The subject I want to talk about in this article is LYME DISEASE, as this is the period when the risk increases depending on the season.
If you have unexplained pain, weakness, neurological findings, concentration and memory problems, sleep disorders, palpitations, LYME DISEASE may have found you, too.
I wouldn't be surprised if the name "Lyme Disease" seems unfamiliar and unheard of to many of you. For many doctors, it is a microbial disease that is only vaguely studied during the Faculty of Medicine, thought to be not very common in our country, and erased from the memory of almost every doctor, including Infectious Diseases specialists, after graduating from faculty.
However, it has become increasingly clear in recent years that this is not the truth. It is understood. It is much more common than thought and is an important disease factor in our geography. Why does this issue concern me as a Rheumatologist? Because another name for this disease is "the great imitator". Many unexplained and unnamed joint rheumatism, diseases such as chronic fatigue syndrome and Fibromyalgia that make daily life unsustainable but that you cannot really convince anyone, including doctors; This insidious disease is behind many neurological findings such as MS, ALS, autism, and partial paralysis of unknown origin. Lyme Disease is a disease carried by ticks and caused by a bacterium called Borrelia. In recent years, it is thought that it can be transmitted by spiders, mosquitoes and other arthropods and therefore has become more common. It is transmitted especially in the spring months when ticks start feeding, and disease symptoms begin to appear within a few months. Many people cannot remember a tick bite beforehand. Living in a forested, broken area, going on a trip or on a picnic may be enough for infection to occur. The first symptoms appear on average 10 days after the bite. On the body, mostly in the bite area, a pale skin symptom with a red area around it and sometimes accompanying flu symptoms (such as headache, muscle and joint pain, weakness, fever, enlarged lymph nodes) are observed. This phase lasts about 3-4 weeks, and in people who are lucky at this stage and are diagnosed and treated, the problem is completely resolved. But unfortunately this It is difficult to make a diagnosis at this stage because the findings are not very typical, the typical skin finding is not seen in half of the patients, and the doctor does not think of it. At this stage, the disease progresses to advanced stages in those who are not treated adequately.
Borrelia bacteria manage to hide from the immune system, change form and become almost invisible, and can spread to all tissues, including joints, heart, eyes and brain. It causes intermittent symptoms related to the organ in which it is located. For example:
• Palpitations
• Chest pain
• Imbalance
• Facial paralysis
• Difficulty concentrating
• Forgetfulness
• Emotional fluctuations
• Muscle pain
• Joint swelling
As a matter of fact, the first history of this disease is due to the inflammatory reactions it causes in the joints. While investigating the cause of an epidemic of rheumatism among children in a rural town in the northeastern region of America, it turns out that this is not rheumatism but Lyme Disease caused by a microbial agent. With the recognition of the disease, there has been a 10-fold increase in the number of cases reported in the last 10-15 years. If the disease is not detected and treated in the second stage, that is, the stage of spread to the body, things get even more complicated after that. In the third stage, called CHRONIC LYME DISEASE, it is often psychological, with unexplained fatigue, concentration difficulties, muscle-joint pain and swelling, neurological findings, difficulty urinating, sleep disorders, etc. We are entering a period in which people are directed to psychiatrists and given severe treatments aimed at the complaint rather than the cause, and this continues for years, perhaps throughout life. Moreover, this bacterium also has a triggering effect that causes autoimmunity, that is, it confuses the body's immune mechanism and causes it to react to its own tissues. At this point, while temporary benefits are provided by treatments given for autoimmunity and aimed at suppressing immunity as the main target, the spread of this bacterium in the body and its settlement in the tissues actually increases, and things become even more complicated.
As a result,especially in a rural, forested area. in the days following travel to the area Lyme Disease should definitely be considered when there are skin symptoms, high fever, flu symptoms, joint and muscle complaints that occur in the following months and years, persistent weakness, and neurological findings with unexplained causes. Moreover, if the tick bite is known for certain, informing your doctor in this regard and being alert to the symptoms of this disease will enable you to take precautions from the very beginning of many insoluble diseases that may occur later.
Read: 0
