Adding a cyst buster

Here I go again - cart before the horse.

But, for future: At what point into my treatment do I add the cyst buster? I am on doxy now - have a month supply to start from my PCP.

Also - What are the pharmaceutical cyst busters? I know about flagyl, but what else?

What are the non-pharmaceutical ones? I know about grapefruit seed extract.
I am taking serrapeptase...I was told that would bust cyts, but I've since read that it's not one, it just gets through the biofilms?

Also bromelain, wobenzym N, nattokinase. :) I would say if after a few days to a week on doxy...if you are feeling okay - not herxing go ahead and add in a mild cystbuster if you are encouraged to do so. You can get several of the herbal ones OTC.

Girlie. If you're going to do an azole cyst buster I think tinidazole is the better choice. It is far more effective against cysts than flagyl, it destroys biofilms while flagyl doesn't have much effect on them, it is also more easily tolerated and a bit less toxic to the person taking it.

GSE is probably better to start out with. I would say a good start would be a cell wall drug like amoxicillin, Septra DS (if you are not allergic). And GSE. These are also easy to tolerate medications and not harsh on the body. Or your intracellular drug could be a macrolide, or a tetracycline.

You would have all your forms covered. Spirochete form, intraceullar (septra zDs), and septra DS also prevents all Borrelia from replicating anywhere, and cyst buster(GSE).

Yes you can use doxy for spirochetes and it also covers inside of your cells. But the thing is doxycycline turns many of them into cysts. It will kill some that are dividing though very well.

You don't have to go for amoxicillin. But amoxicillin doesn't turn them into cysts. It can actually help treat cyst forms, but is not effective as an intracellular.

Bactrim (known as Septra in Canada), works throughout the body intracellularly, in the brain, and and will prevent them from ever getting worse. I think this prevents them from ever dividing. It does not affect biofilms.

It is unknown if GSE had any effect on biofilms. It should be combined with serrapetase, nattokinase, or lumbrokinase. Something that has an effect on biofilm.

Or you can use the prescriptive antibiotic tinidazole which will bust cysts and it also kills the germs inside biofilms. Eventually leading to a breakdown of the biofilm. This is the only prescriptive antibiotic that has such a strong effect on biofilms. But some other abx have a mild effect on biofilms like doxy does. Combining doxycycline with tinidazole is excellent therapy. But you might want to go with minocycline to get better tissue penetration.

Reason why any tetracycline drug works so well with tinidazole, is because the tetracycline (tetracycline, doxycycline, minocycline) can turn them into cysts, kills the dividing ones, and then the cysts are killed by the tinidazole. When they first turn into cysts (<1 day old, only tiny concentrations of tinidazole will kill them. That is a weak point.

But one thing you should know before going on tinidazole is that it is one of the more toxic medications for Lyme. I went on it for 3 months, I think that's enough for me.

Hi,

I am on 400mg doxy a day and have been bitten 6 weeks ago and started treatment 4 weeks ago.

I am wondering if I should add a Cyst Buster as I was put on a low dose of Doxy and than increased it week by week. When do the bacteria start to form cysts and what would be the best natural cyst buster be?

Many thanks,
dawnn

I think flagyl is worse. Flagyl is the one with the studies done in mice that shows it causes cancer, but I think a study was done in hamsters. There are no studies done with tinidazole we can only guess since it is a similar class of medication.

The tinidazole though has a track record of being more effective than flagyl, and it has proven to be more tolerated in patients who use it. So to me it seems like the better choice between the two.

The long term effects are not really known. Usually tinidazole is prescribed to kill parasites as a single 2 gram dose, or just prescribed for a weeks time. Using it for Lyme is "off-label" usage and it hasn't been indicated for such use. But it has proven to be very effective in Lyme disease.

If you are confused about the way abx are used consider this:

A good protocol should target 3 forms of Lyme germs:
1.spirochete form - use penicillin, amoxicillin, or 3rd generation cephalosporin or some 2nd generation cephalosporin. (The cephalosporins are generally better and some of then are very effective at killing spirochetes fast as they poke holes in the cell membrane of the spirochete)

These are important to help dissolve away dead spirochetes as well. And these drugs are good to clear out the eyes. I think you need something like amoxicillin to clear out the eyes because only after i started taking amoxicillin was when my eye floaters and squiggles started to go away.

2. Intacellular drug- these drugs work both inside a germ and also goes inside our cells. These are important because they can target a germ in more locations generally than a cell wall drug. Tetracyclines, macrolides, quinolones, rifampin, and my new favorite septra DS. There is a downside to using tetracyclines as sometimes it will cause the germs to cyst up.

3. Cyst form - they ball up and excrete a layer of protection, then they attempt to make new spirochetes inside the cyst and hatch when it is safe to do so. Azoles are best. GSE is considered an effective natural. Banderol/samento treats this form as well.

4. Another form to consider is finishing treatment and that is biofilms. Tinidazole is the best pharmaceutical for this. Banderol and samento are proven naturals for this. And we typically use enzymes like serrapetase, nattokinase, and lumbrokinase.

So typically you may want to work your way down this. Starting with 1 drug and gradually introducing more to address new forms.