Things To Know About Lyme Disease
The rash may have an irregular shape,
blisters or a scabby appearance. Some rashes have a bruise-like
appearance. Lyme rashes can mimic spider bite, ringworm, or cellulitis.
Unfortunately, sometimes, there is no telltale rash to warn of the tick
bite. And because Lyme is difficult to detect and diagnose, it may go
untreated for many years and the bacteria can spread and may go into
hiding in your body.
Weeks, months or even years later, you
may have problems with your brain and nervous system, muscles and
joints, heart and circulation, digestion, reproductive system, and skin.
Symptoms may disappear even without treatment and different symptoms
may appear at different times. But the Lyme parasite lives on happily in
your body.
Lyme may be misdiagnosed as other
diseases such as mental illness, depression, rheumatoid arthritis,
multiple sclerosis, ADHD, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia and
even hypochondria. Since scientists have not figured out the cause of
these diseases, the underlying Lyme infection is allowed to progress
unchecked.
Scientists recognise that many diseases
are caused by ticks worldwide and new ones are still being discovered.
One tick may carry more than one disease; so, sometimes, people get more
than one co-infection from the bite of a single tick. The symptoms of
these co-infections are often nonspecific – such as fever and headache –
which makes diagnosis difficult.
And the treatments may be different. The other main tick-borne diseases include babesiosis, ehrlichiosis and bartonellosis.
Babesiosis symptoms are similar to those
of Lyme disease, but it more often starts with a high fever and chills.
As the infection progresses, patients may develop fatigue, headache,
drenching sweats, muscle aches, nausea, and vomiting. Babesiosis is
often so mild it is not noticed but can be life-threatening to people
with no spleen, the elderly, and people with weak immune systems.
Complications include very low blood pressure, liver problems, severe
haemolytic anaemia (a breakdown of red blood cells), and kidney failure
There are two kinds of ehrlichiosis, both
of which are caused by tick-borne rickettsial parasites called
Ehrlichia that infect different kinds of white blood cells. The clinical
manifestations of ehrlichiosis and anaplasmosis are the same. Each is
often characterised by sudden high fever, fatigue, muscle aches,
headache.
The disease can be mild or
life-threatening. Severely ill patients can have low white blood cell
count, low platelet count, anaemia, elevated liver enzymes, kidney
failure and respiratory insufficiency. Older people or people with
immune suppression are more likely to require hospitalisation. Deaths
have occurred.
Bartonella bacteria are known to be
carried by fleas, body lice, ticks and sand flies. Symptoms of
bartonellosis are often mild but in serious cases, it can affect the
whole body. Early signs are fever, fatigue, headache, poor appetite and
an unusual, streaked rash.
Swollen glands are typical, especially
around the head, neck and arms. Doctors should suspect bartonellosis
when neurologic symptoms are out of proportion to the other systemic
symptoms of chronic Lyme.
Gastritis, lower abdominal pain, sore
soles and tender subcutaneous nodules along the extremities may be
present. Lymph nodes may be enlarged and the throat can be sore.
Other tick-borne diseases include
Colorado Tick Fever and many mycoplasma infections. Mycoplasma species
have been identified in ticks. Smaller than bacteria, they invade human
cells and disrupt the immune system, causing fatigue, musculoskeletal
symptoms, and cognitive problems.
Powassan virus causes tick-borne
encephalitis. Symptoms may include fever, convulsions, headache,
disorientation, lethargy, partial coma and paralysis. Ten per cent of
patients die and survivors may have permanent damage.
Q fever is caused by Coxiella burnetii, a
kind of bacteria carried by cattle, sheep, and goats. Symptoms are
similar to those of Lyme disease. Q fever is likely to start with a high
fever. Pneumonia and abnormal liver function also suggest Q fever
Rocky Mountain spotted fever is caused by
bacteria called Rickettsia rickettsii that are transmitted by the bite
of a tick. Patients develop high fever, rash, headache and bleeding
problems. Thirty per cent of untreated patients die
Tick Paralysis: certain ticks secrete a toxin that causes a progressive paralysis, which is reversed when the tick is removed.
There is tick-borne relapsing fever and
tularemia or rabbit fever. It is caused by the bacterium Francisella
tularensis. Symptoms may include skin ulcers, swollen and painful lymph
glands, inflamed eyes, sore throat, mouth sores, pneumonia, diarrhoea
and vomiting.
It is certain conventional medical lab
texts have not yet identified all the diseases that ticks carry and
transmit. Co-infections complicate diagnosis and treatment and make
recovery even more difficult. Doctors may suspect co-infections in
patients who do not respond satisfactorily to treatments prescribed for
Lyme disease.
There are other possible explanations for
treatment failures. People with chronic tick-borne infections often
have a weakened immune response. This allows other opportunistic
infections to flourish, such as HHV-6, CMV, and EBV. These diseases are
not necessarily carried by ticks but are widespread in the environment.
Some people may also have exposure to
toxic metals. At MART Life Detox Clinic, with our state-of-the-art
bioenergetics diagnostic tools, we are able to detect and diagnose the
presence of these diseases, viruses, bacteria, mycoplasmas, fungus
infections and heavy metals and thus effectively treat the patient with
the appropriate treatment protocols.
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