Tick Bites: Prevention and Treatment

By Rebecca Steiner, Naturopathic Medical Assistant and Certified Health Coach

Tick Bite Prevention

The best medicine is prevention. To prevent a tick bite:

• Avoid tall grassy areas

• Avoid logs and wood piles

• Avoid leaf litter

• Do regular tick checks of yourself and your pets

• Wear protective clothing

• On hikes, walk in the middle of the trail 

• Use essential oils of lemon and eucalyptus  

More Details: 

• To prevent a tick bite, especially during the warmer months, it is best to avoid tick habitats, such as grassy areas, leaf litter, logs and wood piles. 

• If you do engage in outdoor activities where you might be exposed, protect yourself by wearing light colored clothing, long sleeved shirts and pants and tucking your pant legs into your socks. 

• It may also be helpful to rub essential oils of lemon and eucalyptus into the skin as a natural tick repellent. 

• Finally, do a thorough tick check during and after your activities. Scan your whole body, check your scalp and behind your ears. 

• Don’t forget to check your pets! When you return home, take a shower and wash your hair. 

Tick Removal:

If you are bitten by a tick, there are specific steps you can take to minimize the risk of the transmission of Lyme disease and other tick-borne infections:

• Purchase pointy tweezers or a “Tick Key”

The only safe way to remove a tick is with a “Tick Key” (which can be purchased online) or with pointy-tipped tweezers. Do not use standard household tweezers with blunt edges. Purchase one of these tick removal tools to have on hand, in your home, and to carry on hikes, camping, and other outdoor activities. 

If you are bitten, remove the tick by placing your tweezers (or tick key) as close to the skin as possible and around the head of the tick. Pull firmly, slowly, steadily and directly up. Try to avoid breaking the tick. 

Never attempt to remove a tick with matches, nail polish remover, or other substances. Do not twist or squeeze the tick.  

Once you have removed the tick, disinfect the area of the bite with soap and warm water and wash your hands.  

Tick Testing:

Contrary to popular belief, a tick does not have to be attached to the skin for an extended period of time to transmit infection to a human host. Once the tick has attached, there is a risk of infection. 

• Have your tick tested through Tick Report

Place the tick in a ziplock bag along with a moist cotton ball, tissue, or green leaf. DO NOT freeze the tick. It is recommended to put the ziplock bag inside a second ziplock bag as ticks have been known to escape. 

Send your tick to the laboratory for testing.  

Go online to order your test and receive shipping instructions: https://www.tickreport.com   

You must order the “Comprehensive Package,” which tests for more of the infections ticks carry in our area.  The cost of testing the tick is $200. 

See a Doctor:

• Contact our clinic immediately for a “Tick Check” appointment

After a tick bite it is essential to be seen by a Lyme literate doctor as soon as possible, as you will need to be evaluated. Prophylactic treatment or testing will be administered, if needed. Do not wait for the results of your tick report. You do not have to have a Bull’s Eye rash to have contracted a tick-borne illness from a tick bite. By seeing a doctor you are preventing the dissemination of infection and avoiding the risk of long-term, chronic illness. 

Mycoplasma: More Than Just Walking Pneumonia

By Sangita Pedro, ND

Jesse, a 36 year old man, came to me complaining of extreme fatigue, headaches, irritable bowel syndrome with diarrhea and insomnia. These symptoms had been present for over five years. He had previously been diagnosed with Babesia and high levels of antibodies to the Epstein-Barr virus. He was treated for these two infections by multiple doctors over a five-year period with no improvement in his symptoms.

The most recent treatment included Mepron (a malaria drug used to treat Babesia) and Valtrex (prescription antiviral medication) daily for six months. The treatment was stopped because his liver was showing signs of inflammation. Blood tests at this point showed a decrease in Babesia and an increase in EBV antibodies and all of his symptoms were worse.  

As you can imagine, Jesse was more than frustrated and ready to give up. I suggested we test for Mycoplasma, a common Lyme co-infection and the stealthiest of stealth microbes. The test came back positive which proved to be the key to a protocol that ultimately gave him his life back.

Stealth microbes are organisms that have developed mechanisms to hide from the hosts’ immune system thereby avoiding detection and death. Mycoplasma does this in two ways: by being very tiny and by lacking a cell wall.

Mycoplasma are the smallest microbes known (at least for now). 4,000 Mycoplasma can fit inside a single red blood cell; 10-15 typical bacteria would fit inside that same red blood cell. Most of their very tiny space is used to carry host genetic information. There is no space left to manufacture nutrients, making Mycoplasma a very small but very effective parasite.

Because they cannot make nutrients themselves, they must scavenge fatty acids, proteins, and carbohydrates from their host in order to survive. This is why people infected with mycoplasma become depleted and fatigued..

Their lack of a cell wall allows them to change form quickly (better for hiding) and squeeze into places that are off limits to other microbes such as red and white blood cells and brain tissue. It also makes them resistant to antibiotics especially in chronic, systemic infections.  

In chronic infections, Mycoplasma are not free-floating in the blood (where the antibiotics are). They live in tissues, hidden from the main blood supply of the host, and protected from the potentially lethal antibiotics.

Mycoplasma can be contracted through air droplets (as in cases of walking pneumonia), tick bites, sexual contact and contaminated food. Each species of Mycoplasma has a preference for certain parts of the body, but they are not picky. All species have the potential to infect all areas of the body if given the opportunity.

Mycoplasma is common in the environment, so most of us have been exposed at some point in our lives. This is not a problem for a healthy immune system. The body creates antibodies to it and effectively eliminates it in 1-3 months.

In some cases, small amounts of Mycoplasma remain behind but don’t cause symptoms until the immune system is weakened. That weakening can be caused by chronic stress, poor diet, toxic exposure and/or infection with other stealth pathogens like Lyme and its various co-infections.

A weakened immune system allows Mycoplasma to begin to multiply and create inflammation which can cause a variety of symptoms in nearly every area of the body. Some common symptoms include fatigue, headaches, brain fog, diarrhea, constipation, weakness, joint and muscle pain, insomnia, and anxiety.

Because Mycoplasma can also be transmitted through a tick bite, there may be no history of respiratory problems. And because ticks can be as small as the head of a pin, most people have no memory of a tick bite.

How someone originally became infected with Mycoplasma is less important that their current symptom picture which tells you where the microbes are living and what needs to be treated.

Because Mycoplasma is a parasite, good nutrition is the foundation of every treatment plan with a diet high in protein and fatty acids and low in carbohydrates. Decreasing inflammation, protecting and healing affected tissues, and improving immune function are essential to eradicating Mycoplasma from the body. This can be accomplished with herbs, vitamins, homeopathy, and IV therapy. 

Mycoplasma, being so small and stealthy, can take longer to treat than other stealth microbes but, in the end, the reward is not only a reversal of symptoms but a stronger, healthier immune system that is resistant to future infections.