Lyme Disease

[Lyndy]

Hello, I hope everyone is feeling as well as possible.

Can I ask about links between Lyme Disease and RA? What is actually known?

My daughter was talking about ticks the other day (we are both walkers) when I said I had had (in my late teens) a bullseye mark from a tick on my leg, she said ‘well that means you had Lyme Disease’.

I came down with RA in my 40s, Mum had MS so our familial immune systems aren’t the greatest!

Just wondering if that tick bite played a part. My Mum was a nurse so of course she dismissed it as me being over dramatic..the tick was pulled out but no other treatment given.

Any thoughts welcome xx

[KittyJ]

As far as I understand it ( from a friend who has Lymes) not all ticks carry it so hopefully yours was ok as you didn’t react at the time? 🤷🏻‍♀️

[happytulip]

A tick bit with a typical bullseye rash tends to mean it is more likely to carry Lyme than not. A course of Doxycycline or amoxicillin would have been first line of treatment.

However, not all ticks with Lyme cause a bullseye rash.

I've had a number of bites in my time but nothing came of them until last year when I got bitten and developed fever, erythema, and obvious bullseye rash. I got antibiotics and two blood tests later came back negative for lymes.

There is a lymes disease community on health unlocked It might be useful to have a look?

[helixhelix]

they are two very different diseases although with some similar symptoms. I think if the Lyme was going to trigger a latent autoimmune disease - which is possible - it woukd have happened sooner than 20+ years.

:even with the bulls eye rash it’s not 100% that you woukd have had lyme.

[AgedCrone]

If you google Lyme Disease & RA you will find pages & pages of “maybes”, but there is no definitive answer……not even if the type of RA diagnosed could be connected.

As far as I understand it the treatment given when somebody has a Posiitive RA Factor would be the same whatever the cause.

[Sheila_G]

I very much doubt there is a connection after all this time but I'm not a medic. Better to ask your Rheumatologist.

[cyberbarn]

As others have said, not all ticks carry Lyme disease, and it isn't that common in the UK either. Additionally, the first confirmed case was in 1985, and at that time it would have been very rare, only increasing in cases as time went on.

When I was tasked with pony-sitting the Shetland next door for the retired farmers, I asked if they ever checked her for ticks, did they affect animals like humans. No she said. So I asked about the cows. She looked bemused. Checking huge dairy cows for ticks, when you have 100 head of cattle? I smiled and said good point! She spent the last 40 years walking the fields with the cows, never once got Lyme disease. To my knowledge there is no Lyme epidemic in farmers. As an aside, we did happen to come across a tick on the pony, so we removed it, and the stubborn little Shetland looked us in the eyes are said, 'dinna fash yersel!'

[helixhelix in reply to cyberbarn]

A lot more is known about this now. It seems that ticks are often first infected with Lyme themselves from birds like robins and thrushes. Then pass it up the chain to small mammals and then on to deer - who are generally able to shrug it off by developing their own antibodies.

It is usually the deer ticks that get infected, but not exclusively.

[Lyndy in reply to cyberbarn]

Thanks cyberbarn, I was in France when I picked up the beastie but I take your point x