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Combo abx therapy involving short half life abx?

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Posted 1/31/2016 3:14 PM (GMT 0)
Its widely circulated that you must use combination abx therapy to get at the different forms of Lyme. My question is with short term half life abx's like Rifampin in reality there isn't much time for overlap with other abx's. For example Rifampin needs to be taken on an empty stomach. If you do this in the morning you can't eat for an hour. The half life is maybe 3.5 hours so its overlap with another abx is very short.

I guess the question is do you need more than one abx circulating in your system for a good amount of time to be the most effective?
Posted 1/31/2016 6:51 PM (GMT 0)
Rikky - How long after the Rifampin are you taking your second antibiotic?

When I was on Rifampin and mino - I would take Rifampin, then 15 minutes later take my mino...and then eat about an hour after the mino.

But when I switched to biaxin - I would take Rifampin, and wait 45 minutes and take the biaxin...then 15 minutes later eat. I had trouble with biaxin on an empty stomach...

I don't know if both antibiotics need to be circulating in your system at the same time at full dose.

But even so, you've got 3.5 hours before the Rif is at half concentration...so even taking your second med an hour later...they should be going strong together for some time.
Posted 1/31/2016 9:00 PM (GMT 0)
Girlie I've been taking my 1st Cipro pill about 90 minutes after the Rifampin so there is some overlap but none for the second Cipro pill taken 12 hours later. I could take Rifampin and Cipro together if my stomach can tolerate it which I probably should try.
Posted 1/31/2016 9:19 PM (GMT 0)
Okay - so you're doing Rifampin once daily?

I wouldn't worry about the second dose of Cipro being on its own.

I know that it's 50/50 with the RIF dosing being once or twice daily.
So everyone who is doing the once daily RIF dosing is taking their second antibiotic alone (for the second dose)

I wouldn't worry about that.
Posted 1/31/2016 10:16 PM (GMT 0)
Yes I'm doing the Rif 600mg once a day in morning when I wake up.

Not sure how long I'll be taking Cipro since my calves are feeling a bit tight/tender so could be inflammation of my tendons. I have flat feet and always have issues in that area so I'm having a hard time unwinding if its the meds or not so being diligent about my stretching and see if it helps.

I really want to try a Tetracycline instead as I'd be curious if it along with its excellent ability to cross the BBB does anything about my head issues. That's really my biggest hang up. I wish I knew what bug was causing the head issues as that would go a long way to knowing how to treat it. Right now it could be lyme, bart, babs or something else unknown. I keep thinking its Babs since it flares badly almost every week and is worse in the afternoons to evenings.
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