Why Lyme Symptoms Surge Every Spring (and What You Can Do About It)

Every year, as winter fades and spring begins, we see a pattern that’s hard to ignore. Before the weather fully warms up and people even begin heading outdoors, a surge in Lyme Disease symptoms quietly sets in.

This isn’t a coincidence. It’s something we've tracked for years with our patients, and it starts with the sun.

The Spring Shift

There’s a high correlation between overall wellness and vitamin D levels, and spring is when those levels begin to change. For much of the country, especially if you live north of cities like Atlanta or Los Angeles, you go several months with almost no sun-generated vitamin D.

As these levels drop, the immune system becomes more vulnerable. This allows dormant bacteria and viruses, including Lyme pathogens, to become active again. This is why Lyme symptoms often flare in spring, before the tick season even begins.

March 21: More Than Just a Date

March 21 marks the spring solstice, the first day of full-spectrum sun in the northern U.S. in over six months. That sunlight doesn’t just boost your mood. It’s directly tied to immune system function and resilience.

When we lose access to purple-spectrum light in winter, we experience more fatigue, more illness, and even seasonal depression. Most of our day-to-day lighting (phones, computers, TVs) gives off blue light, which can drain our mental health instead of fueling it.

Purple-spectrum sunlight, however, helps stimulate the brain and immune system in a way nothing else can. So when the spring sun returns, so does our body’s natural defense system, if we let it!

A Reminder About Prevention

Many people associate “cold and flu season” with winter, but those viruses are around us all year. What changes is our level of defense. In fall and winter, our vitamin D drops and purple-spectrum light disappears. This combination weakens our immune response and allows old infections to reemerge.

That’s why now is the time to build your immune shield. We recommend increasing vitamin D, vitamin C, and zinc through diet, supplements, and sun exposure but especially in the early afternoon hours.

Lyme doesn’t follow the calendar, but your immune system does. Support it now with our LSF products before symptoms return.