Bartonella

[ott70]

Hello Dr. Nicolson. Welcome.

Do you have any thoughts on treating Bartonella? I don't have a positive test for it yet, but I have suspicions since my symptoms revolve around heart skips, chest pain, shortness of breath, conjunctivitis, and skin rashes/sensitivity.

I've read that Levaquin seems to be a popular choice, but I'm concerned about taking long term antibiotics. Any thoughts on bacterial resistance to antibiotics? And what about the tendon damage that occurs from the quinolone family? I heard something about quinolones being "black boxed" over in Europe.

Is magnesium supplementation recommended or not when taking a quinolone?

I would prefer to avoid antibiotics if I can, but maybe antibiotics is necessary?

Thanks,
Derek

[Garth L Nicolson, PhD]

Sorry, I should have completed the response before hitting the post button.(I am learning here).  Long term antibiotics are a concern, but less than under-treatment which can result in resistant forms growing out.  Almost all of the Lyme-associated infections are slow-growing, intracellular, fairly antibiotic resistant infections, which is why long-term treatment is required.  This is still the most useful approach, however, and most patients tolerate this approach. Taking specific minerals at the same time can be a problem with some antibiotics, so they should not be taken at the same time to avoid problems in antibiotic uptake.  The usual rule of thumb is to take the minerals and other supplements 2 or more hr after the antibiotics.  This way they won't interfere with antibiotic uptake.  ProfGN

[Garth L Nicolson, PhD]

Often Lyme patients have Bartonella species co-infections, and in some areas these occur at almost the same high incidence (30-60%) as Mycoplasma (40-70%) co-infections in Lyme Disease.  Treatment can be a problem if multiple co-infections are present, and I have a table to explain the multiple treatment used by practitioners like Dr. Richard Horowitz, an expert on treating co-infections in Lyme Disease. I was going to post the table, but the format did not work out.  You can find the table in one of my publications (cited below and available on our website)  ProfGN

Table: Combination Treatments for Lyme Borrelia Plus Co-Infections
Source: Nicolson, Townsend Letter 2007; 285:93-98.  
Full publication posted at www.immed.org  under Infectious Disease Research.

[margypops]

Thank you DR Nicholson I think you answered a question I have put to you,