Ticked About Lyme Disease?

Awareness and Prevention are Key.

The weather is warmer, the days are longer and all you and your family want to do is spend time outside. It really doesn’t matter if it’s hiking, camping, or playing sports -- as long as you are outdoors-- you are happy. It is important to remember that higher temperatures and the more time you spend outside increases the risks of being bitten by a tick and contracting Lyme disease.

Lyme disease is caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi, which is transmitted to humans from the bite of the deer tick. Most Lyme disease in the northeastern United States occurs during summer or fall, when the small nymphal ticks are most prevalent.

The early stage of Lyme disease is usually marked by one or more of these signs and symptoms:

• Tiredness
• Chills and fever
• Headache
• Muscle and/or joint pain
• Swollen lymph glands
• A characteristic skin rash (erythema migrans)

When caught early, Lyme disease is highly treatable and curable with a single course of oral antibiotics. If the disease is left untreated, it can cause neurologic complications, including facial palsy, numbness, tingling and headaches, abnormal heart rhythm and large-joint arthritis.

Tips to avoid ticks

• Wear light-colored clothing. You’ll have a better chance of spotting a dark tick crawling around.
• Wear high socks, sneakers and long pants. Tuck your pant legs into your socks, your shirt into your pants and avoid wearing open-toed shoes to minimize areas where ticks can find its way to your skin.
• Use insect repellents. Apply repellent to any skin that is unprotected. You may need to apply every few hours. Make sure to avoid contact with your eyes!
• Shower or bathe within two hours. If possible, always wash off within a couple hours after being outdoors to wash away loose ticks. Do a daily tick check. Search all the places ticks love to hide: your hair, under your arms, between your legs, behind your knees and in your belly button.
• Don’t forget about the kids and pets. Be sure to check any children and pets before they enter the house. Ticks can easily drop off on carpets and furniture.
• Check all gear. Thoroughly examine all items you brought with you on your trek.
• Wash and dry your clothes. It is possible for ticks to survive the washing machine, even if hot water is used. Always dry your clothes in a dryer on high heat for an hour as well.
• Create a tick-free zone at home. Mow your lawn frequently, stack wood neatly and in a dry area and discourage animals by putting up fences. It is also good to keep playground equipment, decks, lawn chairs, etc. away from yard edges and trees.

“While Lyme disease can seem frightening, it is preventable! If you are vigilant about looking for ticks, and can pull the tick off the skin within 48 hours of the exposure, you can't get Lyme disease from that tick. If you're not sure how long the tick was on your body before you were able to remove it, contact your doctor to discuss a one-time dose of an antibiotic to help prevent the symptoms of Lyme disease from developing,” says Lori M. Noble, MD, a primary care physician at Spruce Internal Medicine.

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The Benefits of Physical Activity

Risha Hertz, APNC, discusses the numerous health benefits of keeping an active lifestyle. Risha practices at Penn Family Medicine Gibbsboro.

Risha Hertz, APNC

Just because there’s been a dip in the temperature, doesn’t mean it’s time to hibernate until next spring. It’s important for you and your family to stay active throughout the year.

For many of us, as kids, our parents probably sounded like a broken record: Go outside and play! Sitting inside and watching television is not good for your health.

As it turns out, they were right. Being sedentary or not really engaging in any physical exertion, can take a toll:

“Regular physical activity greatly helps many of the body’s systems function better,” said Risha Hertz, APNC. “For those that aren’t very active, they face increased chances of becoming overweight and developing a number of chronic diseases.”

“For my patients that are just becoming more active, it is a joy to see the positive effects just days into their individualized activity program.”

Below are just a few of the benefits of regular exercise and living a healthy lifestyle.

Controls weight and improves appearance. Perhaps most important, exercise can help prevent excess weight gain or help you to maintain weight loss. Adding muscle also helps your body look lean and toned. Exercise also makes you sweat, which purges the body of toxins that can clog pores and plague your skin with pimples and blemishes.

Strengthens mental acuity. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, research has shown that doing aerobics or a mix of aerobics and muscle-strengthening activities three to five times a week gives you numerous mental health benefits. Regular physical activity can help improve your thinking, learning, concentration and reaction time as you age. It can also reduce the risk of depression and may help you sleep better.

Gives you an energy boost. Exercise and physical activity transport oxygen and nutrients to your tissues and help your cardiovascular system work more efficiently. When your lungs and heart are working more efficiently, you have more energy.

Reduces risk of injury. Exercise is critical for strong muscles and bones. As you age, muscle strength declines, but studies show that people who exercise on a regular basis are stronger and leaner than others in their age group. Because muscles act as both cushions and shock absorbers for your joints, strong muscles help to protect joints, improve balance and can help reduce the pain of arthritis.

Reduce risk of disease. Two of the leading causes of death in the United States are heart disease and stroke. Living an active lifestyle increases your high-density lipoprotein (HDL), or "good," cholesterol and decreases unhealthy triglycerides. This combination, which helps blood flow, decreases the risk of cardiovascular disease. Regular activity can also help prevent a number of other health concerns, including stroke, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, depression, some types of cancer and arthritis.

Now that you know the positive effects of living an active lifestyle, how do you get started?

“At Penn Medicine, we partner with our patients to develop individualized activity programs that will work for them,” said Hertz. “Many think that they have to go to the gym for half an hour to an hour and perform weight lifting and cardio. Formal activity is great, but is not for everyone. My patients and I explore ways in which they can become more active throughout the day as much as possible.”

If you haven’t exercised consistently in some time, you might want to talk to your primary care doctor first.

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Already a Penn patient? Use Penn’s Goals for Healthy Living worksheet at your next primary care appointment to help determine and track your activity goals.