true. There is a thing called the tick bite tracker from the cdc. And if you go there, you'll find that visits to the emergency room for tick bites are higher than usual across the entire country. And to complicate matters, city dwellers now have to be vigilant too. We typically think of ticks in wooded areas, but experts say cases of tick borne disease have been ticking up in places like New York City, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington, D.C. and then there's the dreaded Lone Star tick, which can cause devastating and life altering allergic reactions to to red meat and dairy. We're gonna take you to a community that's been hit especially hard and tell you how to stay safe from those little bloodsuckers no matter where you live. Stay tuned.

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Welcome back to paging Dr. Gupta. So, deer ticks or black leg ticks, those are the primary ticks that carry Lyme disease. Okay. Remember that they're most active in the nymph stage when they're about the size of a poppy seed that's really tiny. They can transmit other diseases as well, like anaplasmosis and babsiosis. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, deer ticks are mostly active when temperatures are above 45 degrees Fahrenheit and they thrive in areas with at least 85% humidity. They are often found in the Northeast, the South and the Midwest. But it sounds like the tick Ari is asking about is the Lone Star tick. These pests are especially aggressive about attaching themselves to humans. The adult females have a small white dot on their backs. That's how you can often identify them. Now, the range of these ticks has been expanding quickly, and now they can also be found in the Northeast, south and Midwest. Their bite can cause what's called Alpha Gal syndrome. That makes some people severely allergic to the Alpha Gal molecules, which are naturally found in red meat and dairy.

[D]

When it bites us, our immune system

[F]

might decide foreign invader don't like it

[E]

and I'm gonna create an allergic response.

[B]

That's why Ari described those folks as being turned vegan. We're gonna talk more about that later, but first I wanna tell you a little bit about how to protect yourself from all ticks. Luckily, that part is pretty simple. Wear long sleeves and long pants before going into the wooded grassy areas which ticks love. Which could even be your backyard, by the way. Consider treating your clothes. Not your skin, but your clothes with products containing permethrin. For your skin, use an approved tick repelling insect spray. Now, when you get home, check yourself and your clothes and your pets for ticks. Showering within two hours of coming inside has also been shown to reduce the likelihood of developing Lyme disease, could reduce your risk of other tick borne illnesses as well. Now, if you do find a tick on your skin, you're going to want to remove it carefully with tweezers so that you don't leave the mouth part of the tick behind. The CDC has some pretty great instructions for this online, including a YouTube video which is helpfully called how to Remove a Tick. Now as I mentioned earlier, we are starting to see rising rates of tick borne diseases in places where they were uncommon before. That's in part due to climate change and changes in land use that affect wildlife communities. So let's take a quick break here. When we come back, we're gonna take you inside a community where ticks have really turned life on its head.

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And we're back with paging Dr. Gupta. Let's travel to Martha's Vineyard where sharks are no longer the most feared predator.

[G]

People don't want to go outside anymore. They don't want to go hiking. They are scared to go gardening or even walk the dog and just kind of daily activities.

[B]

That's Patrick Roden Reynolds, a public health biologist on the popular resort island off the coast of Massachusetts. My colleague, CNN medical correspondent Meg Tirrell, followed him around while he conducted a tick survey.

[G]

So I have tick gators. I think this brand is called Limes and they're just a wrap. They're permethrin treated.

[B]

He's looking for Lone Star T, which we talked about earlier. He told Meg that he started noticing them in the area back in 2011.

[G]

So I already found three. Oh my God, I found four.

[B]

Man, that's so small. How Would you even find that?

[G]

Yeah. Practice.

[B]

So let's talk for a second about what makes the Lone Star tick so much more of a menace than the deer or the dog tick. First of all, Lone stars are fast, active hunters. Unlike most ticks that sort of sit and wait for a prospective host to pass by. Lone Star ticks, they're aggressive. They actively approach people and animals after sensing body heat, motion and carbon dioxide. They're also fast. They move about three times faster than deer ticks, and they have quickly expanded their range across the country. Historically, Lone Star ticks rarely made it north of the Mason Dixon Line. Now they've reached all the way north to Maine, as far west as Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas. And studies have shown that these Lone Star ticks can withstand many insecticides. They are hard to kill, and even when they do die, there are plenty of others nearby to replace them. A single female can produce 3,000 to 8,000 eggs. Now, the crazy thing about this tick is that a single tiny bite from a Lone Star tick can make your immune system treat steak like a poison. That's how Alpha Gal works. Alpha Gal syndrome is an allergic reaction to a sugar molecule called Alpha Gal for short. It is found in red meat and dairy products. It's also found in the saliva of some ticks and in most mammals, but importantly, not in humans. So basically, when you get a tick bite, Alpha Galaxy can be transferred from the tick saliva into your blood. Now, to defend against this unknown invader, your immune system might start to produce Alpha Gal antibodies. Okay, you with me so far? You have these Alpha Gal antibodies which are going to react to the sugar molecule Alpha Gal which again, is found in red meat and dairy products. So now you have these antibodies circulating in your body. You may not know it until the next time you eat red meat or dairy products that contain Alpha Gal. And when that happens, the Alpha Gal antibodies react and trigger an allergic reaction that is essentially Alpha Gal syndrome. In short. Now, importantly, not everyone who is bitten by a Lone Star tick goes on to develop Alpha Gal syndrome. But some people do. Tom Murphy got Alpha Gal four years ago while living on Martha's Vineyard with his family.

[H]

I had a steak dinner with my son and Chris here at the house and went to bed and everything was fine. Everything was normal. And about two or so in the morning, I woke up and I was having trouble breathing. A lot of trouble breathing.

[B]

He thought it was Covid at first, but his wife Chris's medical experience made him think again.

[I]

He had a pretty classic reaction that first night. I had Worked in an ER many years ago. So I knew what was happening with him. I gave him a couple Benadryl. I knew he wasn't in a critical situation and that calmed everything down so that we could sleep the rest of the night. And we went to the ER the next morning.

[B]

Unlike most other food allergies, symptoms of Alpha Gal syndrome don't show up right away. Okay? They usually hit about two to six hours after eating meat or dairy products. That's an important point. Sometimes it can be hard to figure out. Reactions can be mild, but they can also be life threatening. Difficulty breathing, as Tom experienced, is just one of the many reactions an Alpha Gal allergy could trigger. It can also cause hives, an itchy rash, nausea, severe stomach pain, heartburn, diarrhea. The most serious one is anaphylaxis. Now, these allergic reactions may lessen or disappear over time, and a person may be able to go back to eating red meat and dairy if they don't get bitten again. But the thing is, if you keep getting bitten by Lone Star ticks, your immune system is going to continue to produce Alpha Gal antibodies over and over again. And ultimately you could become really sensitive. Very sensitive people could be affected just by the smell of bacon. Now, as you can imagine, being allergic to certain staples of the American diet, that's quite challenging. Last year, more than 700 people on Martha's Vineyard tested positive for Alpha gal syndrome. In 2020, for context, there were only two positive cases. Rebecca Miller knows all about this. She owns a farm there.

[F]

About one third of our customers that come in have Alpha Gal here and at least talk about it with someone three or four times a day.

[B]

About three years ago, she told Meg she noticed her patron's needs were changing, so she decided to do something about it.

[F]

I started making Alpha Gal friendly options from our kitchen and then I started buying Alpha Gal friendly options for our consumers. So I've been buying alternative dairy plant based cheeses. You know, this is another plant based cheese, herb spread.

[H]

There's a sign that says Alpha Gal friendly.

[F]

Alpha Gal friendly.

[B]

It's wild to think about this, but essentially the whole island seems to have overhauled its diet. According to local media, the local boards of health met with chefs and restaurateurs to discuss how to keep diners safe, including by using Alpha Gal friendly substitutes and menu items. And importantly, avoiding cross contamination. A local magazine started offering recipes and resources for residents to learn how to cook and shop and eat to manage their Alpha Gal syndrome. The whole island changed as a result of those little tiny ticks. But again, keep in mind it's pretty easy to protect yourself and as the old saying goes, an ounce of prevention, that's worth a pound of cure. Wear long pants and sleeves, especially in wooded areas. Consider treating your clothes with permethrin and check yourself and your pets for ticks when you get home. Well, that's our show for today. Keep the questions coming. Your questions keep the show fresh. If there's something health related you've been wondering about, send it to us. We might answer it next week. Record a voice memo and email it to pagingdrgupta.com that's PagingDr. Gupta. Or give us a call 470-396-0832 and leave a message. Thanks for listening and please join us on Friday.

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