That's Fit

Spend time outdoors? Be aware of Lyme Disease

Posted: Jul 17th 2008 8:48PM by Martha Edwards
Filed under: General Health

After reading this story about a girl could become paralyzed because of Lyme Disease, I started to feel a little bit of panic coming on. After all, I live in one of the most stunning places in the world and spend a fair bit of time outdoors, camping and biking and hiking and such. I've never really been aware of Lyme disease, and started to wonder if I should be more worried about it.

Luckily, our friends over at Fitsugar recently explored this topic. Turns out there's not any need to panic ... well, sort of.

Here's the thing: Not all ticks cause Lyme disease, and even if you do get it, you can effectively treat it with antibiotics if you catch it soon enough. Early symptoms include headache, fever, muscle soreness, fatigue and erythema migrans, a red skin rash characteristic of Lyme disease that is often circular in shape. The rash will usually appear three days after you've been bitten and can last up to 30 days.

If you spend a lot of time outdoors, be aware of these symptoms. If left untreated, the disease can cause paralysis.

Tags: hike, hikes, hiks, jike, lyme disease, LymeDisease, outdoors, paralysis, symptoms, tic, tics

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