Sunday 2 August 2015



After you get home from a glorious summer hike, you probably do a few things: post photos of the great outdoors to Instagram, take a quick shower, and chow down on some post-workout snacks. But if checking yourself for ticks isn't a part of that routine, you might be leaving yourself open to Lyme disease. "It happens frequently that people have Lyme disease and don't know it," says Andrea Gaito, M.D., a rheumatologist with a private practice in Basking Ridge, New Jersey.

Lyme disease is a bacterial infection transmitted by tick bites, especially those from deer ticks. Approximately 70 percent of deer ticks are infected, says Gaito. And those of you in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania should be on high-alert: Your states have the highest rates of Lyme disease, which is much more manageable when caught early on, says Gaito.

Lyme disease can easily go undiagnosed, mainly because the symptoms are diverse and easily misattributed. When this happens, you can develop what Gaito calls "late-stage or chronic" Lyme disease, which is less likely to respond to antibiotics, resulting in ongoing, potentially debilitating symptoms.  "The effects of Lyme [disease] can last a lifetime if permanent damage has occurred before the diagnosis is made," says Gaito. "It's hard to treat after a certain point because the bacteria move deeper into the body to places where antibiotics have a hard time reaching, like the brain and joint spaces." Doctors try to treat the actual infection until patients plateau or no longer respond to antibiotics, at which point they use anti-inflammatory medication to deal with lasting symptoms like permanent joint damage, cognitive issues, and heart problems.

It sounds pretty scary, but there are ways to figure out if you've got Lyme disease before it really has its hooks in you—or even prevent it in the first place. Here's what to look out for.

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