Celebrating Lyme Disease Awareness month: FACTS vs. MYTHS

May is Lyme disease awareness month! I am so thankful that there is a month devoted to raising awareness about Lyme disease and educating others! So do to my part I thought I would post some facts vs. myths about Lyme disease to educate those around me.  So here it is:

Fact or Myth:

You can only get Lyme disease from a deer tic or a tic with a spot on it

• MYTH..... any type of tic and be infected with Lyme disease, even in the nymph stage when they are super tiny

Only those who develop a bulls eye after being bitten have contracted Lyme disease

• MYTH..... Although this is a sign of infection, not everyone's body responds in this way

Half of people who have Lyme Disease do not recall being bitten by a tic

• FACT..... about 50% of those infected do NOT recall being bitten by a tic

The CDC states that the treatment for Lyme disease is 22 days of Doxycycline

• FACT.... Unfortunately the CDC does not recognize the use of long term antibiotics as a treatment for Lyme disease, this causes a lot of legal complications for doctors specializing in treating the illness.  

If you are tested for Lyme and your results show a negative test, then you do not have Lyme disease

• MYTH.... Lyme disease can have a FALSE negative test! The CDC states that a doctor testing for Lyme, by law, must inform their patient that Lyme disease can show a false negative test and therefore are recommended to be tested again in the future.  It would have saved me a lot of frustration if doctors I had seen a few years ago would have followed this. 

Lyme disease is sometimes referred to as "the great mimicker" as it has been known to mimic other illnesses and disorders such as Lupus, Fibromyalgia, Chronic fatigue, and even ADD.

• FACT.... In fact, a lot of those who were diagnosed with these illnesses and others have actually been misdiagnosed  in the past and had Lyme disease

Now that you have the facts right educate others and protect yourself by following the NIH's recommend ways to protect yourself from getting infected!