Lymes Taking A Bite Out Of Your Life?

If you’re looking for something to talk about this holiday weekend, or have a lot of spare time, ask someone if they have ever had Lyme disease. Chances are if they have, you’ll want to freshen up your lemonade and sit back for a long tale of life altering events. That’s exactly what can happen with this tic-borne disease. We’re going to spend the next few weeks taking a closer look at some of the related aspects of this disease and treatment options.

So, where and how do you get Lyme and how common is it? The highest occurrence of Lyme is in the northeastern and north central U.S., which unfortunately includes Minnesota near the top. Although reporting practices vary greatly for each state, it’s estimated that there are 300,000 new cases each year. The primary carrier is the blacklegged tic. This menace goes through four different stages during its two-year life: egg, six-legged larva, eight-legged nymph, and adult. They will feed from mammals (like us!), birds, reptiles and amphibians as they require blood meal in each stage to stay alive.

What do you do if you find a tic on you in Crosby MN

Glad you asked, because this is the first step in minimizing the damage from the tic. Start by removing the tic with a fine tipped tweezers. Grab the tic close to the skin and steadily pull up being careful not to break off the mouth-parts. If they do get left behind, remove them and leave to heal. Be sure to clean the bite site and your hands with soap and water or rubbing alcohol.  As far as the tic goes, you can flush it down the toilet or soak it in alcohol. Some say to save it in a plastic bag and bring it in with you to your health care provider, if symptoms occur.

Next week, we’ll delve into the vast array of possible symptoms and some ways to test for Lyme and other co-infections (Yup, you can get other stuff as result of Lyme!)

For more questions give our team at Shift Integrative Medicine in Crosby a call today!