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Pulsing Azithromycin?

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Posted 9/29/2017 8:16 PM (GMT -5)
Has anyone ever been prescribed azithromycin for pulsing? My LLMD has prescribed azithromycin 250mg- take 2x a day for 3 days and 4 days off. I just stumbled upon an article (not sure of the validity) that says that azithromycin shouldn't be pulsed because it is a long-half life medicine (takes 11 days to leave the body once it is stopped).

Just curious if any of you have pulsed azithromycin?
Posted 9/29/2017 8:36 PM (GMT -5)
I am currently on a protocol pulsing azityhromycin, minocycline, with flagyl at the end of every 3rd week. I am one Mon, Wed, Friday for 3 weeks with the 4th week off. Flagyl on Thurs - Fri of week 3 only.
Posted 9/29/2017 8:40 PM (GMT -5)
Thanks, Hoagie! I am new to all of this and while I am not trying to question my doctor, taking antibiotics differently than I am used to makes me nervous. I guess the whole thing makes me nervous, but I have had undiagnosed Lyme/Bart for so many years, I really think antibiotics is what I need to help me to get better. Thanks again for your reply.
Posted 9/29/2017 9:38 PM (GMT -5)
You can still pulse the zithro - but it won't have the same effect as an antibiotic with a short half-life.

I am pulsing it.

I take 500 mg once daily M/W/F week 1 and M/T/W/Th/F/ week 2

(with Mepron and Ceftin on the same days)
Posted 9/29/2017 11:48 PM (GMT -5)
Girlie i take zythromax exactly like you: m/w/f, then stop in weekend. so 3 days a week.

you are not pulsing it, this is a good dosage. zithromax has a whooping 68h tissue half life. so there is no need to take more than 3 pills a week to maintaim mic levels.

however zythromax is a weak antibiotic, alone is not good. but because it is intracellular and gets to the brain, paired with tetracyclines or rifampin or both, makes thosr antibiotics much more active.
Posted 9/30/2017 12:06 AM (GMT -5)
Well you are pulsing it...it's just not the same as pulsing the antibiotics with shorter half-lifes...as you're not really getting it out of your system.

Pulsing just means not taking daily. It just won't be effective if you're wanting to achieve periods of none in the bloodstream though.
But, there's still less in your bloodstream than if you were to take it daily.

My second week is different mpost - I take it all 5 days. (per Dr. J's protocols)
Posted 9/30/2017 1:12 AM (GMT -5)

Girlie said...

Pulsing just means not taking daily. It just won't be effective if you're wanting to achieve periods of none in the bloodstream though.

yes so some doctors use real pulsing which means they wait for the antibiotic to be out, then give it one day and then they restart. you are not allowed to do that with bartonella treatment, this is just for borrelia. the logic with borrelia is that when u stop the antibiotics some of the persisters will wake up and turn into spirochetes again.

then you hit them with something that kills them.

"Finally, we examined the ability of pulse dosing an antibiotic to eliminate persisters. After addition of ceftriaxone, the antibiotic was washed away, surviving persisters were allowed to resuscitate, and the antibiotic was added again. Four pulse doses of ceftriaxone killed persisters, eradicating all live bacteria in the culture."

aac.asm.org/content/59/8/4616.full
Posted 9/30/2017 1:28 AM (GMT -5)

mpost said...
you are not allowed to do that with bartonella treatment, this is just for borrelia. the logic with borrelia is that when u stop the antibiotics some of the persisters will wake up and turn into spirochetes again.

aac.asm.org/content/59/8/4616.full

Yup, you can do it with bartonella and babesia.
That's what Dr. Jemsek does - pulses everything.
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