Trouble Tolerating Intracellular Antibiotics - Advice?

its tricky - i think many people in this community have similar issues with sensitivity / herx like reactions to treatment

some MD's use pulsing for this reason - perhaps 2weeks on / 2 weeks off is an option - per Dr SP
obviously not a complete solution - but at least it would not be months of unrelenting herx like reactions
if two weeks if too much to start with you can try 1 week initially
-lyme is slow growing - so if you only have lyme - 1 week on 2 weeks off is fine
-some also use this for bart - but the justification is less clear there - as faster growing

another is moving up in less than 100mg steps ( if taking 200mg / day and stepping to 300mg - thats a 50% increase - for me with other anti-microbials - steps bigger than 10% often caused noticeable herx ) - so you could find a way of dosing less than full caps - poss mix the cap with a known weight of inert powder - and dose that by weight

from what i read - minocyline dose is roughly 1/2 doxycycline - so that is consistent with your experiences.
so roughly 100mg mino is equivalent to 200mg doxy - some prefer mino due to its greater ability to cross the Blood brain barrier - otherwise they are similar abx - that said some respond better to one tetracycline vs another - all trial and error i'm afraid - varies case by case

i guess the other possibility is to try some of the herx reaction limiting type approaches to see if you strike it lucky with any of them

some like
-epsom salt baths
-alka selzer gold
-burber-pinella

maybe its a mast cell or auto-immune like reaction - triggered or exacerbated by immune complexes

mast cell stabilisers could be worth a try
-anti-histamines
-quercetin

or inflammation reducers
-sulphorathane ( specific type needed )
-glutathione ( liposomal best in the short term)
-curcumin ( specific types needed for effectiveness )
( see recent thread on auto-immunity)

think there will be a good deal of experimentation involved to find what works for you.

ref is 200mg of doxy enough. sadly, for people who have been ill for a number of years it is rarely a case of just take this abx for x number of months and you will recover.

more often its a combination of antibiotics ( 2 or 3 or more) - and other treatments ( herbs, supplements, hormone corrections etc etc ) - and lifestyle changes - ie multi-modal approaches

hope there is something here that is of use - keep us posted

Okay, just an update for everyone.

Taking 400mg doxy daily. Have been sleeping non-stop since doing so. I sleep about 14 hours a day or more on this protocol, that’s how tired and fatigued it makes me.

When I am not sleeping, I am just laying around doing nothing, as the smallest amount of exertion feels to difficult to accomplish.

With this level of fatigue and exhaustion, adderall cannot even make a difference.

My question to those on the forum. Is this normal and should I keep going? Will this let up with time?

futbolplayer please be careful combining disulfiram with adderall.
I'm on adderall and I can't combine it with disulfiram.
I made a thread about it a long time ago:

https://www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=30&m=4186412

I can understand why you take it though, I'm taking it for the same reason(s),

In fact, our cases sound extremely similar:

- My main symptom is fatigue (I'm bed-bound most days).
- Also have been doing this for about 7 or 8 years.
- Also on adderall (when not on disulfiram).
- Disulfiram also hard to tolerate but one of the few things that do really work for me.
- Doxy also one of the few antibiotics that I can tolerate.
- Also strongly suspect Bart in addition to Lyme.
- Maybe Babesia but not sure.

Just wanted to let you know that you're not alone. Sounds very similar to my case.

Girlie,

Yes this is doxy I am talking about. Trying to climb up to 300-400mg daily, however I am struggling with the fatigue right now. Doxy was one of the first medications I went on for Lyme disease and always made me so fatigued and depressed. I do think it wore off after some time though (hard to remember), so I am trying to wait it out.

I do fine with Minocycline and have been on Mino for the past 3+ years. The reason I decided to switch to doxycycline is simply because is was time for a change of pace. Trying to see if a change of medication can speed up my recover. I can also tolerate a higher dosage of doxycycline as compared to minocycline. I am trying to up my overall dosage at the suggestion of people on this forum.

RainyCloud,

Great to hear we are both able to gain benefit from Adderall while treating Lyme disease. I never understood why the medication gets such a bed rep and why doctors are so hesitant to prescribe it, it has been 100% a game changer in terms of keeping me functional during treatment. The only other medication I have taken for fatigue is Provigil, however I do prefer adderall as it gives me more physical energy.

What trouble do you have combining Adderall and Disulfiram? I looked up drug interactions between the two and never found any serious ones. More specifically, I told my physician about being on Disulfiram and she was not concerned at all. I guess I am just trying to gather more information about your concerns about combining Adderall and Disulfiram and what troubles you have had with the combination. I did read think link you referenced though in your reply, but was hoping to get your reply based on personal experience. Maybe it does potentiate Adderall some but since I am on the lowest dosage prescribed to adults, I don't notice?

I personally have been taking Adderall with Disulfiram for around 1.5 years now with no problems. Disulfiram was really big in terms of moving the needle towards better health. I seem to do best with a dosage of about 30-60mg per day combined with antibiotics. I have never been able to climb above 125mg per day, as the level of suffering becomes too intense.


wladek83,
Thanks for your input. Thyroid has always been within range and I did experiment with Armour Thyroid for some time but do not recall any benefit. Adrenals as far as I know have never been an issue, perhaps I should give your herbs a go though? Thanks for your input and contribution to my thread

Current Treatment:
- Doxycyline (200-300mg per day split every 6 hours).
- Disulfiram (30-60mg split AM and PM)
- Low Dose Naltrexone (Before Bed)
- Testosterone
- Adderall (10mg morning and 10mg afternoon)

Treatment Goal:
- Try to raise Doxycycline to 400mg per day within 1-2 months