After this (admittedly adorable) video of a toddler and a fawn went viral, dozens and dozens of copycat videos sprung up.
Here’s the thing (or two): those babies’ mothers are nearby, and they’re wild animals. If you aren’t sure what kind of damage a deer can do, check YouTube for some hunting trips gone very wrong. And, even if the mother doesn’t catch you, those fawn are probably covered in ticks.
Tick season was huge this year, and it’s still going. The range of things like Lyme Disease has spread, and experts are raising red flags that we may be on the cusp of a tick/tick disease explosion.
Human behavior, environmental changes, and other factors are working together to rapidly expand the range of ticks (more counties were “hot zones” this year than ever) and the CDC keeps having to up its estimates for how many cases of Lyme Disease occur each year.
“Estimates”? Yep, a lot of Lyme Disease cases go unreported and under treated, because not all doctors are watching for it.
Even worse, there are other disease gaining ground and spreading around, including babesiosis, anaplasmosis, and ehrlichiosis, among others, and even doctors versed in Lyme Disease may not be looking for them—adding another layer of trouble!
Why aren’t doctors leading the front lines on this? After all, early treatment tends to be very successful for most tick diseases. Tick diseases, including Lyme Disease, tend to show only mild, common symptoms like fever, and headache. For overworked doctors (don’t feel bad for them, that’s the AMA’s fault) a headache and fever don’t scream emergency, or even “follow-up treatment”.
Untreated Lyme Disease causes chronic inflammation, which can lead to joint pain and organ damage—including the heart and brain. Even in an otherwise healthy young person this can lead to heart failure—but wait, here’s the scary part—because this happens seemingly out of nowhere, healthcare workers have only recently put together that the organs and tissue were being donated without catching the real underlying cause of death—a tick borne illness! (Tick diseases and even parasites aren’t currently part of the screening process, as seen in this terrifying headline from a few years back. The mistake was caught because a thorough examination caught the heart inflammation, and wheels turned and the pieces clicked together).
What can you do? Tell your doctor where you visit. The east coast may not seem exotic, but it’s a Lyme Disease hotbed. Don’t frequent the east? An audit of states revealed that even Minnesota, for instance, has far more tick problems than then they realize.
And keep your immune system strong, not just so it can better fight disease, but so that you’ll better notice if a “minor” problem like headache, fatigue, fever, or inflammation persist.
How? An wide array of nutrients (go beyond the guidelines—that’s a minimum, and doesn’t cover other beneficial things like herbs), sleep as much as your body tells you to, take time to unwind, and for an extra boost, keep up with taking a daily dose of colloidal silver.
What are your thoughts on tick disease?
