Time is of the essence - Real research. Real care. NOW!
Step 1: Use tweezers or the tick key to grasp the tick firmly at its head or mouth, next to the skin. Use a magnifying glass, if you have one, to see the tick clearly.
Step 2: Pull firmly and steadily until the tick lets go of the skin. Do not twist the tick or rock it from side to side. Pull upward.
Step 3: Place the tick into a jar or zip-locked bag. You can place a tiny damp paper in bag and place in refrigerator. Label with date, location found on body, location of possible contact.
Step 4: Wash your hands and the site of the bite with soap and water.
Step 5: Swab the bite site with alcohol to disinfect the skin.
Step 6: watch for symptoms and call your doctor, who might want to see the tick. Sometimes, doctors prescribe a preventive dose of antibiotics. The CDC does not recommend without obvious symptoms. Pay attention to how you are feeling.
Note: Never use petroleum jelly or a hot match to kill and remove a tick. These methods don't get the tick off the skin, and can make it burrow deeper. Using alcohol on the tick can interfere with any testing you may want - do not alcohol the tick, just the site after removal and the tools used.
Call the doctor right away if you see
Check with your local State health board about any free testing that may exist.
There are testing sites to send the tick to, which is different than you going to the doctor for blood work. It can take 2-6 weeks for your body to develop the antibodies necessary to test positive for Lyme disease, or for the co-infections.
This is why some people save the tick if they have it, and send it for testing.
(Note certain Boards of Health and the CDC do not recommend testing the ticks for disease since they maintain testing may be inaccurate or not not reflective of what you might have received through any transmission. **** Our thought is if the tick attached and fed, testing provides INFORMATION not diagnosis. But given ELISA human testing have inaccuracy rates of 35-50%, the tick test can let you know with a higher accuracy, according to their claims, of any pathogen present in the tick. This doesn't not mean you are infected. But knowing that there was a positive can help you to determine treatment going forward based on symptoms. Remember - you are the captain of your team - you will have to guide everyone to get the care you may need. CDC does state that doctors are to treat each case uniquely based on your symptomology.)
Here are some testing center links -
https://www.ticklab.org/pricing (Free basic testing for PA residents)
https://www.ticknology.org/order-test
https://www.sstwp.org/970/FREE-TICK-TESTING
(list is provided for options and not an endorsement of any of these providers)
If you have any questions or would like to get in touch with us, we're always here to help. Many people can clear any tick bite issues, but for those that are missed or persist, it becomes quite the journey for healing.
Your support and contributions will enable us to meet our goals and fund our mission.
*The old medical mantra "just do antibiotics for 2 weeks and you're fine" is NOT accurate or true. Worse yet, doctors are too overwhelmed to know better. Research is lagging,
This is why we advocate and help others!
Can YOU help too?
Contact Jeanette and Robin - we can bring our Lyme and Tick toolkit talk to you - information, tools, resources, and a powerful story that can enlighten the darkness & fears around tick illnesses.
Sharing and caring makes a difference in the journey.
Compassion, passion, knowledge, experience & action lead the way for better care.
(Schools, Nature Centers, Libraries, Parent groups, podcasts, etc, are a few of the places we are appearing and sharing!)
Ticks feed on small wild rodents, deer, pets, and humans. When a tick becomes infected and continues to feed on various hosts, the bacteria, virus, or parasite can be transmitted. Ticks that are located in the brush and on tall grasses come into contact with humans as we pass through these environments. The ticks can then crawl up sleeves and bite the skin, typically around warm areas under the hair.
Lyme disease, Anaplasmosis, and Babesiosa are spread by the Deer Tick (Ixodes scapularis). Ehrlichiosis is spread by the Lone Star tick (Amblyomma americanum). Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever is spread by the American Dog Tick (Dercacentor variabilis), Rocky Mountain Wood Tick (Dermacentor andersoni), Lone Star tick (Amblyomma americanum), and Brown Dog tick (Rhipicephalus sanguineus). Powassan virus is spread by the Deer Tick (Ixodes scapularis), Ixodes cookie, and Ixodes marxi. Ixodes cookei and Ixodes marxi rarely bite humans. Other conditions can be Lyme Meningitis, Heartland virus, Relapsing Fever, Tick paralysis, and a few more.
A connection many who suffer with Lyme know due to their list of co-infections, but doctors lag in the information because the official research is lacking. Bartonella bacteria can be carried by fleas, body lice and ticks, and there are many connecting tick transmission to humans. People with tick bites and no known exposure to cats have acquired the disease. People who recall being bitten by ticks have been co-infected with the Lyme spirochete and bartonella. Scientists have studied and shown that ticks can transmit Bartonella to mice. More research needs to be done to establish the role of ticks in spreading the disease. In addition, a recent study suggests that bartonella may be passed from mother to unborn child (perinatal transmission).
*A LymeLightNow side note is that MUCH more relevant research is needed NOW, as too many people are infected with these pathogens, and government agencies that inform insurance company policies and medical protocols, are limiting accurate testing and appropriate treatments.
Ticks harbor multiple infectious pathogens that can be transmitted to humans through a tick bite or tainted blood transfusion. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now reports that “a single tick can transmit multiple pathogens, including bacteria, viruses, and parasites.” This can result in patients developing what is referred to as Lyme disease “co-infections.”
In fact, between 2004 and 2016, the CDC identified 7 new tick-borne microbes capable of infecting humans.
Researchers from Columbia University, Tufts Medical Center, and Yale School of Medicine examined the extent of co-infections in patients diagnosed with Lyme disease. Their findings are alarming.
As tick populations explode and expand into new geographic regions and cases of Lyme disease continue to soar, there is growing and warranted concern surrounding the medical communities’ ability to recognize, diagnose, and treat Lyme disease co-infections
Unfortunately, testing for tick co-infections does not occur regularly. One study found that out of nearly 3 million specimens, only 17% were tested for non-Lyme tick-borne diseases.
Yet, an accurate diagnosis is critical, given that patients may require different treatment depending upon the type of co-infection. For instance, antibiotics prescribed for Lyme disease may be ineffective in treating parasitic or viral tick-borne diseases such as Babesia.
*LymeLightNow sidenote - independent funded research is needed because even the antibiotic treatments that are the go to for Lyme disease only work part of the time. Why? Because the spirochete recognizes when it is under attack and they begin to shift to a cyst nature and then to a biofilm. This allows the pathogen to live on, even though CDC data says that antibiotics will kill Lyme by 90%. Maybe, but those that hid and shifted, will need more to kill them off.
Early signs and symptoms include:
Later signs may include:
Chronic Lyme has not been completely recognized and is debated by many traditional trained. Advanced Stage Lyme is disputed. But now the insurances and doctors are talking about Post Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome (PTLDS),
Here are Medical codes to share with your doctor, so you can get treated (and they maybe get paid, if submitted to insurance.)
The 2024 edition of ICD-10-CM B60.0 became effective on October 1, 2023. -----
B60.0 Babesiosis
A44 Bartonellosis
A69.20: Lyme disease, unspecified
A69.21: Meningitis due to Lyme disease
A69.22: Other neurologic disorders in Lyme disease
A69.23: Arthritis due to Lyme disease
A69.29: Other conditions associated with Lyme disease
A69.2X: Chronic Lyme disease
NOTE - they are billable except last one, which is where the advocacy is necessary!!!!!!
*14 plant based extracts found to be more effective than the typical antibiotics to treat Lyme***
This study from Johns Hopkins is important to consider--- and the big question is why in the years since the 2020 results, is there not serious funding going for this by the CDC or FDA or NIH, so that people can be helped? Are we too busy looking for the synthetic patentable isolated components to benefit pharma versus finding the treatments that benefit people who are hurting ??? This is why we advocate and work with other Tick Awareness groups to insist that relevant research is needed now, so that better outcomes can benefit the people afflicted.
Study - The standard of care for Lyme disease, a course of antibiotics over 2-4 weeks, is not always effective: at least 10-20% of treated patients continue to experience symptoms after treatment, although other findings show that typical treatments may work in 30% of people, and many more are left with lingering symptoms. Late-stage Lyme patients may experience many different symptoms, including fatigue, joint pains, memory problems, facial paralysis, aches, stiffness in the neck, heart palpitations, and severe headaches. The discovery of novel treatments against Lyme disease is therefore of great interest.
In a new study published in Frontiers in Medicine, researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, with colleagues at the California Center for Functional Medicine and Focus Health, surveyed the power of 14 plant-based extracts to kill Borrelia burgdorferi, compared to the currently used Lyme antibiotics doxycycline and cefuroxime.
The researchers tested these extracts’ effectiveness in vitro (outside of a living organism) against the free-swimming “planktonic” form of the bacterium as well as against microcolonies. Microcolonies are aggregates of bacteria, the first stage in the development of biofilms – structured bacterial communities that stick to a surface and are embedded in a slimy extracellular matrix.
The researchers show that plant extracts from black walnut, cat’s claw, sweet wormwood, Mediterranean rockrose, and Chinese skullcap had strong activity against B. burgdorferi, outperforming both tested antibiotics.
But by far the strongest performers were Ghanaian quinine (Cryptolepis sanguinolenta; also known as yellow-dye root, nibima, or kadze) and Japanese knotweed (Polygonum cuspidatum).
Ghanaian quinine is a shrub from West Africa containing the antimicrobial alkaloid cryptolepine, and is used in ethnomedicine to treat malaria, hepatitis, septicemia, and tuberculosis. Japanese knotweed is a traditional medicine in India and China that contains the polyphenol resveratrol. In other preclinical studies it has been found to have anti-tumor and anti-inflammatory effects and protect the nervous system and heart. Extracts from both plants were found to kill microcolonies of Borrelia burgdorferi and inhibit division of the planktonic form, even at low concentrations (0.03-0.5%). Remarkably, a single 7-day treatment with 1% Ghanaian quinine could completely eradicate the bacterium – it did not regrow, even under optimal conditions in the drug’s absence.
“This study provides the first convincing evidence that some of the herbs used by patients such as Cryptolepis, black walnut, sweet wormwood, cat’s claw, and Japanese knotweed have potent activity against Lyme disease bacteria, especially the dormant persister forms, which are not killed by the current Lyme antibiotics,” says Dr Ying Zhang from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
*****“These findings are exciting as they offer opportunities for improved treatment of persistent Lyme disease, which is not helped by the current standard treatment. We are interested in further evaluating these potent herbal medicines through animal studies as well as clinical trials.”
“Many thousands of Lyme patients today, especially those with later-stage symptoms who have not been effectively treated, are in great need of efficacious, accessible treatment options,” says Dr Sunjya K. Schweig, CEO and co-Director of the California Center for Functional Medicine and Scientific Advisory Board Member of the Bay Area Lyme Foundation.
Coauthor Jacob Leone of the FOCUS Health Group stresses: “Patients and their clinicians are increasingly turning to herbal remedies as additional treatment options, and we hope that these findings will help point the way toward a greater understanding of these therapies. But further preclinical studies and clinical trials will be required to establish evidence for effective treatment of Lyme disease patients.”
(Ethnobotanical medicine is effective against the bacterium causing Lyme disease Posted on February 21, 2020 by Frontiers Science Communications)
https://www.frontiersin.org/.../fmed.2020.00006/full...
