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Posts Tagged ‘lyme disease’

We just found a tick on my dog (golden retriever) and it probably was there since sunday, april 1st. I am concerned that she received Lyme Disease. I would like to know how long it takes for the symptoms of the disease to appear?

You may have been visiting your doctor for years complaining about a myriad of symptoms. People may think that you are a hypochondriac. Yet you knew something was wrong. And one day finally you are told a diagnosis that you have a disease called Lyme disease. How is it that the medical community was clueless? After all this is the 21st century with advanced medicine and all the tests in the world. Why you wonder was your Lyme disease caught before.

The answers are myriad. First Lyme disease is frequently misdiagnosed. Physicians overlook cases of Lyme disease simply because they do not know the complex nature of the origin and development of Lyme Disease. Lyme Disease can cause over 100 different symptoms and the one commonly known symptom of Lyme Disease that is joint pain is only one of the many presentations of Lyme Disease.

Secondly the tests for Lyme Disease are frequently useless and frequently misleading. The bacteria which causes Lyme disease can only infrequently be grown in bacterial plates. There is no one test to medical test diagnose Lyme Disease. Hence your doctor has to be on the ball to catch your symptoms. And even then he may not put together your odd symptoms as Lyme Disease if you unlucky enough to have Lyme Disease symptoms that are not in the book.

Not only is that Lyme Disease not caused by the one known bacteria. It is now estimated that 300 different strains of bacterial worldwide cause Lyme Disease. Further it is not only the deer tick that spreads Lyme Disease. Other ticks such as Lone Star Ticks, western black legged and wood ticks can spread Lyme Disease as well. And if that is not enough global warming is spreading the geographic range of some of these insects to previously unknown areas.

You are not alone in being left out in the cold. It turns out that Lyme Disease is much more common than previously estimated up to 10 to 15 times higher than the previous underrated estimates. As you well have figures out by now doctors often miss most cases if Lyme Disease. The reasons are not hard to figure out. Further because of the apparent low rates of this disease it is not considered of any major public health concern so that there is no mandatory reporting procedure as one might find with venereal diseases. You have been caught in a terrible vicious cycle. Low diagnosis rates since doctors do not know what to look for and tests are not accurate in any manner. Then because the true prevalence of the incidence of Lyme Disease is vastly underreported Lyme disease is seen as a minor disease that is well taken care of. Hence there is little need for education on how to catch the symptoms of Lyme Disease .The circle goes on and on.

Amazingly even if you are one of the lucky few and have your Lyme Disease correctly diagnosed you may not be home free. You may be under treated with antibiotic therapy. The stated course of action is a 6 week schedule of antibiotic therapy. Yet it often takes months, years and perhaps for ever of antibiotic therapy to manage this lingering disease with its hardy bacterial threat.

It has been said that just because you are paranoid does not mean that people are not out to get you. You were not imagining that your Lyme Disease took a very long time to diagnose. And the reasons are real not imagined.

Author: Margaret Mathews
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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“There is a reason so many Lyme sufferers seek out alternative treatments. It is not because they are insane, uneducated, overly hysterical, stupid, or gullible. It is because they are ill, they know they are ill, and because conventional medical treatment has not worked for them.” – Stephen Harrod Bruhner, Healing Lyme: Natural Healing and Prevention of Lyme Borreliosis and Its Coinfections

The annual number of new cases of Lyme borreliosis disease occurring in the United States is unknown due to many factors, namely under-diagnoses, misdiagnoses and unreliable tests. The National Institute of Health classifies Lyme as a rare disease, yet at the same time the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases estimates that there are 100,000 cases of annual occurrence. Harvard researchers and Lyme-literate physicians believe that up to 200,000 new cases of Lyme occurring in the U.S. each year, and that the number of people infected grows each year.

Guidelines published in October, 2006 by the Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) list many of the current treatments for Lyme disease as “not recommended,” declaring that Lyme can be cured with a 14 – 28 day course of antibiotics.

People diagnosed with Lyme believe the disease is neither rare nor easy to cure. Physicians who are well-versed in treating their patients with Lyme often use high dosages of long-term antibiotics. Patricia Smith is president of the Lyme Disease Association (LDA), and vice president of political action for the International Lyme and Associated Disease Society. Smith reported that immediately after the guidelines were published Lyme patients started contacting the LDA anxious that their insurance companies would now refuse to pay for long-term antibiotics, a common method of treatment for chronic Lyme. Although the IDSA maintains that the guidelines are not enforced, the reality is that insurance companies can rationalize their refusal to fulfill physician’s prescriptions by pointing to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), which published the guidelines on their web site.

“Lyme disease is an epidemic in this country,” says cardiologist and medical researcher Lee Cowden, MD. Lyme’s ability to mimic hundreds of other diseases adds to the confusion. Cowden believes that most of the diseases “considered incurable by conventional medicine have some kind of Lyme component.” The disease is spread through black-legged ticks, but Lyme-literate doctors suspect that the disease is spread through sexual intercourse and other means.

“It’s in mosquitoes too,” says physician and researcher JoAnn Whitaker, MD, of the Bowen Research Laboratory in Florida. The lab is responsible for a recently patented test for Lyme that is reportedly more reliable than the Western Blot, the test typically used to detect Lyme antibodies. The Bowen Research Laboratory’s blood test, called the Q-RiBb, tests for the antigens themselves. Dr. Whitaker believes that fleas, mosquitoes and any blood-sucking organism can carry Lyme bacteria unless it has a body temperature high enough to kill the bacteria. “I think this is the most prevalent disease there is,” she says.

Although many Lyme patients have had success with long-term antibiotics, many patients being treated with antibiotics have recovered 100% for months or even years only to suffer a relapse. Lyme patients are a varied group, one Lyme-literate physician reminded attendees at the 2006 Lyme conference in Philadelphia. He advised them not to take “a one-size fits all approach” with treatment.

As Patricia Smith and others have noted, due to the controversy and confusion around the disease, Lyme patients recognize the importance of conducting their own research into the symptoms and stages of this multi-stage disease. Anyone who begins to dip their toe in the research quickly becomes aware of the politics around the diagnosis and treatment of Lyme. People diagnosed with Lyme are often at odds with the medical community, many of whom perceive the patient as the enemy, not as a person with a disease.

Many people explore alternatives such as nutritional supplements to help restore their energy and cope with side effects of the antibiotics. Patients are often prescribed antibiotics and never told about the side effects, or about the simple ways to avoid them. Some patients delve into alternatives as they lose confidence in conventional treatment. Some patients simply can’t afford to seek out a Lyme-literate doctor and enlist their help. To patients who are under-insured or not insured at all, the alternatives are a pro-active path they must explore because they are sick. They want to get better, and their symptoms motivate them to find ways to heal. As anybody who has ever googled a cure for the common cold can tell you, there is no shortage of information about healing alternatives online.

Many of these alternatives to antibiotics are compelling, and when conducting research it is clear that members of the virtual Lyme community are genuine, highly motivated and sophisticated in their knowledge of the disease, its effects and the array of alternative therapies available.

Patients learn that while following a protocol for healing Lyme, it is critical to address detoxification of heavy metals in the body such as mercury from amalgam dental fillings, exposure to lead poisoning and the use of aluminum pots and pans. Adopting a sound nutritional diet without sugar, alcohol and caffeine is also important. All of those substances cause havoc to a compromised immune system. Sugar feeds Lyme bacteria and caffeine causes inflammation. Alcohol contains sugar, depresses the immune system, and inflames the liver.

Lee Cowden not only suspects Lyme bacteria as a root cause for autoimmune diseases, he also lists neuro-degenerative diseases, cardiovascular diseases, cardiac-arrhythmias, gastrointestinal diseases, MS, ALS, Parkinson’s, ADDHD, and autism. “I’ve found that if you can start working on the Lyme and the toxins, then a lot of these labels go away,” he says.

How is Lyme disease contracted and spread? The question only seems to invite more controversy to a growing population of Lyme sufferers seeking answers. However, one thing is becoming clear. “Only a very small percentage of those have contracted Lyme disease through a tick bite, the way conventional medicine thinks,” warns Dr. Cowden.

Stephen Harrod Buhner concurs. Author of Healing Lyme: Natural Healing and Prevention of Lyme Borreliosis and Its Coinfections, Buhner says although transmission through a tick bite is still believed to be the most common way of contracting the disease, he notes, “little research has been conducted on other routes of transmission.” Lyme spirochetes “are passed not only through tick bites but also through other mechanisms. Once they infect people they can be found in breast milk, in tears, in semen, and in urine. Babies have been infected in the womb,” he writes.

Buhner, a master herbalist, conducted intensive research of Lyme borreliosis in preparation for his 2005 book, Healing Lyme. In the course of his research, he says, he expected to find that nonpharmaceutical alternatives were not included in any mainstream medical discussion about treatment. But he was surprised by something else he discovered, which is, “that a significant amount of reputable research is being ignored by the mainstream medical community.” If Lyme spirochetes are known to be passed through sexual intercourse, for example, one must wonder why the CDC is turning a deaf ear to that research.

While battle lines are drawn in the medical community about diagnosis, treatment and prevention, Lyme patients continue to grow more sophisticated in their understanding of the effects of Lyme disease, and they continue to try to help themselves heal from Lyme, through conventional therapy, alternatives and a combination of both.

Suzanne Arthur/LDRD/All rights reserved/24 November 2006

Author: Suzanne Arthur
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Once assumed to be a regional disease largely confined to the
northeastern United States and spread by bacteria carried only by deer
ticks, Lyme experts now report that cases of the illness have been
documented in every state. There is also evidence to suggest that it
can be spread through other means, including mosquitoes and body
fluids. According to JoAnne Whitaker, M.D., of Bowen Research
Laboratory in Florida, Lyme disease isn’t just a tick-borne
infection. I have found the bacteria in every single mosquito that I’ve
examined, from blood all over California and all over Florida. Dr.
Whitaker believes that Lyme is the most prevalent disease
there is.

Dr. Tod Thoring is a naturopath and the owner of Pacific Natural
Medicine and Skin Care Centre in Arroyo Grande, California. In his
family practice, Thoring has observed a steady increase in the
frequency of patients with Lyme. Although the evidence suggests that
Lyme is on the rise throughout the country, many people have been told
by medical professionals that Lyme disease does not exist in California.

The medical community is in its infancy in learning about
this disease, says Dr. Thoring.

Lyme is considered a difficult disease to diagnose and treat. Lyme
symptoms mimic hundreds of other diseases, and has prompted the medical
community’s nickname for the disease: the new Great Imitator. The Lyme
bug is a spirochete, the same type of spiral-shaped bacterium that is
responsible for syphilis. Capable of moving through body tissue as well
as the bloodstream, the spirochete can evade the body’s immune system,
change from a spiral into a ball and pull a protective shell, a fibrin,
over itself.

Prognosis for recovering from Lyme is better if the disease is caught
and treated early on. However, arriving at a correct diagnosis is often
complicated. One reason for this is Lyme symptoms vary from patient to
patient, and may not appear immediately after infection. Lyme symptoms
can be alarming or bizarre, they can include hallucinations and severe
mood swings, and patients are frequently dismissed as psychotic or
ignored by medical doctors who are dangerously uninformed about the
increase of this endemic illness.

Diagnosis is further complicated because the common test for Lyme, the
Western Blot, yields unreliable results. It tests for antibodies, which
are not always present and detectable in the Lyme patient. Negative
clinical results do not necessarily mean that a person is free of Lyme.

Unreliable tests and unreasonable expectations of the results serves to
prolong the suffering of Lyme patients who are often caught in the
controversy over treatment protocol. To mitigate this problem, Lyme
experts currently advise that if Lyme is suspected and the patient is
showing symptoms typical of the disease, the patient should be treated
as if the disease is present, even when positive test results are
pending.

When you first get Lyme disease, your body does not produce
any antibodies, and so the antibody tests aren’t any good, and if
you’re very far along in the disease sometimes an antibody test isn’t
any good either, says Dr. Whitaker.

Over the past five years Dr. Whitaker has developed and patented a new
test for Lyme, the Q-RrBb, which she claims is more reliable and
produces results more quickly than the Western Blot test. Q-RrBb stands
for Quantitative Rapid Identification of Borrelia Burgdorferi, the name
of the bacteria that causes Lyme disease. Instead of detecting
antibodies as an indication of the bacteria’s presence, the Q-RiBb
tests for antigens. says that the new test is better,
because we look for the bug itself.

Lyme disease patients are given standard antibiotics to kill the
bacteria and address the co-infections which commonly accompany the
illness. The duration, type of delivery and the antibiotic best suited
for treatment are all points of controversy in the medical community.
According to the protocol promoted by the Center for Disease Control,
Lyme disease can be cured with a 30-day course of antibiotics. But Lyme
disease expert Lee Cowden, M.D., is concerned that few people with Lyme
can be cured within that amount of time.

The standard antibiotic treatment is not as successful as
antimicrobials, according to Dr. Cowden’s studies. Unless
you start treating the infection during the first three to six
weeks, he says, patients tend to have to get
repeated rounds of antibiotics longterm, for years and years and
years. Cowden devotes much of his time educating other
medical doctors about the use of antimicrobial herbs to help patients
heal from Lyme disease, and as a result of intensive medical studies,
has developed a protocol with a high success rate.

We want to try and get as many doctors as possible familiar
with these protocols, says Dr. Cowden. They’re
working well, they’re non-toxic, they’re not giving the adverse
reactions like a lot of people see, with the fungal overgrowth from
standard antibiotics. And the patients are getting well and staying
well even though the basic protocol is stopped at some point.

The studies and doctors quoted in the article are all included in the Lyme Disease Research Database Conversations
with Lyme Experts Interview Series.

Author: Suzanne J Arthur
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Lyme disease is becoming an epidemic in the United States and no one is talking about it; and this disease, although not easy to prevent, can be prevented or it may cases, severely restricted. It is especially dangerous if it attacks your nervous system.

However, the United States is not alone with this growing disease as it has also started to show up in China, Europe, Japan, Australia, and several areas of what used to be the Soviet Union.

Lyme disease is still relatively unknown to many people as it has only been around and been documented in people since 1975 when it was thought to have been rheumatoid arthritis in a group of children that lived in Lyme, Connecticut. But it was studied and later discovered that it was actually caused by bacteria and identified as Lyme disease in 1982.

The U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC, has monitored it ever since. In a seven year period from 1992 to 1998 there were almost 89,000 cases of this disease reported, with 9800 in 1992 and growing to almost 16,000 by 1998. In 2007 there were almost 28,000 cases reported and the numbers keep growing.

What is Lyme disease?

Lyme disease is a bacterial disease that is caused by a bacterium referred to as a spirochete. Spirochetes are any type of various bacteria that can be pathogenic and cause disease and are usually carried either by lice or ticks, and when they bite, they transmit the infection. Lyme disease is transmitted by a tick that is found in all fifty states.

As with most spirochetes, the disease can not be transmitted from one human to another, as the only way you can catch this disease is by a tick bite. What makes Lyme disease so very difficult to spot is that you may never know you have been bitten as these particular ticks are very, very small.

It may not be until the symptoms start to appear that you will know it is Lyme disease. Even than, the symptoms resemble several other conditions or diseases. This disease will affect different parts of your body and will vary in severity as it grows and develops in your system. It is classified in three very distinct stages: early localized, early disseminated, and than late disease which can be extremely dangerous.

Symptoms:

After you are infected with this disease, this bacterium spreads away from the initial point of entry, the tick bite, and the first symptoms will be a rash that can rapidly expand to several parts of your body. The symptoms will almost always be associated with a fever and flu like symptoms and this is referred to as the early localized stage.

This inflammation will than start expanding in a very distinct pattern that will literally resemble a bull’s eye. The outer portions will be a very bright red but the inner portions will be almost clear. However, what has been so difficult in diagnosis with this initial stage is that there are about 25 percent of people that develop no rash at all.

In the second stage, the symptoms will develop into fatigue, muscle and joint stiffness, swollen lymph nodes, and headaches. All of these symptoms closely resemble the flu and can easily be passed off as the flu. The difference will be that they will start to get worse in several cases.

The redness and rash will usually dissipate within three to four weeks, however, the bacteria is still in the body and is still infecting it if is not treated. If left untreated, stage three sets in which can affect the joints, the heart and the nervous system.

These symptoms can be especially dangerous as it can cause inflammation to the heart and muscle mass within the heart, causing abnormal heart rhythms or even heart failure if severe. The nervous system can also be attacked, and the first sign will be with Bell’s palsy, where the facial muscles are paralyzed. It can also lead to meningitis and confusion.

But there is one symptom that will be common in most all cases, and that will be the arthritis effects of the disease that will cause swelling, stiffness, and pain. If this is not treated, it can become chronic very rapidly. If you have not had any previous arthritic conditions and suddenly develop them, the chances are very good that you have Lyme disease.

Treatments:

Antibiotics will cure most all cases of this disease if it is caught in the very early stages; however, that is perhaps why it is becoming an epidemic, as it is very difficult to catch in the early stages. After the damage has set in, antibiotics are not very effective.

Preventions:

The chronic inflammation that is caused by this disease is why so many people with Lyme’s disease fail to improve. Bringing this inflammation under control, or preventing it to start with, will be the key to winning the battle against this little known, but fast growing disease.

Most all people that are attacked and infected with this disease suffer from nutritional deficiencies. Here are the nutrients that can assist in preventing as well as fighting Lyme disease once the body has been attacked.

Vitamin A is very effective in helping to build the immune system and fight infectious diseases as its role as an antioxidant; and deficiency of this vitamin may prolong Lyme arthritis. Deficiencies of Vitamins B6 and B12 are very common in with this disease. B12 deficiency is common among vegetarian diets and macrobiotic diets, and is essential in maintaining energy levels as well as counteracting gastrointestinal problems.

One of its most important functions is protecting the neurological system which is exactly where this disease attacks. Vitamin B6 works with magnesium in your body to protect the normal biochemical functions.
However, the two best preventive nutrients may be Vitamin C and D.

Vitamin C is very important in both preventing and fighting Lyme disease as it is the most powerful immune booster of all the nutrients. It also helps protects cellular structures and joint ligaments, the real target of this disease. Vitamin D helps to protect the endocrine system, especially the adrenal and thyroid glands. This vitamin is also the most prescribed vitamin for treating musculoskeletal pain associated with any type of inflammatory disease.

Summery:

Lyme disease can be prevented and treated by the proper nutrients. However, the statistics show that this disease is growing each and every year, and the definition of an epidemic is a disease that affects a large and growing number of people in a population.

Author: Frank Will
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Severe Lyme disease symptoms can resolve all of a sudden anywhere from a only some days to more than a few weeks while Never-ending Lyme disease will little by little engraft into the internal situation of the affected person.

Acute Lyme disease can be treated simply and effectively with a sole or recipe of antibiotics similar to penicillin, doxycycline and amoxicillin.

Lyme disease symptoms regularly begin with flu-like feelings. The Lyme disease symptoms are headache, fever, muscle pains, weakness, and stiff neck. Afterward the tick’s bite, about few days or one month after it, around 60% of Light-skinned patients experience an erythema migrans (EM) – an enlarging inflammation. Dark skinned people experience bruise.

The flu-like symptoms, which are actually Lyme disease symptoms, can last as long as the treatment, even as there may also be minor emotional and mental manifestations similar to temper swings, sleep problems and concentrating difficulties.

Analgesics can be taken for muscle and joint pain as well as drugs that lessen the body temperature. Treatment lasts from one to two months. First indications should immediately be taken care without hesitation. The first common sign is a bull’s-eye rash that goes on flu-like symptoms such as fever, body weakness, joint, muscle pain and chills. Unusual symptoms in acute Lyme disease include palpitations, heart block and neurologic symptoms like changed mental condition and neuroborreliosis, the central nervous system disorder. There is a potential for Lyme disease to go through an out of sight phase in its switch commencing acute to Never-ending disease. Severe symptoms can disappear for weeks, months or even years prior to recurring in extra harsh appearances.

Fractional Lyme disease symptoms:

Physicians are likely to misidentify premature Lyme disease on behalf of flu, and later on, they experience a few non-specific symptoms together with a variety of difficulties with different body organs. This is just a partial listing of Lyme disease symptoms, because there are additional than three hundred signs in the medical glossary implying Lyme disease infection. The previously mentioned report is not a diagnostic tool, but the intention is to submit a base for you to have a dialogue with your personal physician about the immeasurable Lyme disease.

Non-specific Lyme disease symptoms: Sore throat, night sweats, severe fatigue, and inflamed glands

Digestion: Nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain (especially in kids), and diarrheas are several of the leading digestive problems of Lyme disease symptoms.

Heart: some of the main Lyme disease: Vasculitis – inflammation of the wall of blood vessels including veins , arteries and capillaries Carditis, Pancarditis – the inflammation of the heart or its surroundings Myocarditis – inflammation of the myocardium, the muscular part of the heart.

Muscles: Joint inflammation and pain are the most common of Lyme disease symptoms: Arthritis that transfers from joint to joint cause damage to the joints of the body As a result: Loss of muscle tone, muscle ache. Bell’s palsy – paralysis of the facial nerve resulting in inability to control facial muscles on the affected side,

Nervous System: Meningoencephalitis – both meningitis (an inflammation of the meninges- the system of cells membranes which envelops the central nervous system), and encephalitis, which is an illness or inflammation of the brain Neurosyphilis – an infection of the brain or spinal cord, Encephalitis – an acute inflammation of the brain, spinal nerve root pain, tremors and shakes. Results: Deficit reflexes, irregular blood flow in brain, confusions, mood swings and speech difficulties – those are the major nervous system difficulties indicating severe Lyme disease symptoms and condition, remembrance loss, sleep problems, dementia, panic attacks, and neurotic disorder.

Skin: People who catch Lyme disease repeatedly get a rash. Usually it shapes a bull’s-eye pattern of red and white rings around the tick bite. Later on the might develop Lyme disease symptoms as Paresthesia – A skin sensation, such as burning, prickling, itching, or tingling, with no apparent physical cause. Sensory feeling; Tingling and numbness.

Reproductive System: People who are sick with Lyme disease might have Urine control problems. The might have problem to bring to an end the flow of urine from the bladder. Other signs of Lyme disease are Bowel incontinence – the loss of bowel control, resulting in involuntary passage of stool. Men might to have testicular pain – feeling pain in the testicles. Sexual dysfunction.

Women might have problems all through pregnancy – miscarriage, and delayed baby development. Several of the Lyme disease are indicative of illnesses as the following:

Multiple Sclerosis – Disease that affects the central nervous system.

Parkinson’s disease – Central nervous system disorder that impairs the motor skills and speech, as well as other tasks.

Alzheimer- a progressive and fatal brain disease, the most common form of dementia. Alzheimer’s destroys the brain cells, causing problems with memory, thinking and behavior.

Chronic Lyme disease:

30-50% of acute Lyme disease patients go on to expand chronic Lyme disease symptoms. Additionally, a few earlier present but without symptoms patients may make active their disease following a variety of anxieties such as trauma, surgery, pregnancy, coexisting illness, antibiotics treatment, or harsh emotional stress.

Never-ending Lyme disease is especially dangerous because the manifestations are much more severe moreover; there is no fixed medicine for it. It cannot be efficiently treated with antibiotics thus there are certain and individualized approaches in caring for patients in the Chronic shape. The effects are calling for long-term antibiotic use plus other therapies.

There is more controversy revolving around the medicinal treatment approach. The interaction of more than a few drugs and the chronic intake of antibiotics can prove to be overwhelming for the liver, kidneys and blood circulation as well.

Chronic antibiotic intake can result to the patient being immune-compromised. Steroid therapy may be indicated. Since the effects and counter-effects of a variety of treatments that are not yet established, a fixed treatment cannot be fully guaranteed only through medicine.

Immune responses due to bacterial invasion are compromised at times making the person vulnerable to acquiring other diseases.

Additional examination is necessary for constant Lyme disease since its pathogenesis, the system by which Lyme disease is caused, is not entirely recognized. In addition, more than a few manifestations suggestive to those of other diseases making it difficult for doctors to diagnose correctly. The person may have acquired a new illness but still show the similar of late phase of Lyme disease symptoms. Currently, Doctors and medical researchers are studying fresh healing alternatives to purposely individualize care plans for Lyme disease patients.

Author: Michael JR Green
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Lyme disease also called Lyme borreliosis, is an infection that derives from a tick bite. It is caused by a kind of bacteria (germ) called a spirochete. This bacterium is usually found in animals such as mice and deer. Lyme disease is diagnosed based on symptoms, physical findings (e.g., rash), and the possibility of exposure to infected ticks; laboratory testing is helpful in the later stages of disease. Most cases occur in the Northeast, upper Midwest, and along the Pacific coast. Mice and deer are the most commonly infected animals that serve as host to the tick. Most infections occur in the late spring, summer, and early fall. Ixodes dammini is responsible for most of the cases of Lyme disease in the northeastern United States. These ticks are found in grassy areas (including lawns), and in brushy, shrubby and woodland sites, even on warm winter days. If left untreated, infection can spread to joints, the heart, and the nervous system. Lyme disease is a vector-borne disease, meaning that it is transmitted from one host to another by a carrier- called a vector- that transmits but does not become infected with the disease.

Lyme disease is an occupational concern for people who work outdoors in certain areas infested with ticks. A tick will settle anywhere on a human body, but prefers warm, moist and dark places like the crotch or armpits. If Lyme disease spreads to the heart, the person may feel an irregular or slow heartbeat. The disease varies widely in its presentation, which may include a rash and flu-like symptoms in its initial stage, followed by musculoskeletal, arthritic, neurologic, psychiatric and/or cardiac manifestations. It can affect people of any age. The number of cases of the disease in an area depends on the amount of ticks in an area and how often the ticks are infected with the bacteria. The disease can sometimes be difficult to diagnose because the symptoms may mimic other diseases. Lyme disease may cause symptoms affecting the skin, nervous system, heart and/or joints of an individual. It is named after the town of Old Lyme, Connecticut where a cluster of cases was identified in 1975, although clinical features of the disease had been described in Europe as early as 1909. There are more than 16,000 cases of Lyme disease per year in the United States. People who spend time in grassy and wooded environments are at an increased risk of exposure.

Causes of Lyme disease

The common causes and risk factor’s of Lyme disease include the following:

Lyme disease is caused by an infection from a micro-organism (Borrelia burghdor feri), itself transmitted by a bite from the wood tick, a blood-sucking parasite which normally lives on deer.

Risk factors for Lyme disease include walking in high grasses, other activities that increase tick exposure, and having a pet that may carry ticks home.

Having exposed skin.

People who spend time in grassy and wooded environments are at an increased risk of exposure.

Not removing ticks promptly or properly.

The disease can be spread when an infected tick bites a person and stays attached for a period of time.

Symptoms of Lyme disease

Some sign and symptoms related to Lyme disease are as follows:

The first sign of infection usually is a circular rash that appears within 12 weeks of infection but may develop up to 30 days after the tick bite.

Unusual or strange behavior.

Flu-like symptoms. A fever, chills, fatigue, body aches and a headache may accompany the rash.

Headache.

Stiff neck.

Joint inflammation in the knees and other large joints.

Brain swelling (encephalitis)Causes- learning difficulties, confusion, and dementia.

Some people may experience heart problems- such as an irregular heartbeat- several weeks after infection, but this rarely lasts more than a few days or weeks.

Treatment of Lyme disease

Here is list of the methods for treating Lyme Disease:

Oral antibiotics- usually doxycycline for adults and children older than 8, or amoxicillin or cefuroxime axetil for adults and younger children- are the standard treatment for early-stage Lyme disease.

Lyme disease is also treated with antibiotics. Early Lyme disease responds very well to treatment. In most cases, 14 to 30 days of treatment with an antibiotic kills the bacteria.

Patients with certain neurological or cardiac forms of illness may require intravenous treatment with drugs such as ceftriaxone or penicillin.

Institute an oral regimen for 30 days.

Erythromycin (for people allergic to penicillin).

Wash area around the tick bite and hands with soap and warm water.

Patients with chronic arthritis that does not respond to IV antibiotics may need a synovectomy to eradicate the inflammatory arthritis in the involved joint.

Author: Juliet Cohen
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