Red Meat Allergy, Derek the Virgin, Alex Eubank

You WILL be allergic to the red meat.

Author

Rafael Renteria
July 30, 2023

Powered by

Use MONDAY15 for 15% off.

GM,

Alex Eubank got sent home on a stretcher, Derek MPMD is a virgin, and more of the story with the ticks that cause a red meat allergy.

If you’re looking for a preworkout that emphasizes clean caffeine, mental clarity, and sick pumps, check out this week’s sponsor: Crystal Pump.

Some of the Monday Iron gang have already tried it and loved it, give it a shot. Use MONDAY15 for 15% off.

It’s not a preworkout, it’s an experience.

Thank you mustache man, let’s get into this week.

At a Glance:

Entertainment

  • Alex Eubank Hospitalized

  • Logan Paul (Not Virgin) Cures Child

Business + Health

  • Ticks Cause Red Meat Allergy

Let’s get into it.

Entertainment

Alex Eubank Hospitalized

YouTuber and athlete Alex Eubank was taken out of the gym on a stretcher this weekend after attempting a 48-hour fast.

On a podcast with George Janko (Former Impaulsive Podcast member), Alex and George discussed a Bible verse, Matthew 17:21, that discusses casting out demons through prayer and fasting.

Besides spiritual healing, Alex saw this as an opportunity to practice self discipline and self control.

Unfortunately, 24 hours into his fast, he attempted an arm workout and lost feeling in most parts of his body in the middle of it. He was taken to an emergency room.

According to his latest vlog, he will be getting both a heart stress test and bloodwork done soon to make sure everything’s good.

Logan Paul (Not a Virgin) Cures Child

Logan Paul posted this email to his Instagram story from a father who apparently had a son that suffered from major signs of dehydration despite “drinking plenty of liquids throughout the day.”

In the second screenshot, you’ll see that Logan writes “stupid virgin” next to Derek’s tag; this is part of an ongoing back and forth that reached a peak after Derek posted a YouTube video titled: What They WON’T Tell You About Prime (it’s worse than tap water?).

The video is lengthy so if you don’t want to spend 40 minutes watching it, I summarized Derek’s work in this video.

Business + Health

Ticks Cause Red Meat Allergy

Forbes posted a headline to their Instagram over the weekend stating, “More Americans Face Possibly Life-Threatening Red Meat Allergy After Spike in Tick-Borne Illness.'“ The CDC estimates state that tick-related allergic reactions to red meat have affected up to 450,000 Americans since 2010.

Coincidentally, a related video came across my feed yesterday in which bioethicist Matthew Liao discusses using human engineering to make humans allergic to meat.

Luckily, this section isn’t going to be all doom and gloom. I’m gonna go over Liao’s comments, the tick’s illness, and what you can do to protect yourself (Monday Iron Gang came through with a tick spray recommendation).

This is the small sound bite:

Not a great look. But, in the name of full context (It got worse the more I watched) I searched for the full interview and found the full panel from The World Science Festival that discussed the Ethics of Altering the Human Genome (2016).

Liao begins talking in the panel at 27:49; 33:27 is where he begins discussing climate change solutions and the issue of meat. So to be fair, it appears that he’s discussing people that want to stop eating meat, but don’t have the willpower.

So it’s being framed as a solution for those willing to use it, not a method to force on people. This is also where he briefly mentions the Lonestar Tick and that it makes people allergic to red meat. After this, I thought maybe this guy isn’t insane, but then I kept listening to his other solutions.

Love fixing climate change by literally bringing everyone down. Makes a lot of sense.

I had some hope in the first half of this segment where Liao mentioned “respecting nature" and the risk of unintended consequences. Because he’s just throwing ideas out there, no harm in that.

However, his view is that human advances have damaged/changed the environment, so it would actually be respecting nature if we changed ourselves (genetically).

Now while some of these guys do real lab work, this panel is essentially a bunch of professional thinkers trying to make rules on hypothetical situations; which is helpful because they can get ahead of certain issues.

But, this Liao guy did not let up on the ridiculous ideas. He also suggested lowering the birth rate to fight climate change through increasing education in adults (Higher education/cognition has a relationship with lower birth rates).

You could argue that all of this is on the same plane as people suggesting Liftocracies, Kentocracy, and shit like that. The difference is, this guy probably has influence in powerful places; so it’s a little spooky to think that some power-hungry maniac will hear this and try to make these ideas a reality.

Which brings us to the conspiracy part of the ticks that make you allergic to red meat.

Lonestar Tick: Native to USA and Mexico, can cause alpha-gal syndrome (red meat allergy)

Alpha-Gal Syndrome:

Alpha-gal is a sugar molecule that humans don’t have in their system, but a lot of animals do.

If a person is bitten by a lone star tick and it transmits the alpha-gal molecule, the person may develop an antibody reaction to the molecule. In other words, they could develop an allergy. This means the next time the person eats red meat such as beef or venison, or something made with beef gelatin, they could break out in hives or have a more serious allergic reaction.

It doesn’t take a genius to make conspiracy connections here, but I think it would be awfully convenient if the lab-grown meat that recently approved for sale was completely free of beef gelatin, making it the only red meat alternative.

With a quick Google search, I found that the Lonestar Tick itself is not new. It was first discovered in 1758. However, the tick was not found to cause a red meat allergy until the early 2000s by Dr. Thomas Platts-Mills. I pulled the following info from the University of Virginia’s website.

Between 2004-2006, a new cancer treatment, Cetuximab, came on the market. As it started being used, it began causing allergic reactions in certain regions of the U.S. When looking into this issue, the team found that alpha-gal (mentioned previously) was connected to a new red meat allergy showing up in similar areas. Then they determined that the Lone Star Tick caused the allergy.

The guy actually experimented on himself which is pretty cool, bro was dialed in.

More research is going to be needed to see how far these reports of sudden meat allergies actually go to confirm some lab-escaped-tick conspiracy shit, but I’m not ruling it out completely.

The good news is that someone in the Monday Iron audience came through with some tips after he found one in his bed after a fishing trip. Aside from wearing long pants when working or fishing, he recommended industrial tick spray designed for clothing, gear, and tents.

Rafi’s Desk

Thanks for tuning in once again to the newsletter. My attendance in the digital void has been spotty due to work again, but I think I have that solved (new job where I don’t have to learn anything new, I just fix drywall and paint apartments).

Things were pretty good, but the last month and a half was absolutely fucked, but it’s over now.

Also I fixed a steel door over the weekend that got damaged by a SWAT team, pretty cool stuff. Just used auto-body repair putty (Bondo), 150-180 grain sandpaper on a power sander to sand it, and paint.

Hope you all have a banger week. Until next time.

- Rafi

Check out our Partners: