Lyme Disease Knee Pain
The joint pain caused by Lyme disease primarily occurs in the knees and other larger joints. Other commonly affected joints are the hips, shoulders, elbows, wrists, and ankles. This pain occurs because the bacteria that causes Lyme disease invades the joints and causes the tissues that line them to become inflamed. Many patients with this condition describe their experience as joint pain that moves from one joint to another and pain that comes and goes throughout the day.
Facts About Lyme Disease In Pa
Ticks thrive in the countryside of Pennsylvania in particular, and according to a study published in the Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America , Lyme has a greater likelihood of occurring where suburban developments encroach on existing forest. This is thought to be because the white-footed mouse that is the most important animal in the Lyme disease transmission cycle can live without too many predators under these circumstances.
Notable statistics of Lyme disease in PA include:
- Swollen lymph nodes
For some people, a telltale sign of the disease is the red bulls eye-shaped skin rash that presents in some, but not all sufferers, within three to 30 days after being bitten by a tick.
Often, these first signs are missed when youre infected with Lyme disease and are dismissed as the flu or some other virus. This is very worrying because if antibiotic treatment isnt begun when the first signs of the disease present, your condition can become more serious.
Joint pain is another issue that can occur with Lyme disease. In the worst cases, over several weeks, nervous system and heart issues can develop. If left untreated, you may suffer from arthritis and neurological issues. In fact, according to the Arthritis Foundation, when Lyme disease is untreated, more than half of all sufferers will develop sporadic arthritis bouts.
Strategies For Managing Nerve Pain
1. Reduce Your Microbial Burden
When youre dealing with Lyme disease and co-infections, its not always easy to pinpoint which stealth pathogen is affecting your nervous system. In fact, its most reasonable to recognize that all sneaky microbes are capable of disrupting immune function and causing it to go awry.
When your bodys microbial burden becomes too great, your microbiome becomes imbalanced, driving inflammation and aggravating neuropathy. Thus, at the top of the priority list is decreasing the infectious load to normalize and calm the immune system.
When youre looking for natural solutions to lessen the impact of stealth pathogens, herbal therapy can play a critical role. Not only do herbs have antimicrobial properties, but they are anti-inflammatory and contain antioxidants as well.
Moreover, herbs dont disrupt the delicate balance of the microbiome like synthetics medications do. Some of my favorite herbs with antimicrobial and immunomodulating properties to keep in mind include:
2. Use Medications Cautiously
When it comes to neuropathy, the reality is that sometimes you need some extra support to get your pain levels to a tolerable level. There are a variety of over-the-counter and prescription medications that may be useful from time to time.
However, the value of medications is limited to short term management of symptoms because of cumulative side effects. The list of medications commonly recommended by healthcare providers includes:
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Early Dissemination Of The Pathogen
The next phase of disease is denominated early dissemination. A systemic disease evolving out of a single erythema migrans lesion has been reported in up to 40% of affected children. About 25% of children with rare multiple erythema migrans do have cerebrospinal fluid pleocytosis, demonstrating a clinically nonovert dissemination of the pathogen into the central nervous system .
Aside from this systemic dissemination into the skin, early dissemination mainly affects the nervous system – presenting as meningitis and cranial neuritis predominantly in children. Meningoradiculoneuritis and plexus neuritis are reported less frequently. The involvement of the heart was documented as atrioventricular blockade, myopericarditis and cardiomyopathy, but seems to be rare in both Europe and North America . Early musculoskeletal complaints are reported frequently in the United States, and are less frequent in Europe. The musculoskeletal system can be involved with mild arthralgia and myalgia, in addition to a mild oligoarthritis.
In children, early dissemination and especially neuroborreliosis usually occurs earlier than in adults. This might be due to a different site of the tick bite. In children the upper trunk and the head are selected more often by the tick than in adults, potentially making the CNS more accessible to the spirochete .
Her Lyme Disease Went Undiagnosed Because Of Where She Lives: ‘doctors Don’t Believe’
When the persistent headaches, brain fog and pain plagued Sarah Reid, 58, she visited various doctors to try to find answers. She eventually learned she had Lyme disease a surprising diagnosis because she lives in California. While she was aware of other tick-borne illnesses common in the West, she didnt realize that she could also contract Lyme disease.
I had no idea what kind of symptoms Lyme disease could give someone or even the possibility I could have Lyme disease, Reid, of Santa Rosa, California, told TODAY. I knew that Lyme disease could be extremely disabling and debilitating, and it shocked me to know that I had a disease like that. It was very emotional.
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How Do You Get Lyme Disease
In the U.S., Lyme disease is carried primarily by deer or blacklegged ticks, and it is caused by the Borrelia mayonii and Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria. Its easy to be bitten by ticks in high-risk areas such as Central PA. The creatures are often no bigger than a poppy seed, so they are very difficult to see before they latch on.
However, not all ticks are Lyme disease carriers. To contract the disease, an infected tick needs to bite you. Bacteria from the tick will eventually make its way from the bite through to your bloodstream, usually taking between 36 to 48 hours. For this reason, whenever youve been in the outdoors, particularly in a known tick-heavy area, you should always check your body for parasites before you come back inside.
In the two primary stages of life, U.S. deer ticks feed on rodents, which are a prime source of the bacteria that causes Lyme disease. Ticks move onto feeding primarily on white-tailed deer when they reach adulthood.
If you find a swollen tick attached to you, it could have fed for long enough to transmit bacteria and should be removed with tick tweezers as soon as possible to prevent infection.
Expert Care For Joint Pain From Lyme Disease
At, Aurora Health Care, our team of more than 80 orthopedic specialists has years of experience and training caring for people with joint pain and other problems, like arthritis. This has led to fast and accurate diagnoses for the people we treat so they can return to their busy lifestyles.
Highlights of our program also include:
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Borreliaspecies The Transmitting Vectors And Early Skin Manifestations
Lyme borreliosis in adults has been divided into three clinical stages . The early manifestations of the infection mainly involve the skin and the nervous system. At the site of the tick bite an erythema migrans regularly develops, but can be absent in up to 20 to 50% of patients depending on the region of the reports. The skin lesion is infrequently accompanied by unspecific symptoms of a systemic infection, including malaise, fatigue, headache, fever and regional lymphadenopathy.
In the USA, erythema migrans seems to be present more regularly than in Europe it has been associated with a comparably more intense inflammation and a systemic spread of the pathogen, which might reflect that in the USA only one species of B. burgdorferi sensu lato – namely B. burgdorferi sensu strictu – is responsible, whereas in Europe further species – Borrelia afzelii and Borrelia garinii, and recently Borrelia spielmanii – have been identified. Another early skin manifestation, Borrelia lymphocytoma – a purple nodular lesion affecting the ear, the nose or the breast nipple – has only been reported in European patients . This may again reflect the presence of different regional Borrelia genotypes and/or strains.
What Does Lyme Arthritis Look Like
When Lyme disease is diagnosed in an acute stage with symptoms occurring soon after a tick bite, oral or intravenous antibiotic therapies may be sufficient for the majority of people to recover from LA. However, if treatment is delayed, due to circumstances like inadequate testing or misdiagnosis, arthritic symptoms caused by Lyme disease may develop weeks to months after initial exposure to infection. Additionally, research suggests that approximately 10% of people treated in the acute stage will continue to experience arthritis as well. But is that estimation really accurate?
In actuality, 10% percent is a ridiculously low number, says Dr. Bill Rawls, Medical Director of RawlsMD and Vital Plan. With poor testing measures for Lyme disease, we have no way to accurately evaluate patients, so that figure isnt correct. Its likely much higher.
Though there are discrepancies in the prevalence of LA, there are some frequent characteristics that can be seen in many patients. They include:
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Serologic Testing For Lyme Disease
The mainstay in diagnosing Lyme arthritis is serologic testing. In the USA, the CDC currently recommends a two-test approach in which samples are first tested for antibodies to B. burgdorferi by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and those with equivocal or positive results are subsequently tested by Western blotting , with findings interpreted according to the CDC criteria.26 In contrast with early infection, when some patients may be seronegative, all patients with Lyme arthritis, a late disease manifestation, have positive serologic results for IgG antibodies to B. burgdorferi, with expansion of the response to many spirochetal proteins.27 When serum samples were tested with microarrays of more than 1200 spirochetal proteins, 120 proteins, primarily outer-membrane lipoproteins, were found to be immunogenic, and patients with Lyme arthritis had IgG reactivity to as many as 89 proteins.28 Serologic testing should be performed only in serum, as serologic tests in synovial fluid are not accurate.29
How Herbal Supplements Can Help
The best way to gain the level of phytochemical protection you need to help your immune system win the internal battle against invasive microbes is to take herbal supplements specifically, standardized botanical extracts.
Standardized botanical extracts take herbal supplements to the next level. Theyre made with wild plants or plants that have been cultivated to enhance their phytochemical content and are grown in an environment that doesnt introduce unwanted chemical toxins. The extraction process also yields the greatest concentration and the widest spectrum of phytochemicals in the plant. And the final product is standardized to a concentration of one or several key phytochemicals in the plant, so you know what youre getting.
Below are a few of my favorite herbs for mitigating the systemic chronic inflammation associated with chronic Lyme disease. Though all of the herbs have value in suppressing microbes and reducing inflammation, three of the herbs mentioned below Japanese knotweed, cats claw, and Chinese skullcap were found in a 2020 study from Johns Hopkins University to have greater activity against Borrelia burgdorferi than the antibiotics, doxycycline and azithromycin.
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Could Your Knee Pain Be Caused By Lyme Disease
Health & Prevention, Joint Health
Lyme disease is a complex disease, with many of the symptoms often found in other conditions, making diagnosis difficult. Brian Hollenbeck, Chief of Infectious Disease at NEBH, explains that Lyme disease is an infection caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi. It is transmitted when an infected tick bites a person, with typical initial symptoms including fever, headache, fatigue, and a skin rash that may look like a bullseye. If left untreated, infection can spread to joints, the heart, and the nervous system.
Lyme Arthritis
If Lyme disease is untreated, some patients will develop Lyme arthritis, which includes painful swelling, warmth and redness of the joint, most commonly affecting the knee. Lyme arthritis differs from other forms of arthritis in that the pain isnt constant. It is usually limited to one side and typically only effects one joint. The swelling and pain will usually get better without treatment, but can recur intermittently until the disease is treated with antibiotics. With time and proper antibiotic treatment, Lyme arthritis symptoms resolve completely in 97% of patients.
Preventing Tick Bites
Minimizing your exposure to ticks is the best defense against Lyme disease. The following measures are recommended to reduce your likelihood of tick bites:
For more information on Lyme disease and prevention, visit cdc.gov.
What Are The Symptoms Of Lyme Disease
Early symptoms of Lyme disease usually appear within 30 days of a tick bite. It is common to have a red and sometimes itchy spot, up to the size of a quarter, right after being bitten by a tick. This is due to irritation from the ticks saliva and is not a symptom of Lyme disease. However, contact your doctor if you notice any of the following symptoms:
- May look like a bulls-eye, red ring with a clear center that may grow to several inches in width
- May not be itchy or painful
- Not everyone gets or sees the rash and not all rashes look like a bulls-eye
If a person is not treated early, one or more of the following symptoms may occur weeks or months later: multiple rashes, paralysis on one side of the face, weakness or numbness in the arms or legs, irregular heartbeat, or swelling in one or more joints.
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Natural Remedies To Tame The Fires
Eating a healthy diet, living in a clean environment, learning to live around stress, and staying active are all very important for keeping cells in your body healthy. However, the chemical substances in plants defined as herbs can take that protection to the next level. Taking herbs can give you the advantage that you need to overcome chronic inflammation and return to a normal life.
Plants must protect their cells from a wide range of stress factors: damaging free radicals, physical stress from harsh weather, toxic substances, harmful radiation, insects, invasive fungi, parasites, and, last but not least, every variety of microbe.
Plants do this with their own natural chemistry. In fact, plants are the most sophisticated chemists on the planet. The chemical substances that plants use to solve problems and protect cells are called phytochemicals.
Mushrooms, which are technically fungi, also have to deal with similar stress factors as plant. They also produce a wide range of protective substances that mirror the protective properties of phytochemicals found in plants.
When we consume plant phytochemicals, the benefits are transferred to us. The three primary things that phytochemicals do for us:
How To Diagnose Neuropathy
For most people, a diagnosis of neuropathy may be based upon a persons medical history, physical exam, lab work, and neurologic evaluation. The following tests can be useful to identify the condition, as well as rule out potential causes and contributing factors.
- Neurologic Exam: During a neurologic exam, your doctorusually a neurologistassesses reflexes ability to feel sensations like hot, cold, and pain coordination balance muscle strength and muscle tone.
- Blood Tests: Blood tests are run to assess nutritional deficiencies, organ function, toxins, and the presence of an atypical immune response.
- Electrodiagnostic Tests : EDX testing checks how well the muscles and nerves are functioning by measuring their electrical activity, which assists in determining the extent of nerve damage. Two commonly used procedures are electromyography and nerve conduction velocity . During an EMG, small needle electrodes are inserted through the skin into the muscle to measure the electrical activity while the muscle is at rest, during a mild contraction, and during a powerful contraction. Frequently, the NVC will be completed at the same time as the EMG, which helps further assess the amount and speed with which an electrical impulse moves through a nerve.
- Other Tests: The need for other testing will depend on the severity of your symptoms and could include specialized sensory testing, genetic testing, or a biopsy with tissue samples from a nerve, muscle, or skin.
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Lyme And Neuropathy: How To Ease Nerve Pain Tingling And Weakness
Lyme disease can affect several systems of the body the brain, nervous system, joints, heart, and more.
The list of symptoms infected individuals can experience is expansive and varies from person to person.
Its one of the reasons a Lyme disease diagnosis may be controversial.
Yet, one thing everyone seems to agree on about the tick-borne disease is that it can significantly impact the nervous system, especially without prompt treatment in the early stages of the infection.
Unfortunately, Lyme often goes missed early on. The telltale sign of a Lyme infection an erythema migrans rash, or the classic bulls-eye rash doesnt occur in every case. .
And the initial symptoms of infection may be nothing more than fever, chills, headache, fatigue, or muscle aches, making them easy to miss or brush off as a case of the flu.
But as the disease advances, the bacteria associated with Lyme, Borrelia burgdorferi, spreads via the bloodstream to other parts of the body, a process known as dissemination. This occurs in the days and weeks following infection, referred to as early disseminated Lyme disease.
If an infection goes untreated for months to years, however, theres a good chance the infection will proceed to late stage or late disseminated Lyme disease, sometimes called chronic Lyme disease. Thats when the nervous system can become involved, and symptoms ratchet up to a whole new level.