Host/Producer: Rhonda Feiman
Co-Producer: Petra Hall
Healthy Options: For Well-being & Being Well
This month:
TICKS have not gone away even though the season has changed. We speak with our tick specialist, Dr. Beatrice Szantyr on tick awareness, bite prevention, & treatment, Lyme & tick-borne illness.
1. Why are we doing a tick program in the Fall?
2. Do we still need to be vigilant about tick-borne illnesses in the Fall & Winter when the weather gets cool and cold?
3. Do ticks stop spreading disease when the weather is cold?
4. What is the life cycle of ticks throughout the year?
5. What are some preventative techniques we can use to minimize our risk of getting a tick-borne illness?
6. What precautions should hunters in particular take, when out in the woods? And in handling animals?
7. What is permethrin and what are the benefits to using it on our clothes, socks and shoes?
8. What products are useful for putting on our skin to prevent tick bites?
9. What are co-infections?
10. What does clinical diagnosis mean?
11. What is a prophylactic preventative course of antibiotics, and is this a valid and effective strategy to use after a tick bite?
12. If you get a tick bite, how do you remove the tick safely?
13. Should you send a tick to a lab for analysis?
Guest/s:
Dr. Beatrice Szantyr, Internist and Pediatrician who lectures on Lyme disease and related tick-borne disorders in Maine and nationally, to both professional and community groups. She is an active member of the Maine CDC Vector Borne Disease Work Group, and a member of the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society. Dr. Szantyr served on the 2022 Federal Tick-Borne Disease Working Group.
Websites of Interest:
University of Maine Tick Lab, Protect Yourself from ticks & tick-borne diseases
Tick testing Amherst MA. (tests for more diseases)
Lyme Disease Association, Research, Education, Prevention and Patient Support
Lyme disease[dot]org. Powered by patients. Home of Lyme Times and My Lyme Data
Maine CDC Lyme disease Frequently Asked Questions
Maine Tracking Network: Tickborne Diseases. Improving public health with better information
University of Rhode Island Tick Encounter, Tick-borne Disease prevention Education
This article is brief enough for a patient to bring to a doctor’s visit for them to consider: The Management of Ixodes scapularis Bites in the Upper Midwest
For clinicians:
LymeCME Free, Evidence-based, AAFP-Accredited Courses that Physicians Can Trust
Previous Healthy Options programs on ticks & Lyme, with links to other websites of interest, can also be found here and here
About the host:
Rhonda Feiman is a nationally-certified, licensed acupuncturist practicing in Belfast, Maine since 1993. She primarily practices Toyohari Japanese acupuncture, using gentle and powerful non-insertion needle techniques, and also utilizes Chinese acupuncture and herbology. In addition, Rhonda is a practitioner of Qi Gong and an instructor of Tai Chi Chuan in the Yang Family tradition.
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