Getting Life Insurance After Lyme Disease Diagnosis

Lyme disease, or borreliosis, is the most common tick-borne infectious disease in the United States.

What you can do: Understanding Lyme disease, and how a life insurance carrier thinks about Lyme disease, is essential to making a wise decision when purchasing life insurance.

Let’s get started:

Lyme Disease Overview

Life Insurance With Lyme Disease

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Lyme Disease Overview

Lyme disease is on the rise.

Stories are popping up all over the nation about increases in deer ticks and Lyme disease. Consider this one:

In Woodland Park, New Jersey, there was an abundance of acorns produced a couple of years ago. The acorns led to a boom in the population of little white-footed mice.

Guess who loves to munch on these mice? Yep – ticks. The Lyme-carrying variety, especially.

The most common infected tick in New Jersey — black-legged or deer ticks — will feed on just about any animal they can attach themselves to. And although they are often found on deer, which can transport them around a forest, it’s typically the white-footed mouse that infects ticks. The mice host the bacteria that causes Lyme disease, borrelia burgdorferi. Ticks acquire them by feeding on mouse blood and can then transmit them to other animals and humans. – Why 2017 may be a very bad year for Lyme disease, USA Today

Who gets it?

According to the Mayo Clinic, there are around 300,000 new cases of Lyme disease diagnosed annually. Although, many experts believe the actual number to be much higher.

Lyme disease is most common in the northeast and Midwest. In fact, 95% of diagnosed cases come from 14 states:

• Connecticut
• Deleware
• Maryland
• Maine
• Massachusetts
• Minnesota
• New Hampshire
• New Jersey
• New York
• Pennsylvania
• Rhode Island
• Vermont
• Virginia
• Wisconsin

Read more:

• Getting Life Insurance in Virginia
• Getting Life Insurance in Rhode Island

Lyme disease occurs nationwide, however. This Centers for Disease Control and Prevention map displays the United States Lyme disease infections for 2015, the most recent year mapped:

How Do You Get It?

In the United States, Lyme disease is caused by the Borrelia burgdorferi and Borrelia mayonii bacterias. Black-legged deer ticks are carriers of these bacteria.

To contract Lyme disease, an infected deer tick must bite you and typically remain attached for 36-48 hours. Because they are very small, often no larger than a poppy-seed, it can be easy to miss them.

If you find an attached tick that looks swollen, it may have had enough time to transmit the bacteria. Tick removal should happen as soon as possible.

Early Signs And Symptoms

Signs and symptoms of Lyme during the early stages can be somewhat vague and flu-like:

• Fever
• Chills
• Muscle and joint aches
• Swollen lymph nodes

However, in approximately 80% of cases, there’s a hallmark symptom:

• Erythema migrans – a circular red rash resembling a bulls-eye

Later Signs And Symptoms

If left untreated, Lyme disease is oftentimes debilitating. Not all individuals experience every symptom:

• Severe headaches
• Joint Pain
• Facial palsy
• Nerve pain
• Heart disease
• Inflammation of the brain and spinal cord
• Eye inflammation
• Liver inflammation
• Numbness in hands and feet
• Short-term memory loss
• Depression and anxiety
• Kidney disease

Treatment

Early-stage Lyme disease is straightforward: antibiotics.

Usually, oral antibiotics is considered standard treatment for early Lyme disease. A 14-21 day course of amoxicillin or cefuroxime for adults or children over 8 years often effectively treats Lyme disease, although some doctors find 10-14 days of antibiotics as equally effective.

If the disease has affected the nervous system, intravenous antibiotics are regularly prescribed. Treatment can last 14-28 days.

Chronic Lyme disease (PTLDS) treatment is more complicated.

The Mayo Clinic states, in reference to chronic Lyme disease:

The cause of these continuing symptoms, known as post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome, is unknown, and treating with more antibiotics doesn’t help. Some experts believe that certain people who get Lyme disease are predisposed to develop an autoimmune response that contributes to their symptoms. More research is needed.

For someone experiencing chronic symptoms, the current state of understanding in the medical community is not reassuring. In fact, the documentary, Under Our Skin, does a poignant job of describing just how frustrating the situation is.

It’s clear that those directly impacted by chronic Lyme disease are unhappy with the recommendations from the medical community.

It boils down to one simple fact. The federal agency charged with protecting the nation’s health continues to work against the interests of citizens unlucky enough to be nailed by a Lyme-infected tick.

Currently, physicians recommend the following for chronic Lyme disease:

• Education
• Support group
• Symptom tracking and treatment as needed
• Collaboration with physician

The use of complementary, alternative therapies such as essential oils may be promising. However, additional vivo work is needed to address safety and pharmacokinetic properties.

Life Insurance With Lyme Disease

Purchasing life insurance with Lyme disease is a common request life insurance carriers receive.

A quick search of Lyme disease public forums discussing life insurance shows you’re not alone:

Hi everybody – I was wondering if anyone with chronic Lyme has had any luck getting life insurance. I’ve been dinged by a couple of carriers, and I am starting to wonder if it’s a non-starter. – Greg, Seattle, WA, Health boards, Lyme Disease Forum