One of the factors, governing low immunity, is pH (potential Hydrogen or number of Hydrogen Ions or Acidity) of the body. The Natural pH of a healthy body, free of any disease, is always slightly Alkaline at a pH of 7.4.When the body becomes acidic at the cellular level, it creates a breeding ground for germs, bacteria, and other microorganisms.

These can only flourish and multiply in an acidic environment. If the fluids of the body(blood, saliva, etc), are maintained alkaline, it will be well nigh impossible for these organ-isms to multiply or even survive.

Trying to remove an infection once it has invaded the body, by trying to ``kill germs'' with Antibiotics can only create an imbalance in the body and weaken it further. Drug Antibiotics being ``Dumb Chemicals'', kill every-thing in sight - friends and foes.

They destroy the infection causing germs as well as the healthy bacteria required for digestion which work as probiotics in the human body. This ends up lowering the immunity, forcing the body into a perpetual and vicious cycle of repetitive infections coupled with still lower immunity at the end of each cycle.

It is noteworthy, to remember that, cancer cells do not easily multiply in an alkaline environment. Controlling and regulating body pH is one of the safest non-invasive techniques of reducing the risk of cancer or controlling or curbing or slowing down cancer cell proliferation in the Body.

The present typical Therapeutic Dose of Lactobacillus Acidophilus is 1.0 Billion living organism to be taken twice a day for at least 10 to 15 days after completing the Antibiotic course.

Such therapeutic doses are presently not available at the chemists; so correction of the damage done by Drug Antibiotics becomes an uphill task. The body then becomes unbalanced and depleted of its internally manufactured B-Complex Vitamins. Therapeutic doses of B-Complex, as per US Standards, not being readily available, sets the ground work for a host of chronic ailments to invade and begin destroying and rapidly aging the body.

Please stop the unnecessary use of dangerous Antibiotics. Please reserve drug Antibiotics only for life threatening situations. Please protect the environment and your body by minimizing the use of these Drug Antibiotics."
http://www.space-age.com/antibiotics.pdf

"A body in balance has no disease." Dr. Royal Rife.

Restore the balance. Look closely at the % drop of Mg in the Romanian abstract. See the words "immediate beneficial effect"?

Mg and Ca are needed to make HEALTHY antibodies. Our OWN highly targeted "antibiotics"...without "side effects".

Exercise. The right diet. Restoring the Mg levels. These are the keys.

With that small aside, the post is correct in every way. Abx are a good firewall to bring an initial halt to rapidly deteriorating health. But, the vast majority of people do not get better on long term abx. And, if you understand the dynamics about what abx do to the body, it is clear that they make matters worse in the long run.

Abx are a gamble against time. In the short term they may be able to kill the bug faster than they harm the body. But, after the short term, if they don't succeed, abx actually make it more difficult for the body to fight the bug. In fact they don't "help" the body at all. The abx just take over the fight completely, and the body must then rely on them continually.

None of us is fighting only Lyme bacteria.

Antibiotics have no effect whatsoever on viruses, heavy metal toxicity, chemical toxicity, parasite overgrowth, and a few others.

We must be realistic and finally recognize that for most, I think everybody, Lyme is only a small part of the problem. Most people will fight a losing battle until they learn to see the big picture. For me this means - clean up the body and change your environment and protect yourself from exposure to more damaging influences, physically and emotionally.

I would not have gotten well from Lyme and co-infections without antibiotics. There is a time and place for them. I am glad I did some very aggressive short-term antibiotics.

I would also not have gotten well without long-term aggressive metal and chemical detoxing, parasite cleansing, viral treatments, and by changing some of my approaches to life in general. As a matter of fact, the environmental toxicities caused my life to be out of sync long before Lyme hit. I just did not know enough about toxicities or recognize their devastating effects on mind and body. It's not all caused by Lyme. Yes, Lyme puts you under, but a good deal of the damage was happening long before the contact with Lyme.

It's perfectly fine to think and do otherwise. I chose to go after the major cause in a big way - metal toxicity and dental infections caused by root canals - and that's mainly what cured me and ended Lyme. But I would not have wanted to do it without antibiotics, no matter what.

Good luck to all.

The reason I wouldn't recommend avoiding abx is due to practicality. I only have personal experience with one doctor who uses alternative meds to successfully treat acute Lyme. So, while it may be desirable theoretically to avoid abx, practically it is difficult. And, if you treat Lyme improperly with ineffective alternative means, you will also set your treatment back. The vast majority of doctors treating Lyme use abx, and getting with the program is not a bad idea to begin with. My main complaint about abx is against people continuing to use them after several years with no improvement - and the doctors who continue to advise this.

My own case was an example of the time-related effectiveness of abx. I had a 40 year old infection, and then I got a recent infection. I treated the recent infection within 3 days of the bite. After 2.5 grueling years of heavy oral abx usage, and several alternative therapies, I was able to put the recent infection to rest. But, the long term infection was not affected much at all. Of course, I did have metals, other infections, and many other things.

With not enough Mg, our antibodies to lyme (and likely to other pathogens)are damaged. In the case of lyme, it damages the "Fab" portion. Restoring the Ca and Mg (in vitro) restored the "health" of the antibody to fight the lyme spirochete (documented).

ONE of TNF alpha's jobs is to get rid of damaged antibodies hanging around. Up it goes. Notice I said ONE job...it has others.

The % drop of Mg found in the Romanians was astounding...34%! A 10% drop is KNOWN to cause osteoporosis.

Until that level is restored and MAINTAINED, you will continue to have lyme symptoms and co-infections and metal problems (the other metals/minerals are being stored/pulled from storage/utilized BECAUSE Mg is so low.

Mg and Ca are also needed by our NK cells. Once more, documented in my updated nutshell post. These cells, NK, every day, help us to fight cancer (a virus).

How to restore that very large deficiency? That's the question since in this country we do not use IV Mg as a first line of defense except for status asthmaticus and the toxemia (eclampsia) of pregnancy when the BP soars and seizures and death can follow.

Please note...in Romania the patients did NOT get well using abx. alone. It was ONLY when they restored and MAINTAINED the level of Mg that the 2 Romanians (with early onset) recovered.

In my opinion, IV Mg needs to be a first line of defense to fight lyme.

And it WILL take TIME to do this! In this country, we are in and out of hospitals too fast. Not so in some other countries (Romania, Russia, etc.).

With lyme, persons get stuck in the TH1 pathway = a LOT of TNF alpha is produced in response to low Mg, high Ca.

Until we can once again regain control of this pathway, by eliminating the infections - Bb, bartonella, etc. that are using Mg in their reactions, we cannot fight viruses which require a different pathway/immune response. We normally switch between pathways, but we're stuck with one.

Years ago one doctor (D) recommended that NO SUPPLEMENTS be taken. I don't know if he thought this would "starve" the bug to death, but it certainly didn't work! The Mg deficiency spiraled out of control...leading to many other problems.

Dr. B's guidelines indicate Mg is needed and his supplement guidelines recommend it. He even mentions large doses are sometimes needed. Here's a quote from his guidelines:

"MAGNESIUM: Magnesium supplementation is very helpful for headaches, tremors, twitches, cramps, muscle soreness, heart skips and weakness. It may also help in energy level and cognition. The best source is magnesium L-lactate dihydrate ("Mag-Tab SR"), one every twelve hours. DO NOT rely on "cal-mag", calcium plus magnesium combination tablets as they are not well absorbed. In some cases, intramuscular or intravenous doses may be necessary too."

The tetracyclines were developed to address this...but they too deplete our stores of Mg (and other minerals and vitamins) WHILE harming the bacteria. Catch 22.

"The antibiotic tetracyclines all are selectively accumulated by bacteria, which have high concentrations of magnesium ion in the inside of their cell membranes. Apparently the tetracycline-magnesium ion chelates that are formed are retained by the bacteria (have difficulty exiting through the cell membrane because of their poor lipid solubility)."
www.oupharmacy.com/pharmsciadmin/ nshankar/coursenotes1/Supplementary%20notes%20-2.pdf

Besides hydrogen, citrates inactivate PFK1...that makes Mg citrate look good...