Leeuwenhoek – Blog
How alcohol affects your body
Alcohol affects your whole body, so the after-effects of overdoing it can be felt in lots of different parts of our body and brain. The public and individual problems associated with alcohol use and abuse are exploding in quantity and intensity. This abuse continues...
It’s Christmas and chocolate is all around us
Chocolate and health benefits? Yes, there are. But eat it rather dark! Chocolate is made out of cacao beans of a tropical tree: Theobroma cacao. Generally, raw cacao products are made of unroasted cacao beans. When the cacao beans are roasted this is then called...
World Vegetarian Day
Nutritional Status Assessment and World Vegetarian Day Are you vegetarian? Are you feeling tired or getting sick more often? Good nutrition enhances your quality and quantity of life. Your nutritional status is mainly influenced by the type, amount and quality of...
Lyme disease: Part 5 and final: How to prevent it
Prevention How to prevent a tick's bite Prevention is always better than cure. Below the recommendations to prevent a tick's bite Use tick repellents in tick-prone areas: This includes grassy, brushy, wooded areas with high grass and leaf litter. Avoiding...
Lyme disease – Part 4: Diagnosis and treatment
Diagnosis Lyme borreliosis should be diagnosed by history and clinical symptoms on a person that has spent time outdoors in the countryside or forests. If the clinical symptoms are clear, laboratory diagnostics are of secondary importance. For example, the...
Lyme Disease – Part 3: Symptoms and manifestations
Symptoms Lyme borreliosis (LB) is divided into stages. LB first manifests on the skin at the site of the tick bite. This is known as Stage 1 or early cutaneous Lyme Borreliosis. This stage is by far the most common form of the disease in Europe. Around 50% of...
Lyme disease – Part 2: From ticks to humans
The ticks The infection responsible for Lyme disease uses a vector that helps the bacteria to move from a host to another host (e.g. humans and other animals). Borrelia burgdorferi is transmitted by the common black-legged tick. In Ireland and Europe, the most common...
Lyme disease – Part 1: About the disease and Borrelia
About Lyme Disease Lyme disease (LD) or Lyme borreliosis (LB) is caused by the bite of a tick infected by Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (s.l.), a spirochaete bacteria. Lyme disease was first recognized in 1975 in Old Lyme, Connecticut, in children who...