When to stop anit-biotics

[lat67]

My name is Lesely and I am 42 years old.  Six years ago i became sick with a debilitating illness in which doctors could not find an answer to..  Before i got sick I was trainning for a half marathon and was extremely active. For the first year symptoms of crushing fatigue, muscle twitching, pin ***** in my legs and electrical shocks came for six weeks then left.  Between episodes I was still able to train and run.  Dec 04 an episode came and has never left.
My test were done at the Leahy clinic in Boston.  I had several MRI's done of brain,neck and spine...all totally clear.  My Lumbar Puncture was also clear.  All EEg, evocked responce and other tests were clear.
In 2006 I did an Igenex test:  IGM  +31, IND 39, IND 83-93.  IGG IND 23-25, ++30, IND 31, IND 34, IND 39, ++41.
I then went to a LLMD who I have been seeing now for almost three years.  For the last two and a half years I have been on  Ketek ( twice a day ) , ceftin ( twice a day), diflucan( once a day), plaquenil(twice a day) and pantoloc.  I also take ton of acidophilus.  I wennt off all of them the first of July this summer.  I am quite a bit better but still suffer from extreme fatigue,and muscle twitching.  
I am wondering if you think I should try some other antibiotics?  I am still far from what a 42 year old should feel like but truly think the ketek and ceftin are no longer working for me.  At what point do I stop taking antibiotics?  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks so much for your help.
Lesley

[Garth L Nicolson, PhD]

Only your physician can make that decision.  When we started tracking CFS patients who were on antibiotics for chronic infections like Mycoplasma and Chlamydia, we noticed that after some period of time many of these patients complained that they had reached a plateau where the antibiotics were no longer affording them additional help in their recoveries.  However, after they switched to other antibiotics, their recovery continued.  My interpretation of this was that for most of these patients multiple chronic infections were present (In other studies we were able to confirm multiple infections in most CFS patients and we eventually published these results).  Switching to other antibiotics may have been beneficial for the treatment of infections that were not as susceptible.  Similar observations have been made in Lyme Disease and other chronic diseases where multiple infections occur.  Finally, we have always stressed that patients should get off antibiotics as soon as they can and go to more natural treatments using herbs and natural supplements.

[Garth L Nicolson, PhD]

There are a number of natural remedies and supplements that are useful, but in all honesty they are most effective when the burden of infections has been reduced by antibiotic treatment.  Some of these can be found on our website, www.immed.org under Treatment Considerations (in particular, publication #2).  These represent different types of natural supplements from several different manufacturers--We do not sell anything from our website and get no support from these manufacturers.  They are mostly supplements that we have tested over the years.  One final point--No one can recommend a natural supplement that works for everyone.  Sometimes several have to be tried to see if they have any value for your particular problem.  I also want to recommend that you read a review on Lyme Disease and its Treatment by Lyme expert Joe Burrascano that is posted on our site under the same category.

[lat67]

Thank you so much for your response.  Do you have any suggestions on natural remedies for lyme disease?  
Once again thank you for your help.

Lesley