2016 - Global Lyme Alliance

Looking Back, Looking Ahead, Giving Thanks

by Jennifer Crystal The end of the year is a time to reflect. For those of us with a chronic illness, like Lyme disease, it can take a little more effort to look back, look …MORE

Locking Up the Obstacle of Guilt

by Jennifer Crystal Patients with a chronic illness, like Lyme disease, can carry more guilt than symptoms. The holiday season is, as the Andy Williams song goes, “the hap-happiest season of all.” While many …MORE

What to Do When You Get Bad News About Your Health

by Kerry J. Heckman #MyLymeLife Getting bad news is hard for anyone. For people with a chronic illness, like Lyme disease, it can happen often. Here are 8 tips to help you manage the bad news. …MORE

Tick-borne Infections on the Rise in Gray Wolves

by Mayla Hsu, Ph.D., GLA Science Officer As the majority of emerging infectious diseases stem from wildlife, the rise of tick-borne Infections in gray wolves is a good indicator of the future of Lyme and …MORE

It’s Not All or Nothing

by Jennifer Crystal Suffering from a chronic illness, like Lyme disease, can make you feel like you are missing out this holiday season because you can’t attend a party or visit with a friend. But …MORE

A Naval Aviator’s Experience with Lyme Disease

by Luke D. Miller #MyLymeLife When I was 21, I earned my bachelor’s degree and accepted a commission as a Marine Officer in Quantico, Virginia. Serving my country was my only dream. I spent many …MORE

Lyme Disease Prevention Needs Co-Operation, Not...

by Hannah Staab and Mayla Hsu, Ph.D., GLA Science Officer With the election of a new President in the United States, the heated rhetoric about reinforcing America’s southern border has ignored the critical need for …MORE

Trauma and Lyme Disease

by Susan Pogorzelski #MyLymeLife How could I compare my experiences with Lyme disease to those who had endured worse? It’s taken me a long time to get to this point, to be able to admit …MORE

From Lyme to the NYC Marathon’s Finish Line

Running a marathon of 26.2 miles is a herculean effort even for most healthy people. But for those who suffer a chronic health issue, like Lyme disease, it requires determination and drive that most of …MORE

What We’re Thankful For–Thanksgivin...

As we approach Thanksgiving, many of us pause to reflect on why we are thankful. Without a doubt, the challenges with Lyme remain—better diagnostics and improved treatments are still sorely needed. But there are …MORE

Spreading the Light of Gratitude

by Jennifer Crystal The importance of finding gratitude when you suffer from a chronic illness like Lyme disease The upcoming holiday has us all thinking about being thankful. Thanksgiving is a time for feasting …MORE

How to Be a Good Partner to Someone with Chroni...

by Kerry Heckman #MyLymeLife How do I know how to be a good partner to someone with chronic illness? Because I have one. But that wasn’t always the case. I was diagnosed with my …MORE

Never Give Up

by Jennifer Crystal Lessons for Lymies from Winston Churchill and the Chicago Cubs During the most intense period of my treatment for tick-borne illness, I lived with my parents and sometimes other family members. …MORE

Falling Back: It’s Not Real

by Jennifer Crystal Changing clocks, Lyme disease, and Herxing Twice a year I dread changing the clocks. Even in spring when extra daylight heralds warmer, brighter days, I know the shift will cause a …MORE

Night Sweats & Lyme

by Anthony Brandt #MyLymeLife The real estate ads never mentioned the deer. Thanks to a very smelly mix of chemicals we can still grow hosta, their favorite food, but the chemicals have to go on …MORE

Stabilizing Blood Sugar During a Season of Sweets

by Jennifer Crystal Hypoglycemia and Lyme Disease The first symptom of tick-borne illness that I experienced was one I’d never heard of: hypoglycemia. I was working as a summer camp counselor in the woods …MORE

Halloween: No Costume Necessary

by Jennifer Crystal I never liked playing dress-up as a kid. I didn’t like pretending to be someone I wasn’t. Sure, I could get into the spirit for Halloween. There are photos of me …MORE

Fall Tick Season is in Full Swing

8 Ways to Protect Yourself & Your Family Fall tick season is in full swing and so are popular outdoors activities, whether hiking in the woods to enjoy the peak leaf season, raking, or …MORE

Grieving the Loss of a Career to Chronic Illness

by Kerry Heckman #MyLymeLife For an educator, the start of the school year is filled with energy and excitement. There are students to meet, classrooms to decorate, and coworkers to catch up with. There is …MORE

Searching For Home When You’re Stuck in Lyme Land

by Jennifer Crystal Where are you from? It’s a standard question, asked as casually as “How are you?” or “What do you do?” In today’s world, however, there isn’t always a standard answer. I …MORE

Seasonal Fear of Missing Out

by Jennifer Crystal Many Lyme patients can’t enjoy the wonders of the fall season. Autumn in many places is beautiful. In New England, leaves ignite in rustic colors and then fall in fun jumping …MORE

What Failure to Control Ticks in Uganda Teaches...

by Hannah Staab Tick populations across Africa have negatively impacted many communities by carrying and spreading one of the most frequent bacterial diseases in Africa, tick-borne relapsing fever (TBRF). In addition to infecting humans, …MORE

Dream Like New

by Susan Pogorzelski #MyLymeLife I used to revel in the thought of living in solitude like Thoreau at Walden Pond. A cabin nestled between pines, a farm sprawling across a dozen acres, a cottage by …MORE

Tick, Tick, Tick: The Race Against Time

by Jennifer Crystal When I was first sick with Lyme disease, time dragged endlessly. I lay in bed or on the couch—too neurologically impaired to do “normal” sick-day activities like watch TV or read …MORE

The High Cost of Telling Someone ‘You Don’t Loo...

by Kerry J. Heckman #MyLymeLife I remember the first time someone told me, “You don’t look sick.” I was sitting in urgent care and the doctor told me I had a rare infection in my …MORE

Tackling To-Do Lists When You’re Too Tired To D...

When Lyme, or any chronic illness, turns once mundane tasks into the near impossible. by Jennifer Crystal With the calendar turned to September, school has started and life for many people has picked up …MORE

Missing the Summer of Life

by Jennifer Crystal For years during my convalescence, I had a recurring dream. It took place at summer camp where my favorite activity was water-skiing. In real life, I’d spent many summers learning to get …MORE

The Effect of Drought on Tick-Borne Disease in ...

By Hannah Staab Lyme disease, which is endemic in the United States, is caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi . In Africa, however, there are different tick-borne diseases affecting communities. Tick-borne relapsing fever (TBRF) is …MORE

Symptoms of Lyme Disease

What are the effects of Borrelia burgdorferi on the body? When early-stage Lyme is not properly diagnosed and treated, symptoms can worsen. Dr. Harriet Kotsoris, chief scientific officer with Global Lyme Alliance, discusses some …MORE

Lyme and the Olympics, Part Two: Of Dashed Drea...

By Jennifer Crystal In Part One of this two-part series on Lyme and the Olympics, I wrote about athletes who have survived Lyme and gone on to compete in the Games. These people are nothing …MORE

Is Lyme Disease Treatable?

Dr. Harriet Kotsoris, chief scientific officer with Global Lyme Alliance, discusses Lyme disease treatment, prevention, and transmission. Below is an excerpt from, “Lyme Disease: An Overview”, a podcast with Dr. Kotsoris and Dr. Mayla …MORE

Lyme and the Olympics: Part One of a Two-Part S...

By Jennifer Crystal When I was in fourth grade, I won an Olympic gold medal. Okay, it wasn’t a real Olympic medal, but when my gym teacher put it around my neck after my gymnastics …MORE

Podcast: The Facts on Lyme Disease

Understanding Lyme disease can be as complicated as the bacteria that causes it. Global Lyme Alliance is launching a podcast series to help make sense of it all. The podcasts will cover everything from basic …MORE

HOT, HOT, HOT: WHAT A HEAT WAVE MEANS FOR LYME ...

BY JENNIFER CRYSTAL When I opened up Facebook on July 4th, the app showed me a photo I’ve posted every year on that day since I joined the site. The scene is summer camp in …MORE

Blood and Water: How Infection Changes Tick Beh...

By Hannah Staab In order to survive, ticks constantly struggle to balance their two vital resources: blood and water. However, a tick’s maintenance of blood and water are in direct competition with one another, forcing the …MORE

Letter from CEO on Lyme Disease Research Initia...

Global Lyme Alliance CEO Scott Santarella highlights key research initiatives in the 2015-2016 grants cycle. Thanks to the generosity of our donors, Global Lyme Alliance has had an exceptionally productive year. We have awarded …MORE

Steps to Avoid Tick Bites This Summer

Important steps to avoid tick bites, and Lyme disease, for a safer summer. It’s the little ones that you have to watch out for. Case in point, an insect the size of a poppy seed: …MORE

Effect of Landscape Fragmentation on the Preval...

By Hannah Staab Even though climate change is believed to be a major influence on tick abundance and Lyme infections around the world, there are other human practices that have the potential to contribute to …MORE

If there’s a Lyme vaccine for dogs, why n...

Dr. Harriet Kotsoris, chief scientific officer with Global Lyme Alliance, answers this question and many more as a guest on “Steve Dale’s Other World,” a WGNPlus podcast, part of the StopLyme Campaign. Steve Dale, a well-known …MORE

Lyme Disease Spread by Migratory Birds

By Hannah Staab & Mayla Hsu, Ph.D. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently announced that diseases spread by mosquitoes, ticks and fleas tripled between 2004 and 2016. More than 640,000 of such …MORE

SEEKING VOLUNTEERS FOR POST-TREATMENT LYME SYND...

Global Lyme Alliance grant recipient, Dr. Alla Landa is currently seeking volunteers for her study, “Reducing Chronic Pain in Post-Treatment Lyme Syndrome: a Brain Imaging and Treatment Study” at Columbia University’s Lyme and Tick-borne Diseases …MORE

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