Nigel said...
Hi Girlie,
I'm taking Flagyl for Blastocystis, a protozoal infection, but it is causing a moderately intense flare up of mild joint pain that I had before I started the Flagyl. As Blastocytes inhabit the intestines, not joints, I suspect this may be a Herxheimer reaction to a recurrence of one or more of my tickborne illnesses, and that the symptoms that led me to take Flagyl (mostly gastrointestinal) might not be caused by Blastocytes, but by tickborne infections.
Nigel, most antibiotics will cause severe Herxheimer reactions if you're in the "early" treatment of a tickborne "bacteria" illness, whether it's bartonella, borrelia, or even mycoplasma. Ticborne infections are very serious and cause more severe symptoms than normal bacteria because you're dealing with a much more resilient bacteria than traditional bacteria, borrelia is a spirochetal infection than can form biofilms, persister cell dormant bacteria, as well as round body forms. Bartonella has known to be persister cell as well, as shown through Dr. Horrowitz's work.
I hate to break it to you, but If you've been bitten by a tick in modern day, you're dealing with more than just Blastocystis. Highly unlikely you've been just infected with just one tickborne pathogen. This might be the only infection that shows up in your bloodwork, but that doesn't mean it's the only infection in your body right now. 7 years ago when I was infected with borrelia, only thing I tested for was Parvo virus. Does that mean that's the only thing I had? 7 years later, I'm still treating this resilient disease.
ELISA and Western Blot will all test false negative, just as my ELISA test did, because your body won't start making antibodies after a few months of treatment. Not to mention the ELISA tests for "one strain" of borrelia bacteria, trying to pick up that one strain of "antibody," guess what there are over 100 strains in the US, so you might not ever test positive. Igenex is the most accurate, but it's still not 100%.
It be 2018 now, ticks carry a lot more pathogens than they did back in the 80s, 90s, and 2000. You get bit by a tick in todays modern world, you're being infected with more than one pathogen.
A big tip is, if you just have Blastocystis and you're getting sever flare ups and herxheimer reactions from Flagyl, most likely you're killing off spirochetes, not parasites.
Nigel said...
I suspect this may be a Herxheimer reaction to a recurrence of one or more of my tickborne illnesses.
In any case, I'm going back to my LL clinician to get IGeneX tests.
I hate to break it to you yet again, if you're coming to this conclusively by yourself and not by your supposed "lyme literate physician," both about
the herx reaction from flagyl and getting bloodwork done by Igenex, guess what, your physician isn't lyme literate. Fact of the matter he or she shouldn't be basing your treatment solely on a bloodwork test, but rather your symptoms instead. And yes you are right, get the Igenex done, but remember it isn't bullet proof.
Just the fact that your Doctor is relying on your bloodwork to do treatment should be throwing up warning signs for you. I would be running the other way and getting a more reputable lyme literate doctor, read the forums, and read the reviews on healthgrades.com and ratemds.com. Hopefully you'll find a more qualified lyme literate physician with a long record of treating patients near you.
Not all lyme literate physicians are created the same and a lot of them aren't educated with the latest antibiotic protocols and recent breakthroughs in Lyme Disease. There has been some recent breakthroughs made, as I will talk about
this down below.
Nigel said...
Do you know of any empirical studies that support the hypothesis that Flagyl (metronidazole) may cause Jarish-Herxheimer reactions in persons with tickborne illnesses? If so, I would appreciate pointers to these studies.
Joseph J. Burrascano claims, "VERY severe Herxheimer-like reactions [from Flagyl] are seen in the more ill patient during the first week of therapy, and again four weeks later," but he provides no evidence (1). A PubMed search for "Burrascano J[Author]" yields 17 results, none pertaining to Flagyl induced Herxing.
PubMed searches for "Flagyl Jarish-Herxheimer," and "metronidazole Jarish-Herxheimer" yield no results.
And to get a direct answer, "if there are any empirical studies that support the hypothesis that flagyl causes Jarish-Herxheimer reaction." Closest thing you'll find is the work done by Dr. Sapi, where her work has shown the percentage affects on numerous forms of spirochetes by the antiprotozoal drugs: live spirochetes, biofilm colonies, and round body forms. This includes the antiprotozoal drugs Flagyl, Tindamax, Alinia. They are all very similar and work great!
/www.mdjunction.com/forums/lyme-disease-support-forums/studies-research/2710311-eva-sapi-article-biofilms-antbiotics-may-programPersonally, if you're in the early stage of treatment, I'd be going with the strongest one out of the bunch which is Tindamax, Dr. Sapi said it was the most effective drug that worked against biofilm colonies. Biofilms are most likely the main reason why Lyme Disease is staying a chronic disease, as well as the persister cells.
If you've caught the infection in time, you might get away with just using 1 or 2 antibiotics, like flagyl and doxy or flagyl and tindamax. But if you've gone chronic, most likely you'll need lyme literate doctor that is using 2-3 antibiotic protocol to get you on the right track and treat multiple forms of borrelia and maybe some of the coinfections.
I highly recommend researching work done by John Hopkins, Dr. Zhang, Dr. Horrowitz, Dr. Jemsek on Disulfiram, Dapsone, Disulfiram. The latest breakthrough research on biofilms and persister cells.
I would definitely be using biofilm busting agents with your antibiotics, like liquid form of stevia, xylitol, maybe even Solaray Nattokinase and Serrapeptase combo supplement. But personally I think stevia works the best.
Just so you know, persister cells and biofilms why Lyme Disease is staying chronic, regardless of what other people are saying on the forums, about
mold, genetics, parasites, radio waves, candida, and the other crap. Many new studies like the John Hopkins, UConn, Embers back this up now, it took mitomycin c(chemotherapy) to full eradicate the multiple forms of borrelia in vitro at the lab.
/www.scientificamerican.com/article/lyme-disease-may-linger-for-1-in-5-because-of-persisters//today.uconn.edu/2018/02/makes-bacteria-behind-lyme-disease-tick//www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/lyme-bug-beats-antibiotics-in-animals-and-test-tubes_us_59fa4fdbe4b09afdf01c4023Small write up on biofilms.
www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-4694752/Stevia-CURE-Lyme-disease-better-antibiotics.htmlThere's not many antibiotics on the market that can fully eradicate biofilms and persister cells at the same time.
Disulfiram might be a new breakthrough drug... Dr. Horrowtiz is having success with Dapsone and Pyrazinamide with patients when all other antibiotics are failing.
I would try Disulfiram and Doxycyline with stevia tincture like the one by Sweet Leaf. Just be careful, because some tinctures use alcohol to extract their supplements from plants.
Post Edited (Charlie55) : 3/4/2018 4:27:01 AM (GMT-7)