To Your Health: Lyme Disease – The Mystery Unraveled

| By Dr. LuLu Shimek, ND |

Lyme Disease, the sneakiest disease, is on the rise and the best way to fight it is to become informed and educated to help stop the little bugger in its tracks. The conventional medical system is at a loss when it comes to treating Lyme disease, so many people are turning to natural alternative treatments – and they are turning their lives around.

Adult Female Deer Tick

Adult Female Deer Tick

What is Lyme disease?

Lyme disease is the most common ‘vector-borne’ disease in North America, affecting more than 300,000 individuals, and is the seventh most commonly reported disease in the US. Cases of Lyme are more often seen in the northeast because of the huge presence of ticks, but unfortunately this sneaky bug is finding its way to the southeast forests as well.

How do you get Lyme disease?

The female deer tick, Ixodes scapularis, in the nymph stage, transmits bacteria called Borrelia burgdorferi in the form of a ‘spirochete’ into the bloodstream. Once the tick bites a human, the tick latches onto the skin and if not removed in 36 hours, then infectious bacteria from the tick will be injected into the human’s bloodstream. So, if the tick is removed from the skin of the person who has been bitten before the 36-hour window of time, then the risk of infection is almost always prevented. Phew – now that’s great news! However, it is important to remember that even if a tick isn’t found attached to the skin, that doesn’t mean that there wasn’t a bite – many ticks bite humans and don’t attach, especially in endemic areas like North Carolina. Lyme is transmitted when the tick is in its nymph state of life, which usually is in the late spring to early summer – the tick at this stage of development is super tiny, about 1mm.

What are the symptoms?

There are three stages of Lyme disease: localized, disseminated, and late infection. The most typical symptom of the early, localized Lyme disease is a rash, erythema migrans, which is a bull’s-eye lesion that occurs 7-14 days after the initial tick bite, at the site of the bite. This symptom occurs in approximately 80% of people bitten. Symptoms at this stage may also include fatigue, headache, muscle pain, and joint pain. In the disseminated stage, symptoms spread to the nervous system and cardiovascular system causing nerve paralysis of the face, irregular heartbeats, and other heart problems including heart attacks. In the late stage, which can occur up to several months or years after the initial bite, Lyme victims suffer from persistent arthritis in one or more large joints, especially the knee and shoulder, as well as insomnia and depression. Except for the very clear bull’s eye rash that appears in the first stage of contracting Lyme, the symptoms are, unfortunately, not very specific and have many similarities with other diseases, which makes Lyme disease very hard to diagnose.

How is Lyme disease diagnosed?

Diagnosing Lyme is challenging for both the physician and patient. The ELISA (Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay) test followed by a Western Blot test, are the two most common ways to test for Lyme, but these tests commonly have false positives and negatives, so they are not always reliable, which is why it is so important to talk to your doctor about the symptoms you have been experiencing.

What are the treatments?

When treating Lyme disease, I have found the most success comes from working with a combination of conventional and alternative treatments. If prophylactic antibiotics begin within 72 hours after the initial tick exposure, it is possible to prevent acute Lyme disease altogether. If you are well past the first 72 hours of exposure to a tick, make an appointment with your local naturopathic doctor to go over your treatment options – they will discuss immune supportive options, which may include homeopathic nosodes, hydrotherapy, botanical medicine, anti-inflammatory supplements, detox regimen of the liver and kidneys, Lyme specific diets, and restoration of the normal gut flora with probiotics. Many patients with chronic Lyme disease require prolonged treatment of antibiotics and Naturopathic care. In naturopathic medicine, we use a holistic and personalized approach, so your treatment fits you!

Prevention is the key!

• Know when the prime time tick season is: May to August.
• When spending time outdoors, use a natural repellent to ward off pesky mosquitoes and ticks. A recent study showed Lemon Eucalyptus essential oil had similar properties to low concentrations of DEET, and can repel deer ticks for up to 6 hours.
• Health tip – once arriving home, check children, yourself, and dogs, for any possible ticks within 24 hours, and remove them right away. Check all over the body, including behind the ears, neck, and armpits.

How to remove a tick

1. I recommend using the Tick Twister© to remove ticks.
2. Hold the handle between your thumb and index finger, and then slide the fork end of the tool toward the tick until it’s caught between the prongs.
3. Lift the tool slightly and rotate 2-3 turns until the tick has released its mouth and it is safe to pull up on the tick.
4. Do not squeeze, crush, or puncture the body of the tick, since its fluids may contain infectious agents. SAVE the tick by putting it in a plastic Ziploc bag or container – if you end up with symptoms, you can send the tick in for testing to see which infection(s) it carries.
5. Disinfect the skin thoroughly after removing the tick and wash hands with soap and water.

Useful Resources

CDC: www.cdc.gov/lyme/
International Lyme And Associated Diseases Society: www.ilads.org


Dr. LuLu Shimek is a Naturopathic physician practicing in beautiful downtown Asheville, North Carolina. She is a graduate of Bastyr University’s doctoral program in Naturopathic medicine in Seattle, Washington. Dr. LuLu specializes in women’s health and chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, autoimmune disease, and Lyme. She is your local partner in health!

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