Best antibiotic treatment for Bart?

Hi All.  I'm just wondering what everyone thinks is the best available treatment for bart with antibiotics?  Or even with herbals? 

I have been struggling with this persistant bug for a long time now and came to be symptom free twice... however I simply did not treat long enough and it came back pretty fast.  I'm kind of worried about it becoming resistant now. 

I've done the minocycline + rifampin... but just for a month.

with mino + tind + septra DS I got it down to close to no symptoms... I was on this for about a 4 months.  I thought it was done.

Then I did mino + septra DS + clarithromcyin.  I felt great at the 2 month mark pretty much symptom free and yet it came back.

I have been doing the azithromycin and rifampin for about 6 months.  But only dosing once per day.  I think it's not enough!

Now I came across the latest and greatest bart research and it says that the best treatment for this tricky infection is a combo of just clarithromycin (Generally stronger against germs than azithromycin) and rifampin.  So I'm going to be trying that.  But I will be dosing twice a day now.  Bart has been tricky to get rid of. 

So I'm thinking clarithromycin + rifampin for 6 months!  I hope it does the trick 

I'm passing on the fluoroquinolones.  They have been known to damage tendons, nerves, mitochondria, damage telomers in our DNA.  So it is out of the question for me. 

Our LLMD started out treating K with clarithromycin + rifampin but she was sensitive to the sulpha drug so had to switch to biaxin + rifampin.

I would ask your LLMD if you can add some bart herbs to the mixture after you have gotten over the initial abx whammy. Houttuynia especially. Hawthorne will help you to feel more relaxed in the evenings and helps with bart heart issues.

You generally dose herbs 3x daily to keep levels up in the system.

RowingMa,

I've looked into Houttuynia also. What brand to you get and from where?

thanks

Girlie... I have few symptoms. Just fibro like symptoms. I watched the webinar from a doctor who treats bart. He has a really high cure rate for his patients and only has 9 failed treatments, the rest were cured at 6 months and bart never came back. Also it is suggested that bart can cause elevated liver enzymes.

I just got an ache in my feet, last night I had upper back trapezius muscle aches and burns... I realized the tendon burning is from bart as well. I also have achy joints and a minor red rash on hands. The bart symptoms come and go... And bart gives off an inflammation deep burning herx a bit different than lyme I think.

Tickbite - how about Clarithromycin? Why not try that instead? I don't want to take th quinolones... I already took tinidAzole and that was enough. No more harsh abx for me after going through that one.

Rowingmom... Clarithromycin and biaxin are exactly the same drug. Biaxin is just the name, clarithromycin is the generic version for the drug. There are no sulfur atoms in the clarithromycin molecule. You must be thinking of bactrim/septra DS or sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim.

Pirouette... I too had huge progress with A-Bart... You have to remember bart is a different kind of bacteria and is tough to treat. Some argue harder than lyme... Whatever you are using to treat bart, you can't miss a single dose, whether it's abx or herbals. If you stop the medication the treatment may not work.

not trying to hijack the thread but my LLMD and i are going to discuss treating potential bartonella. i've been treating babesia (confirmed by igenex tests) for over 4 months for the past almost 2 months i've been on omnicef/tindamax/a-bab. definitely making progress with long bouts of no symptoms (7-10 days) but they are still returning. i have this sore throat that always tracked with my brain fog from babesia and we were thinking they're both caused by babesia but the head has been better and the throat the same or worse.

doctor wondering if this is a bart symptom. note i have no other symptoms outside the brain fog, sore throat and some fatigue.

question are any of the babesia drugs effective on bart? what could i potentially add to the current regimen that would help knock out the bart are well? thanks!

LP—

I've had heart problems that we think might have been oxidative stress from all the herbs and meds so we had to trouble-shoot. Then I resumed but started having way too much psychoneuro chaos. So I stopped again. And I think you're right—this has done more harm than good.

For now, my dominant infection is lyme, so concentrating on that and getting improvement with my tolerance of tx and just taking the A-Bart to keep some sx at bay. I really haven't begun treating Bart in earnest.

-p

Girlie... you know what? it might be best to use clarithromycin/rifampin. But it's upto you! Your elevated liver enzymes can actually be from bart. But one thing ! You can learn from me i'm pretty sure bart needs the full 6 months treatment! And you will be needing to take abx steady for that time, timed very well apart 12 hours per dose. I don't think it's good to back off treatment when it comes to bart. The herx is different than lyme.

tickbite666 said...
RowingMa,

I've looked into Houttuynia also. What brand to you get and from where?

thanks

We use the powdered herb from 1stChineseHerbs. Buhner recommends them as they are third party tested for contamination. Zahng sells houttuynia as does Nutramedix (in tincture form). WoodLandEssence also carries it but they appear to be out of dried herb and have fresh only.

Even a low dose of herbs along with your antibiotic protocol will increase efficacy of treatment. An additional complex of antimicrobial constituents is bound to weaken any bacterial infection.