Lyme Disease Treatment: Is Doxycycline Enough to Eradicate Lyme Disease?
VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION
This week I'm talking about a hot topic. I hope I do it justice, but you know, I'm not a medical doctor. This work has not been reviewed by a medical doctor, it is not to be taken as medical advice, I'm just sharing my research, experiences, and opinion, with you.
So, I wanted to talk a little bit about doxycycline, is it enough, and how effective is it for Lyme disease treatment.
Lyme disease treatment is a highly debated issue amongst the experts, I'm gonna link a video that I did all about the controversies surrounding Lyme disease treatment. But this week I wanted to kind of just dive into some of the research and studies that have been done around the treatment protocol for Lyme disease.
The Infectious Disease Society of America also referred to as the IDSA throughout this video, has created a treatment protocol that the CDC relies on. Previously, when I started lying treatment in 2015, it was 14 to 28 days of doxycycline or a comparable antibiotic. Recently they have actually changed that treatment protocol of 14 to 28 days, to 10 to 21 days of doxycycline.
If you are in an endemic area and see the tick bite, see a bull's eye rash, you are to be given one dose of doxycycline if you caught it within the first 72 hours after the tick bite.
There is a lot of uncertainty around the effectiveness of these treatments because Lyme disease testing is not very accurate. The blood test that we rely on for Lyme disease testing is actually looking for the antibody response in the body, it's not looking for the actual bacteria itself.
Multiple studies have come out stating that those antibodies are not produced in the first several weeks of infection. So if you're getting a Lyme test in those early stages of Lyme disease before your body has had a chance to produce those antibodies, a lot of experts have come out and said, hey false-negative results on those tests are very very common.
Depending on the source, there's anywhere between like 36% to 65% failure rate with this 28-day treatment protocol, and I am not real clear on why they changed it to 21 days. But, you know, I have never heard of anyone ever getting just a single pill of antibiotic and expecting it to do anything.
So that's really interesting to me that they have decided if it is likely you're exposed to Lyme disease, then you're to be given one single dose of doxycycline. And that's it. I've never heard of any other illness where you get one single pill.. even when you know, I was a kid and had whatever going on they give you a z pack which is like five days of antibiotic.
So, again, I'm not real clear on how they came up with these dosages because as I said, the testing for Lyme disease is very inaccurate especially in those early stages. So there's no real definitive way to determine if you have been cured of Lyme disease. Because those antibodies, once they are produced anywhere between like four to six weeks is what I have read in studies, that they're going to eventually get produced.
If you have the antibodies for Lyme disease your body continues to produce those antibodies for months or even years after the infection has been cleared. So there's really no way to use those tests to determine like okay that treatment was good.
For the patients who have gone through the 21 or 28-day antibiotic protocol, established by the IDSA, those patients who are still suffering from cognitive issues joint pain, fatigue, all those telltale signs of Lyme disease, are being given a new diagnosis, which is called post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome. PTLDS for short. And that is an even more interesting topic because as I said you know those tests are so unreliable.
So, you cannot determine that the infection has been eradicated, but then you're given this new diagnosis, and there's no treatment protocol for that, there's no medical coding for that, so a lot of patients are just kind of being left high and dry.
According to John Hopkins studies and studies conducted by the International Lyme and Associated Disease Society, roughly one and five Lyme patients develop chronic illness.
The studies that have been conducted on those with post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome, or just you know, failed the standard Lyme treatment, they don't seem to improve much with further antibiotic treatment. So the CDC has kind of just said, No, no more treatment after the 21 days of doxycycline, or comparable antibiotic.
Animal studies have proven that in primates and mice, this bacteria is traceable past those treatments standard treatment protocols. A John Hopkins study showed that there is traceable inflammation in the brain of patients who are still experiencing cognitive function problems and pain that is associated with post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome.
Also, the drug, doxycycline, or any comparable antibiotics don't necessarily target other co-infections that come along so often with Lyme disease. So if you're brand new you don't know what the heck I'm talking about please check out above I'm going to link the understanding Lyme video I kind of go more into depth about all of this stuff, but oftentimes when you are bitten by an insect that's carrying Lyme disease it's not only carrying Borrelia burgdorferi, it's carrying other bacteria, some common co-infections, Ehrlichia, Bartonella, Babesia, and that drug doxycycline which is used to target Borrelia burgdorferi doesn't have any effect on that so if you're still experiencing symptoms past your 10 to 21 days of doxycycline, it could very well be that you are also dealing with other co-infections.
Another interesting thing about this is that the bacteria that causes Lyme disease is very stealthy and has the most complex DNA structure of any bacteria on earth, and it can actually defend itself and adapt to any kind of antibiotic or immune response that the body is experiencing.
I'll pull up a slide or a video here that shows a slide underneath the microscope they took the fire of heat form of Lyme disease and rinsed it with penicillin. And you can actually see it metamorphose into a cyst form. This is a very stealthy, very smart way for it to defend itself because most antibiotics work by attacking the cell wall. Borrelia can actually curl up into that cyst form and lose its cell wall, and, the antibiotic just doesn't even affect it anymore.
It also has another defense, where it can create a biofilm around itself that helps it to adhere to our inner tissues and things, and most antibiotics are not effective against the biofilm form as well.
So my opinion is that I do not think doxycycline alone is enough to eradicate the bacteria that cause Lyme disease. Not only are we unable to test the effectiveness of these treatment protocols, but we have multiple clinical studies showing that, you know, one in five patients are failing with treatment, and that the bacteria itself can actually metamorphize and it can get into the cells, it can get into the tissues, where these antibiotics are having a hard time getting to it. The drugs that are getting to it, the bacteria can turn into a cyst and protect itself.
Also while it's disseminating, and spreading throughout the body it is shedding proteins, and those proteins can actually attach to our healthy tissues confusing the immune system into attacking our healthy tissues and causing autoimmune type response in the body.
Lyme disease is a very complex infection if you're lucky enough to just be infected with Borrelia burgdorferi, which is happening less and less as these insects are picking up more pathogens, as they reproduce they're passing these pathogens off to their offspring.
One tick can have up to 5,000 offspring if that tick was Lyme positive, and Ehrlichia positive, or Powsan virus-positive, whatever it has is passing down to all its offspring. As we are experiencing warmer winters and more mild winters, these insects are really having a chance to breed and really spread this illness and all tick-borne illnesses around the world.
So my opinion if I were to be bitten by a tick today and see the bullseye rash I would absolutely go to the doctor I would get my round of doxycycline or comparable antibiotic, and I would also be doing everything in my power to support the immune system to reduce inflammation, to support the detoxification system, and promote a healthy gut.
I would also be on the lookout for any other symptoms that may be coincided with any co-infections, and I would do my best to just reduce all pathogens by really supporting the immune system.
I write all about this in my new book, The Lyme Ease Survival Guidebook. So if you're interested in learning about my recovery and research, I write out all of my tips and tricks and research and experiences in this clear concise guide for Lyme patients.
Alright, so that's about all I have on that this week if you are in the position where you got a single pill of antibiotic for Lyme disease I would highly recommend that you follow up with a Lyme Literate Physician, you can find helpful links on how to do that on my website on the resources page. I have a lot of free resources on there to kind of help you understand and manage this illness, as well as tips on how to protect yourself and your family.
So check that out. Let me know if you have any questions down below in the comments, and let me know what you'd like to learn more about! I’m doing my best to record a new video each and every week. So, thank you so much for watching if you enjoyed please hit the thumbs up and subscribe on YouTube, and I will see you next week… until then, keep healing!
Resources:
https://www.niaid.nih.gov/diseases-conditions/lyme-disease-antibiotic-treatment-research
https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/tickbornediseases/lyme.html
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/68/wr/mm6832a4.htm
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/newsroom/news-releases/new-scan-technique-reveals-brain-inflammation-associated-with-post-treatment-lyme-disease-syndrome
https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/treatment/index.html