How To Live With Lyme Disease
People who are treated in the early stages of Lyme disease with antibiotics typically recover quickly and completely. However, treatment is sometimes delivered by IV to people in a hospital who can’t take the oral medications, or for people who are very sick with neurological Lyme disease. To live with Lyme disease, you need to keep the following things in mind:
1. Sun Sensitivity
People who are taking antibiotic doxycycline and who are strongly affected by the sun are advised against using sunscreen, as it’s ineffective with doxyclicine and can quickly lead to painful sunburns. The most important thing you can do is stay indoors during the middle of the day or wear long sleeve shirts and long pants, as well as a wide brimmed hat and sunglasses.
2. Probiotics
When taking antibiotics to treat Lyme disease, it’s important that you take a good probiotic at least 2 hours after your antibiotics and continue the probiotics for up to a month after your antibiotic treatment. Antibiotics kill off the good and bad bacteria in your gut, which means that you are susceptible to a Clostridium difficile infection , and in some cases, C. diff infection can lead to a hole in the intestines, which can be fatal.
3. Blood Tests
4. Immune System
5. Diet
6. Support
How Is Lyme Disease Diagnosed
It can be hard for doctors to diagnose Lyme disease because:
- The tick bites and rash might not be noticed.
- Many early symptoms seem like the flu or other illnesses.
- Blood tests are not always accurate, especially early in the illness.
Doctors can diagnose early Lyme disease if they see a tick bite and rash. Blood tests usually aren’t helpful in the first month of Lyme disease.
To diagnose late Lyme disease, doctors:
- Ask about symptoms.
- Do blood tests that look for signs of Lyme disease.
Depending on the symptoms, doctors might order other tests, such as a spinal tap, which looks at the fluid around the brain and spinal cord.
Chronic Lyme Disease & Its Co
Listen to the audio version of this blog here:
When I tell people I have chronic Lyme and some of its co-infections, they often look at me quizzically and ask: Whats a co-infection? I explain that in addition to Lyme ticks can transmit other diseases as well. I get an understanding nod until I say the names of the diseases. Rarely have people heard of them: Babesia, Ehrlichia, and Bartonella. One of my graduate school professors got so tired of trying to say Babesia that he jokingly renamed it babelicious.
I get a similar reaction when I tell people that a chief symptom of Babesia is air hunger. Some hear the term and think of marathon runners or asthma patients. Most really have no idea what it actually means. Literally, it means to be hungry for air. But how is that related to Babesia, and what does the symptom actually entail?
Babesia is a parasite that eats the oxygen in red blood cells. This result is low blood oxygen levels in the body. When you are hungry for food, your stomach might grumble, and you might feel a gnawing or emptiness, a craving for sustenance. You might become lightheaded or even faint. The same is true when your blood is hungry for oxygen, except you feel the hunger in your cells rather than in your stomach.
Related blogs:
Recommended Reading: Lyme Disease And Chest Pain
Lyme Disease Eye Symptoms
Lyme disease, the most common vector-borne illness in the United States, is a multisystem illness usually caused by infection with the spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi and the bodys immune response to the infection. The disease is transmitted to humans via tick bites, from infected ticks of the genus Ixodes.
Treatment For Lyme Disease Symptoms
Doctors say the sooner you notice symptoms, the better your outcome. People treated in the early stages of Lyme generally make a full, rapid recovery, the CDC notes.
Antibiotics are recommended for most people with Lyme disease, but what that regimen looks like varies widely from person to person. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases says a short course of an oral antibiotic, such as doxycycline or amoxicillin, can clear up Lyme infection in most cases. However, the particular drug, dosage, and duration your doctor recommends may depend on factors such as:
- Your age
Recommended Reading: Is Lyme Disease Curable In Humans
Chronic Lyme Disease Rash
Various photos of Lyme rashes and skin conditions that are not Lyme related. How to distinguish a Lyme disease rash from look-alikes. Skip directly to site content Skip directly to page options Skip directly to A-Z link. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC twenty four seven. Saving Lives, Protecting People
Is Lyme Disease Hair Loss Reversible
Many of the conditions developed by Lyme disease patients are hard to treat. This is because the only way to fight the infection is through antibiotics, and even these dont always rid the body of all the bacteria. Lyme disease hair loss, however, is one such comorbidity that can be reversed. This is because the hair follicles arent usually damaged from the condition. When antibiotics work and the Lyme bacteria is eradicated from the body, the hair tends to regrow within three months of treatment.
Although many people with Lyme disease wont experience alopecia, some may find their hair begins to fall out when theyre infected. The best way to avoid hair loss caused by a Lyme disease infection is to avoid becoming infected in the first place, or to seek treatment immediately after discovering a tick bite on the body. Ticks are typically found in wooded areas, so when outdoors, its important to remember tick safety tips, such as covering up all exposed skin areas that could be vulnerable to a tick bite and wearing insect repellant to avoid getting bitten by a tick.
Featured image by Slavolijubovski on Pixabay
Read Also: Do All Ticks Have Lyme Disease
How You Get Lyme Disease
If a tick bites an animal carrying the bacteria that cause Lyme disease, the tick can become infected. The tick can then transfer the bacteria to a human by biting them.
Ticks can be found in any areas with deep or overgrown plants where they have access to animals to feed on.
They’re common in woodland and moorland areas, but can also be found in gardens or parks.
Ticks don’t jump or fly. They climb on to your clothes or skin if you brush against something they’re on. They then bite into the skin and start to feed on your blood.
Generally, you’re more likely to become infected if the tick is attached to your skin for more than 24 hours. Ticks are very small and their bites are not painful, so you may not realise you have one attached to your skin.
Lyme Disease Skin Problems
Lyme disease, also known as Lyme borreliosis, is a vector-borne disease caused by the Borrelia bacterium which is spread by ticks in the genus Ixodes. The most common sign of infection is an expanding red rash, known as erythema migrans, that appears at the site of the tick bite about a week after it occurred. The rash is typically neither itchy nor painful.
You May Like: Post Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome Treatment
Spider Bite Rash Lyme Disease
Description: A rash without a known cause that can be a round or oval, pink, and scaly with a raised border. It can sometimes itch. Larger patches than the one shown here are also common. Granuloma annulare rash. Photo Credit: Bernard Cohen. Description: Reddish bumps on the skin arranged in a circle or ring.
Achy Stiff Or Swollen Joints
Joint pain and stiffness, often intermittent, are early Lyme symptoms. Your joints may be inflamed, warm to the touch, painful, and swollen. You may have stiffness and limited range of motion in some joints .
Pain may move around. Sometimes your knees may hurt, whereas other times its your neck or your heels. You may also have bursitis . Bursae are the thin cushions between bone and surrounding tissue.
The pain may be severe, and it may be transitory. More than one joint may be affected. Most often the large joints are involved .
People often attribute joint problems to age, genetics, or sports. Lyme should be added to that list, as these statistics indicate:
- One study estimates that 80 percent of people with untreated Lyme have muscle and joint symptoms .
- Fifty percent of people with untreated Lyme have intermittent episodes of arthritis .
- Two-thirds of people have their first episode of joint pain within six months of the infection .
- Use of anti-inflammatory drugs may mask the actual number of people with joint swelling .
Summary:
Joint pain that comes and goes, or moves from joint to joint, could be a sign of Lyme.
You May Like: Lyme Research And Healing Center
Does Lyme Disease Rash Go Away
Yes, the Lyme disease rash can go away, and sometimes, with some people, it can return. The presence of the rash is proof positive that Borrelia was transmitted, however, the absence of the rash means nothing. A rash, or erythema migrans, occurs in fewer than 50% of people who contract Lyme disease,
Secondary Lyme Disease Rash
Various photos of Lyme rashes and skin conditions that are not Lyme related. How to distinguish a Lyme disease rash from look-alikes. Skip directly to site content Skip directly to page options Skip directly to A-Z link. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC twenty four seven. Saving Lives, Protecting People
Don’t Miss: Prophylactic Antibiotics For Lyme Disease
Can You Die From Lyme Disease
If not treated, Lyme disease can sometimes be fatal. Death records collected by researchers at the Centers for Disease Control in the U.S. found that during a four year period from 1999 to 2003, 114 records listed Lyme disease as a cause of death. Left untreated, Lyme disease eventually spreads to the brain, heart, and joints where it can do a lot of damage.If it’s not promptly and aggressively treated, it may become chronic or may cause death later on.
Borrelia burgdorfi bacteria are not the only bacteria that ticks carry. Co-infections by other bacteria are often missed, such as Bartonella, Babesiosis, Mycoplasma fermentans, and Ehrlichiosis can also be transmitted. They can also be dangerous with their own set of symptoms, and people must be tested for them during the Lyme treatment. Co-infections can exacerbate Lyme disease or induce similar disease manifestations making the condition worse.
How can you die from Lyme disease? Possibly as Lyme bacteria are particularly difficult to kill, and in many cases the use of antibiotics only temporarily suppresses them. They prefer to travel in tissue because of their corkscrew shape, and they’re clever enough to conceal themselves by entering healthy cells, where they remain unnoticed by the immune system. As soon as the bacteria enter the blood stream, they quickly enter the central nervous system where they cause the most harm.
Stop The Itching Lyme And Hives
byJennifer Crystalon February 13, 2020
Do you get unexplained hives? Could it be Lyme disease?
Four years after I was bitten by a tickand four years before I would be diagnosed with three tick-borne illnesses: Lyme, babesia, and ehrlichiaI started getting hives. They presented at random times and didnt seem to be associated with anything I ate. They sometimes came on mid morning while I was teaching a class, or in the middle of the night while I was sleeping. Suddenly my body would feel aflame with itchiness, and big red welts would form all over my torso, back, and limbs. Often my face or hands turned bright red too.
I wasnt using any new soaps or detergents. I hadnt tried any new foods. Allergy tests showed I hadnt developed any new allergies either, besides those Id had since childhood dust, mold, hay fever and animal dander. But none of those allergens had ever given me hives. Lots of people have unknown allergies, the allergist shrugged, not concerned with digging deeper into the derivation of my itchiness. Just take an over-the-counter antihistamine, he said.
If youre struggling with idiopathic hives and havent been diagnosed with tick-borne disease, consider seeing an LLMD to find out if Lyme or one of its co-infections might be causing your inflammation. If you have already been diagnosed with a tick-borne infection and are experiencing hives, hopefully some of my techniques, coupled with medication, will help alleviate your suffering.
Also Check: What Type Of Doctors Treat Lyme Disease
Phase : Early Localized Disease
A characteristic flat, red ring or bull’s-eye rash develops in 75% of those who have been bitten by a tick infected with Lyme disease. The rash appears days to weeks after the bite and spreads outward. The bull’s-eye rash is called “erythema migrans.” Some people don’t notice or remember being bitten by a tick either because the tick was too small or a rash never appeared. Someone with newly acquired Lyme disease may suffer from fatigue, headache, joint and muscle stiffness, and swollen glands. Later stages of the disease affect the heart, joints, and nervous system.
When Should I Go See My Doctor
Anyone who has been bitten by a black-legged deer tick is at risk for Lyme disease. The highest risk groups include those living in or visiting endemic areas, especially people who spend significant time outdoors such as gardeners, hikers, or outdoor workers.
Patients should seek advice from their doctor if they have a suspicious round expanding red skin lesion, and/or show signs of summer-flu, particularly during Lyme disease season, which is highest-risk late spring through July/August. If those circumstances apply or symptoms persist it is very important to go to a physician.
For the west coast and other more temperate regions Lyme disease can be a year-round concern.
In the later disseminated stages, Lyme disease can be a much more insidious and complex illness. An individual should seek medical care if experiencing symptoms such as prolonged fevers, unexplained fatigue, painful joints, new or unusual headache, or heart or neurologic symptoms. If unexplained viral-like symptoms last for more than 1-2 weeks, please seek the advice of a physician.
Read Also: Hey Google What Are The Symptoms Of Lyme Disease
How To Remove Ticks
Tick bites aren’t always painful. You may not notice a tick unless you see it on your skin. Check your skin and your children’s or pets’ skin after being outdoors.
To remove a tick:
The risk of getting ill is low. You don’t need to do anything else unless you become unwell.
An Overview Of Lyme Disease And Mold Illness
votes, average 3.82 out of 5)
Lyme Disease Natural Wellness
When I was in my 20s, I lived in a rental home with mold growing around the bathtub. At the time, it was more of an eyesore than a real concern. I would spray it down with bleach whenever I cleaned the bathroom, and that removed the black spots until they grew back and needed to be treated again. I cringe at my ignorance now. I didnt realize certain molds can cause serious, debilitating chronic illness and even death in some cases.
I started experiencing my first symptoms of chronic illness while living in that home. Years later, I recognized that moldy bathtub may have been making me sick. Back then, I didnt know certain molds produce toxic byproducts called mycotoxins, which have been associated with cancer, liver failure, kidney failure and other serious health conditions. Mold toxicity, also known as mold illness, is a common comorbidity in those with chronic Lyme disease, and its also been linked to fibromyalgia and ME/CFS. In one 2013 study, infectious disease specialist Joseph Brewer, MD, found 93 percent of his ME/CFS patients tested positive for one or more mold toxins in their urine.
Recommended Reading: What Happens If You Smoke Weed With Asthma
Don’t Miss: Lyme Disease Ever Go Away
What Is Shingles What Is Its Connection With Lyme Disease
Shingles is a viral disease characterized by a painful rash mainly on the torso and sometimes on the face. It usually occurs in patients with weakened immune system and is typically seen in elderly populations. Shingles disease affects the patient at the nerve level in that the virus called Varicella Zoster virus affects the nerves while also causing a painful rash on the body. Almost all patients who have suffered from chicken pox in their childhood have the dormant Varicella Zoster virus inside them. As a result, when they become sick or develop a weaker immunity, they tend to suffer from Shingles in adulthood.
Lyme disease on the other hand, is basically caused by Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria. These microorganisms are present in many animals including deer, pheasants, rodents etc. If a deer tick bites you, you are likely to develop Lyme disease based on your overall health condition and also on the time period for which the tick remains attached to your body. The main symptoms of Lyme disease are bulls eye rashes along with fever, flu-like symptoms, joint pain, fatigue, sudden memory loss, lack of appetite, inability to concentrate etc.
Lyme Disease Circle Rash
Description: A rash without a known cause that can be a round or oval, pink, and scaly with a raised border. It can sometimes itch. Larger patches than the one shown here are also common. Granuloma annulare rash. Photo Credit: Bernard Cohen. Description: Reddish bumps on the skin arranged in a circle or ring.
Recommended Reading: Signs Of Lyme Disease In People