Lyme disease is caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi and is transmitted to humans through the bite of infected blacklegged ticks. Typical symptoms include fever, headache, fatigue, and a characteristic skin rash called erythema migrans. If left untreated, infection can spread to joints, the heart, and the nervous system.
Songwriter and actor Kris Kristofferson has Lyme disease. While this isn’t necessarily good news, it’s new news because for years he was told he was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease or some other type of dementia.
For years Kristofferson, 79, was misdiagnosed, his doctors assuming his issues stemmed from Alzheimer’s or dementia. Thankfully, earlier this year someone finally did a test and it came back positive.
Taking unnecessary medications with awful side effects
His wife Lisa remembers him taking medications for things he didn’t have, and dealing with all the side effects, but after just three weeks of Lyme treatment, he was back. There are still some down days, but for the most part, he’s his old self.
Lyme disease is caused by the bite of an infected blacklegged or deer tick. If the tick is a lyme carrier and the bite is left untreated, it can eventually cause a host of debilitating symptoms, weeks or months later. While the disease may reveal itself within 30 days as a characteristic “bull’s-eye” rash, some people never get a rash.