If you happen to encounter the wrong tick , a manner of walking in the woods can turn into a loiter battle with Lyme disease . Early signs andsymptoms of Lyme disease , the result of atick bit , include a bull’s - eye shaped rash and flu - like symptoms that can be very meek and may even go unnoticed . And in at least a tail ofLyme disease patients , the telltale rash does not develop , consort to theNational Institute of Allergy and infective Diseases(NIAID ) .
Most cases can be treated successfully with antibiotics , but if Lyme disease is not detect early , it can causeserious and debilitating symptomssuch as nerve pain , severe head ache , arthritis , and cognitive problems . As theNIAIDnotes , fatigue , annoyance , and aching joints and sinew can persist in some patients even after treatment , which is known as post - treatment Lyme disease syndrome . The symptom and complications of Lyme disease — especially when it total to what has been called “ chronic Lyme , ” though expert are wary of that terminal figure — are complex and not well - fix . But of path people should try a medical rating if they are feeling unwell , and Lyme disease should be investigated if there has been a history of a tick insect bite .
Lyme disease is often count an inconspicuous illness . The symptom and core of Lyme disease are n’t necessarily detectable to other people , and it can take time to get an precise diagnosing . Yet it ’s hardly an uncommon condition . Anestimated 476,000 Americans contract bridge Lyme disease annually , include a number of renowned face . These 11 celebrity have gone public about their own Lyme - connect experiences with pain sensation and disability — and the route to find better .
Lyme disease has affected celebrities such as Avril Lavigne, Kelly Osbourne, and Shania Twain, among others.
Shania Twain
In her Netflix documentaryNot Just a daughter , country music legend Shania Twain opened up about her frightening bout with Lyme disease , which befall while she was touring in the other 2000s and bear on her outspoken corduroy and ability to sing .
“ I was horseback riding , and I was second by atick . The check was infected with Lyme disease , ” Twain say . “ My symptom were quite shuddery , because before I was diagnosed , I was on stage very dizzy , I was lose my Libra , I was afraid I was going to fall off the leg . I was have these very , very millisecond blackouts , but regularly — every bit or every 30 indorsement , ” state Twain , according toToday .
In a 2020 interview on the British talk showLoose Women , Twain said it take seven years for physician to realise that the changes to her voice were due to nerve terms to her vocal cords that was triggered by Lyme disease .
“ Our voices are such a huge part of our ego - saying , and for a vocalist it ’s devastating in so many ways , ” she apportion . “ Until I got to the bottom of why I was having a problem with my interpreter , there was n’t much I could do about it , and it necessitate a long clip . Thankfully I persist , and I am constitute records again and putting on concerts . ”
Bella Hadid
The track mannikin and world wizard Bella Hadid ( as well as her mother , Yolanda , and her sidekick , Anwar ) has also battled Lyme disease . In aspeechat the 2016 Global Lyme Alliance , Hadid divvy up how her life was negatively impacted by her condition .
“ I cognise what it feel like to not want to get out of bed from os pain sensation and enervation and days on end of not wanting to socialize or be around people because the anxiousness andbrain fogjust is n’t worth it . … After eld of this , you begin to get used to living with the sickness , or else of getting cured andmoving onwith life . ”
In August 2023 , Hadid say in anInstagram postthat she was “ eventually sound , ” after “ 100 + twenty-four hour period of Lyme , inveterate disease , coinfection treatment , [ and ] almost 15 years of invisible suffering . ”
“ The macrocosm work in the most painful and beautiful ways , but I need to say that if you are clamber — it will get in force . I promise , ” she tot up .
Amy Schumer
Stand - up comedian andTrainwreckandLife and Bethactress Amy Schumer unsurprisingly require a lightsome approach to declare she had Lyme disease on herInstagramaccount in September 2020 . “ Anyone get LYME this summer ? I generate it and I ’m on Vibramycin , ” she wrote . “ I have maybe had it for years . Any advice ? Can you have a glassful of wine or 2 on it ? ”
She encouraged her follower to comment with their own experience with the check - borne disease and said she was managing her own symptoms well . “ I want to say that I feel serious and am excited to get free of it . ”
Alec Baldwin
The30 RockandSNLstar was bitten by a tick more than 20 years ago , and for five summertime after that , he was bedridden with sweats and eminent febricity . Speaking toPeopleabout his experience with Lyme disease , Baldwin enjoin , “ I really thought this is it , I ’m not go to live . I was alone , I was n’t married at the time , I was divorced from my first wife . I was lying in bed allege , ‘ I ’m proceed to die of Lyme disease ’ in my bed and ‘ I hope someone finds me and I ’m not here for too long . ’ ”
After mostly obviate the topic publicly , he concord to speak at a fundraising dinner party in 2017 for the Bay Area Lyme Foundation . He has since talked about his kinsperson ’s alertness in deflect the ticking - borne illness . “ I want my tyke to grow up riding horse and bikes and enjoying themselves every day and not have to spend every mean solar day with us choke over them with a magnify glass to check that they do n’t have any ticks on their physical structure or their dogs , but that is part of the life style , ” he say .
Justin Bieber
The singer , former adolescent heartthrob , and husband to model Hailey came forward onInstagram(with a since - slay post ) about his Lyme disease diagnosis in 2020 after fan started bullying him about his appearing . “ While a set of people maintain saying Justin Bieber await like s * * * , on meth etc . they failed to realize I ’ve been recently diagnosed with Lyme disease , ” he wrote . “ It ’s been a uncut match years but let the right-hand treatment will help … and I will be back and practiced than ever . ”
The undermentioned year , hecalled out the media , Insiderreported , for continuing to hunt unflattering photos of him from when he was feeling under the weather , even though his term had improved . “ There have been multitudinous photo shoot and opportunities for media to break up up other photograph but they still escape with this one to make me look disturbed and unwell . … This was a meter where I was really unhealthy . I was combat Lyme disease , proper ? ”
Avril Lavigne
talk toPeoplefor a 2015 concealment fib , the Canadian singer - songwriter told readers that she had been battle Lyme disease for a year . “ I had no idea abug bitecould do this , ” said Lavigne , who traces her disease to a ticking bite she must have receive sometime in 2014 . “ I was bedfast for five calendar month . ”
In an consultation withBillboardthree class later , the punk princess disclose that debilitating aches and tiredness wound up keeping her in bottom even longer than that . “ I was in bed for f * * * * * * two years . ” During that time , she saw MD who prescribed antibiotics to help her rebound from a disease that does n’t follow one standardtreatmentprotocol . And in her suit , as in so many others , she struggled to get a Lyme disease diagnosis in the first topographic point .
Her 2018 albumHead Above Waterwas inspired by her battle with Lyme . And herAvril Lavigne Foundationnow work with Lyme disease organizations to help raise investment firm and visibility for the cause . “ When you go through something like that , you realize how fulfilling simple matter are — thing I could n’t do any longer , like being able to get up in the dayspring and go to the kitchen and seize a cupful of coffee , ” she toldPeoplein 2019 . “ It instruct me patience ; it taught me being more present . That was a beautiful object lesson . ”
Ben Stiller
The funnyman andZoolanderstar was diagnosed with Lyme disease in 2010 . He toldThe Hollywood Reporter , “ I get it in Nantucket , Mass. , a couple of age ago . My genu became inflamed and they could n’t compute out what it was , then they found out it was Lyme . ”
Stiller is one of the fortunate ones who may have benefitted from other detection and treatment . “ I ’m symptom - gratuitous now , but … it ’s a really tough thing . ”
Kelly Osbourne
At pa Ozzy ’s surprise outside natal day political party in 2004 , talk show host and reality lead Kelly Osbourne was bitten by a tick , which result in symptom such as a mad pharynx , abdominal botheration , and seizures for a tenner before she got a right Lyme disease diagnosis . “ I ’ve learned to advocate for myself when it comes to my health , and I trust my intuition , ” she wrote in her 2016 memoir , There Is No F*cking arcanum : Letters From a Badass Bitch . “If I think something is wrong , I refuse to have anyone dismiss it . ”
Osbourne ’s extensive drug regime led to a cps of depression , anxiousness , and ultimately intervention for those symptoms , too . According to her volume excerpt inUs Weekly , “ The doctor observe changing my prescription , trying to get the dosage right , and it turned me into a zombie . You know in movie where a genial patient sit in a rocking professorship in a Cardigan Welsh corgi and nightgown and stares at a wall all day ? That was me . ”
Kris Kristofferson
The legendary Isaac Merrit Singer , ballad maker , and thespian was struggling with computer memory problems in recent long time , and Kristofferson — as well as his friends and menage — were secernate that he had Alzheimer ’s disease . But finally that prove to be a misdiagnosis , and what he actually was experience was Lyme .
Kristofferson and his wife , Lisa , toldRolling Stonethat for years Dr. had been telling him that his reformist and debilitatingmemory losswas due to either Alzheimer ’s or dementedness fetch on by blow to the capitulum from package and playing football game and rugby in his vernal years .
“ He was taking all these medications for thing he does n’t have , and they all have side effects , ” Lisa said . After the Lyme diagnosing , he stopped drive those Master of Education and went through three weeks of treatment for Lyme . “ It ’s like Lazarus coming out of the grave and being tolerate again , ” said Isaac Merrit Singer - ballad maker and close friend Chris Gantry inCloser Weekly .
Ally Hilfiger
Lyme disease advocate and daughter of famed American designer Tommy , Ally Hilfiger was first diagnosed at 7 twelvemonth older after being piece by a tick in 1992 . “ I was positive that bug were creep in my body . I could find them eating at my organ , my tummy , and especially my brain , ” Hilfiger wrote in her 2016 memoirBite Me : How Lyme Disease Stole My Childhood , Made Me Crazy , and Almost kill Me .
harmonise to a profile inGoop , after year of struggling , she ’s finally hit her stride . “ shift my mental attitude was a great part of my recovery . consider positively and telling my torso that it was incessantly healing and progressing — instead of that it was invariably sick and degenerate — made me sense better emotionally . Any form of spirituality might help — mine was spending clock time in nature and meditating . ”
Hilfiger also works withProject Lyme , an advocacy organization focused on bar and early spotting of the disease .
Ryan Sutter
After dealing with an undiagnosed illness for months during the early day of the COVID-19 pandemic , formerBachelorettewinner Ryan Sutter toldPeoplein May 2021 that he had Lyme disease that had been made even more austere due to mold vulnerability .
After doing wide testing and blood work , doctors forecast out that his body is susceptible to taking in mold toxin , which he is frequently exposed to as a firefighter .
“ It seems to be that what happen is that my immune arrangement was weaken through pic to toxins and especially to moulding , ” he say on wife Trista Sutter ’s podcast , Better Etc . “There are other people in the fire academy that plausibly had the same exposure who are n’t cover with these exposures because their genetic science are stronger , they ’re able-bodied to get disembarrass of the toxins easier . ”
In June 2022 , the couple sat down withPeopleagain for an update on Sutter ’s wellness — and had adept news show to share . “ For so long , I was only think about how to survive the solar day , ” he said . “ But I sense like my life history is coming back . And that ’s been really encouraging . ”
Most Recent in Lyme Disease
Jane Yoon Scott , MD , is an infectious disease physician and an assistant prof of medicine atEmory Universityin Atlanta . Dr. Scott delight link up with her patients , empowering them to understand and take possession of their wellness , and encouraging them to require questions so that they can make informed and thoughtful decisions .
She graduated with the highest honors from the Georgia Institute of Technology , then received her MD from the Medical College of Georgia . She nail her interior medicine abidance training and chief residency at Temple University Hospital , as well as a fellowship in infectious diseases at Emory University . She is board - certify in both interior practice of medicine and infective disease .
When she is not seeing patients , Dr. Scott ferment with neighboring wellness departments to advance public wellness , especially to biotic community that have been historically underserved . She also teaches medical trainees and reproof medical students at the Emory University School of Medicine .
In her free time , Dr. Scott appreciates a ripe coffee berry store , weekend hikes , playing guitar , strolling through urban center , sampling restaurants , and travel to young places .
Bites & Stings
What Bit Me? Spot These 13 Bug Bites
Rheumatic Diseases
5 Diseases That Can Mimic Polymyalgia Rheumatica
Lyme Disease
How Ticks Can Make You Sick
Bug Bites and Stings: Everything You Need to Know
Infectious disease
What Is Babesiosis? Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prevention
The Deer Tick-Borne Disease Babesiosis Is Now a Persistent Threat in the Northeastern U.S.
What Is Lyme Disease? Symptoms, Causes, Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prevention
Bug Bites and Infectious Diseases: What to Know
Bitten by a Tick? How to Know
A New Vaccine to Protect Against Lyme Disease Begins Final Trial
