Preventing Lyme Disease -Tips

I distinctly remember that day, when I stepped out of my office to play golf with friends. I was enjoying my game, until one of my shot landed in a bushy wooden spot, far off a golf arena. I took out my golf ball and suddenly, I assumed an insect bit me. The excruciating pain was unbearable. This feeling was somewhat which I had never experienced any time before.

My life changed with lymes disease.

I made a serious research on Lyme diseases. I found that the source of it is a tick bite. These tikes are mostly found in wooden regions. If not treated on time, this disease disrupts the entire functioning of the body. A single tick bite has changed my life. However, my disease has taught me that we be always careful in life.

My incentive is to worn people of the different signs and risks connected to Lymes Disease.

1. When you go for mountaineering or walking in grassy or wooded areas Wear long trousers and tuck them into socks. They must be tight at the wrists, ankles and waist.

Wear a hat when spending your time in impenetrably tree-covered areas.

2. Take a medical checkup regularly for any of symptoms of Lymes disease, in a case of you are going to work in the garden and hang out mostly around bushes.

3. Do not use your hands to remove ticks. Use certain tools such as tweezers to remove ticks. If you are using your fingers, wear gloves or use facial tissues and wash your hands after taking off the ticks. If not, there is a fair chance that you will get infected with Lymes Disease.

4. Special attention is needed every single day to exposed hairy regions of the body, as ticks can be clinging to these regions. Check your scalp too.

5. Avoid areas such as high grasses, gardens, marshes and beach locations, particularly towns where Lymes disease is plagued. You have to avoid hanging out in tick infested habitats and surroundings, in endemic areas of lymes disease. In addition, you need to cut down in your recreational activities such as landscaping, forestry, hiking, camping and other outdoor occupations.

6. After you finish your daily activities in garden or dense bushes, remove your clothes and comprehensively check all the skin surface areas for any legions of Lymes Disease

7. Decrease the infection of lymes disease with the use of repellents and covering your entire body with guarding clothes.

Apply tick and insect repellents that contain N,N-Diethyl-m-Toluamide (DEET) to the skin for additional safety from Lymes disease. It is necessary to repeat these applications frequently for maximum efficiency. Later, you need to wash it with soap and water. You can spray Permethrin, a synthetic pyrethroid repellent spray on clothes. This solution kills ticks, when they come in contact.

8. Remove such environments, which are suitable for ticks and their reservoir hosts as an example of leaf litter and woodpiles. Clear brush and trees and keep grass mowed. You can also call pesticides to destroy ticks if in large number. You need to keep out animals such as deer and mice, as ticks carry this infection from these animals.

9. Vaccination: Good news is that there is a vaccine to prevent lymes disease. On December 21, 1998, US Food and Drug Administration licensed Lyme disease vaccine. This vaccine is suitable for persons between age groups between 15 to 70 years. Studies expose that, this vaccine is safe and efficient. So, you must be vaccinated in local areas to avoid being infected with lymes disease.

By; Michael Green

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What are Neurological Complications Of Lyme Disease?

Lyme disease, sometimes referred to as Lyme infection, is a bacterial illness, transmitted to humans by the bite of deer ticks (Ixodes ticks) carrying a bacterium known as Borrelia burgdorferi. The disease has been reported in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, North Central, and Pacific coastal regions of the United States and in Europe, where it was first described almost 100 years ago. It is most prevalent in the northeastern states of the United States, with about half of all cases clustered in New York and Connecticut.

Who gets Lyme disease?

Lyme disease can affect people of any age. People who spend time in grassy and wooded environments are at an increased risk of exposure. The chances of being bitten by a deer tick are greater during times of the year when ticks are most active. Young deer ticks, called nymphs, are active from mid-May to mid-August and are about the size of poppy seeds.

Adult ticks, which are approximately the size of sesame seeds, are most active from March to mid-May and from mid-August to November. Both nymphs and adults can transmit Lyme disease. Ticks can be active any time the temperature is above freezing. Infected deer ticks can be found throughout New York State.

What are Neurological Complications Of Lyme Disease?

Lyme disease is caused by a bacterial organism that is transmitted to humans via the bite of an infected tick. Most people bitten by an infected tick develop a characteristic skin rash around the area of the bite. The rash may feel hot to the touch, and vary in size, shape, and color, but it will often have a "bull's eye" appearance (a red ring with a clear center). However, there are those who will not develop the rash, which makes Lyme disease hard to diagnose because its symptoms and signs mimic those of many other diseases.
Seven to 10 days following an infected tick's bite, the first stage of Lyme disease begins with flu-like symptoms such as fever, chills, swollen lymph nodes, headaches, fatigue, muscle aches, and joint pain.

DIAGNOSIS

This is evolving as both testing becomes more reliable, more case histories and information on patient responses to various treatment protocols is compiled and compared, and better information on co-infections, etc., are found and disseminated. Many within the Lyme disease medical and patient community recommend the following, both to learn more about the disease as well as current information on treatment.

Treatment
The antibiotic therapy of early LD generally results in complete recovery. A 2 week course of oral doxycycline or amoxycillin for Stage I and a third generation cephalosporin for Stage II are the most commonly used regimens. Treatment of late stage LD is less successful and a chronic or relapsing course is common. A third generation cephalosporin for 3 weeks is recommended.

Prevention
The prevention of LD is mainly through avoidance of tick infested areas and of tick bites by the use of repellents (particularly those containing DEET), wearing of light coloured clothing so that ticks are more easily seen and prompt removal of attached ticks. Transmission of spirochaetes generally does not occur until after 24 hours attachment of the tick. Antibiotic prophylaxis is not recommended. Trials of LD vaccines are in progress with varying degrees of success.

By; James Sameul

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