Shania Twain says her vocal issues were caused by Lyme disease

Canadian country music star Shania Twain is revealing new details about health problems that left her unable to sing back in 2011.

While promoting her new album, the Ontario-born singer recently told the Los Angeles Times that the issues she had with her voice were due to dysphonia, a condition that affects strength and quality. She originally said it was the stress of her divorce that left her voiceless, but she told the newspaper last week that her voice was lost due to Lyme disease.

Lyme disease is spread by infected ticks through their bite after they contract the bacteria from infected animals such as deer, birds or rodents. It can leave sufferers with skin rashes, headaches, fevers, chills, fatigue, spasms, weakness, numbness, tingling and swollen lymph nodes. Paralysis, mental confusion and muscle and joint pain may also be experienced.

“I’m going to have to go through some very serious physiotherapy and recovery to be able to sing again,” Twain told CTV News’ Canada AM in May 2011.

With some voice-strengthening exercises and a strict warmup routine, Twain eventually recovered and got her voice back.

“I learned a lot about myself, and my voice, both because I’d been having a lot of problems with my voice prior and because this was a real plunge into the unknown,” the Grammy Award winner told the newspaper.

The 51-year-old mother isn’t the first celebrity to have encountered a battle with Lyme disease. Fellow Canadian singer Avril Lavigne revealed she was also infected after being bitten by a tick in the spring of 2014.

“I had no idea a bug bite could do this,” Lavigne told People. “I was bedridden for five months.”

The 32-year-old musician said at times she felt like she couldn’t move, talk or breathe. “I thought I was dying,” she revealed to the magazine.

But Lavigne apparently wasn’t alone in her battle. Yolanda Hadid, the ex-wife of Canadian music producer David Foster and mother of models Gigi and Bella Hadid, told Bravo’s The Daily Dish that she was “so proud” of Lavigne for going public with her illness because it helped raise awareness.

“I took Avril under my wing when she first got sick and shared all I know,” the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star said in April 2015.

Some other famous people reported to have contracted Lyme disease include Alec Baldwin, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, George W. Bush, Amy Tan, Ben Stiller, Ashley Olsen, Rebecca Wells, Richard Gere and Debbie Gibson.

Patients with Lyme disease are normally treated orally with antibiotics. A full and quick recovery is possible if the disease is diagnosed and treated in the early stages.