Disulfiram - Part 1

Hi,

Can naturopath doctors prescribe disulfiram or do you need a MD prescription? And do you know if any doctors are prescribing this in Canada for Lyme patients? I have just been reading about about the drug’s effect on Lyme patients and it sounds very promising and worth a try. And thank you to everyone that is contributing to the Disulfiram Update threads...it is really useful information.

Thanks,
Kelly

Post Edited By Moderator (Girlie) : 9/4/2019 3:10:34 PM (GMT-6)

NDs in BC can prescribe it. 2 local NDs I know of are going to start in September.

It is also only like 18 cents per 250mg pill online.

Onlynamenottaken - not sure you’ll see this but was wondering if you had been a patient of dr J at one point?
(I read one of your posts and wasn’t sure if you saw him or if you had a LLMD that treated and followed similar protocols.)

Thank you for your replies. I am in BC so happy to hear that a ND can prescribe this. This drug sounds so promising and gives me hope! I will definitely see be asking for this at my next appointment.

KellyR said...
Thank you for your replies. I am in BC so happy to hear that a ND can prescribe this. This drug sounds so promising and gives me hope! I will definitely see be asking for this at my next appointment.

If you email me I’ll give you the contact info for the LLND here in BC who treats lyme. (There are several in BC - but this one has been treating lyme for many years and is the most experienced)
He will also do phone appts after an initial inperson consult.

Oh - that must have been quite awhile ago - Dr J was prescribing daraprim and dapsone several years ago - I think prior to 2013
I’d have to check my notes

Thanks calande. Hadn’t seen that one.

mpost said...
unlike dapsone, disulfiram is a drug taken by milions of ppl daily, for alcoholism.it is widely used, produced and distributed. i find it in all the phamacies where i live. it is however not OTC. u need a dr to prescribe it.

Actually, disulfiram is a relatively uncommon prescription, with less than 10,000 patients in the US. Some people on the facebook group report difficulty finding a pharmacy that has it in stock. You can order it online, however.

Onlynamenottaken said...
Hi yeah the NDs I know of are one I was speaking to and her friend, who is also an ND. They are both in Victoria.

Yeah Girlie I have been a pt of Dr J. Went to DC a few times. It was the pre-Disulfiram era and even pre-Dapsone. Was all abx pulsing...helped me a lot but didn’t cure me.

- did they have any answers why you didn’t get into remission?

Onlynamenottaken said...
project - Not sure if I can say on here but I know one from the Lansdowne clinic is planning an info session in September specifically regarding Disulfiram. Another partner in that clinic was planning on trialling it with patients but I am not sure if her patients are actually on it yet.

Girlie - Dr J just told me that some people never shake it and require antibiotics a few days per month indefinitely. Some of his patients seemed to be cured but many seemed to never eradicate every last spirochete and would always relapse.

Soon we will call this era the “pre-Disulfiram era” and none of us will need Lyme forums, trips to Mexico or DC, etc...like a bad dream. Soon it will fade away and will not seem real that we went through all this nightmare and cash.

I'm thinking it might be LLND MB. I did see her for a few months...but her knowledge with pharma was lacking at the time...when she was prescribing me some abx, she called the pharmacy to ask what dose. And the dose was less than what we use for Lyme. (something like half dose)
She may be more knowledgeable now with pharma.

Re: Dr. J. So, did you get into remission with him, but kept relapsing? Man, I am just hoping to get to symptom free - that's still my battle....sigh.

oh...wouldn't that be great if Disulfiram IS the ticket out of this nightmare????

Does anyone know if you can smoke or use nicotine vape while on Disulfiram? Will it cause problems?

Yeah I admit it is no slam dunk but it is the first time in a long time I have seen light at the end of the tunnel.

I have not gotten myself too up or down for a few years now. I know now that no matter how “cured” I feel taking Ceftin and Clarithromycin or Roxithromycin, it always comes back. I was originally planning to arrange for Dr Zhang’s three drug combo, which sounds VERY positive and is much cheaper in India. I wasn’t convinced of Antabuse just by just the comments of Dr Lewis that we have all seen.

Then I read Dr Leigner’s case studies and it all changed for me. It just seemed like I would be crazy to not try something so cheap and easily accessible. I am too busy in the summer to mess with my usual antibiotic cycles but I will face the Disulfiram die off in September.

This is different. Most bits of news or suggested protocols were all tweeks of the same over the past 10 years...or else very expensive herbal lunacy. This is an extremely credible Dr Leigner and now many patients reporting something beyond “pt did well” or “felt better” with a very simple treatment.

Onlynamenottaken - Thanks! turns out my mom already goes to that ND!

I've been reading up on it and am starting to believe the hype. Disulfiram really seems like it is powerful enough to put people into remission. They actually tested ~7500 compounds against Borrelia and it was the most effective. I'm going to give it a try.

I think the catch is going to be that getting into remission still means being able to kill all the remaining Borrelia/Babesia, detox all the die off byproducts, and deal with all the inflammation that causes. At the moment it's unclear if people who are in really bad shape would be able to actually get up to the necessary dosage to achieve this. The Liegner paper indicates some of his patients were not able to do so:

"Several individuals, whose rather precarious clinical status induced the use of very low doses of disulfiram (e.g., 125 mg every third day only), demonstrated dramatic improvement in their clinical status, which prompted a change in strategy, using disulfiram as a ‘maintenance’ therapy. "

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc6627205/

So it's likely that even if it becomes the front line treatment for Lyme, a lot of other modalities will still be necessary for chronic cases where the negative systemic effects have compounded over the years.