Bumping for more views

the GOOD

- it is VERY safe, cat B pregnancy, there are few antibiotics safer than ammox. Well tolerated, few GI issues, low toxicity
- it is bactericidal, not bacteriostatic. This means it KILLS borrelia, it does not block reproduction or something
- it has a low MIC, in very small amounts it can kill
- because is not toxic, you can take very high doses too. It is usually prescribed in 1500mg a day (3 doses). But you can take as high as 6000mg without major issues.

the BAD

- very little active against persisters - the people that say is not active at all i will politely ask to read about borrelia as much as i did. Borrelia does not make cysts, it just changes shape, however the peptidoglycan that is what penicillin antibiotics target, is the component of their cell wall and the protein that makes peptidoglycan remains active in the persisters too, just much diminished.

"However, it is notable that the stationary state in B. burgdorferi is atypical, as amoxicillin and ceftriaxone continue to kill the majority of cells despite an increase in the level of persisters in the population. Cell wall-acting antibiotics do not normally kill nongrowing cells; one possibility is that stationary state B. burgdorferi cultures represent a steady state of growing and dying cells. The ability of β-lactams to kill nongrowing cells was also observed in M. tuberculosis where a combination of meropenem and a β-lactamase inhibitor was able to kill viable but nonreplicative cells (50). The authors speculate that peptidoglycan remodeling continues in these nonreplicating cells allowing for the activity of the β-lactam."
aac.asm.org/content/59/8/4616.full

This explains why a person taking years of ceftriaxone (another penicillin) or hi dose amoxicilin will eventually recover from lyme without any combination drugs. It just takes a ridiculously long time and the chances for bad side effects are much higher.

- amoxicilin has a very short half life of one hour. This is very little and the reason you need to take 3 pills a day, not two or just one like in case of zithromax.

- it is very vulnerable to β-lactamase which is a protein that some bacteria produce to destroy penicilin. that is why it usually given with clavulanic acid, which is a β-lactamase inhibitor (the combination is called augmentin)

- it does penetrate BBB only in very few amounts and only if you have inflammation of meninges. You need to take very high doses >6gr to get small amounts in the brain. For BBB penetration you need newer generation penicilins like ceftriaxone, ceftin, etc.... (these are called cephalosporines)

- has limited activity against intracellular bacteria , it is bacteriostatic against some intracelullar bacteria but does not kill them, like fluoroquinolones or macrolides - so it will be very little use against bart, chlamydia or intracellular borrelia...


there u go, amoxicillin case closed

personally it gave me my first herx, i was taking 2g a day for h-pylori (which i never had, does not matter) but 2hrs after taking it i had some sort of "allergy" - high pulse, tiredness, then i had pins and needles on feet etc... it did not touch my brain lyme. Not until i took minocycline...

Great! Thanks for the input! I too had a strange reaction after a couple hours of taking it, felt very unwell, tired, chilled. At the time I thought that was way to quick to cause a herx but maybe it was. I decided to hold off a little longer since I desperately want to feel slightly better before I bring on the next herx! That's the hardest thing you want to feel better but in order to feel better you have to feel pretty rotten first! Lyme is not for the weak that is for sure (even though it does weaken us!!) Thanks again!