Lyme disease, despite impacting roughly 476,000 people every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is still so misunderstood. After opening up about her own struggles with the condition, model Bella Hadid was recently called out for faking the condition altogether. But Lyme disease is real and the symptoms can be debilitating.
Vague symptoms of the condition like severe fatigue, brain fog, memory loss, joint pain, and muscle weakness make it particularly hard to diagnose. Yet, disease-carrying ticks are present throughout the world – and when Lyme disease is left untreated, it can cause health issues that linger for years.
“Untreated Lyme, or cases that don’t respond to treatment, can cause long-term problems, including Lyme-related arthritis, when the bacteria enter joint tissue and cause inflammation, and post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome, which can cause fatigue, pain, and cognitive impairment long after treatment,” Brian Fallon, MD, director of the Lyme and Tick-Borne Diseases Research Center at Columbia University, previously told Popsugar.
Educating others about the risks of Lyme disease could save them years of painful symptoms and long-term effects. So it’s especially nice to see when celebrities like Bella Hadid, Riley Keough, Shania Twain, and many others who have been treated for Lyme disease use their platforms to draw attention to the condition. Check out these celebs who have all opened up about their experiences with Lyme disease.
