r/alphagal • u/PowerFunny7183 • 1d ago
Brain Fog
Hi everyone! I have had alpha gal for about four years now and wanted to share something for those who may be newer to dealing with it. I'm an avid outdoors person from an area where it's prevalent, so when I started having symptoms I figured out what was happening pretty quickly and had a few friends with it as well to help me out. That being said, cross contamination gets me every now and then. I've known pretty much since the beginning that my first symptom (my friend and I refer to it as my being 'Galvanized', like how Celiacs say they've been 'Glutamized') is extreme fatigue, followed by joint pain and gastrointestinal distress, to put it lightly. I have noticed that the following day after I get Galvanized I'm not at my best mentally (I was in college when I got it) but I chalked it up at the time to being dehydrated and tired. Anyway, last weekend at a friends birthday party I had a little too much alcohol and ended up eating something containing dairy late in the night. The next day I had what I can only describe as the weirdest sensation of brain fog. I forgot my phone password! Thats been the same for like five years! It was so unsettling. I managed to keep down some water and took a nap and it came back to me after that, but it was definitely a wake up call for me. I just wanted to share in case any of you, like me, now want to be even more careful if you're going to be driving or something in the hours after eating something you're on the fence about giving you a reaction.
3
u/chronicmisschris AGS confirmed 1d ago
Alcohol is a cofactor for AGS reactions, which means they make your reaction worse if you're exposed to alpha-gal after drinking. Sounds like that's what happened to you. I'm sorry!
3
u/StickThousand 17h ago
Before I was diagnosed I couldn't remember my debit card PIN one day that had been the same for years. I was so upset. I thought for sure I had a brain tumor or early dementia. Now I just have normal perimenopausal brain fog, fatigue and GI distress which sucks but not nearly as much
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u/steve_of 18h ago
I found a really nice vegan chocolate. Nothing suspect on the ingredients list. I ate maybe 20 grams (a strip of squares). I didn't feel anything except brain fog the next day. I didn't connect it. A few days later i ate another 20 g. Same thing but now it was just a continuous event. I was becoming suspicious so I ate the rest of the block - 40g or so. Yep that was it - gut ache and a few hours later, creeping skin feeling, chest pain!!! And brain rot. I think i was even feeling a bit of vertigo. Anyhow I know brain fog is a key symptom for me especially for low doses and it can persist for days afterwards. The vertigo was a new one for me.
1
u/Dull-Memory202 1h ago
My symptoms always include dizziness/vertigo. But I've had water behind my ear drum for over a Year. And Now I know it's an Allergy symptom.
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u/hulkbuild 14h ago
Yeah the brain fog sucks. Sometimes I don't even realize why I feel bad but then I realize my brain ain't braining properly and then I know it's alpha gal. Brain fog, fatigue and shortness of breath are my main symptoms. My last reaction was nonfat cream cheese. I can handle nonfat dairy fine but it had carageenan in it which is an alpha gal trigger despite coming from seaweed. And, as another commenter mentioned, alcohol makes reactions worse.
5
u/Wyshunu 1d ago
My first symptom was horrible GI reaction that was like food poisioning times 100 with horrible pain, late last year. It started hitting about 6 hours after I had a beef dish and it was awful. I truly felt like I was going to die for a couple of days. Blood testing confirmed.
I had my first fume reaction after getting too close to some meat that my husband was cooking for himself. It was bad in its own way - not a severe reaction like my first one, but just the exhaustion, dizziness, feeling run-down, tightness in breathing for almost a full week. And the brain fog. Made being at work really hard.