Local Woman Develops Meat Allergy After Tick Bite

‘Grown In Monmouth’ Restaurant Week Features Locally Sourced Foods

By Alyssa Riccardi

MONMOUTH COUNTY – Calling all chefs and restaurants! The Monmouth County Board of County Commissioners are inviting local restaurants to participate in Grown in Monmouth Restaurant Week, which is set to take place September 22 through 30.

“On behalf of my fellow commissioners, we are thrilled to announce that Grown in Monmouth Restaurant Week will return to help support our agriculture industry and our restaurants and eateries throughout the county,” said Commissioner Director Thomas A. Arnone, liaison to the Division of Economic Development. “We are excited to see how creative the restaurants will be with our Grown in Monmouth ingredients and invite everyone to come out and support our local businesses.”

By Stephanie Faughnan

HOWELL – Kim Conway, a 60-year-old local woman, wears a medical alert bracelet clasped to her wrist in case she’s unable to speak for herself. Meat, once a staple of Conway’s diet, has become a formidable threat to Conway’s health. Her meat allergy is so intense that it can propel her into anaphylactic shock. Confi rmed as alpha-gal syndrome, Conway’s nightmarish diagnosis came following a tick bite in May of this year.

Jersey Shore Shell Art Travels Worldwide

By Alyssa Riccardi

JERSEY SHORE –

What started out as a part-time hobby collecting shells at the beach has grown into a worldwide phenomenon of colorful, decorated shells.

“I’ve always liked to do beach walks and pick up anything in- teresting on the beach. At one point I had so many shells my husband asked me what I was going to do with all of them,” Carrissa

Caramico Chapkowski said. “I decided to paint them and give them away. It defi nitely gave me an excuse to do more beach walks.”

Carrissa started painting shells four years ago and decided to share her ideas by creating a Facebook page called “Jersey Shore Shells.”

Carrissa said she fi rst had the idea after coming across a similar (Shell - See Page 2)

As stated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), alpha-gal is a sugar molecule prevalent in most mammals. Those with an alpha-gal syndrome diagnosis face the greatest risk of reaction upon consuming or encountering meat directly. Yet, complications can also emerge from consumables such as meat-flavored broths, dairy items, and foods containing gelatin.

Dr. Chirag Patel, who has offices in Brick and

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The Grown in Monmouth initiative is designed to help retain and grow Monmouth County’s agriculture industry. Restaurants that are participating in the Grown in Monmouth Restaurant Week will have at least one feature dish that is made with ingredients that have been grown in Monmouth County. There are no requirements for pricing or menu selection, county commissioners said.

“The county is supporting the outstanding agriculture and products grown on our local farms while also supporting the restaurants and their chefs who take that produce and turn them into culinary masterpieces,” said Commissioner Lillian G. Burry, liaison to the Board of Agriculture. “We encourage everyone to support their favorite Grown in Monmouth restaurant and enjoy some local products grown right here in Monmouth County.”

This is the perfect opportunity to shine a spotlight on culinary creations using ingredients grown in Monmouth County. Participating restaurants will be featured on the Grown in Monmouth online directory, which you can view by visiting growninmonmouth.com/Directory.aspx. The directory includes farmers markets, community supported agriculture

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Shell:

Continued From Page 1 group in Florida.

“I vacation in Florida once a year and I thought it would be nice to paint shells not just one week out of the year, but for the entire year. I thought ‘I can do that too,’” she said. “I had talked to the people who had created a similar Facebook page from Florida and I asked if I could copy some of their ideas they were doing and they were totally ok with it. After speaking with them, I decided to go forward and make the Facebook page.”

Carrissa has lived in the Ocean County area for most of her life, however when she recently moved to South Carolina, she knew she wanted to continue the page.

Since its creation, the Facebook page has garnered 35,650 followers and counting.

Jersey Shore Shells encourages those to decorate shells and write a message on the underside with the label “Keep or Re-hide.”

Those who have found shells often share their fi ndings to the page, or those painting shells do the same. Carrissa has listed tips and tricks on the page to help those who are interested. She emphasizes to never hide shells in the ocean. If you are going to hide shells in a store, get permission fi rst. And remember, anyone can paint and hide shells. “It’s really about random acts of kindness.

You don’t expect anything, you don’t really want anything in return. It’s just trying to make people happy, because if you give someone a little smile maybe they’ll do something nice for somebody else and those acts of kindness will snowball bigger and bigger. I want to spread that positivity,” she explained.

Her local initiative has now transformed to a worldwide affair. The idea of painting and hiding shells has gone beyond shore towns in New Jersey; it’s expanded throughout the entire state, country, and even internationally.

Pam Gregory, a New Jersey local, said she started painting shells after her and her daughter Sarah found one in Smithville.

“We collect our shells at the Barnegat inlet. We have painted and hidden 11 shells, four have been found. My fi rst was an ‘adopt don’t shop’ paw print and has changed hands three times now in New Jersey,”

Pam said.

One of their shells, which was decorated to represent the Pine Barrens, made its way to White Water State Park in Minnesota. The shell was then shared to the Facebook group and gained over 7,000 likes.

“I left it at Arney’s Mount in Pemberton, NJ. It was found by a lovely woman named Laurie and taken to Minnesota where she re-hid it. Another lovely girl named Hannah found it and her post took off ! It is being shared by many sites as well as people,” Pam said. “This group is great to communicate with other people. It’s a great hobby, and makes people smile.”

Foods:

Continued From Page 1 and gardens, produce distributors and more. The county’s Division of Economic Development is available to assist restaurants with connecting to local farms.

Anyone interested in participating in the Grown in Monmouth Restaurant Week should contact the Monmouth County Division of Economic Development by phone at 732-431-7470 or by email at econdev@ visitmonmouth.com.

FUN & GAMES

PAGE 14

Allergy: Continued From Page 1

Wall, is a board-certified physician in the field of allergy and clinical immunology. While alpha-gal syndrome might seem rare to some local doctors, Patel became familiar with it when he trained at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. It was there he met Dr. Scott Cummins, one of the original people to discover alpha-gal.

“In the south, they found that it was unusual that there were a lot of people having a reaction to this molecule called alpha-gal, which is a carbohydrate,” said Patel. “Up until that point, all food allergies were protein allergies.”

Patel further explained that the T-cells in the immune system do a good job of recognizing proteins but not sugars. Researchers also discovered that most of the people developing the allergic antibody against the carbohydrate also had experienced tick bites. Upon further evaluation, the tick salvia turned out to have alpha-gal molecules.

“They determined that when a tick would bite someone, it would inject the alpha-gal molecules,” Patel explained. “When something comes through your skin, the body assumes it’s a parasite and is designed to have a full allergic response.”

According to Patel, allergic reactions don’t necessarily happen immediately. It’s not uncommon for one to occur four to six hours after exposure. Patel co-authored a medical journal article in 2020 called “Doc, Will I Ever Eat Steak Again?”: Diagnosis and Management of Alpha-gal Syndrome”, which provides more information on the subject.

Patel said that the alpha-gal molecule seems to exist in the saliva of adult and nymphal stage ticks sometimes referred to as seed ticks or “chiggers.”

Over the years, Conway has experienced her fair share of tick bites as the rear of her property backs up to the woods. She’s tested positive for Lyme’s disease twice but couldn’t help but notice that something seemed unusual with her latest bite.

“A couple of weeks after it happened, I was at my primary for something else,” shared Conway. “I pointed out that I had this strange tick bite in the center of my back. It seemed really weird because it bit me there when ticks usually look for someplace to hide.”

Conway also noted that the bitten area remained reactive, evident through itchiness and swelling. When the doctor asked Conway if it was peeling, she confirmed it was. Conway would later learn that her unusual symptoms were most likely caused by a lone star tick bite, as opposed to a deer tick, which is more commonly found in the area.

As an Integrative Nutrition Counselor for the last thirteen years, Conway consistently reviews medical literature and is familiar with alpha-gal syndrome. She still didn’t think much of anything after she got violently ill after eating beef the first time.

“I was going through a stressful situation and thought maybe it was just stress,” Conway said. “But then it happened again, and again, and again.”

Conway pointed out that the reaction didn’t happen every time, which she assumes is because she was building histamines in her body. And she’s also discovered that one of the unique qualities of alpha-gal is that you can eat beef nine times and not wind up in the Intensive Care Unit until the tenth time.

Things finally came to a head when she went out to dinner with her parents at a steakhouse. She ordered a filet mignon with a loaded baked potato that had bacon and sour cream. Conway became so sick that she couldn’t leave the restaurant for almost a half hour.

“My dad actually came back to look for me,” Conway shared. “When we got home, I was still doubled over in pain. The next day,

I was covered with hives on my arms and my face and was itching all over.”

A long-time sufferer of an anaphylactic allergy to the herb rosemary, Conway sensed she was having an extreme reaction. Her tongue swelled up, and she quickly took some Benadryl and called her doctor. She was referred to an allergist.

It took some time to get a physician to order the blood test to confi rm Conway’s suspicions that she was suffering from alpha-gal. An allergist told her to avoid meat products for a couple of weeks before he

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