Advanced Lyme Disease

Ignorance of the symptoms that come with Lyme disease could drastically change the life you have been leading for the negative. If you are an outdoor person, there is a good chance that you will get infested with Lyme disease in one of your outdoor excursions. It is easy to arrest Lyme disease during its stages of development, than if you discover it after a long time of treating flu symptoms. Lyme disease is an inflammatory disease caused by a bacterium by the name Borrelia burgdorferi. Like any other disease, early detection of Lyme disease is paramount if you want to live a good life.

Symptoms of Lyme disease are the same with flu symptoms. Chills and high fever that continue even after treatment could be a symptom of Lyme disease especially if you have been hiking or if you have a pet at home. If left to continue, Lyme disease will become chronic and it is at this chronic stage that (unfortunately) most sufferers seek medical attention. It is hard to detect chronic Lyme disease as the symptoms take time to show. They may take years to manifest themselves.

Chronic Lyme disease affects the major organs of the body. The kidneys, the skin and the brain are the hardest hit by advanced Lyme disease. The bones are not spared either; they develop arthritis and the hardest hit sufferers are those with feeble bones. There are other symptoms e.g. memory loss mood changes and joint inflammation, which may come with chronic Lyme disease. The advance of Lyme disease brings with it light sensitivity and numbness of the body.

Chronic Lyme disease is treated for a longer period of time compared with the early stages of the disease. It is treated with antibiotics, which will fight the infection of the bacteria in the body. After sometime (depending on the severity of the illness) the symptoms will gradually go away. In some people the arthritis symptoms will not go away, but the joints will be less painful.

Prevention is better than cure and when traveling, be watchful of these symptoms and don't dismiss anything for a simple flu. Cut the grass in your home and use repellant when walking in vegetated areas. Cover up when hiking by wearing long pants instead of shorts and long sleeved tops. Consider trimming your pet and giving your pet a bath to prevent tick infestation.

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