How do you get Lyme Disease from a Tick?
When a tick finds that warm and moistplace to attach and decides to bite you, their saliva contains a topical anesthesia, this is why you never feel the bite itself, but usually respond to the itchy to almost burning sensation that occurs after the bite site swells, similarly as a mosquito bite does but nowhere as quickly, by this time the tick may have fallen off, or you will find and remove it. Lyme's is the fastest growing widespread epidemic in the USA, but little is REALLY known about the disease itself. Many people who have been infected prior to our recent (last ten years or so) discovery of this condition have usually been misdiagnosed as MS, Fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, lupus and others. Again, conversely, many people with these symptoms are now misdiagnosed with Lyme's. The reasons for this are the many inconsistencies of the symptoms and lack of them, depending on where the bite occurred, how long the tick was feeding, what level of immunodeficient conditions any individual's body has, and what concentration of the organism is present. FYI~ the organism itself really does little or no damage, but it's presence causes your immune system to go overboard and cause damage to good cells, THIS is what Lyme's recipients are affected by, and depending on where the organism takes residence in the body, it could result in a WIDE variety of possible symptoms, which is why it is hard to find a definitive answer as to why you may have such and such symptoms. Some loose examples would be: Quote: Pace:
1.Joints ~ arthritic symptoms ~ as your immune system destroys good joint cells. 2.Spine or any neural pathway ~ Often attributed to MS, as your immune system attacks good nerve receptors causing loss of sensation to paralysis if left unchecked or treated for long enough, depending on which nerve endings are damaged, for instance if it is myelin sheaths (the neural connection between the eyes and brain) you can go blind, and likely be diagnosed with MS. 3.Muscle tissue ~ If left unchecked this is often attributed to Lupus or CFS (Chronic fatigue syndrome) and can also be interpreted as MD (muscular Dystrophy) and sometimes even cancers, despite lack of any other determining factors. Here your immune system is attacking good muscle tissue cells causing lethargy in the muscles, atrophy and loss of mass and strength. (This also can occur when the nerve responses to/from muscles is interfered with by the cell damage making it neural instead of muscular infection) 4.GI ~ Gastrointestinal presences of these organisms are likely to mimic crohn's disease, colitis, IBS, and other severe discomforts, and because so many of these symptoms across all the places mentioned here seem like a flu, they often go much further than desired before action to detecting the true cause is put in to play. The fact of the matter is, because there is so little in the way of resources for the medical community to research, and how often different people respond to the same issues/medications and their environmental conditions, there id not "SURE" method of treatment. The organism responds well to a number of antibiotics, from ammoxicillian and doxycyline as mentioned above, along with others, which really need only be taken for three weeks in many cases, but sometimes six weeks is preferred sine anyone having gotten such a bite is likely to be exposed to a new bite during the treatment period, and if you stop, or fail to eradicate the organism with the initial course of therapy, you risk developing a strain tolerant to those antibodies, in which case you will flush with symptoms a few weeks later, and have to start over with a DIFFERENT treatment. This goes for ANY infection, and why you are always required to complete the course of treatment even after you feel well, any bacteria left to survive, will then be resistant to that particular antibiotic. If it is an airborne or communicable bacteria, it could result in an uncontrollable epidemic. Now the really hard part of this for us is the fact that most Lyme titer tests on people knowing they were bitten, come back negative, and conversely most people with a Lyme's infection never go for such a test until their otherwise unfounded symptoms prompt their doctor to run the test. The ticks that contain Lyme's are the size of a pin head and often are missed, except for the slightly reddened bite site that becomes itchy soon after falling off or if it hangs on long enough you will be lucky to remove it, since if it comes off while in your home, you may be setting your household up for multiple cases when they lay eggs and they hatch. The other hard part is the fact that no testing is completely conclusive, meaning a positive result is not a definite indication of the organism, as well as a negative does not prove no organism is not present, since it can take from six to eight weeks for the antibodies checked for, that verify the organism's presence, to even be present or at all detectable, however there has been an improvement in their ability to determine approximately WHEN you were affected once there is a positive response, because of their ability to determine the age of the antibodies in your system. the other difficulty in determining positives is that not all people GET that "bullseye" rash, as well as some will get it from other insect bites despite not having a tick bite or more so a contaminated tick. So because of the inconsistencies, many doctors are reluctant to use a strong antibiotic for this purpose unless two or more factors are present, hence the BIG GRAY AREA in their responses to questions when you are consulting with them about your symptoms, and for those with out insurance, an average blood screen panel including a Lyme's titer test can cost upwards of a thousand dollars  and some medications to treat them could be a little as $20-$40 and up to $300 - $400 depending on their choice.
Just a quick note, if you work out in the sun as I do, or you plan to be in the sun for some other reason, ask your doctor for an alternative should they suggest starting you on doxycyline, as this medication makes you very sensitive to sunlight (includes tanning beds) and either eat a yogurt or take acidophilus capsules about an hour after you take the antibiotic, and before your next meal to prevent or reduce the diarrhea many suffer when taking these, because they not only kill the bad bacteria but also the good flora in your digestive system, and this is why many people get the runs when on a course of antibiotics for infections. Lastly, should you determine you were bitten by the Lyme's carrying ticks, rest assured that they usually require being attached for up to 48 hours or at least as 24 hours, and becoming fully engorged with blood before the organism gets in to your bloodstream that is going to cause you the issues. The down side of this is that usually, since damage done is done by YOUR immune system, and not the organism, whatever damage that has been done prior to removing this catalyst from your system, is permanent, unless some new stem cell research finds a means to repair those damaged cells or we evolve to the point of being able to regenerate as some animals can, worms, star fish, crustaceans, etc... Hope this helps to inform you all. Lyme's survivor, TSG! |
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| Great info! Thanks for sharing it with us. |
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