Rifampin - effective for mycoplasma? Confused

Recently my doc put me on Rifampin saying: 'it's great for killing mycoplasma and chlamydia'. I have myco and she said this antibiotic will take care of that. But I'm confused, as I read something that indicates just the opposite. I bought Buhner's book 'Healing Lyme Disease coinfections - complementary and holistic treatments for bartonella and mycoplasma', in which Buhner states: 'Penicillins, beta-lactams, cephalosporins, vancomycin, sulfonamides, trimethoprim, and RIFAMPIN, which act on the cell wall of bacteria, are NOT effective as these bacteria [mycoplasmas] lack cell walls'.

As far as I know, rifampin doesn't act on cell walls, it blocks the production of RNA by bacteria. So, who's right? Will rifampin treat my mycoplasma or not?

April - what are you taking with the Rifampin?

You should be on two antibiotics when treating lyme and co's.


I've read tetracyclines, macrolides, and fluoroquinolones are effective for the mycoplasma.

I would listen to Buhner when he talks about herbs...but not necessarily with the antibiotic treatments.

That's not his area of expertise...there's even a mistake in the Bartonella book...he calls Rifampin a macrolide. Unless I'm wrong...it's not in that class.

Did the levoflocacin not do anything? Do you have obvious symptoms of mycoplasma?

The tetracycline may have effect on the myco.

What are your symptoms of myco? Are they improving?

Levofloxacin only gave me tendon, joint and muscle pain but it didn't make me herx much, I guess (although it's hard to tell what made me herx and what didn't, as I seemed to be constantly herxing for the entire first 3 months of treatment).

Actually, I'm not sure about the symptoms. At the beginning of my treatment I experienced shortness of breath (like something heavy was resting on my chest) and my doc said it's probably from mycoplasma. But I had never experienced such symptoms before treatment. The breathing problems passed within 3 or 4 weeks.

But what I'm really worried about is not mycoplasma pneumoniae, but other types of myco (like m. fermentans) because I've had gastrointestinal issues for years and recently they've gotten worse. It could as well be caused by taking so many antibiotics in high doses (I have gut dysbiosis and leaky gut for sure) but as taking many probiotics and sticking to a strict diet never seemed to change much, I suspect I might have some nasty bug in my GI tract.

Post Edited (April_Ryan) : 3/7/2017 2:20:07 PM (GMT-7)

Thanks yancync, I also thought of babesia but I tested negative for it and I didn't have any other symptoms, so my doc decided it is safe to assume I don't have babs and breathing symptoms are caused by myco. Mycoplasma fermentans supposedly causes GI tract issues, so I suspect I might have it (but it's just my assumption, there are probably many unknown factors here and my GI problems can be caused by multiple other things, some of which I don't even know about).

April_Ryan said...
Thanks yancync, I also thought of babesia but I tested negative for it and I didn't have any other symptoms, so my doc decided it is safe to assume I don't have babs and breathing symptoms are caused by myco. Mycoplasma fermentans supposedly causes GI tract issues, so I suspect I might have it (but it's just my assumption, there are probably many unknown factors here and my GI problems can be caused by multiple other things, some of which I don't even know about).

Buy either Allergy Research Group Artemisinin or Zhang Artemisiae from Hepapro.

See if you herx.

Thanks, I might try artemisinin. I'm planning on switching to herbs entirely in two months or so anyway.

What about Plaquenil - could it kill babesia bacteria? I was on Plaquenil for 3 months at the beginning of my treatment.