Are you at risk for Lyme disease? Here’s how to get rid of ticks
Are you getting rid of ticks correctly? Here’s everything you need to know about ticks and how to deal with Lyme disease.
FAQ, USA Today
Until the Covid-19 pandemic, many of those suffering from post-infectious chronic pain were not taken seriously by medical professionals. The common symptoms associated with prolonged COVID-19, such as brain fog, dizziness, and fatigue, are consistent with autonomic nervous system dysregulation. This is also seen with other infections – one of them is Lyme disease. The number of people affected by chronic COVID-19 has drawn the attention of doctors and researchers — even though some have been treating and diagnosing these conditions for years.
Acute and “chronic” Lyme disease is a complex issue. We spoke to experts to help you make sense of it all.
What are the symptoms of Lyme disease?
Dr. John Aucott.In severe cases, some patients may develop erythema migrans or “bulls-eye rash” or symptoms at the site of the tick bite, according to the director of the Johns Hopkins Lyme Disease Clinical Research Center. Like fever, chills, fatigue and infectious diseases. “The rash is the defining characteristic, but the rest of the symptoms don’t distinguish Lyme disease from other infections,” he explains.
Time is ticking. How is Lyme disease transmitted? Here’s what you need to know.
What happens if you are never treated for Lyme disease?
If you don’t get treatment for Lyme disease, the infection can still be in your body. “If you have untreated Lyme disease, long-standing Lyme disease, Lyme arthritis is still present in about half of those who have had Lyme disease. That’s exactly how he got it – from arthritis in his shoulder in Lyme, Connecticut.
Untreated Lyme disease can also lead to a condition called “.Lyme carditis” This can lead to serious complications when the bacteria infects any part of the heart.
In addition, untreated Lyme infection can include some neurological problems Aseptic meningitis(inflammation of the meninges, or the membrane that protects your brain and spinal cord) and other symptoms Neuropathy such as numbness, pain, weakness and facial paralysis (paralysis of facial muscles).
Can Lyme disease be cured? Here’s what you need to know about tick bites and symptoms.
What does chronic Lyme disease look like?
Post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome (PTLDS), or “chronic” Lyme disease, looks different from untreated Lyme disease. Dr. Britt Adlera rheumatologist and researcher at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore, and the A A recently published review paper On the chronic symptoms associated with Lyme disease, “Most patients recover after infection, but some patients (about 10-20%) experience long-term symptoms that include fatigue, body aches, and cognitive impairment that are often debilitating and life-altering.”
Adler says these symptoms can be caused by a problem with the autonomic nervous system, “Some patients with chronic symptoms have a dysregulated autonomic nervous system, which is part of the nervous system that controls heart rate and blood pressure, digestion.” Sweat, temperature and pupil size. Most people don’t consciously think about these important functions, but when this part of the nervous system isn’t working properly, it can cause many symptoms, such as dizziness when standing, weakness, brain fog, and gastrointestinal symptoms, among many others.
Why is an epidemic needed to draw attention to this debilitating situation? it’s complicated.
The main reason for this is that the diagnosis of Lyme disease is imperfect. The most commonly used are antibody tests that measure the immune system’s response to infection. “The problem is that these antibodies take weeks to show up, they don’t just show up overnight, so they don’t work very well in the first few weeks of infection because it takes 3-4 weeks for the antibody response to develop,” Aucott says. This means that the diagnosis is often based on symptoms, which can be challenging and uncomfortable.
Adler added that he would come to doctorate. “Physicians don’t know much about dysautonomia (we’ve never been trained in it), so it’s much easier to attribute a long list of symptoms to anxiety or a psychological disorder,” she says.
Lyme disease is transmitted by tick bites. In any case, the best way to prevent Lyme disease is to protect yourself from ticks and other insects by wearing long sleeves and pants, using bug repellants, checking your skin regularly, and showering after going outside.