WHAT ARE THE SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS OF LYME DISEASE?
How long does it take to know if you have Lyme disease? What are the first signs or symptoms of Lyme that one may recognize? Well, it’s not that simple.
Diagnosing Lyme is very challenging and highly-controversial process.
The symptoms vary from one person to another, depending on the stage of the illness. Some patients may present mild symptoms while others may suffer from acute pains.
EARLY SYMPTOMS
In an early stage (somewhere between 3 to 30 days after being bitten by a tick) patients may experience some of the following symptoms:
- Erythema migrans ( bull’s-eye rash)
- Moderate to severe flu-like symptoms (runny nose, hoarseness, congestion, phlegm, headaches, sore throat,fever,
chills, stiffness and neck pain, fatigue, muscle and joint aches, swollen lymph nodes) - Bell’s palsy (temporary paralysis of one side of the face)
- Nerve pains
Note that not everyone will develop the distinctive circular rash, Erythema migraines (EM). Around one in three people infected with Lyme disease do not recall having a rash.
LATER SYMPTOMS
Given that the first signs and symptoms of Lyme mimic the flu, a Lyme diagnosis can not be considered. Therefore many people are misdiagnosed. Throughout the following weeks to months the bacteria roams freely throughout body, spreading to other organs and causing more damage. When left untreated, patients develop more and more symptoms.
The bacteria has the ability to spread through the body via the cardiovascular system. Also its unique inner structure (called the flagellum) enables Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria to travel through tissues and mucus, unlike any other bacteria.
Therefore in a period of days or weeks (in some cases even years) the infection can cause respiratory, neurological, heart and liver problems, diminishing the patient’s quality of life. Here is a list of the late disseminated Lyme disease signs and symptoms:
- Muscle pain and swelling in the joints (Inflammatory arthritis)
- Nervous systems problems: (burning or stabbing sensation in the body, numbness, tingling and pain in the limbs, weakness, memory loss, difficulty concentrating or reading, pressure in the head, poor balance, difficulty walking,
dizziness,light-headedness, dizziness, dizziness) - Fibromyalgia, Fatigue, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
- Neck stiffness, severe headaches and increased sensitivity to light (meningitis, encephalitis, cranial neuritis)
- Facial weakness and paralysis (Bell’s palsy, Horner’s syndrome)
- Respiratory problems (shortness of breath, chest pain, rib soreness)
- Heart problems (heart palpitations, irregular heart beat, endocarditis/myocarditis/ pericarditis or heart failure)
- Sleep disturbances
- Cognitives problems (irritability, easy tearfulness, anxiety and depression)
- Vision problems (double or blurry vision, floaters, pain in the eyes, flashing lights)
- Hearing problems (decreased hearing in one or both ears, Tinnitus, pain and oversensitivity to sounds
- Digestive system problems (upset stomach, diarrhea, irritable bladder)
- Some of the problems can slowly improve with treatment, others may persist for a long period of time, if the diagnosis
was made in a later stage of the disease.
References website:
http://annals.org/aim/article-abstract/696718/early-clinical-manifestations-lyme-disease
https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/index.html
https://canlyme.com/lyme-basics/symptoms/
https://www.livingwithlymedisease.org/
http://lyme-basics.com/2017/07/23/interview-richard-horowitz/
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@2018 LaviPicu aka The Lyme Poet. All rights reserved.
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Lyme's disease is very common here in the south of spain, there are alot of goats around and wild boar, luckily no one in my family have contracted it. I did read somewhere that Stevia leaf extract is really good treatment for it. Have a friend who contracted it last year, really wiped him out and took ages to diagnosis.
In Canada, ticks are carried mostly by moose and mice. I never thought goats would carry them as well. But why wouldn't they?
As for the Stevia leaf extract, it does help as a biofilm buster, but it does not cure Lyme. There are many plants known to help antibiotics work better during the treatment of Lyme . These plants can increase the bioavailability and/or absorption in the gut.
thanks for that, don't really have that much knowledge of it, just remember reading an article about it. always good to get the facts x
I thought I read somewhere that only a particular type of tick can give you Lyme disease. Is this true?
The deer ticks or Blacklegged ticks (Ixodes scapularis) are common Borrelia-carrying ticks.
Ixodes angustus and the Lone star tick, can transmit Borrelia as well, along with some co-infections such as : Ehrlichia and Tularemia.
The Rocky Mountain Wood Tick, Brown Dog Tick and American Dog Tick are not regularly associated with Lyme. They carry Borrelia but researchers did not prove yet that they can transmitted it to humans.
Thank you for sharing this post. @lymepoet There was a lot of information I did not know and we all need to know how to recognize the symptoms for ourselves and others.
Raising awareness about Lyme is part of my job description. ;0)
Do you have lyme or is that just your hobby or are you a health technician who chose this as specialty?
I do have Lyme and I do my best to learn more about it and teach others in order to raise more awareness about this insidious illness.
Oh, nice!
A woman in my neck o' the woods went undiagnosed/misdiagnosed by 12 doctors at Mayo Clinic, 5 at Cleveland. Finally, a small town doctor got it right. The Lymes patient now sees a naturopath, and a certain chiropractor 2 hours away, but no more doctors. Thanks for the information, @lympoet. I would swear I have all the symptoms, but Gluten Free (next up, Paleo!) diet seems to work better than any drug.
I am glad she managed to get a proper diagnosis. Lyme is hard to diagnose because it can mimic the symptoms of many other illnesses. Also not all doctors are Lyme educated. Most of them are still recommending the two tier approach for testing which is unreliable.
@lymepoet,
Good information. Good post.
I'd be curious to know what treatment you've tried. There's a lot of woo-woo stuff on the Internet but lots of more evidence-based information as well. That latter takes a lot of digging.