Transitioning from antibiotics to herbs

hi All - I'm considering switching up my babesia and lyme treatment path and was interested in hearing about the experience of others. I started treating for babesia in september 2016, then added zithromax in November, which sent me into a terrible herx. I continued with the Mepron, but switched to Doxy and plaquenil in December, and then switch to biaxin and plaquenil in early April and stopped the Mepron. Also in February I started working with an herbalist, and I've basically been on a version of the Buhner protocol since then and am also taking babesia/bartonella herbs. I also do weekly parasite cleanses and coffee enemas, and nearly daily epsom salt baths or sauna. As context, it took me about 7 months to get a diagnosis, and begin treating.

My herbalist is encouraging me to stop the antibiotics. All total I've been on antibiotics for 7 months, and on herbs for a bit more than 3 months. I am definitely feeling so much better than I was. I'm back to working full time, I've been able to add some light exercise into my routine, and am able to meet up with friends. I guess I'm around 85%. I still have bad days, but they're much less frequent. I would say I generally wake up expecting to have a good day, with moments of feeling bad, rather than waking up knowing I will have a bad day, with moments of feeling good.

I'm curious to hear how others have made the transition, and what it was like. I'm almost 100% that I'm going to do it, but my herbalist said I'll probably feel crappy for awhile as my immune system readjusts to fighting the lyme, and that of course is not great to hear.

Any input would be really appreciated! Thank you!

I would agree with your herbalist about having a hard time at least at first. We all have different combinations of things that just work well for our bodies. If you have been feeling pretty good, I'm not sure you should change that until you get closer to being healed, actually.

Now, I say this as a person who uses only herbs, so I don't say it lightly. I would question why my herbalist is anxious to get me off the abx that were working well for me (unless they weren't, of course). Often times it's the combination of things that we use that helps us the most.

If you are ready to make the move anyway, there are many here that made the move in a smooth manner by slowly lowering the doses of the abx until you are finally taking such a small amount that stopping them won't mean an increase in symptoms.

Are you taking herbs that will help support your immune system too? If not, I would encourage you to talk to your herbalist to get started on some.

And, congratulations on feeling this much better!!!

Let us know what you choose and how you are doing!! Even if you choose to stop the abx sooner, do be sure to come off of them slowly. This should help move more of the burden over to your body and the herbs more slowly.

@PeteZa - how long did you do the antibiotics all total before moving to herbals? It's very encouraging that you had a smooth transition.

And I like the approach of stopping when you run out. It feels more natural some how...

I was fighting what we thought was a mepron resistant strain of Babs and added in some of Buhners herbs in parallel with the some abx but with little progress. I then took another pass at Bart and made good progress, then weaned off abx and stayed on herbs for maintenance, but quickly relapsed two years ago.

Right now I'm about back to 90% with herbs, but remain on a 2 week on/off abx pulse schedule rotating through several combos.

At this point after 7 years of treatment I don't worry too much about long term damage from abx, because my options are much worse.

Boston - since you've had good results...maybe consider a pulsing approach with the antibiotics while you do the herbs.

Maybe take them M/W/F for a couple weeks....and a week off.

I've seen a schedule like that posted here many times - from patients seeing Dr.J. and it's what I'm currently doing.

@bluelyme -- what's bvt?

Bvt is bee venom therapy ...i would rather sting for life than eat abx foreva, once thru tx its like once every 2 weeks for maintaining. .will bump the thread for you

How much JK do you use? I have a bottle but have not started. I would like to start more herbals. Wanted to order another bottle of Misty Meadows Chronic tonic but they are out of stock. For the last couple of years I need to start on abx after being off just a month or so. Not sure if my immune system is not as strong now that I am older, I am 63. But after a month or so on ABX I start feeling toxic, so I stop. Years ago, I could stop for 3-4 months.