Best Antibiotic Treatment For Lyme Disease

Late Or Chronic Lyme Disease Treatment

Experts agree that the earlier you are treated the better, since early treatment is often successful. Unfortunately, a substantial portion of patients treated with short-term antibiotics continue to have significant symptoms. The quality of life of patients with chronic Lyme disease is similar to that of patients with congestive heart failure. Doctors dont agree about the cause of these ongoing symptoms. The primary cause of this debate is flawed diagnostic testing. There is currently no test that can determine whether a patient has active infection or whether the infection has been eradicated by treatment.

The IDSA thinks Lyme disease symptoms after treatment represent a possibly autoimmune, post-Lyme syndrome that is not responsive to antibiotics. The IDSA essentially regards Lyme disease as an acute infection like strep throat that can be treated with a short course of antibiotics. The IDSA guidelines are now eight years old and do not reflect recent science.

ILADS physicians believe that ongoing symptoms probably reflect active infection, which should be treated until the symptoms have resolved. These physicians use treatment approaches employed for persistent infections like tuberculosis, including a combination of drugs and longer treatment durations. The ILADS guidelines have just recently been updated using a rigorous review of the medical literature.

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Antimicrobial Herbs That Kill Growing Phase Spirochetes & Cysts

Intracellular and Extracellular

Based on my observations, these herbal combination options have as good of a chance as the prescription options. They appear to kill intracellular and extracellular Lyme too based on the clinical benefit I see in my medical practice.

• Cats Claw and Otoba Bark Tinctures 30 drops of each 2 times a day. Start at 5 drops 2 times a day and add 1 drop per dose per day until you reach 30 drops 2 times a day. If you get a Herxheimer reaction, stop increasing the dose until it has passed.
• Cats Claw and Japanese Knotweed 30 drops of Cats Claw 2 times a day and ½ tsp of Japanese Knotweed 3 times a day. Work up to these doses over 30 days. Start Cats Claw at 5 drops 2 times a day and add 1 drop per dose per day until you reach 30 drops 2 times a day. Start the Japanese Knotweed at ¼ tsp 3 times a day and in two weeks increase to ½ tsp 3 times a day.

What To Try If You Have Failed Years Of Antibiotics

In my practice for those that have failed years of regular antibiotics I offer two persister oriented regimes. Both of these regimens have some published clinical evidence of benefit. One regimen I offer is a Horowitz dapsone persister regimen. The other option I offer is a disulfiram only regimen or a disulfiram combination regimen . You can read more details about how to take both of these regimens in

• Dapsone for Lyme Persisters. A Miracle Antibiotic?

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The Chance Of Getting Lyme Disease

Not all ticks in England carry the bacteria that causes Lyme disease.

But it’s still important to be aware of ticks and to safely remove them as soon as possible, just in case.

Ticks that may cause Lyme disease are found all over the UK, but high-risk places include grassy and wooded areas in southern and northern England and the Scottish Highlands.

Ticks are tiny spider-like creatures that live in woods, areas with long grass, and sometimes in urban parks and gardens. They’re found all over the UK.

Ticks do not jump or fly. They attach to the skin of animals or humans that brush past them.

Once a tick bites into the skin, it feeds on blood for a few days before dropping off.

How Is Lyme Disease Diagnosed

A healthcare provider will diagnose Lyme disease based on symptoms, physical findings and whether or not you’ve been in an area populated by infected ticks.

Many people dont remember or know that theyve been bitten by a tick. This is because the tick is tiny, and its bite is usually painless.

Your provider will confirm the diagnosis using a blood test. If your first blood test is negative for Lyme disease, you won’t need another test. If the first test is positive or equivocal, your provider will conduct the test again. You have to have two positive results to be diagnosed with Lyme disease.

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Growing Bartonella: What Works Best

Ying Zhang, MD and his colleagues at Johns Hopkins show that rifampin and azithromycin are the strongest agents. These are followed closely by doxycycline, methylene blue, oregano oil, and ciprofloxacin. In his experiments he did not study rifabutin, minocycline, clarithromycin, or levofloxacin. The following combinations of antibiotics are in the same family: rifabutin and rifampin, minocycline and doxycycline, clarithromycin and azithromycin, and levofloxacin and ciprofloxacin. If one member in a family works well the other one is likely too so clarithromycin, minocycline, and levofloxacin should work well too.

Which Antibiotics Are Used For Lyme Disease Treatment

In the treatment of Lyme disease, the following categories of antibiotics are used:

• Penicillin has a bactericidal effect, such as amoxycycline and penicillin V. They are administered orally. The concentration of this type of antibiotic in the blood should be constantly monitored as it tends to fluctuate significantly.
• Tetracycline the antibiotic group includes, among others doxycycline and minocycline. If these antibiotics are given to the patient in too low doses, they will only act bacteriostatic. Low blood levels of the drug cause failure in the treatment of Lyme disease at every stage. At the same time, high doses of this type of antibiotics are generally poorly tolerated by the patients body. Doxycycline can be administered orally or intravenously.
• Cephalosporins it is a new generation of antibiotics developed in the third phase of research. Cephalosporins in their latest version are very effective in the fight against Lyme disease and more. The danger is that this type of antibiotic causes some side effects in the digestive system. It is also quite expensive.

Antibiotics are administered intravenously or orally. The patients doctor decides about the application of a particular therapeutic therapy.

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Is Doxycycline Oramoxicillin Better For Treating Lyme Disease

Lyme disease can only bediagnosed after a series of blood tests, but sometimes its hard to get aproper diagnosis because the disease itself can mimic other illnesses. Thatswhy Lyme often goes untreated and can progress into a chronic case. In cases ofboth acute and chronic Lyme disease, antibiotics are the first and foremosttreatment, because the bacteria cannot be fought off without it. There are twoantibiotics that can be used in the treatment of Lyme: doxycycline andamoxicillin.

Doxycycline is anespecially popular choice in the treatment of Lyme disease because of itsefficacy as well as its safety in terms of usage for a variety of patients. Italso has the benefit of being effective when treating human granulocyticehrlichiosis , which can often occur in people with early Lyme disease.So, how long should you take doxycycline for Lyme disease? Doxycycline shouldbe taken twice a day for two to three weeks in 100 mg increments during thetreatment of Lyme disease.

Image by Myriams Fotos on Pixabay: Lyme disease presents with flu-like symptoms shortly after the initial infection and can only be treated with antibiotics.

Oral Antibiotics For Early Treatment Of Lyme

The bacteria involved in spreading Lyme disease throughout the body are intelligent. They find ways to hide in the bloodstream along the lining, making it hard for antibiotics to find and attack. The bacteria are also robust. They can move and replicate even when traveling against the flow of blood.

Plus, to eliminate Lyme bacteria, Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacterias antibodies must be present at the time of antibiotic treatment. This means that if your doctor prescribes antibiotics for two weeks, the bacteria are in hibernation during those two weeks, and they can remain after the treatment ends.

Timing is everything when using oral antibiotics. This becomes even more true for patients who have had Lyme disease for a long time. Oral antibiotics are not as successful when treating late or chronic Lyme disease, plus they can have side effects.

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Key Points For Healthcare Providers

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Treatment For Erythema Migrans

People treated with appropriate antibiotics in the early stages of Lyme disease usually recover rapidly and completely. Early diagnosis and proper antibiotic treatment of Lyme disease can help prevent late Lyme disease.

Treatment regimens listed in the following table are for the erythema migrans rash, the most common manifestation of early Lyme disease. These regimens may need to be adjusted depending on a persons age, medical history, underlying health conditions, pregnancy status, or allergies. Consult an infectious disease specialist regarding individual patient treatment decisions.

*When different durations of antibiotics are shown to be effective for the treatment of Lyme disease, the shorter duration is preferred to minimize unnecessary antibiotics that might result in adverse effects, including infectious diarrhea and antimicrobial resistance.

NOTE:For people intolerant of amoxicillin, doxycycline, and cefuroxime, the macrolide azithromycin may be used, although it is less effective. People treated with azithromycin should be closely monitored to ensure that symptoms resolve.

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All Antibiotics Are Not Good To Pulse

The Northeastern experiments showed in a lab persister cells require 24 hours before they wake up out of hibernation. In the experiment they literally washed the existing antibiotics off of the petri dish. In humans, we cannot just wash antibiotics out. It takes time for antibiotics to build up to an effective dose and time for the same antibiotic to get out of the body.

In pharmacy science each medicine has an elimination half-life. An elimination half-life is the time it takes to get half of a medicine out. Physicians use the elimination half-life for a drug to determine how long it takes to completely remove a drug or how long it takes to get the drug to a maximum level in the blood.

It takes 4 elimination half-lives to remove a medicine completely. It takes 4 elimination half-lives for a medicine to reach the highest drug level in the blood.

Long-half life medicines should not be pulsed. One of these antitibiotics is azithromycin . It has an elimination half-life of 68 hours. This means it takes 272 hours to completely eliminate this medicine from the body once it is stopped. Of the current antibiotics most Lyme Literate Medical Doctors use, azithromycin is the only one that should not be pulsed.

Read more about Lyme antibiotic regimens in A Lyme Disease Antibiotic Guide.

What To Expect At The Vets Office

If your pet has been diagnosed with uncomplicated Lyme disease, this is what you can expect to happen at your veterinarians office.

• Depending on the type of test used to screen for Lyme disease, a confirmatory test may be necessary.
• Urine protein screening In general, only dogs who have symptoms of Lyme disease or protein in their urine should be treated with antibiotics.
• Dogs with protein in their urine should have regularly scheduled rechecks to monitor their condition.

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What Treatment Approach Did Well Patients And High Responders Use

We asked patients what their treatment approach was and listed four options a) antibiotics, b) alternative treatments, c) both antibiotics and alternative treatments, and d) no treatment at all. High treatment response was most closely associated with the use of antibiotics compared to patients who were using alternative treatments alone or forgoing treatment altogether. Treatment with antibiotics for Lyme disease was far higher among well patients and high responders compared to non-responders .

As you can see in the chart below, many patients who were taking antibiotics were also taking herbal supplements, which can be antimicrobial . So it is possible that there was a synergistic effect between antibiotics and herbal supplements.

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Tetracycline Plus Rifamycin Plus Disulfiram

• minocycline 100 mg 1 pill 2 times a day
• rifampin 300 mg 2 pills 1 time a day
• disulfiram 4 to 5 mg/ kg body weight. Work up to this dose slowly over 2 months then remain on the disulfiram at the peak dose for 4 months before tapering off.

Key Points:

• This minocycine and rifampin in this combination are as useful for treating a Bartonella co-infection. Co-infections are other germs passed on during a tick bite. If someone has a co-infection, when possible I choose antibiotic combinations that simultaneously treat Lyme germs and the co-infection germs.
• The disulfiram is added here to treat persister Lyme. Note disulfiram does not appear to treat Bartonella.

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What Is Lyme Disease

Lyme disease is an infection caused by a spirochete bacterium transmitted to humans through infected ticks of two species of wild deer called the white-tailed deer and the western black-legged deer. The disease can be debilitating if not diagnosed early on

The white-tailed deer that are in North America have been experimentally infected in laboratories in New York State in 1903, Pennsylvania in 1983, and Wisconsin in 2008. The Lyme disease bacteria have also been found within Europe so it is difficult to say where it originated.

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Can Lyme Disease Be Prevented

Most people with Lyme disease get the infection during the late spring, summer and early fall when immature ticks are out feeding. In warm climates, few tick bites take place during winter months.

Deer ticks are most often found in wooded areas and nearby grasslands. Theyre especially common where the two areas merge, including neighborhood yards where deer occasionally roam. Ticks dont survive long on sunny lawns. They dry out quickly and die.

Although only about 1% of all deer ticks carry Lyme disease-causing bacteria, there are areas in which over 50% of the ticks carry the bacterium. The diseased ticks are often found in the U.S. Northeast and upper Midwest areas. Ticks also live in coastal areas.

Black-legged ticks can get the infection from animals other than deer. Mice, voles and some squirrels can carry the bacteria.

How can I prevent tick bites?

The following tips can help you avoid tick bites:

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The Treatment Of Early Lyme Disease

Christie Choo-Kang, PharmD, BCPSNephrology and Renal Transplant Clinical SpecialistBoston Medical Center

Eileen Tang, PharmD Candidate 2011College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Professions, St. John’s UniversityNew York, New York

Arun Mattappallil, PharmD Candidate 2011College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Professions, St. John’s UniversityNew York, New York

US Pharm.

Lyme disease, also known as Lyme borreliosis, is the most common vector-transmitted illness in the United States.1,2 The disease was first recognized in 1975 in a number of children in Lyme, Connecticut, who were initially diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis because of overlapping signs and symptoms.1 In 1982, Willy Burgdorfer, PhD, discovered that a spirochete isolated from Ixodes scapularis, a deer tick, was the same spirochete found in patients with Lyme disease.

Confirmed cases of Lyme disease are defined as erythema migrans greater than 5 cm in diameter or one or more objective late manifestations of Lyme disease with laboratory confirmation in patients with possible exposure to ticks. Healthy People 2010 set a goal of a 44% decrease in the incidence of Lyme disease by 2010. Since 2000, the CDC has contributed more than $3.5 million per year for new research on Lyme disease.2

Selection Of An Antibiotic

Many factors influence the selection of a particular type of antibiotic and its dosage regimen. Among them are mentioned:

• Duration of infection
• The efficiency of the patients immune system
• The achieved drug concentration level in the blood
• Antibiotic tolerance in the patient
• The activity of the patients digestive system
• Earlier, long-term steroid use
• Age and weight of the patient

All information and articles from the Lyme Borreliosis website are for information and education purposes only. Before following any advice posted on our website, please contact your doctor.The administrator does not bear any consequences arising from the use of the information contained on the website.

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Scientists Find Promising New Treatment For Lyme Disease

A new study gives hope that an effective treatment for Lyme disease may be available in the future. The new treatment involves the drugs cefotaxime and azlocillin.

The new paper appears in the Nature journal Scientific Reports .

Lyme disease affects nearly 300,000 people a year in the United States and around 230,000 people a year in Europe, according to an article in the Journal of Public Health .

Bacteria belonging to the group Borrelia burgdorferi cause Lyme disease. Most people develop it after being bitten by a tick that carries the bacteria.

Approximately 6080% of people with Lyme disease develop a circular red skin rash called erythema migrans around the infected tick bite, and some also develop flu-like symptoms.

Most people develop the rash within 4 weeks of being bitten, but it can appear up to 3 months afterward.

of people with the disease later develop symptoms of fatigue, pain in their muscles, joints or nerves, and cognitive impairment.

These symptoms can continue for months or even years after their initial infection.

Researchers have suggested that this may because of drug-tolerant persisters, a group of bacterial cells that survive the initial dose of antibiotics.

Others believe its an immune disorder caused by bacteria during the first exposure, which causes a perpetual inflammation condition. Whatever the cause, the pain for patients is still very real.