Anyone - success with doxy?

I am on doxycycline 200 mg twice daily. I do not have a recent infection - I have had symptoms for approx. 9-10months.

I have been reading on this forum a lot of bad "reviews" on doxy, especially if it's not a recent infection.

I am thinking of going to a ND here in my city next week -(she is not LL, but consults with someone who is) and maybe changing it up.

So - tell me if you've had good results with doxy...and how long you were ill before treatment...and if you added anything to it after a month or two?
I was thinking of asking the ND if I should add zithromax because in Dr. M. R.'s treatment guidelines doxy and zithromax can be used to treat bartonella - if you don't want to take rifampin or levaquin.

Or, should I just drop the doxy and use minocycline? In your opinion is mino a better tetracycline option than doxy anyway?

I will hopefully be seeing a LLND in August...but until then, want to get on the right track.

Hi Girlie.

Based on what I researched mino is better than doxy. Dr. M.R told me this himself. It has twice the tissue penetration power than doxycyline. And because lyme likes tissues the best, it is good to have that tissue penetration. Also in a typical dose of doxy, 14% of the dose will pass through the blood brain barrier, whereas with minocycline it is actually 40% of it! It is a better drug to use for nerve infections.

Doxy is good. And it is what I find most LLDs start patients off with. That or a macrolide. But I personally think there is one advantage Doxy has. because it is slightly less soluble in fats, it will spend more time in the blood. That is just my thinking and I told this to Dr. M.R. and he said mino still passes through the blood. But it is just my thought that it will treat the blood infections a little better than minocycline will.

Thanks for your input.

Opugirl - yes -I read Doxy is the treatment enrichlia and anaplasmas, as well as Lyme...so I guess it won't hurt to stay on it for awhile in case I have those.

So, I guess when it's time to treat bart, I can add azythromicin (according to Dr. M.R's guidelines)...or change to mino and add rifampin.

Girlie, I couldn't tolerate antibiotics, I switched to herbs and from a LLMD to LLND and I'm so glad I did. I would recommend that personally.
=]chloe

deejavu - how long were you treating before you saw any improvement in symptoms?