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Eucalyptus

What is Lyme disease?

Lyme disease is a bacterial infection you get from the bite of an infected tick. At first, Lyme disease usually causes symptoms such as a rash, fever, headache, and fatigue. But if it is not treated early, the infection can spread to your joints, heart, and nervous system. Prompt treatment can help you recover quickly.

What causes Lyme disease?

Lyme disease is caused by bacteria. In the United States, this is usually a bacterium called Borrelia burgdorferi. It spreads to humans through the bite of an infected tick. The ticks that spread it are blacklegged ticks (or deer ticks). They are usually found in the:

  • Northeast
  • Mid-Atlantic
  • Upper Midwest
  • Pacific coast, especially northern California

These ticks can attach to any part of your body. But they are often found in hard-to-see areas such as your groin, armpits, and scalp. Usually, the tick must be attached to you for more than 24 hours to spread the bacterium to you.

Who is more likely to get Lyme disease?

Most tick bites happen in the warmer months (April-September), when ticks are most active and people spend more time outdoors. But you can also get bitten during the rest of the year, especially if the temperatures are warmer than usual.

Most tick bites happen in the summer months when ticks are most active and people spend more time outdoors. But you can get bitten in the warmer months of early fall, or even late winter if temperatures are unusually high. And if there is a mild winter, ticks may come out earlier than usual.

What are the symptoms of Lyme disease?

Early symptoms of Lyme disease start between 3 to 30 days after an infected tick bites you. The symptoms can include:

  • A red rash called erythema migrans (EM). Most people with Lyme disease get this rash. It gets bigger over several days and may feel warm. It is usually not painful or itchy. As it starts to get better, parts of it may fade. Sometimes this makes the rash look like a "bull's-eye."
  • Fever
  • Chills
  • Headache
  • Fatigue
  • Muscle and joint aches
  • Swollen lymph nodes ("swollen glands")

If the infection is not treated, it can spread to your joints, heart, and nervous system. The symptoms may include:

  • Severe headaches and neck stiffness.
  • More EM rashes on other areas of your body.
  • Facial palsy, which is a weakness in your facial muscles. It can cause drooping on one or both sides of your face.
  • Arthritis with severe joint pain and swelling, especially in your knees and other large joints.
  • Pain that comes and goes in your tendons, muscles, joints, and bones.
  • Heart palpitations, which are feelings that your heart is skipping a beat, fluttering, pounding, or beating too hard or too fast.
  • An irregular heart beat (Lyme carditis).
  • Episodes of dizziness or shortness of breath.
  • Inflammation of the brain and spinal cord.
  • Nerve pain.
  • Shooting pains, numbness, or tingling in the hands or feet.
How is Lyme disease diagnosed?

To make a diagnosis, your health care provider will consider:

  • Your symptoms
  • How likely it is that you were exposed to infected blacklegged ticks
  • How likely it is that you could have other illnesses that cause similar symptoms
  • The results of any lab tests

Most Lyme disease tests check for antibodies made by the body in response to infection. These antibodies can take several weeks to develop. If you are tested right away, it may not show that you have Lyme disease, even if you have it. So you may need to have another test later.

What are the treatments for Lyme disease?

Lyme disease is treated with antibiotics. The earlier you are treated, the better; it gives you the best chance of fully recovering quickly.

After treatment, some patients may still have pain, fatigue, or difficulty thinking that lasts more than 6 months. This is called post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome (PTLDS). Researchers don't know why some people have PTLDS. There is no proven treatment for PTLDS; long-term antibiotics have not been shown to help. However, there are ways to help with the symptoms of PTLDS. If you have been treated for Lyme disease and still feel unwell, contact your health care provider about how to manage your symptoms. Most people do get better with time. But it can take several months before you feel better.

Can Lyme disease be prevented?

To prevent Lyme disease, you should lower your risk of getting a tick bite:

  • Avoid areas where ticks live, such as grassy, brushy, or wooded areas. If you are hiking, walk in the center of the trail to avoid brush and grass.
  • Use an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-registered insect repellent when you go outdoors. They are evaluated to make sure they are safe and effective. Make sure that the repellant has one of these ingredients: DEET, picaridin, IR3535, oil of lemon eucalyptus, or para-menthane-diol. It is important to follow the instructions on the label.
  • Treat your clothing and gear with a repellant containing 0.5% permethrin
  • Wear light-colored protective clothing, so you can easily see any ticks that get on you
  • Wear a long-sleeved shirt and long pants. Also tuck your shirt into your pants and your pant legs into your socks.
  • Check yourself, your children, and your pets daily for ticks. Carefully remove any ticks you find.
  • Take a shower and wash and dry your clothes at high temperatures after being outdoors

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

WARNING: All medicines, drugs, plants, chemicals or medicial precedures below are for historical reference only. Many of these treatments are now known to be harmful and possibly fatal. Do not consume any plant, chemical, drug or otherwise without first consulting a licensed physician that practices medine in the appropriate field.

Felter's Materia Medica on Eucalyptus

EUCALYPTUSEUAN12
   The leaves of Eucalyptus Globulus, Labillardiere. Collected from the older parts of the tree. (Nat. Ord. Myrtaceae.) A native tree of Australia; cultivated elsewhere. Common Name: Blue Gum Leaves. Principal Constituents.—A volatile oil (Oleum Eucalypti) composed largely of eucalyptol (cineol) (C10H18O), and a resin. Preparations.—1. Oleum Eucalypti, Oil of Eucalyptus (contains a large proportion, not less than 70 per cent, of eucalyptol). it is colorless or pale yellow, aromatic and pungent, and has a spicy, cooling taste. Dose, 1 to 10 drops. 2. Eucalyptol, a neutral body derived from the oil. It is a colorless, spicy, aromatic fluid, with a cooling taste. Dose, 1 to 10 drops. 3. Specific Medicine Eucalyptus. Dose, 5 to 30 drops. Specific Indications.—Cold extremities and cold perspiration; perspiration during chill; sense of coldness and weight in the intestines; chronic mucous or muco-purulent discharges; pus in the urine; pasty, bad-smelling tongue; fetid excretions; fetid sore throat; fetid catarrhal states of the broncho-pulmonary tract; chronic ague with exhaustive discharges. Action.—Eucalyptus, and its oil and derivative, are gentle stimulants when given in small doses. Large doses are irritant and may cause gastrointestinal inflammation and renal congestion. Muscular prostration occurs from overdoses. Blood pressure is lowered by full doses. All the secretions are stimulated when these agents are given in medicinal amounts. All preparations of Eucalyptus are considered antiperiodic and the planting of groves and trees in miasmatic swamps and low grounds is thought to render the air free from malarial miasm. The probabilities are that the enormous quantities of water absorbed by these trees does good by drying the swamps and thus making them poor breeding places for malaria-bearing insects. It is said that a part of the deadly Roman Campagna has been rendered habitable by the introduction of Eucalyptus groves. Therapy.—External. Eucalyptus preparations are antiseptic and disinfectant. They may be sprinkled or sprayed upon offensive material and used to disinfect and deodorize the sick room. They also may form an ingredient of antiseptic poultices and ointments. Dropped upon hot water, or used in suitable oil dilution in sprays, they are useful as throat and pulmonary antiseptics and stimulants. Eucalyptol is especially much employed in subacute inflammations and chronic diseases of the bronchopulmonic tract, with fetor, relaxation and abundant secretions. Used upon cancerous surfaces they mask the fetid odor and give some relief from pain. The following is an ideal vaginal wash for offensive leucorrhea: Rx. Sea Salt, 1 lb.; Fluidextract of Eucalyptus or Specific Medicine Eucalyptus, 1/2 fluidounce. Mix in a glass or tin container. Sig.: One tablespoonful to 1 pint of hot water, and inject with a glass syringe. All preparations of eucalyptus may be used from full strength to any desired dilution upon old ulcers, wounds, gonorrhoeal discharges, ozoena, septicemia, and gangrene; all with free but fetid discharges. Inhalations of them are especially useful in pulmonary gangrene. Internal. Eucalyptus is a fine stimulating expectorant for bronchopulmonary catarrhal disorders, when no very active inflammation is present. It restrains discharges, facilitates expectoration, and deodorizes and antisepticizes the sputum. Chronic bronchitis, bronchorrhea, and the debility, with difficult expectoration, lingering in the wake of bronchopneumonia and lobar pneumonia are conditions in which it is of very great value. Agents of this type, which may be compared to the turpentines, and which influence the respiratory membranes, usually are valuable for similar uses in the urino-genital tract. Thus we find eucalyptus an alterative and antipyic in pyelitis and in catarrhal and purulent cystitis, particularly in the aged. Being eliminated by all the mucous surfaces, it exerts its antiseptic influence upon them in all parts of the body. While the oil and eucalyptol are popular with many, we prefer the specific medicine or the fluidextract for most purposes. Eucalyptus is a stimulating antiseptic for the angina of scarlatina, for which by some it is administered internally. This should be done with great care, however, for the drug is liable to produce congestion of the kidneys, one of the dreaded complications which is easily provoked in the acute exanthemata. If acute desquamative nephritis is present it should not be employed; in the advanced stage of chronic nephritis with very marked fetor in the urine, and scanty secretion of urine, very small doses of eucalyptus may be cautiously tried. Eucalpytus and its preparations are distinctly contraindicated when acute inflammation of any part exists. The antimalarial properties of eucalyptus are taken advantage of in cases of malarial infection that do not respond to quinine or in which the quinine has an otherwise undesired effect. The more chronic the cases—without distinct cycles—the better the drug seems to act. It is also naturally used for many of the complications or results of chronic malarial cachexia, as periodic headache and neuralgia. It is only in occasional cases of malarial fever that it does a great deal of good, especially acting best if there are exhaustive discharges, but it is never without some beneficial power. It is not to be compared to cinchona medication in the ordinary run of malarial fevers. Used according to indications as given above, eucalyptus is a very satisfactory and pleasant medicine. It is best given in syrup or glycerin.1

References

1) Felter, Harvey Wickes, 1922, The Eclectic Materia Medica, Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Cincinnati, Ohio.