Mammal Allergy: An allergy that can make everyday activities deadly

Despite increasing awareness, diagnosing meat allergy can be difficult.

The symptoms usually occur at night, hours after people have eaten their evening meal, and can often be confusing for people suffering from asthma.

“It’s always, but not always, an allergy,” Van Noonen explains.

Symptoms may not appear at all, while other times they may be aggravated by the type of meat, its cooking and seasoning, and other factors, including if a person drinks alcohol, exercises after eating, or lack of sleep.

Hypersensitivity can also be triggered by anything containing milk and dairy products – lanolin in beauty products and laundry softeners, for example, and supermarket plastic bags containing stearic acid. Smoke from a barbecue, or petting a cat or dog, can trigger an allergic reaction.

Mother-of-three Elizabeth Rowley, who lives in Hannam Vale on the New South Wales north coast, spent years going to doctors and allergists in the hope they would identify the mystery illness that plagued her.

But many dismissed it as a symptom that began in 2006 and ranged from memory loss and brain fog to chest pains, numbness in her arms, body aches and breathing problems.

“(They said) ‘You’re turning into a bit of a hypochondriac – it’s not anaphylaxis – leave it,'” she recalled.

She has since set up a Facebook group to help her friends.

“Just trying to figure out what it is is more mentally terrifying than anything else,” she says. “I thought I was going crazy.”

Remi Williams, a 23-year-old psychology student from Sydney’s northern shores, was diagnosed with allergies as a child, and says her constant vigilance over what she eats has led to an eating disorder.

But the biggest impact, she said, was witnessing the impact it had on her mother.

“It was incredibly scary,” Remy said. She “literally almost died in front of me.”