4 Ways to Use a Foam Roller for Full-Body Relief

Photo: Courtesy of Sonima

Foam rollers, slightly soft cylinders of foam that are typically 36 inches long and six inches in diameter, are the go-to tool for self-massage. And we’re not just talking about athletes who need to iron out post-exercise kinks. Rolling is for everyone: It “allows the body to release long-held tension and improve ailments such as chronic pain, joint compression, posture, digestion, sleep problems, stress, and anxiety,” says Sue Hitzmann, creator of the Melt Method, a foam rolling technique taught in gyms and fitness studios across the country.

Draping yourself over a roller and rocking away tension in your glutes, traps, or wherever feels good in the moment and long after, according to Hitzmann. By gently applying pressure, such as your own body weight, to target areas through rolling, you increase circulation to those body parts. Old cells are flushed out and the body becomes more hydrated. The fascia—a cobweb-like material wrapping around and connecting all muscles—becomes more pliant, causing muscles to glide past one another rather than tighten and knot up. Any tension you’ve been feeling (like tight quads after a run or stiff shoulders after a long workweek) can disappear. Suddenly, you have a lot more range of motion, which scientific research supports, including a 2014 study published in the Journal of Sport Rehabilitation and this 2013 report in the International Journal of Sports Physical Therapy.

Hitzmann suggests the following four exercises for anyone looking for full-body relief. She advises her Melt students to use a softer foam roller and to ease up if there is any pain. When rolling, spend no more than 10 minutes on any one body part and drink plenty of water to help get rid of toxins being released. Use your roller three times a week for best results.

1. Roll Your Spine

Sit on one end of the roller with knees bent, feet flat on the floor. Slowly lie back on the roller so it’s under your hips, spine, and the back of your head. Rest your forearms on the ground. Gently rock side to side, for 30 seconds, keeping your spine on the roller.

Reach your arms up to the ceiling. Keeping your arms straight, let the weight of your arms sink your shoulder blades around the roller. From this position, move your arms in a scissor-like motion (as your right arm moves up by your ear, your left swings down by your hip) in front of your body. Switch arms for one rep. Keep your core engaged and don’t let your ribs lift up. Do 3 reps.

Photo: Courtesy of Sonima

2. Stretch Your Spine and Chest

Sit on the floor with your knees bent and your feet flat. Lie back and rest your shoulder blades on the roller, holding your head with your hands, elbows wide to the side. Tuck your pelvis so the top of the pelvis and the bottom of the rib cage are heavy. Take a deep breath. As you exhale, keep your tuck and extend your ribs over the roller, moving only your upper back. Take 2 deep breaths. As you exhale, slowly side bend to the right, drawing your right elbow toward your right hip. Take 2 deep breaths. Repeat on the other side.

Photo: Courtesy of Sonima

3. Roll Your Hamstrings

Lie on the floor face-up with the roller under your upper thighs. Straighten your legs, keeping them relaxed. Slowly drag your legs together and apart like you’re doing jumping jacks. Do 5 reps. Straighten and relax your legs again, taking 2 deep breaths. Move the roller halfway down your thighs and repeat the technique. Then move it just above your knees and repeat.

Photo: Courtesy of Sonima

4. Roll Your Hips and Stretch Your Hip Flexors

Lie on the floor face-up with the roller under your hips (make sure that the roller isn’t in your lower back). Bring your knees in toward your chest so they are over your belly button. Keeping your knees together, slowly rock them to the right and to the left. Pause on the right side (about 1 o’clock) and make small circles with your knees. Make 3 clockwise and 3 counter-clockwise circles. Hold the position and take 2 deep breaths, then switch sides.

Return to center and interlace your hands over your left shin. Keeping your right knee bent, slowly lower the right foot to the floor, just under your knee. Make sure the right knee stays over your right foot. Press the right foot into the floor as you tuck your pelvis. This will stretch your hip flexors and the fronts of your thighs. Hold for 3 breaths. Switch sides and repeat.

Photo: Courtesy of Sonima

This article originally appeared on Sonima.com

More from Sonima.com:

6 Exercises to Ease Hamstring Pain

5 Yoga-Inspired Stretches for Relief After Sitting

4 Things That Affect Weight That Have Little to Do with Food

Sonima.com is a new wellness website dedicated to helping people improve their lives through yoga, workouts, guided meditations, healthy recipes, pain prevention techniques, and life advice. Our balanced approach to wellness integrates traditional wisdom and modern insights to support vibrant and meaningful living.

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FDA Approves Libido Pill for Women — With Restrictions

By Dennis Thompson
HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, Aug. 18, 2015 (HealthDay News) — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday approved the so-called “little pink pill” — a controversial drug intended to boost flagging sex drive in women.

Flibanserin (Addyi) becomes the first FDA-approved drug designed to help women with low libido. But that approval also comes with significant restrictions because the drug can cause severely low blood pressure and loss of consciousness, the FDA warned.

Addyi’s label will include a boxed warning saying the drug shouldn’t be taken while drinking alcohol, and shouldn’t be used with certain other drugs and by women with liver problems.

And the once-daily pill, to be taken at night, can only be prescribed or dispensed by doctors and pharmacists who have been thoroughly briefed on the drug and its benefits and risks, the FDA added.

“Today’s approval provides women distressed by their low sexual desire with an approved treatment option,” Dr. Janet Woodcock, director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said in a statement. “The FDA strives to protect and advance the health of women, and we are committed to supporting the development of safe and effective treatments for female sexual dysfunction.”

Woodcock said Addyi will only be available through certified health care professionals and certified pharmacies “because of a potentially serious interaction with alcohol.”

Addyi will be marketed by Sprout Pharmaceuticals, based in Raleigh, N.C. Cindy Whitehead, Sprout’s chief executive, said the retail price of Addyi had not been decided. But she added that it would probably be comparable to the monthly cost of erectile dysfunction pills such as Viagra and Cialis, The New York Times reported.

Dr. Holly Thacker, a women’s health specialist at the Cleveland Clinic, said the FDA’s approval of Addyi “provides an additional, helpful option for women across the country who experience sexual dysfunction. The medication has been studied in 11,000 women and it does improve sexual function in women who have certain sexual problems.

“It doesn’t treat all sexual dysfunction, it won’t help all women with sexual problems, but it will have a role in the therapy,” Thacker added. “Just like with any medication — adult women in conjunction with their physician can make an informed decision about whether this is an appropriate therapy for them.”

Dr. Elizabeth Kavaler, a urologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, said: “Although the efficacy [effectiveness] of flibanserin is not clear, it seems to be safe. Couples will have the option of finding out for themselves whether or not it enhances their sexual relationship. It is clear that flibanserin will not address interpersonal or emotional problems. Nor will it address issues related to painful intercourse.”

The pursuit of a drug for women with low libido has been like a Holy Grail for the pharmaceutical industry, given the enormous popularity and financial windfall from the erectile dysfunction drugs Viagra and Cialis for men since the late 1990s.

And Addyi’s long road to FDA approval — it had been rejected twice by the agency since 2010 — was a contested affair.

Proponents said the drug would provide an important option for millions of American women who suffer from hypoactive sexual desire disorder, which causes a persistent or recurring lack of desire.

“This would bring another option to the table that doesn’t currently exist,” said Fred Wyand, spokesman for the American Sexual Health Association, a group that testified in favor of flibanserin during an FDA hearing in June.

But opponents cited a host of concerns about the drug. Among the concerns: symptoms of extreme fatigue and the potential for accidental injuries, as well as questions about the medication’s effectiveness.

An FDA advisory panel voted 18 to 6 in June to recommend the drug’s approval, but the endorsement was somewhat muted. The committee called the drug’s benefits “moderate” or “marginal,” and the panel members who voted yes said full FDA approval should come with conditions.

One of flibanserin’s detractors is psychotherapist Keesha Ewers, founder and chief medical officer of the Functional Sexology Institute, who contends the drug hasn’t been shown to be very effective.

Women in clinical trials for the drug reported, at best, an increase of one additional satisfying sexual event per month, according to FDA documents. Plus, clinical trials have also shown that the drug doesn’t appear to directly boost a woman’s libido, Ewers said.

“Not one person in the studies that have been done has actually reported an increase in sexual desire,” she told HealthDay. “What has been reported is a decrease in the distress that is felt about lack of sexual desire.”

That distress is one of the clinical parameters used to diagnose a person with hypoactive sexual desire disorder. And that is what has allowed the drug’s proponents to state that it can be useful in treating some women who have sexual dysfunction.

There are also some safety concerns about flibanserin. One in five women in clinical trials reported that the drug caused feelings of extreme fatigue and sedation. Accidental injuries associated with this fatigue occurred twice as often in women taking flibanserin compared with those taking a placebo, FDA documents showed.

Flibanserin’s backers mounted a marketing campaign called “Even the Score,” which used a gender-rights argument to advocate for the drug’s approval. The campaign received funding from Sprout Pharmaceuticals, Palatin Technologies and Trimel Pharmaceuticals, all of which are working on drugs to treat female sexual disorders.

A number of high-profile groups such as the National Organization of Women signed onto the campaign, which argued that women deserve a medication that helps sexual function since men already have Viagra and Cialis.

“We live in a culture that has historically discounted the importance of sexual pleasure and sexual desire for women,” NOW President Terry O’Neill said in an NPR interview earlier this year. “And, I fear that it’s that cultural attitude that men’s sexual health is extremely important, but women’s sexual health is not so important. “

Other groups in support of Even the Score include the American Sexual Health Association, the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals, the National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists, the Society for Women’s Health Research, and the Institute for Sexual Medicine.

“What makes me sad, worried, and to be honest, annoyed, is that there are no medical options available for women for whom biological factors are at play. Not one,” said Lynn Barclay, the American Sexual Health Association’s president and CEO, who testified before the FDA advisory committee in June.

Ewers said it’s a false argument to compare flibanserin for women to Viagra or Cialis for men. Viagra works on a man’s body, stimulating blood flow to create easy erections. “That’s an actual physiological function — erection,” she said. “It’s not affecting their desire. It’s affecting their plumbing.”

More information

Learn more about sexual dysfunction in women from the National Women’s Health Information Resource Center.

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One or Two Drinks a Day Might Boost Cancer Risk: Study

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, Aug. 18, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Just one or two drinks a day can increase the risk of certain cancers, researchers report.

A new study of 136,000 adults found light to moderate drinking was associated with an increased risk of breast cancer in women and several other cancers in male smokers. Light drinking is defined as up to one drink a day for women and up to two drinks daily for men, the researchers added.

“Our study reinforces the dietary guidelines that it is important not to go beyond one drink per day for women and two drinks per day for men,” said lead investigator Yin Cao, a research fellow in the nutrition department at Harvard’s T. H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston.

However, the study did not prove that drinking raises cancer risk; it only showed an association.

Determining whether to drink and how much should take into account your smoking history, family history of alcohol-related cancers and your risk of heart disease, he said. Besides breast cancer, alcohol-related cancers include colon, liver, oral, throat and esophagus cancer.

“Men who have ever smoked should limit alcohol intake to below the recommended limit,” Cao said. “Smoking and heavy alcohol consumption should both be avoided to prevent cancer.”

Women should weigh the modest increased risk of alcohol-related cancers, primarily breast cancer, against the potential benefits of alcohol in preventing heart disease, Cao suggested. (The American Heart Association says heart disease is less common among people who drink lightly or moderately than among teetotalers. However, alcohol consumption is linked to other health dangers such as high blood pressure.)

For the report, published online Aug. 18 in the BMJ, Cao’s team used data from two studies of health professionals in the United States: the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study.

During up to 30 years of follow-up, more than 19,000 women and nearly 7,600 men developed cancers, according to the report.

The researchers found that light to moderate drinking was not associated with a statistically significant increased risk for cancers overall.

And among men who had never smoked, risk of alcohol-related cancers was not increased significantly. However, the risk was raised for men who had smoked, the researchers found.

In contrast, even women who had never smoked had an increased risk of alcohol-related cancers — mainly breast cancer — with one drink a day.

One drink (14 grams of alcohol) is the equivalent of about a 4-ounce glass of wine or a 12-ounce bottle of beer in the United States, the researchers said.

To isolate the effect of alcohol, Cao and colleagues accounted for other factors, including age, ethnicity, weight, family history of cancer, physical activity and diet.

Jurgen Rehm, director of the social and epidemiological research department at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, wasn’t surprised by the results.

“Alcohol can cause cancer, even at levels of light to moderate drinking. The present study reinforces this statement,” Rehm said.

Drinking causes almost 4 percent of all cancers worldwide and a similar proportion of cancer deaths in the United States, the researchers wrote in background notes.

If you want to reduce your risk for cancer, curb your drinking, advised Rehm, who wrote an accompanying journal editorial.

“Less drinking is better,” he said. “Limit your consumption of alcohol.”

More information

For more on alcohol and cancer, visit the American Cancer Society.

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Good Moods Infectious Among Teens

TUESDAY, Aug. 18, 2015 (HealthDay News) — A good mood is infectious among teens, but depression is not, a new study suggests.

Researchers looked at more than 2,000 American high school students to see how they influenced each others’ moods. They found that a positive mood seems to spread through groups of teens, but having depressed friends doesn’t increase a teen’s risk of depression.

In fact, having plenty of friends in a good mood can halve the chances that a teen will develop depression over six to 12 months. Having a lot of happy friends can also double the likelihood of recovering from depression over the same time period, the researchers found.

However, the study could only show an association between happy friends and a lower risk of depression or a faster recovery from depression. It cannot prove a cause-and-effect relationship between these factors.

The study was published Aug. 18 in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

“We know social factors, for example living alone or having experienced abuse in childhood, influences whether someone becomes depressed. We also know that social support is important for recovery from depression, for example having people to talk to,” study author Thomas House, a senior lecturer in applied mathematics at the University of Manchester in the U.K., said in a university news release.

“Our study is slightly different as it looks at the effect of being friends with people on whether you are likely to develop or recover from being depressed,” he added.

These findings suggest that promoting friendships, through such activities as social clubs, might help guard against depression, House noted.

“This was a big effect that we have seen here. It could be that having a stronger social network is an effective way to treat depression. More work needs to be done but it may that we could significantly reduce the burden of depression through cheap, low-risk social interventions,” House concluded.

More information

The American Academy of Family Physicians has more about teens’ mental health.

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3 Recipes to Make Back-to-School Easier

Photo: Getty Images

It’s (already!) that time of year again. Whether you’re relieved to have your kids back in the classroom or knee-deep in school-related stress, you’re probably buckling back down into more regular dinner-times. Don’t worry! We have some simple strategies—and recipes—to simplify this special time of year.

Keep it simple

If you watch cooking shows or follow celebrity chefs, it can sometimes feel like every meal has to be an event. It doesn’t. For dinner, choose a main-dish recipe that’s quick and easy to prepare and toss a salad on the side, or simply cut up some raw vegetables and serve with dressing for dipping (see below for some awesomely simple suppers). Think of lunches as a way to use up what’s in the fridge. Prep easy, healthy breakfasts in advance.

Plan ahead

Does meal planning sounds like yet another chore to add to your ever-growing to-do list? We get it, that’s the last thing you need. But it’s actually the opposite; meal planning is a true time- and money-saver, plus a stress reliever. The secret weapon: Technology. Download an app like Cozi (free for iTunes and Android), which lets you store your favorite recipes, keep a running grocery list (and share it, so someone else in the family can pick up ingredients), track to-dos, and manage schedules, so you can coordinate it all. It also allows you to set reminders for yourself and send messages to the whole family. (Health and Cozi are both owned by Time Inc.)

RELATED: Your Back-to-School Reboot

Have fun

No doubt you’ve heard about the abundant benefits of sitting down to a meal together as a family. Even if it only happens one or two nights a week (or only at breakfast), it’s worth doing. Take a break from phones and other devices and catch up on the day’s events. If this seems intimidating, visit The Family Dinner Project for conversation starter ideas and other resources.

Try these three recipes for easy, delicious, energizing weeknight dinners:

Chicken with Wine-Herb Sauce

Farfalle with Zucchini and White Beans

Balsamic-Marinated Steak with Charred Radicchio

 

RELATED: 9 Easy Fat-Burning Recipes

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Heading to the Gym? Let This 80-Year-Old CrossFit Enthusiast Inspire You

 

When asked to picture a CrossFitter, your imagination will likely conjure up visions of ripped 30-somethings with mountain-like biceps, eight-pack abs, and thigh muscles that could cut steel. Which is why 80-year-old Constance Tillit stands out—and why she’s way more inspiring than the average jock.

Tillit joined a Brooklyn CrossFit box after her husband passed away, and she’s been using his memory as fuel for every challenging WOD.

“He was my nurse, my doctor, my friend, my everything. He was my encouragement and he’s still my encouragement,”she says in the Facebook video above from NowThis. “He’s with me right now.”

The video, which has been viewed close to 8 million times, shows the fierce octogenarian carrying sandbags, doing ring rows and deadlifting despite two hip replacements, two knee replacements, and two rotator cuff replacements—bringing new meaning to the phrase “no excuses.”

In ten months, Tillit has lost 50 pounds, and she has an encouraging, tough-love message (which fits right in with the CrossFit ethos) for others.

“Get up and do it,” she said. “Stop with the whining, stop with the ‘Oh, you have to take care of me.’ Take care of yourself.”

RELATED: 7 Things to Know Before Trying Crossfit

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Gender Doesn’t Influence Hamstring Strain Recovery Time

TUESDAY, Aug. 18, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Recovery time is similar for male and female college soccer players who’ve strained their hamstrings, but different factors affect their readiness to return to play, a new study finds.

“Multiple factors may influence the return-to-play time after an injury,” study author Kevin Cross, UVA-HealthSouth in Charlottesville, Va., said in a National Athletic Trainers’ Association news release.

“Our findings may help to shape appropriate strategies to prevent injury in the first place or to rehab the injury for efficient and effective return to participation. Prevention programs to reduce the incidence and severity of hamstring strains should focus on sport-specific training and position-specific training to replicate the demands of participation,” he concluded.

The current study included about 300 male and 200 female collegiate soccer players. The players all sustained a hamstring strains during the 2004 to 2009 fall seasons. Among males, there were 239 first-time strains and 67 recurrent strains. Among females, there were 176 first-time strains and 25 recurrent strains, the study found.

Median return-to-play time was seven days for men and six days for women, the study discovered.

Findings were published recently in the Journal of Athletic Training.

Among males with first-time strains, return-to-play time was longer if the injury occurred during a game rather than practice (nine days vs. six days); during in-season/post-season rather than during preseason (seven days vs. five days), Recovery time was also affected by division for males. For men in Division I, median recovery was eight days; for Division II, six days; and Division III, five days, the study said.

Among females with first-time strains, return-to-play time was not affected by these factors.

Among males with recurrent strains, return-to-play time was longer when the injury occurred during the in-season/post-season than during preseason (11 days. vs. 7.5 days). Among females with recurrent strains, return-to-play time was longer for forwards (11 days) than midfielders (two days) or defenders (four days).

The researchers said their findings offer insight into possible rehabilitation and injury prevention programs.

More information

The U.S. National Library of Medicine has more about hamstring strains.

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Kidney Donors, Recipients Want to Know More About Each Other

TUESDAY, Aug. 18, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Most living kidney donors and recipients would like to know more about each other’s health before a transplant, a new study indicates.

Currently, a transplant candidate must be told if the donor is at increased risk for hepatitis or HIV, but rules are unclear about what other health information can be shared.

“Our finding that both donors and recipients support greater sharing of health and health-behavior information challenges the current approach to disclosure in organ transplantation,” said study author Dr. Lainie Friedman Ross, of the University of Chicago.

Researchers surveyed 76 kidney transplant recipients or candidates and 160 potential or actual donors. They found that 88 percent of the respondents said recipients should receive donors’ general health information, and nearly four out of five said donors should be given recipients’ general health information.

Such information might include smoking habits, heart health and kidney function. Donors and recipients also said they would want the transplant team involved in the exchange of health information.

There was little interest in sharing social information, such as sexual orientation, criminal record, religion or job status.

More than three-quarters of all the respondents did not believe the recipient had a right to know why a potential donor was not allowed to donate, according to the study published in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

“The current model of health care decision-making and information disclosure assumes an isolated autonomous individual who makes private health care decisions with his or her own physician, but this fails to capture the fact that donor and recipient outcomes are interdependent,” Friedman Ross said in a journal news release. “A re-evaluation of current practices and policies should be considered.”

About 6,000 living donor kidney transplants occur each year in the United States.

More information

The National Kidney Foundation has more about organ donation.

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Study Debunks Notion That Condoms Always Hamper Erections

TUESDAY, Aug. 18, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Advocates for safe sex often run up against the notion that men’s ability to maintain an erection will be compromised when condoms enter the scene.

But a new study of nearly 500 young American men found that while some did complain of loss of erection, many of these men also experienced erectile difficulties generally — whether condoms were used or not.

Compared to men without such issues, men with condom-linked erectile issues “were significantly more likely to also report erection difficulties before penetration and during intercourse when not using a condom,” reported a team led by Stephanie Sanders of Indiana University’s Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction.

Reporting Aug. 17 in The Journal of Sexual Medicine, Sanders’ team said that while there have been studies looking at erectile issues with condom use in the past, there has not been a good look at whether broader issues were involved.

They noted that prior studies of American men under the age of 40 showed that about 16 percent complained of some sort of occasional difficulty in maintaining an erection. Another study found that while condom-linked erectile difficulty might be somewhat common in young men, most of the effect was “only in the first minute” of engaging in sexual activity, Sanders’ team said, with the men quickly recovering.

In the new study, Sanders’ group recruited 479 heterosexual men aged 18 to 24 and had them fill out a standard survey on erectile function.

Just over 38 percent of the men said they had no problem maintaining an erection while using a condom. Close to 14 percent said they experienced some issues while putting the condom on, about 16 percent said those issues occurred during intercourse, and about 32 percent said erectile difficulties happened occasionally during condom application and sex.

However, men reporting condom-linked erectile issues were also much more likely to report such incidences even when they weren’t using the sheaths, the study authors found.

The research team’s advice? Men who mention any condom-linked erectile issues to their doctors may need “condom skills education” or some sort of counseling to help them with any psychological issues that might be getting in the way, Sanders’ team said.

The researchers noted that for many men, experiencing erectile difficulties sets up “worry” for repeat occurrences. So, “men who first experience loss of erection when they use condoms might worry about [difficulty] experiencing erections more generally and hence be more vulnerable” to impotence more generally later on, they wrote.

More information

Find out more about erectile dysfunction at the Cleveland Clinic.

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How a Tick Bite Led to Multiple Limb Amputations for One Oklahoma Woman

 

In an extreme case, a 40-year-old Oklahoma woman recently had parts of all four limbs amputated due to a life-threatening infection she contracted from a tick bite over Fourth of July weekend.

Jo Rogers, a mom of two from Shawnee, was treated for complications of Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF), a tick-borne illness she likely contracted on a hiking trip.

“When we came back, she started feeling sick, and she thought she might have the flu,” her husband, Keith Rogers, told ABC News on Friday. She then developed a fever and became increasingly dizzy and nauseous.

RELATED: 15 Diseases Doctors Often Get Wrong

About a week after the hike, he took Jo to the emergency room where they tested her for a variety of viruses and infections, including meningitis and West Nile Virus. But they weren’t able to diagnose her with RMSF until her symptoms took a turn for the worse, her husband said. “After things started going bad and she went into septic shock, the blood flow cut off to her limbs, and her hands and feet started going black.”

The doctors had to amputate her right leg at mid-thigh, her left leg below the knee, and both of her arms mid-forearm, Keith told ABC News.

Her cousin Lisa Morgan created a GoFundMe page to help raise money to fund Jo’s medical bills and future needs. The family has raised more than $50,000 so far. “She’s a beautiful, energetic fun person,” Morgan told CNN affiliate KOCO. “Nobody deserves this.”

The Facts About Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever

While such severe complications are rare, RMSF is not unheard of, especially during the summer months, says Thomas Mather, PhD, director of the University of Rhode Island’s Center for Vector-Borne Disease and the TickEncounter Resource Center.

“The agent that causes Rocky Mountain spotted fever is a bacteria known as Rickettsia rickettsii. It is typically transmitted by American dog ticks and Rocky Mountain wood ticks, then it infects cells and then it grows and then it gets worse,” Mather told Health, adding that Oklahoma and Arkansas are hot spots for RMSF.

Those two states, plus North Carolina, Tennessee, and Missouri account for more than 60% of RMSF cases, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Symptoms include fever, headache, nausea, abdominal cramps, aches, and later on in the infection, a spotted, red rash typically around the hands and ankles.

RELATED: What You Should Do If You Find a Tick

If you start to feel sick after a trip outdoors during peak season—or you find a tick—the key is to get help fast. Delaying treatment can increase risk for serious complications and even death, reports the CDC.

“A tick expert service, like TickEncounter, or a doctor, needs to help you identify both the tick and the possible pathogens associated with the type within that particular geographic location,” Mather says. So bring the tick with you to the doctor in a plastic baggy if you find one.

That’s because there are in fact seven abundant tick species across the United States, and they don’t all transmit the same bacteria or live in the same ecosystems from state to state, complicating things. Example: The blacklegged tick common to the Northeast can transmit Lyme disease, but not RMSF. Once the tick and an infection have been identified, your doctor can treat you with antibiotics.

It’s also a good idea to do your best to keep ticks away: Wear light-colored clothes, long sleeves, and tuck your pants into a high pair of socks. “It’s a practice that never really took off fashion-wise, but it’s a no-brainer,” Mather says. You can also apply the repellant permethrin—which is sold in sprays or solutions you can soak your clothes in—to your garments to repel ticks.

RELATED: Signs You Definitely Need to See a Doctor for That Bug Bite

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