Symptoms of Lyme Disease

It is easy to mistake the symptoms of Lyme disease for other diseases. It is possible any of close to two dozen bacterial infections could cause symptoms that could currently be labeled Lyme disease when they are actually a yet not understood infection.

Dr. Richard Horowitz calls what most of us know as Lyme disease as multiple systemic infectious disease syndrome (MSIDS). The reality, Lyme disease and the co-infections have numerous facets.

When it comes to the symptoms of Lyme disease, there are so many and the ones experienced by the infected are so varied, it becomes difficult to diagnose.

First Symptoms of Lyme Disease

The first and earliest of the Lyme disease symptoms is the bulls eye rash may appear by some estimates in less than 50% of those who are infected. The actual number who get the bulls eye rash is probably far less. Called erythema migrans or EM, if it does appear, generally this happens within a week of the bite and it fades within the following week. It may expand up to 12 inches in size or even larger in those who it appears in.

While some medical sites suggest that up to 80% of those infected get the bulls eye rash, they offer no evidence of this claim. with over 300,000 people infected annually, it is rarely seen. Additionally, the EM may be in a place that is not observable and thus many do not know they are infected till months or even years later when the many different symptoms appear.

Additionally, the appearance of the bulls eye does not mean you have Lyme disease. Lyme tests are not definitive and neither are the appearance of the Bulls Eye..

Not All Bulls Eye Rash are Lyme Disease.

Many published Lime literate doctors have suggested that most people do not get the rash or if they do, it was never seen.

Some but not all experience generalized fatigue, chills, fever, headache, muscle and joint aches, swollen lymph nodes. Some have no symptoms at all.

Generalized weakness
Headaches (may be severe) and neck pain and stiffness (meningitis).
Dizzy feeling
Visual problems
Become short of breath with minimal activity
Pain in hands and feet that comes and goes
Pains in the area of the liver that comes and goes
Pains in the kidneys that comes and goes or may migrate from one side to the other
Pain migrating throughout the body or organs. (pain will start at one point and over minutes or more, migrate to another point, feeling like it is crawling inside you from one place to another)

Short-term memory loss
Brain Fog
Depression
Lack of drive
No motivation for the activities of daily living
Difficulty sleeping (getting as little as a few hours sleep at night)
Foggy memory and thinkin

Nerve Pain
Numbness, tingling in the feet and hands that comes and goes.
Coldness in the feet and hands that comes and goes.
Shooting electrical like sensations, often in lower extremities
Night sweats (with no indication of TB)
Balance and walking difficulty (this is both a neurological and a muscle problem)

Arthritis pain
Arthritis pains that come and go regardless of the weather or barometric pressure
Vision problems
Excruciating knee pain that comes and goes (pseudo gout)
Arthritis like knee pain
Mild problems with balance that may get worse
Severe joint pain and swelling in the hips and other large joints.
Facial droop on one or both sides of face (called Bell's palsy).
Pain in tendons, muscles, joints and bones that comes and goes.

Anemia
Irregular shaped red blood cells
Rouleau formation of red blood cells
Early signs of DIC (Disseminated intravascular coagulation)
Early signs of myeloproliferative disorders

Cardio Vascular

Irregular heart beats or palpitations (called Lyme carditis)

Medical research from 1990 found that between 8 and 10% of all people being treated for Lyme disease have symptoms indicating heart involvement. Because Lyme disease can escape detection or be misdiagnosed, there may be more cases than are known. It has been suggested that all patients suffering from heart disease symptoms who live in regions where Lyme disease is prevalent should be screened for the Bb bacteria.

Feet and or leg edema, usually pitting edema
Idiopathic cardiomyopathy
Heart attack that could result in death

 

This is a condition in which the heart muscle becomes weakened to the point that it cannot pump out enough blood to meet the demands of the body.

Heart conditions caused by Lyme disease are collectively known as Lyme “carditis.”
Atrial fibrillation
Chest pain
Syncope
Pancarditis
Pericarditis
Heart failure
Tachycardia
Cardiomegaly
Cardiomyopathy
Exertional dyspnea
Myocarditis, palpitations
Irregular heartbeat (arrhythmia)

Heart conditions your physician cannot explain
Blockages in the electrical impulse transmission between the atria and ventricles of the heart. Heart blockages because of Lyme often require pacemakers sudden cardiac death

Mental and emotional (psychiatric) problems (50 % of those with Lyme have psychiatric problems)
Behavioral disorders (including impulsive acts of aggression and violence)
Bipolar disorder (manic depression)
Chronic depression
Eating disorders
Hallucinations
Mood swings
Panic attacks
Paranoia
Dementia
Memory loss
Schizophrenia
Foggy thinking
Suicidal depression
Light and sound sensitivity
Bizarre, shifting, and even excruciating nerve pain

There may be more Symptoms of Lyme Disease. As we continue our research, we will add any new information to this section of the Water Cures website.

Lyme Disease Definition

Lyme Disease Answers

Lyme Disease MSIDS

Lyme Disease Stages

Lyme Disease and Hydration