Finding an engorged tick on your body is never fun. Ticks do carry diseases, which might make you think twice about your next hike into the woods. You don't have to avoid the outdoors, though. Your first line of defense is avoiding their bites. Follow these 10 tips to avoid ticks, and more importantly, tick bites, when you head outdoors.
1. Use a product with 20% DEET or higher on both skin and clothing. Carefully apply the repellent by hand to your face, neck, and ears – you don't want DEET in your eyes or mouth! Adults should apply DEET products to young children. You may need to reapply DEET products after several hours.
2. Apply permethrin to clothing, hiking boots, tents, and camp chairs. Permethrin products should never be used on skin. It remains effective on clothing through several washings. Permethrin is sold under the names Permanone and Duranon.
3. Wear light-colored clothing. You'll have a better chance of seeing a dark tick crawling on you before it makes its way to your skin.
4. Wear long pants with sneakers or hiking boots. Tuck your pant legs into your socks, and keep your shirt tucked into your waistband. In areas where ticks are abundant, you might even want to wrap some duct tape around your ankles, over the top of your socks. You'll look ridiculous, but it works.
5. Outfit yourself in bug repellent apparel. Want a sporty, outdoor look with built-in tick protection? Ex-Officio sells a line of clothing that is pretreated with permethrin. The treatment lasts through up to 70 washings.
6. Stay on the trail. Ticks hang out in high vegetation, waiting for a passing host. When your leg brushes through the vegetation, the tick transfers to your body. Walk on designated trails, and avoid blazing your own through meadows or other high vegetation areas. You'll avoid ticks and leave a minimal impact on the wild places we love.
7. Avoid tick-infested places. In some places, ticks may be too abundant to avoid, even with the best repellents and long pants. If you venture a few feet into a wooded area or field and find your legs covered with ticks, turn around.
8. Be vigilant – do a daily tick check. Strip down and search all those places that ticks love to hide: in your hair, under your arms, between your legs, behind the knees, and even in your belly button.
9. Put your clothes in the dryer, and tumble them on high heat. Research shows many ticks can make it through the washing machine, even when you wash in hot water. Most ticks will die during a cycle in the hot, dry air of your clothes dryer, though.
10. Check your pets and your kids before letting them loose in the house. Ticks can easily drop off on carpets or furniture, where they will wait for a bloodmeal to come along. Give Fido's fur a check, and make Junior remove clothing and do a tick check.
Ps.: Article taken from About.com Insects.
Lyme disease is not like any other bacterial infection. With most bacterial infections, you expect to take an antibiotic and be over the infection within a week or 10 days. Despite treatment, however, many people with Lyme disease often end up with more serious, widespread infections.
The thing with Lyme is that it creates a dysfunctional immune system in our bodies and on its own the immune system cannot fight off the Lyme and without the body’s own immune vigilance there is a slow progression to health.
Your immune system is important as it serves to protect you from even the simplest of colds. For this reason it is essential that you try to support your immune system and keep it bolstered against any potential illnesses. This is where taking acai berries can be truly beneficial to your health. Nutrition plays an important part in maintaining immune function.
How does your immune system work?
Using a unique combination of enzymes, good bacteria, proteins, cells and tissues; these mechanisms work together to protect you against the influences of viruses, diseases, parasites and bad bacteria. Without them, the mildest of colds/infections could cause serious damage to your body.
Fortunately 2 and a half centuries worth of scientific research has ensured we are better prepared for taking care of our immune system and ultimately our health. From simply receiving enough sleep to keeping our bodies hydrated, each of these tools has been proven to have a positive influence on our immunity.
However, there are other equally effective measures for protecting your immune system, that many of you are unaware of and in some cases don’t even know about: antioxidants, vitamins and good bacteria.
Each of these ‘invisible nutrients’ is available in a variety of different foods, but are not as potent as in acai berry, as we’ll now explain:
• Antioxidants – through a combination of antioxidants and anthocyanins, these can help your blood to cancel out the effects of ‘free radicals’ (caused by pollutants, smoke and external elements) and ultimately prevent cell damage.
Recent studies by the Linus Pauling Institute have found that by naturally increasing your vegetable and fruit consumption, this antioxidant boost can decrease an individual’s risk of developing cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes.
In the case of acai berry, this fruit has been found to contain 10-30 times more antioxidants than grapes, making it the ideal choice for boosting your antioxidant intake.
• Vitamin A – your skin is an organ too so it is essential to protect it from the outside world and the easier easy to do this is to ensure you receive enough vitamin A. Not only can it help you fight aging, but vitamin A is the best source for clear, smooth skin.
• Vitamin C – look back over history and you’ll soon realize the importance of vitamin C in your diet. The leading cause of scurvy in sailors over 100 years ago, the complete exclusion of this vital vitamin (for an extended period of time) can result in spots, spongy gums, bleeding from mucous membranes, fatigue and partial immobilization.
Whilst eating sensibly can provide you with the nutrients you need to protect your immune system, incorporating such fruits as acai berry can offer you all 3 elements in one fruit.
Enriched in antioxidants, omega fatty acids, fiber, amino acids and vitamins, Acai Berry has been scientifically proven to boost immunity, prevent cell damage and protect against illness and ailments.
I am not saying with this article that the Acai Berry all alone will heal lyme disease, of course the person with lyme needs treatment. But the Acai Berry will for sure build up your immune system to fight this illness the best way it can and the immune system of each individual must ultimately assume the management of infections like Lyme disease.
Lyme disease can affect different body systems, such as the nervous system, joints, skin, and heart. Symptoms are often described as happening in three stages (although not everyone experiences all three):
1. A circular rash, typically within 1-2 weeks of infection, often is the first sign of infection. Although it's considered typical of Lyme, many people never develop one.
The rash usually has a characteristic "bull's-eye" appearance, with a central red spot surrounded by clear skin that is ringed by an expanding red rash. It also can appear as an expanding ring of solid redness. It may be warm to the touch and usually is not painful or itchy. The rash might be more difficult to see on people with darker skin tones, where it can look like a bruise. The rash usually resolves in about a month.
2. Along with the rash, a person may have flu-like symptoms such as swollen lymph nodes, fatigue, headache and muscle aches. Left untreated, symptoms of the initial illness may go away on their own. But in some cases, the infection can spread to other parts of the body. Symptoms of this stage of Lyme disease usually appear within several weeks after the tick bite, even in someone who has not developed the initial rash. A person might feel very tired and unwell or have more areas of rash that aren't at the site of the bite.
Lyme disease can affect the heart, leading to an irregular heart rhythm or chest pain. It can spread to the nervous system, causing facial paralysis (Bell's palsy), or tingling and numbness in the arms and legs. It can start to cause headaches and neck stiffness, which may be signs of meningitis.
3. The last stage of Lyme disease can occur if the early stages were not detected or appropriately treated. Symptoms of late Lyme disease can appear anytime from weeks to years (average of 6 months) after an infectious tick bite, and in children is almost always in the form of arthritis, particularly in the knee or other large joints.
Having such a wide range of symptoms can make Lyme disease difficult for doctors to diagnose, although certain blood tests can be done to look for evidence of the body's reaction to Lyme disease.
1. Lyme disease is contagious.
Lyme disease is not transmitted from an affected person to someone else. Therefore, Lyme disease is not contagious.
2. What is Lyme disease?
Lyme disease is a bacterial illness caused by a bacterium called a "spirochete."
3. You've found a tick on your leg. Now what?
The longer a tick remains attached to someone, the greater the chance it will be able to spread a disease-causing germ. Therefore, any attached tick should be removed as soon as possible using a fine-point tweezers. The tick should not be squeezed or twisted but grasped close to the skin and pulled straight out with steady pressure.
4. Ticks are carriers of the Lyme bacterium...
Ticks are carriers of the Lyme bacterium in their stomachs.
5. Where was Lyme disease first identified?
Lyme disease only became apparent in 1975 when mothers of a group of children who lived near each other in Lyme, Connecticut, made researchers aware that their children had all been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. This unusual grouping of illness that appeared "rheumatoid" eventually led researchers to the identification of the bacterial cause of the children's condition, what was then called "Lyme disease" in 1982.
6. Lyme disease is reported most often in the southeastern U.S.
Lyme disease has been reported most often in the northeastern United States, but it has been reported in all 50 states, as well as China, Europe, Japan, Australia, and parts of the former Soviet Union. In certain areas of New York, where Lyme disease is common, over half of the ticks are infected.
7. What are early symptoms and signs of Lyme disease?
As the bacteria spread in the skin away from the initial tick bite, the infection causes an expanding reddish rash that is often associated with "flu-like" symptoms.
8. The characteristic Lyme disease rash looks like...
In the early phase of the illness, within days to weeks of the tick bite, the skin around the bite develops an expanding ring of unraised redness. There may be an outer ring of brighter redness and a central area of clearing, leading to a "bull's-eye" appearance.
9. Lyme disease rash is called...
This classic initial rash of Lyme disease is called "erythema migrans" (formerly called erythema chronicum migrans).
10. What is one of the effects of late-stage Lyme disease?
The later phases of Lyme disease can affect the heart, causing inflammation of the heart muscle. This can result in abnormal heart rhythms and heart failure. The nervous system can develop facial muscle paralysis (Bell's palsy), abnormal sensation due to disease of peripheral nerves (peripheral neuropathy), meningitis, and confusion. Inflammation in the joints (arthritis) begins with swelling, stiffness, and pain, and particularly affects one knee.
11. How do doctors diagnose Lyme disease?
In early Lyme disease, doctors can sometimes make a diagnosis simply by finding the classic red rash. Currently, the confirmatory test that is most reliable is the Western Blot assay antibody test.
12. Which drug is used to treat early stage Lyme disease?
Early illness is usually treated with medicines taken by mouth, for example, doxycycline (Vibramycin), amoxicillin (Amoxil), or cefuroxime axetil (Ceftin).
13. How can Lyme disease be prevented?
Because Lyme disease is transmitted by ticks attaching to the body, it is important to use tick-bite avoidance techniques when visiting known tick areas. Spraying insect repellant containing DEET onto exposed skin can help. Wearing long pants tucked into boots and long sleeves can protect the skin. Clothing, children, and pets should be examined for ticks. Ticks can be removed gently with tweezers and saved in a jar for later identification. Bathing the skin and scalp and washing clothing upon returning home might prevent the bite and transmission of the disease.
Lyme arthritis can be defined as a painful, swollen joint, that causes a stiffness similar to osteoarthritis, and occurs most commonly in the late stages of Lyme disease, usually several months after the onset of the disease. About 60 percent of patients who are left untreated for Lyme disease in its early stages will develop Lyme arthritis.
Lyme arthritis occurs when the spirochete, the bacteria that causes the disease, invades the joints and causes inflammation to the tissue that lines the joints, If left untreated, this inflammatory response can cause the cartilage within the joints to become damaged.
Dealing with this pain while keeping up with the demands of a busy lifestyle can be difficult. Normal activities like taking a walk during a lunch break or carrying a briefcase can cause excruciating pain. There are ways to decrease arthritis pain and other joint ailments without using traditional medicines that may cause further health problems.
Exercise is a great way to loosen stiff joints. People with extreme cases of arthritis should first start with light stretching movements and slowly progress to other exercises. This does not have to be strenuous, but just enough to get the joints engaged and active.
Sometimes joint and arthritis pain can be so bad that exercise is simply not an option. This is when a natural supplement like Provailen could be taken. Provailen works internally to relieve inflammation caused by your autoimmune system. This is what is causing your arthritis; the autoimmune system is attacking your joints and by balancing this, Provailen stops the majority of arthritis symptoms quickly, naturally, and effectively.
Relief from joint pain can also come through the help of an occupational therapist. They will be able to assist you with daily living activities, and help you devise a plan to deal with your pain that may include accommodations in your workplace. If needed, the therapist may recommend that you wear a supportive orthotic device for a certain period of time. This helps to ensure that you maintain the active lifestyle that you want.
Lyme arthritis does not discriminate with age or race, or any other factor. Children, young adults and seniors can all be plagued with this debilitating disease. The best way to deal with this is to first be properly diagnosed, and then begin to do your research on treatments that will best fit your lifestyle. You may be prescribed traditional medicines, but there are other natural remedies available for you. By taking the time to understand this disease and research different treatment methods, you will be more prepared and empowered to continue a young, healthy, active lifestyle.
