Hi Sweet Friends,
So far, we’ve talked to my trusted pal and doctor Kenneth Bock, Integrative MD about adrenal fatigue and basic supplement recommendations.
Today, we’re chatting about Lyme Disease, which is especially important this time of year whether you live in the Catskill Mountains or Palm Beach.
Recently, I was faced with the seriousness of this condition when my dog Lola was bitten. She’s doing well now, but this scary, first hand experience woke me up to the big health implications of a tiny tick bite. I strongly suggest talking to your veterinarian asap about how you can protect your fur-kid from those little buggers.
Every time I walk through my yard or take a hike I immediately check my skin and Lola’s fur and skin for ticks (and I often find a couple on both of us!). This simple precaution prevents what could be a big health issue. And the good news is that there’s a lot we can all do to stop Lyme Disease before it starts or to treat it effectively.
So let’s get this tick-busting party started and review what we’ll be exploring in today’s video.
In this video, we’ll answer these questions:
- What is Lyme disease?
- How can you identify a tick bite?
- What are the signs of Lyme disease?
- What tests should you get if you think you have Lyme disease?
- How can you treat Lyme disease?
- What is chronic Lyme disease?
- What’s a positive long-term perspective on living with Lyme disease?
If you’d like to learn more about Lyme disease, check out Dr. Bock’s website. And to find out where ticks are most prevalent, take a look at these geographic distribution maps. You might be surprised about their abundance in your neighborhood!
Update: Additional Tick Tips & Recommendations
Thank you for sharing your Lyme disease resources and supporting each other in the comments below. I read through every one of your thoughtful words and pulled together the following tips, websites, blogs, videos and educational tools to help guide you on your journey to wellness.
(Please note that these are suggestions from my readers.)
Tick Bite Prevention
Helen’s Tips:
- Wear light-colored clothing. It makes ticks easier to see and remove before they can attach to feed.
- Wear long pants and a long-sleeved shirt. Wear closed footwear and socks. Tuck your pants into your socks.
- Put a tick and flea collar on your pet and check them for ticks periodically.
- If you frequent the areas where blacklegged ticks are established, examine yourself thoroughly for ticks. It is important to do this each day. Pay special attention to areas such as groin, scalp and armpits. Use a mirror to check the back of your body or have someone else check it.
Elisabeth’s Tips:
- For pets: In addition to checking your pet regularly, you need to use repellents, vaccine, keep hair short and avoid “at risk” places. Also, your pet can collect a tick and then give it to you.
- For humans, I recommend avoiding “at risk” places (tall grasses, bushes, forest border, for example) … Take a shower when you come back and use a fine comb on your hair (especially the neck line).
Tick removal:
Meg’s Tips:
- The best way to remove un-embedded ticks without exposing ourselves to them is to catch them with the sticky side of a piece of transparent tape and then quickly close it. Then we can look at the insect and also discard it safely. It’s easy to carry gift wrapping tape with you on a hike or to the beach.
Helen’s Tips:
- Using fine-tipped tweezers, carefully grasp the tick as close to your skin as possible. Pull it straight out, gently but firmly.
- Don’t squeeze it. Squeezing the tick can cause the Lyme disease agent to be accidentally introduced into your body.
- Don’t put anything on the tick, or try to burn the tick off.
- After the tick has been removed, place it in a screw-top bottle (like a pill vial or film canister), and take it to your doctor or local health unit … Establishing the type of tick may help to assess your risk of acquiring Lyme disease.
- It is important to remember where you most likely acquired the tick. It will help public health workers to identify areas of higher risk.
- Thoroughly cleanse the bite site with rubbing alcohol and/or soap and water.
Additional Education & Lyme Disease Resources
Education
- Lyme Disease Association
- UK National Health Service
- Ontario Canada Ministry of Health & Long-Term Care
- Canada Lyme Disease Foundation
- Books & DVDs: Lyme Disease Educational Resources
- Blog: Living Lyme
Testing
Infrared Sauna Therapy
Your turn: Have you had experience with a tick bite or Lyme disease? Share your insights and experiences in the comments.
Peace & skin/fur checks,
Hi Kris,
I was thrilled to see you participate in Lyme Awareness month. I watched this interview this morning while getting a round of IV antibiotics! Like so many here I have Chronic Lyme disease. While the disease and treatment are difficult (understatement) for me being misunderstood and marginalized has been the most challenging. It comes as such a relief to see a shift in the way Lyme is portrayed in the media and in medicine. As a result of the increased dialog about the existence of Chronic Lyme disease and need to treat appropriately with antibiotics I am able to be more candid and honest with my family and friends. Previously my experience contradicted what they were hearing from the CDC and in their sincere research online making them question the authenticity of my experience and the treatment plan I have chosen. As a result I spent many years pretending to be healthy. It was exhausting and ultimately damaging to my sense of self and healing process. Now – thanks to interviews like this – I am able to be candid. This shift has allowed me to refocus my attention and energy on learning how to thrive while healing from this complex disease. Last year I stopped everything I was doing that was out of alignment with my season of life and began to live in accordance with my real needs. I read all of your books and watched your movie. I learned that I was in Winter and that meant I needed to slow down, eat nurturing foods and rest. I bought a juicer and began incorporating green juices and smoothies into my daily life. I am fortunate to be under the care of an esteemed LLMD but just going through the motions of an integrative treatment approach hadn’t been enough. It wasn’t until I stopped running on adrenaline that I began to see true improvements in my health. Thank you for being there for me last summer when I was ready to shift into a new way of being and thank you for being here now speaking directly to and about the Lyme community. xo, B
I’ve heard about a new ultraviolet machine called the UVLRx that’s being used for Lyme patients. It uses a fiber optic thread which is inserted directly into the vein and the treatment lasts for an hour, so all the blood is treated. Has anyone tried this?
In need of kris’ doctor resources. I have her crazy sex cancer books, follow her on FB and joined b-school through her spotlight course, which it am much looking forward to. However, my life is at a complete stop twitch being diagnoses as having chronic Lyme disease. I haven met with several specialist and I follow everything to the letter. I eliminate sugar, take all supplements, and all required antibiotics but I don’t feel I am getting better. I am willing to travel anywhere to meet with a top doctor who specializes in Lyme but it is difficult to find the right one. I am hoping and praying Kris May know since she researched so many docs on her recovery from cancer. I have a 1 and 3 year old who need their mommy strong! I also am a doctor of psychology and I find I am having memory issues at work impairing my job, which terrifies me! Ai love my job. And I am also not being very nice to my husband who trying to support me. So if Kris’s could guide me in the direction of an excellent doctor, I will make it happen. I just want my life back. Thank you!!!
WMTW New Channel eight has reported 18 new cases of Babesiosis “Babesia” just lately recognized in Maine.
Help me please, I now am what I thought was a healthy person all my life prior to battering lymes 4. 18 yrs now inially missed diagnosed with bullseye rash flu etc. then 3 months later Bell’s palsy they thought I had stoke. Lymes discovered
Under treated. Nightmare continues. Recently got it agitating this past summer put on doxy x 3 weeks started to see a lot of past symptoms ease up now 6 mo later lost 25 lbs in 3 mo
Checked 4 pancreatic cancer. Due to much aching there
Scan neg. for it. Thank God. But now bloodl shows type 1 diabetes may need insulin. Down to 125 lb. at height of5’7
Not pretty. I’ve had surg, disorders etc. that r unexplainable. In an otherwise healthy person. I feel I’m losing my battle with this disease! I live in Waukesha WI. Any recommendations on a TRULY KNOWLEGDABLE Doc?
Please help & respond ASAP
Thank u & God bless
Renee. Thomas
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QD_MZl7Qcg#t=3742
I’m new to your website. And this may have been mentioned before…And please know I say this with love. Please be very careful, and ask your vet about the side effects of the Lyme vaccine!!! Our sweet, at the time, 5 month old puppy almost died from it. I spent 6 weeks nursing him back, and as he ages (he is now 4) he will have issues with his hind legs as his growth plates were so altered by the vaccine.
I thought nothing of it….I wish I had known!
I had Lyme disease for 2 years before anyone could figure out what was wrong with me. I finally underwent a few blood tests which showed I was positive for Lyme. I experienced temporary paralysis and blindness in both eyes- it is a very frightening disease. A friend told me how her husband had been healed of Lyme with homeopathy years ago so I gave it a try. I was healed in 6 months…no antibiotics needed. With biofeedback, my homeopath was also able to find 7 borellia co-infections that needed to be wiped out as well. I am very thankful to feel alive and well once again!
Greetings! I am currently being treated for Lyme disease with doxycycline 2x a day for 2 weeks. My symptoms began less than a day after I returned to NYC from visiting the Catskills for a 3 day weekend. Stiff neck, sore muscles, sore throat, swollen lymph glands, head ache, exhaustion, brain fog, chills and 102 degree fever. I never saw the tick or the tell tale “bulls eye” rash.
I am grateful the MD I went to was willing to hear about my symptoms & recent visit upstate and treat me for Lyme before the blood test result for Lyme antibodies came back. My concern is that even though I started antibiotic treatment quickly that 2weeks isn’t enough. Is four weeks more effective to avoid chronic Lyme? On the CDC website they recommend 10-21 days.
Thanks in advance!
Peace + Wellness ~T
Ticks are carriers of the Lyme bacterium in their stomachs. The ticks then are vectors that can transmit the bacterium to humans with a tick bite. The number of cases of the disease in an area depends on the number of ticks present and how often the ticks are infected with the bacteria. In certain areas of New York, where Lyme disease is common, over half of the ticks are infected. Lyme disease has been reported most often in the northeastern United States, but it has been reported in all 50 states, as well as China, Europe, Japan, Australia, and parts of the former Soviet Union. In the United States, it is primarily contracted in the Northeast from the states of Maine to Maryland, in the Midwest in Minnesota and Wisconsin, and in the West in Oregon and Northern California.