Lyme Disease: 10 Signs To Watch For

4. Palsy of the Face

One of the more terrifying symptoms of lyme disease is facial palsy. This is basically parts of your face being paralyzed, which can be incredibly traumatic for people who just wake up one day and an entire side of their face is numb and sagging. Thankfully, this only happens to around 5 to 10% of people with lyme disease, when their facial nerves are affected and thus the facial muscles become weakened and immobile. The good news is that the nerves will regenerate if treated. The bad news, this can take up to 18 months if you’re not aware you have lyme disease.

5. Irregular Heartbeat

Because lyme disease is technically a bacterial infection, it can get a lot worse the longer it’s left untreated. Generally speaking, a round of antibiotics prescribed to you can help to knock it out, hopefully completely. Though if left untreated, it can actually interfere with your heart’s rhythm and cause an irregular heartbeat. For people with a tendency toward clotting or who have arterial calcification, this can be very serious–and even deadly–stuff. The infection is interfering with the electrical capacity of the heart. This can be life threatening.

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