Understanding Alpha-gal Syndrome: How One Tick Bite Can Change Everything

Interview with Mahina Wommack

Tick-borne diseases are on the rise, and one of the most surprising and life-altering conditions linked to certain tick species is called Alpha-gal Syndrome (AGS). For many people, the first time they hear “Alpha-Gal” might be in a doctor’s office after months—or even years—of mysterious symptoms. Others might stumble upon it in an online community dedicated to finding support and information. Regardless of how you learn about Alpha-gal, understanding the condition, knowing how to get tested, and figuring out how to live with this mammalian meat allergy can be life-changing.

In this post, we’ll dive into one woman’s experience with Alpha-gal Syndrome, how she created “Alpha Gal Pal” to offer resources and support, and why preventing tick bites in the first place is so crucial.

What Is Alpha-Gal Syndrome?

Alpha-gal Syndrome is often triggered by a bite from the Lone Star tick (Amblyomma americanum), though other tick species are also being researched in connection with the condition. The tick bites and transfers a carbohydrate called “alpha-gal” into the bloodstream. This compound, found in mammalian meats and byproducts (cattle, pigs, sheep, etc.), can cause an immune response in some people. Over time, the body may begin to react adversely to foods or products containing alpha-gal, leading to a wide range of possible symptoms:

• Gastrointestinal distress (stomach pain, diarrhea, nausea)

• Skin reactions (hives, itching, rashes)

• Respiratory symptoms (in more severe cases)

• Neurological issues (vertigo, tinnitus)

• General fatigue or malaise

It’s worth noting that reactions to alpha-gal can be delayed, often showing up several hours after consuming mammalian meat or related products. This delay can make diagnosis especially challenging.

Mahina’s Story: Early Knowledge, Late Diagnosis

Mahina Wommack, founder of Alpha Gal Pal, grew up knowing about ticks. She lived in places like Texas and Mississippi, where ticks are commonly encountered. When she discovered a Lone Star tick on her leg during a routine walk in May, she was concerned but felt prepared—she knew how to remove it properly and was aware of Alpha-gal Syndrome, though she never thought it would affect her.

The First Red Flags

Several weeks later, in July, Mahina started experiencing stomach issues. Trusting her gut instinct (no pun intended), she asked her doctor for an Alpha-gal test—even though the doctor initially thought it was unlikely. The test came back positive. Mahina immediately removed mammalian meat products from her diet while she began researching the condition in-depth.

A Surprise Looking Back

One major revelation came when Mahina realized she had been suffering from other Alpha-gal-related symptoms for years, including severe vertigo and tinnitus. These symptoms had previously puzzled doctors; she’d even stopped driving for nearly a year due to dizzy spells. After adopting an alpha-gal-free lifestyle, her dizziness improved significantly. This underscores how the syndrome can manifest in ways beyond the commonly discussed gastrointestinal distress.

Beyond the Plate: Alpha-gal Hides in Everyday Products

One of the biggest eye-openers for people newly diagnosed with Alpha-gal Syndrome is discovering just how many daily products contain mammalian byproducts. From laundry detergent to personal hygiene items, it’s surprising how often hidden mammalian ingredients appear.

• Laundry detergents and fabric softeners sometimes include tallow or animal-based surfactants.

• Medications and supplements may use gelatin capsules (derived from animal collagen).

• Cosmetics and lotions can contain animal-derived ingredients, making it challenging to find “safe” versions.

• Carrageenan, a thickening agent derived from red algae, can also cause reactions in some people with Alpha-gal Syndrome, adding another layer of complexity—even to vegan products.

When Mahina first learned about these hidden triggers, she replaced nearly all her household products out of fear. Later, she discovered that making drastic changes too quickly may intensify reactivity for some people. Every Alpha-gal patient is different, so it’s important to assess personal sensitivity before overhauling your entire lifestyle.

Introducing Alpha Gal Pal: A Community of Resources and Support

Mahina noticed that new Alpha-gal patients struggled just like she did—desperately sifting through social media posts, forums, and websites, often left feeling more confused and fearful. Out of a desire to simplify the research process and reduce anxiety, she launched Alpha Gal Pal: an online platform bringing together resources, social connections, meal-planning tools, and more.

Key Features of Alpha Gal Pal

1. Community and Forums: Alpha Gal Pal functions like a social media network: you can post, comment, send friend requests, and join forums tailored to specific concerns. The goal is to create a judgement-free environment where people can share experiences, tips, and product recommendations.

2. Food and Symptom Logging: One of the platform’s most powerful features is the food journal. Because reactions to alpha-gal can be delayed, having a detailed log of your meals, activities, and symptoms can be invaluable. The data is securely stored online, making it easy to reference or share with a doctor.

3. Meal Planning and Nutritional Tracking: Through a partnership with Meal Garden, Alpha Gal Pal helps you plan meals according to your specific allergens and dietary preferences. Thousands of recipes can be filtered to remove mammalian byproducts or other known triggers. Better yet, you can track vital nutrients—both macro and micronutrients—to ensure you’re not missing anything essential after drastically changing your diet.

4. Manufacturer Insights: Mahina frequently reaches out to manufacturers of everyday products—like breads, personal hygiene items, and more—to confirm whether they contain any mammalian byproducts. As the Alpha Gal Pal community grows, members are encouraged to share their own correspondence with companies, creating a comprehensive resource for safer product choices.

Different People, Different Reactions

One of the greatest challenges with Alpha-gal Syndrome is how varied the reactions can be. Some people can tolerate certain dairy products without any symptoms, while others have to avoid even trace amounts of milk derivatives. Because everyone’s threshold and immune response vary, finding a community that respects individual experiences is crucial.

If you’re newly diagnosed, consider the following tips:

1. Speak Up: If you suspect alpha-gal, insist on testing—even if your doctor seems skeptical. Early diagnosis can help you avoid months or years of unnecessary suffering.

2. Start a Food Journal: Keep track of all meals, products, and symptoms. This record can be shared with healthcare providers or dietitians to pinpoint hidden triggers.

3. Focus on Balance: Removing mammalian meats and byproducts can lead to nutrient deficiencies if you don’t replace them with plant-based proteins or other animal-free alternatives. Consider working with a nutritionist or using meal-planning tools like those offered by Alpha Gal Pal to maintain a well-balanced diet.

4. Ease Into Lifestyle Changes: If you’re not reacting to certain products, there might not be an urgent need to overhaul everything in your home overnight. Each person’s tolerance level is unique, so proceed at a pace that feels right for you.

5. Stay Informed About Tick Prevention: While your first alpha-gal diagnosis can be shocking, it’s equally important to prevent future tick bites. Some individuals become more reactive with repeated exposures. Using permethrin-treated clothing, like Insect Shield, and applying EPA-registered tick repellents, and performing regular tick checks are essential strategies for tick protection.

The Importance of Tick Protection

Tick populations are expanding, and the Lone Star tick (increasingly found in many parts of the United States) has been most commonly linked to Alpha-gal Syndrome. Prevention is the best medicine:

• Wear Protective Clothing: Long sleeves, long pants, and socks reduce your exposure. Clothing treated with EPA-registered permethrin offers extra protection.

• Use Tick Repellents: Apply repellents containing DEET, picaridin, or IR3535 on exposed skin.

• Perform Regular Tick Checks: After spending time outdoors, check your entire body—especially warm, moist areas like armpits, behind knees, and around the waistline.

• Safely Remove Ticks: If you do find a tick, use fine-tipped tweezers to gently pull it straight out. Clean the area thoroughly afterward.

Remember, ticks can be found anywhere—even in local parks, not just deep in the woods. Practicing diligent tick protection is vital whether you’re an avid hiker or just walking your dog around the neighborhood.

Moving Forward With Hope and Community

Alpha-gal Syndrome can be life-altering, but there is good news. Many people, like Mahina, find that once they identify and remove their triggers, they regain their health and energy. It might require a learning curve—reading labels, reaching out to companies, and educating friends and family—but you don’t have to do it alone.

Alpha Gal Pal represents one of several supportive spaces emerging online. Their resources, from meal-planning to personal product guides, focus on minimizing fear and confusion. The entire goal is to empower individuals with knowledge and connect them with a community that truly understands.

If you’ve recently been diagnosed or suspect you might have Alpha-Gal, let Mahina’s story remind you: you are not alone, you can find the help you need, and with the right approaches, you can still enjoy a full, vibrant life—even with a mammalian meat allergy.

Final Thoughts and Next Steps

1. Get Tested: If you’ve had unexplained symptoms, speak with a healthcare professional about the possibility of Alpha-gal Syndrome.

2. Join a Community: Consider visiting Alpha Gal Pal or similar online communities. Sharing experiences and tips can ease the learning curve.

3. Protect Yourself From Ticks: Use treated clothing from reputable brands like Insect Shield, perform tick checks, and stay vigilant.

4. Stay Updated: Research on Alpha-gal Syndrome is ongoing. New discoveries about triggers, treatments, and protective strategies are emerging.

By educating yourself, taking proactive measures to avoid tick bites, and finding a supportive network, you can manage Alpha-gal Syndrome effectively and continue living life to the fullest. Don’t let fear stop you from enjoying the outdoors—just learn the precautions, remain prepared, and remember that early detection and community support make all the difference.

Shop Insect Shield's full assortment of repellent clothing

Transcript of the Interview

Mary: Hey, it's Mary from Insect Shield and I am so excited to have Mahina Wommack here. Welcome Mahina.

Mahina Wommack: Thank you. Thank you for having me.

Mary: Absolutely. So, and I didn't introduce where you're from.

So you are the founder of Alpha Gal Pal.

Mahina Wommack: I am.

Mary: Okay, so obviously that's connected to AlphaGal, and we want to hear what AlphaGalPal is. But first, if you can just kind of talk about your experience with AlphaGal and also maybe just remind everyone what AlphaGal is.

Mahina Wommack: Okay, 

Mary: questions.

Mahina Wommack: I actually, my great Mother's Day gift last year was finding a Lone Star tick on my leg. I had taken my dog for a walk and just at our city park and came home and felt something on me and I brushed it off and realized it was. Suck, I had a tic and I joked about it with my husband.

I was like, oh, this is first one I've seen since we've been here And didn't think much about it 

Mary: you may just, and you used to, you knew it was a tick. You know how to remove the tick. You've had some experience with

Mahina Wommack: Yeah, I grew up in Texas and we've lived in Mississippi, so we have been around ticks

Mary: Right. Okay.

Mahina Wommack: I didn't really know anything about alpha gal. I had heard about it and I was a little bit cautious. After I found the tick, then I read a little bit more about it because there are a lot of cases here. At that point I did a little bit more research into it. I wasn't really worried. I wasn't experiencing any problems. It wasn't until July that I thought, my stomach isn't right. And on that day, I stopped eating anything mammalian. I didn't even wait until I went to the doctor. I was just like, I gotta get this checked.

Mary: Okay.

Mahina Wommack: So I went and got tested. My test came back positive. And, I had a whole lot of learning to do and a little bit of time to do it in. Because, once you get it, it's, you, It's hard because you have to stop eating mammalian meat and mammalian by product. But you don't even know where to begin.

Mary: When I think, yeah, I mean, and just to go back a little bit with your, I mean, cause your story, you, you knew it was Lone Star Tick, so you were like one of the rare people that actually knew what kind of tick was on you, how to remove the tick, and also knew that there was this potential of the alpha gal syndrome that, that you could have been exposed.

So you had a lot of knowledge, so, I mean, so when you started feeling ill and you went to your doctor, did you say, You need to test me for this and if they say, okay, let's do it

Mahina Wommack: did. I said, I want to be tested and she was like, Oh, it's probably not that. We really don't see that many cases. And I was like, No, I'm here. Let's test. So even she was surprised that it came back positive.

Mary: Well, I mean, that's, it's huge and good for you because so many of the stories that we hear is people struggling for like months, years, and then just being like the doctor saying you have irritable bowel or you're just, you know, you're just like, it's in your head. I mean, it's really like fantastic, I mean, it's not, but it's really great to hear someone like you have the knowledge and you went in and you were listened to because it sounds like so many people, a lot of their struggle is just like.

They don't have the information and then they don't know and then a doctor would, if the doctor said to them, Oh, you don't have it, they'd be like, okay, then you don't need to test because obviously doctor knows best. So good for you, you

Mahina Wommack: The crazy thing, Mary, is that after I tested and after I gave up the mammalian meat. is when I realized that I had been struggling with other symptoms for about six years. That, I didn't know, I, we had, I had MRIs and I had all kinds of scans and blood work. I had actually even quit driving for almost a year prior to because I was having such bad spells of vertigo and tinnitus and they couldn't find the cause.

So come to find out that even though I thought I caught it early, I actually have had it six or more

Mary: Oh my gosh. Okay. So you're, wow. That's so, what a story. So now like, but so you had, you've had it for six years. And you got to the point where you couldn't drive, I mean that is dramatic, that like a tick bite. I mean, like, and so had you been having like, was it, had you been having stomach issues before or was it more of these other types of symptoms?

Mahina Wommack: little bit, but not anything that I was really going to the doctor

Mary: Right. And then since you stopped eating any meat products or the byproducts, which is kind of the other part of the story have you not had that? Are you cured of all these ailments?

Mahina Wommack: If I'm feeling bad, if I'm having a bad day, if I've gotten into something that I shouldn't have gotten into then I do on occasion have the same problem. The dizziness. But, no, I drive again and for the most part I am back to where I was prior to having all of that.

Mary: Wow. That's what that is. That's like, that's a, that is a big part of the story then. So what, so, okay, so you, so this is all then, so it's old, but it's new. So we're just talking in July. So, and right now we're in January to full disclosure here. So we're talking like basically six months ago. And then, but then you've decided, okay, I got to help get the word out.

And you started a whole, website, business, AlphaGalPal. So what was, what happened with that?

Mahina Wommack: I went looking for resources trying to learn what I was dealing with and they were so hard to find. I found a few websites that were helpful. But where I found the most help was on social media. And so I was on there and then what I realized is that everybody is different. Some people can still consume dairy and some people are like adamant that you can't have anything, whether you react to it or not.

So what happened is after I joined this Facebook group, I was afraid of everything. I cleaned out my entire house, I changed my products, I, even though I didn't think I was reacting to them. I had not just a food fear, but a fear of anything. So I went really overboard with it. And my poor husband, he was very patient.

And I changed all of our household products. And, including my laundry products. I wasn't reacting to them when I changed them. So But I didn't wash all of my seasonal clothes, so as the season started to change, what was happening is I was pulling some of these old clothes out and putting them on and realizing, oh, I can't wear this, I'm itching, because it had the old soap still

Mary: I don't think people realize, so there's a lot of, like, just, a lot of regular detergents for both dishes and for clothing have some sort of mammalian Stuff, which is yeah, which you kind of don't want to think about that you have like some sort of

Mahina Wommack: It is in everything so I've, but what I had done is when I made such so many drastic changes, I, possibly made myself more reactive. This is one of the studies that they're looking at is when you cut out everything so quickly you become more reactive to it.

So it really has to be a personal choice on how much you want to cut out and how quickly you want to cut it out if you're not reacting. And,

Mary: so you could maybe potentially the laundry detergent would have been okay Cuz your body was already like immune to it as it were But then you stopped using it and then it's like wait this okay,

Mahina Wommack: So I've it got Potentially I got everything changed. I got everything washed and I got all of our household products changed, but what I was seeing is that new people coming into these social media groups were experiencing the same thing. Like I, I was seeing the same people commenting on them and, telling them to change all of this stuff and you have to stop and you have to do it this way.

I'm going, there's got to be a better way. that we are spreading a fear. It's bad enough finding out that you have to give up all these things you love. So I thought there's got to be a better way. And that's when I called my son who is, he works in technology. I am not a tech person.

Mary: Okay.

Mahina Wommack: So I called him and I asked him his advice on some stuff and we were going over it and just came up with the idea for Alpha Gal Pal, which is a, we are a web based support and resources community. It, and we're really in our infancy right now, and we're brand new still trying to make sure that everything is put together. What we offer there is not only The support and the resources that we're getting from social media, but we also have a food log Where we have partnered with a third party so You can log all of your not just your food, but your symptoms your activities Pretty much everything in your day to day.

So when you're trying to figure all of this out because it does go beyond food You can track and see what's causing your symptoms

Mary: And then look back and say, okay, the days I felt bad, I, this was, I had this or did this, and maybe there's a connection.

Mahina Wommack: Instead of looking back, because everybody told me to keep a food log and I'm just going, Oh, now I've got 30 pieces of paper to look back on. And so this just, it keeps it the web. It's protected. Excuse me. So it makes it easier, and if you want to share it with your doctor, it's always with you.

Mary: right.

Mahina Wommack: And it just is easier than writing it all down on a piece of paper.

Mary: Yeah. And I would think too, and just then just also sharing, like I was I was looking at, at some of your things and just that. On the food side that, you know, there's times when like, for example, there was that you had gone on and like there was a bread and you reached out to a company and say, can you confirm that this bread has no, no male products?

And they actually responded like, well, we'd, our bread doesn't, but actually, but other people use our same facility. So we, to making their bread. So we can't guarantee that our break, because even though it's like, we know our bread is fine, but maybe. Someone else who's using the same, you know, bakery for their brand, they could be using something.

So, I mean, it looks like you've gotten, like, when you reach out to companies and ask them this, do they come, have they been helpful in coming back? Do they have any idea what AlphaGal is? Like, what's been your experience trying to get that information that's, like, real? Because you need to know this. Like, someone, customer service person might be, oh, no, it's, it's, It's, it's vegetarian not knowing that there's some component in that item that potentially has something that could be, you know, discomforting to you.

Mahina Wommack: I do I usually get a pretty good response from the companies. Occasionally, we run into some issues. In fact, just last week I reached out about a A women's personal hygiene product,

Mary: Hmm.

Mahina Wommack: took three emails to get a, an answer that finally came back with, oh we don't include any animal byproduct, but because we just purchased our ingredients, it could contain animal byproduct. sometimes it, it's not always so easy.

Mary: Yeah. Cause I think, I mean, we've just, I've talked about other folks with alpha gal, people don't realize that even just things like any, a medicine, a lot of like medicine, capsules and things are made with like the, the gel cap type things. A lot of those have. It's a mammalian, you know, because it's like gelatin basically is, that's what gelatin is.

It's like a mammalian byproduct. So people don't even, but people don't make that connection. They don't think when they're eating a bowl of Jell O that there's like a connection to actually kind of

Mahina Wommack: And then it goes even further than that because on top of the mammalian. products, there's carrageenan, and carrageenan is made from an algae or a red seaweed and we can also react to it, and it is vegan, and it can be considered organic, so we do have to be cautious, it's used as a thickener, and it is also used in like the gel,

Mary: right,

Mahina Wommack: in the vitamins and stuff.

So we have to be cautious, even if we're purchasing vegan products.

Mary: That's interesting. And probably a lot of vegans would be interested to know that as well, who are very much, do not want to make, you know, absolutely are really do not want to be consuming any, you know, any animal based products either.

Mahina Wommack: And it's not, the carrageenan is not, it's a

Mary: but, right. But it can, but it can just, with the way alpha gal is, it can just cause, oh I see, I see, okay.

Now, how do you, I mean, and how did you come to just, is that through your research and that's like kind of what with Alpha Gal Pal, like having that information for people? So if they go like, wait, I, I got one of these vegan things and I had a reaction and then will the community be then within Alpha Gal Pal be like, wait a second, check this out or how does that work?

Mahina Wommack: yeah, so the community is basically set up like a social media. It has, where you can post your daily, whatever, your daily posts and you can make friends and just be able to communicate with people all of the people, but then you can also send friend requests and all of that and then it is set up with forums and groups.

So there's forums on different topics, so whatever you feel like is important to you, we have it set up where our community members can start their own forum. So if you do consume dairy, you can start a forum, about it, and by starting that forum, it gives you the ability, if you have somebody that comes in and is just this isn't right, and you shouldn't do this and There are those so it gives that member the opportunity to say, Oh, I'm sorry, you can't discuss that in here, and it gives them some control over

Mary: Right. Right. Where as opposed to just on, on like a Facebook or other social medias, it's, you don't, maybe can't, can't kind of weed out the people that are not really being helpful to

Mahina Wommack: right, so that regardless of what kind of situation you're in personally, there can be a group for you.

Mary: Gotcha. Oh, that's wonderful. And how, how's the how's the response been within your, the community to having this kind of more private or not, you know, it's public, but then private kind of a

Mahina Wommack: right, so it's really slow,

Mary: Yeah.

Mahina Wommack: it is slow, and the biggest problem that I have run into is getting it advertised because so many, the easiest way for me to advertise it is on social media and so many of the groups won't allow you to advertise. Getting it out there has been the biggest problem,

Mary: Right. Well, I think, yeah, I mean, and alpha gals, you know, unfortunately, good and bad, it's in the news a lot more. So there will be a lot more people searching it and I think when people hear, you know, a meat allergy, there's always that like, Oh my gosh, what is that? And that I don't want to get that.

And then, then it maybe also prompts people to think, wait a second, you know, I've I've been having this issue with my stomach for a while, or other ailments, and I don't know what it is. And hey, there was that tick one day. So I mean, I think there's a connection that's just going to continue. I mean, good and bad, because we want people to be diagnosed and have help

Mahina Wommack: right,

Mary: you don't want people, you know, being sick.

One thing, so on our, the other side of this, cause I know what I've heard from other alpha gal people that are suffering, that getting another tick bite can also be a big problem.

Mahina Wommack: that,

Mary: did the doctors or do you have, have you heard that with alpha gal?

Mahina Wommack: I have heard that and I am going to assume that it is accurate because, like I said, I didn't know I had it until I got that next tick bite, found that tick, and that is when I did become more reactive,

Mary: So you're an example of that. Yeah, I mean, I think just generally, I think, Tick borne disease is getting a lot more attention, which is, is good. Unfortunately, though, also a lot more people are suffering from tick borne disease, which is not good. So hopefully, like, all together, we can, you know, help people and help prevent tick bites.

Because you also, you don't want to stop going outside and enjoying life. Because I imagine, too, when you first diagnosed, with all your changes, that you were pretty scared just to go outside.

Mahina Wommack: It is scary. People in town are used to seeing me in my yellow rubber rain boots so I can see if I've gotten into anything, but you do what you have to do and nobody wants to stop going out,

Mary: Right. Exactly. And I think that's the important thing. You still want to enjoy being outside and enjoying nature. I mean, and I think too, I mean, you were just in the park and I think also people, there is still a lot of education to be done about like, they are just in the local park. You don't have to be out on some grand hike on some trail in the middle of, you know, woods to have a tick attach.

Mahina Wommack: Yeah. No. They're everywhere. And one of the worst hit places, and I was really surprised, is actually New Jersey. That they're really struggling there. 

Mary: Yeah, it's and it's all and I think people also that it is all over the country that it's everywhere and that people are You know, I've heard these stories of someone going to their doctor like we don't have tics here And it's like well, first off you have tics pretty much everywhere and people travel I mean, it's not it's like, you know, people aren't just staying in their one little area Anyway, so it's you know, but the education and continuing to talk about it's just so important to to help folks Hmm

Mahina Wommack: what we're trying to do at the Alpha Gal Pal is just put all of those resources in one place. So that you don't have to search for them. You don't have to. It's stressful trying to find all these resources. And we don't want to take away from anybody else. I think that what the two Alpha Gals are doing is fantastic.

We want to support them. We want to support Sharon and the

Mary: She's

Mahina Wommack: Gal Alliance.

Mary: it's the AlphaGal information, yes. I think

Mahina Wommack: We want to bring all of these people together and all of these different resources together. And so that there's one easy place to find it all,

Mary: that's fantastic, yeah.

Mahina Wommack: and then, we of course offer the food journaling.

We also have, we're partnered with meal garden, which has been fantastic. They are a meal planning software. And so there's thousands of recipes on there that you can search by your allergen. Whether you do eat dairy, or whether you have gotten new allergies, or old allergies, you can narrow your ingredients down by those and you can also change your ingredients.

But the great thing about it is that you can track your nutrients through it. When we change our diet so drastically, we, It's so important to continue to track your nutrients, because we're giving up dairy and red meats without having an understanding of how to replace

Mary: Right, so now you're on the lentil train. Yeah.

Mahina Wommack: it's important to keep up with that, and this goes beyond the macros, it goes into all of your micronutrients, all of your vitamins and it's connected to the USDA database as long as the database can find it, you can add Ingredients and, or put in your own recipes and it will bring up your nutritional status for your recipe.

Mary: That's fantastic. I mean, I think, honestly, we all should be doing, you know, knowing kind of what we eat and how we feel because everyone has days that like, Oh, I ate, you know, I was good or I ate this and I felt really good yesterday. Or, you know, gosh, I was, I was feeling kind of low key yesterday. Like, Hey, what did I eat the day before?

Maybe it's all connected, but obviously for folks suffering with alpha gal, like it's, it can be serious and have a lot more, you know, greater ramifications. But no, that's a fantastic service, and just to be able to track all of that in one place has just got to be a relief to a lot of folks.

Mahina Wommack: Yeah, it was for me. And it was, that was what started it is that I just couldn't find anywhere to do it. Everybody said, keep a food log, but nobody says, okay, this is how to keep a food log and this is what you actually need to log. And did find one and they sent me a download so I could print it off.

I'm like I can do that.

Mary: Right, right, exactly. Yeah.

Mahina Wommack: This we went through many different websites trying to put it together and decide what platform was best, but it is coming together and I feel like it is going to be the best Biggest help that anybody could find early on with Alpha Gal?

Mary: That's great. And one, yeah. And I cause I think another thing that has to be, when I learned something, cause you were saying you had some of your symptoms before, more like, like the tinnitus and vertigo. And then what I had always thought was it's really just like, Oh, I have like, you know, massive stomach issues and diarrhea and things like that.

So I mean, people, different people, their response and their symptoms are big difference. So you, you don't really, for you to maybe talk to someone else that had similar. Symptoms is very helpful as opposed to someone's like, Oh, no, it's just my stomach. I, you know, I'm not dizzy. You're dizzy. Like, you know, to know that that's, you know, there's other folks having the same thing, and to be able to support each other has to be like very, very helpful.

Mahina Wommack: Yes I was probably a month in and inside of one of the Facebook groups and somebody had mentioned having those symptoms and I was like, oh going through that or I went through that and so I had no idea even at that point I just knew I was getting better

Mary: Right. Right.

Mahina Wommack: Yeah, there's no rhythm or rhyme to AlphaGal, honestly, it's, it just affects us all very differently,

Mary: Well, I mean, it's fantastic that you've done this and putting together and saying to everyone, Hey, we're all different in this, but let's be together and help each other and have a place to do that. And to really think about all the whole system down the line, like you said, it's not just like change your diet because all of a sudden maybe you're not getting enough vitamin D or you're not getting enough of, you know, iron or other things because you're suddenly changing.

And then you feel worse because your body's not at full functioning because you're just not eating because it's, you know, properly. So it, it's, it's a, everything has to be, you know, considered. So it sounds like that's what you're doing with Alpha Gal Pal. Alpha Gal Pal, considering the whole, the whole being, the whole person, the whole environment.

Mahina Wommack: because it does, it affects us all very differently and there's no, we need a judgment free area where we can go and if we do decide to continue to consume dairy, it's okay.

Mary: Right, yes.

Mahina Wommack: decide to. Just not be afraid to eat anything. That's okay, too. But just to have the support of the

Mary: Yeah.

Mahina Wommack: and we have a section in there that like we were talking about I reach out to the manufacturers regularly But as we continue to grow everybody is welcome to post their letters from the manufacturers.

It's not just me doing all of that, it's, the community can do it,

Mary: That's fantastic. I mean, there's the internet has done a lot of, there's good and bad, but this sounds like a wonderful So, a very good thing to bring people together and have a place to, to be and to discuss and to be free and to, you know, hopefully, you know, we'll get the word out more about Alpha Gal and have a place people can go if they find out they've had a positive and to also know if they have a lone star tick on them and they start feeling weird that they should go and ask, say, give me the Alpha Gal test and then they can start that journey because I assume the quicker you can figure it out, the better for all.

Mahina Wommack: absolutely.

Mary: so well, thank you so much we will link to alpha gal pal and the in the notes below and you know, hopefully we wish you just all the success in the world and hope you just, you know, I'm sure you've already helped a lot of people. So it's, we love people, you know, what, there's some people in the Lyme tick borne disease community that they've had something bad.

They've had, they've become sick, they've had this, you know, thing to overcome, and then yet they've decided then to give back. There's something, and I've just, I've always found it just so inspirational and really special within that community. So, you know, it's, it's, it's great to see and, you know, usually sickness doesn't be like, okay, let me go help other people, but for somehow this, it did that, so, kudos.

Mahina Wommack: thank you.

Mary: Yes, absolutely. Well, thank you so much for joining us and telling us your story and We will be keeping tabs on you. If there's anything Insect Shield can do we're here to help.

Mahina Wommack: All right. Thank you so much.

Mary: thank you.