Lyme disease basics: How the illness starts and what it causes
Posted: Tuesday, May 21, 2013 12:00 am | Updated: 6:10 am, Tue May 21, 2013.
Posted on May 21, 2013
Black-legged ticks transmit the bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi to humans by biting them. The ticks are so small that most people do not recall being bitten before becoming ill.
There are two stages of Lyme disease:
Early Lyme disease begins three to 30 days after a tick bite. It is identified by a rash. The most common rash is an oval lesion. Fewer than 20 percent of cases have the “bull’s eye” typical of Lyme disease bites; 30 percent never develop a rash. Symptoms can be flu-like, such as headache, fatigue, fever, myalgias, arthralgias and neck stiffness.
Late Lyme disease can take weeks or years after a tick bite to develop. The disease can bring out multiple rashes, Bell’s palsy, cranial neuropathies, meningitis, meningoradiculitis, carditis, lymphadenopathy and arthralgia. The disease is blamed in 50 percent of all cases of Bell’s palsy in children in areas prone to the disease.
Up to 40 percent of Lyme disease patients suffer from neurologic disorders.
Symptoms
• Extreme fatigue
• Headaches
• Recurrent fevers, night sweats and chills
• Migratory myalgias and arthralgias
• Muscle weakness and fasciculation
• Paresthesias and neuropathic pain syndrome
• Disturbances in sleep
• Cranial nerve dysfunction
• Neuropsychiatric problems such as irritability, panic attacks, anxiety, depression, new onset of ADHD, mood swings, OCD and rage attacks
• Cognitive losses: memory impairment, difficulty multi-tasking, slower mental processing, problems with language and speech, concentration problems, poor math skills, impaired visual/spatial processing
• Behavioral changes may occur in children: declining school performance, headache, fatigue, forgetfulness, complex partial seizures, depression
Source: www.ilads.org
