Posted 1/8/2015 12:30 AM (GMT 0)
Hi I should share my tinidazole story too! And some tips and things to consider with this medication. And I hope i don't get anyone "concerned" that I sound too much like a Doctor. I'm simply trying to share my experience and knowledge.
So I was a combination of minocycline (100 mg twice daily) + tinidazole (500 mg twice daily) + septra DS (AKA bactrim, 1 pill twice a day) + plaquenil (200 mg twice daily)
Let me tell you, this combo pretty much catapaulted me out of the lyme hell hole! LoL no really it did. I was on this cocktail for 3 months and at the end I was pretty much well towards the end... and have more or less been 90% recovered ever since. It took me 6 weeks for the full benefit, I didn't have as much benefit with the second 6 weeks and just ended up with fatigue and a feeling of being toxic. I had really bad herxing the first day! And the first week was by far the roughest. The emotional herxing, brain fog, etc, was better after 2 weeks, my testicles stopped herxing about 3 weeks in, 4 weeks in my prostate stopped herxing, and 5 weeks in my knees stopped herxing. I have been up and down since but never able to get completely to 100% yet. Still making it to 90% that fast is probably quite something.
Tinidazole is probably one of the best medications that is known to take against Lyme. It passes the blood brain barrier as if there was no blood brain barrier, it gets into pretty much all the tissues, it is far more effective against Lyme than it's close relative which is metronidazole (flagyl), and it takes out cysts. It is also the #1 medication known against Lyme biofilms. My thinking is it goes right through the Lyme biofilms, or the biofilms just pull it in as they attempt to take up nutrients. It also gets intracellular infections as well. It also kills many parasites you might have.
Ya, so I said it probably the best Lyme medication there is... BUT it is also probably among the most toxic Lyme medications and so that is an important thing to keep in mind when using this medication. It's best to take it as prescribed by your doctor. Another thing to consider... there is actually no set standard of dosing for tinidazole. Most Lyme docs prescribe it as 500 mg twice a day for the days you are on it, and some go upto 500 mg three times a day. Other docs just prescribe 250 mg twice daily and prescribe it continuously, while others only use 250 mg once per day! Some doctors also tend to pulse it like 1 week on 1 week off, 2 weeks on 2 weeks off, while others just use it continuously
The most common side effect from this medication is fatigue. This is because it is toxic to mitochondria that exist inside our cells. The second most common side effect is peripheral neuropathy. This again is related right to the damage done to the mitochondria inside of nerves done by this medication. There are supplements that can help reduce the damage done by this medication, protect your cells, and reduce damage. Vitamin B-6 and B-12 can help with the fatiuge. And glutathione is also important for protection. You can also use alpha lipoic acid and NAC (n-acetyl-cysteine) which helps and these are precursors to glutathione. A good multi also helps ensure the necessary vitamins are available to make the glutathione to protect the inside of our cells.