I think I have babs (night sweats, air hunger waking me at night, nipple pain -male here!) and am curious how many of you feel your Babs treatment really was effective.
If so, what meds did you use (dosage also) and for how long?
Thanks!
Chris
Posted by Penn92 (Member # 9207) on :
I'm currently being treated - my major symptoms were sweating and air hunger (couldn't get a deep breath).
I took artemisinin 200mg daily while taking 500mg zith and 300mg doxy for 2 months. Went off of the art for about 3 months while treating Lyme more aggressively and babs symptoms returned.
I've been on Mepron 2 tsp., zith 500mg daily for about 7 weeks and added 200mg art back in 3 weeks ago and am doing fine.
I've read it can take a few years to get rid of it for good, but am hoping to treat it with herbs also once I'm finished with abx.
Posted by treepatrol (Member # 4117) on :
Not having those symptoms now ? Time will tell I used Mepron and biaxinXL for 3 & half months untill I had drug induced fevers from mepron, 30days worth. If it aint dead ??? dang near killed me hahaha.My beard is now white.
The fevers were because of interaction partially related to acetametaphen and mostly mepron because of how I ran the last 2 regimes of that drug didnt take 14 days off went straight into last month with NO break. Smart? I dont know? I know it took a toll on me. Iam still recovering ask me in another month or two?
Posted by valymemom (Member # 7076) on :
I think it is the toughest infection to treat. Both my sons are battling it. Although my one son and I removed embedded ticks within a month of one-another, his healing has been complicated by babs and babs treatment.
I didn't/don't have babs and have been symptom free almost 5/6 months. We both saw our llmd the same time/almost two years ago.
Minimum treatment is 5 months. Because of fate and reporting errors son #1 only got 4 months of treatment and I believe this is his culprit.
Son #2 is on month 7 of mepron/zith/artemesinin and he reported to his llmd that he missed three doses in a row. His symptoms came roaring back with a vengeance.
Do a search and read/ note liz 28's posts, groovy's and minoucat's.....others, I am sure, also. I just know theirs were very helpful.
Posted by savebabe (Member # 9847) on :
I found babs treatment hard, but worth it. Many of my symptoms were gone after a month on Mepron 2tsp 2x day, septra, Biaxin, art 300mg a day, and plaquenil
The problem is that just when you think you beat it, BAM your symptoms return. This is a tough bug to kill and requires aggressive treatment.
Good luck.
Posted by Myco (Member # 9536) on :
bump
Posted by Vermont_Lymie (Member # 9780) on :
Hi -- I have been on one malarone/day, 250/100 mg, for about 2 and one-half months now.
It seems to be doing something good for my body, but it was a hard adjustment for the first 7-8 weeks or so. Actually, I felt worse than ever during that time.
However, it seems to be improving my lung and heart symptoms, greatly at times, although it has not been kind to my brain.
I am more forgetful than ever on malarone, and I do not think it is only the lyme -- there does seem to be some unpleasant or at least unwanted effect of malarone on my brain.
But since it is helping my body so much, I am sticking with it for now. Indefinitely, at least 5 months per the advice above. Cannot wait to stop taking it!
Posted by Andie333 (Member # 7370) on :
For me, babs symptoms were sweating, flushing, gasping for breath.
Since I started artemisinin, all those symptoms have disappeared. I'm sitll taking the art, so I really don't know if they're really gone or just repressed.
Andie
Posted by Geneal (Member # 10375) on :
I've done 3 months of malarone (4 x a day) along with 600mg of zithromax and 1600mg of bactrim ds.
Felt pretty darn good going off....
Only to have babs symptoms return with a vengeance!!
I again have stabbing head pains, air hunger, jaw pain,
and some night sweats...
And so the babs saga continues.
LLMD and I are planning on attacking this pesky infection again...
Following my bartonella treatment, which I've just begun.
Hugs,
Geneal
Posted by Vanilla (Member # 11155) on :
My babs returned (reactive Igenex test) after 4 months of Zith and Mepron. I am now on a half a dose a day of Malarone (as well as Biaxin and Amoxy) and I like it much better then Mepron but I might have to take it for 10 months total.
I have lost almost too much weight on Malarone. It makes you a lot less hungry.
Posted by Foggy (Member # 1584) on :
Yes, BIG difference, got me out of bed.
Posted by trueblue (Member # 7348) on :
I'm still waiting to see if treatment is successful. So far all I have is more and worse symptoms. It's around 4 months; maybe soon it gets better.
I am taking Malarone and Artemisinin and whatever ABX I can afford and/or tolerate.
I had a positive B. macroti test 9 years ago and all tests were negative before and after. This is my first shot at treating it. Lyme was diagnosed 14 years ago.
Posted by kelmo (Member # 8797) on :
Daughter is in her sixth week of mepron and zith. Just added heparin two weeks ago, still half dose, working up.
She has been walking death the past month. I notice her brain isn't firing on all cylinders either.
Going to add art, but don't know how to administer it. It seems everyone has a different way to take it.
We are not pulsing...heard you have to hit it long and hard.
Kelly
Posted by CaliforniaLyme (Member # 7136) on :
My daughter and I are both in full remission with babs and everyone I know who has done tx for Babs has eventually gone into remission- sometimes it takes a while sometimes it is quick!
Relapse is common. The REd Cross has Babesiosis as a LIFETIME EXCLUSION because it can come back at any time and because aan asymptomatic donor can donate and the people who get the blood can all get very sick!!!
Krause declares people treated who are still blood positive or symptomatic as long as they are better than before, basically non-acute. LLMDs go for asymptomatic*)!! (Nicer way to live*)!
Best wishes, Sarah
Posted by peter j (Member # 11825) on :
Please keep 'em coming. I'm going to get treated for babs soon, and I'd like to hear as much experiences as possible before I make my choice for which meds to go for
Posted by Myco (Member # 9536) on :
California Lyme,
What was your treatment?
Posted by cactus (Member # 7347) on :
I took Mepron and various macrolides (biaxin, zith and ketek) for 6 months, cleared most of my symptoms, then relapsed after about 4 months.
Then took malarone and ketek for another 6 months and all my babs symptoms cleared up again.
Have just relapsed yet again, after 4 months.
So - am going back on babs treatment. This time omnicef, zith, mepron, and artemisinin, and adding in plaquenil. Plus nutritional supplements and B-12 injections.
If this doesn't do the trick, I'll be exploring alternatives to Mepron...
If you find the magic bullet, don't forget to post it!
Posted by Lymetoo (Member # 743) on :
Absolutely!! I took clindamycin/quinine for at least 2 yrs. Then I finished it off with artemisinin and zith.
Posted by lymeladyinNY (Member # 10235) on :
I guess I've been fortunate as far as babs treatment goes. I had sweats, air hunger, dizziness and sudden collapse when symptomatic. I took mepron/zith for 7 months with no break in 2004 and I have not had symptoms of babs since.
Posted by peter j (Member # 11825) on :
lymeladyinNY and cactus.
Please let us know what dosage you were at??
Posted by cactus (Member # 7347) on :
Not sure if I can remember the dosages exactly, but will try. I am small, so LLMD may have adjusted dosages based on that.
Previously have tried:
Mepron 1 tsp twice daily with one of the following: Biaxin - pediatric dose Zith 600mg Ketek 800mg
Now that I've relapsed, I will be re-treating, not sure of all doses yet, but so far have added zith 600 mg, and will be adding Mepron, Plaquenil, and Artemisinin.
Hope this helps.
Posted by 5dana8 (Member # 7935) on :
Hi Myco
I was on pretty much what savebabe's taking. It was very difficult (herx wise) & exspensive.
But it did clear up my fevers which I had had for 20 years. It did take two different rounds to knock it out...(Had to take the babs meds a year later again)
But for me,not untill I added the ateminisin to my brew did I feel better.
hope this helps & you are feeling better soon Dana
Posted by peter j (Member # 11825) on :
thanks for sharing your experiences everyone, and please tell more. Those of you who have undergone babesia treatment and not posted, please do
Posted by D Bergy (Member # 9984) on :
I ran Babesia frequencies with our GB-4000 Rife machine on my wife. This was after running Lyme frequencies for several weeks. She did not know what frequencies I was running beforehand.
She had so much discomfort she almost had to stop the session. Her herx was one of the worst also.
I ran the same frequencies on myself and had no reaction.
She also had either little or no reaction to future treatments using the same frequencies.
I would like to say that we got rid of it that easy but I have a couple of problems with that statement.
1) I do not know that Babesia die off causes any herx to begin with.
2) I had no test to prove she had Babesia. She had some but not all symptoms that were consistent with Babesia.
3) The frequencies killed something or triggered a die off of some type of pathogen but it was most similar to Lyme herxes.
4) There are not many success stories using Rife with coinfections.
I do not consider this proof of anything other than a kill off of some type of pathogen. If you are using a Rife machine you may want to run these frequencies in the CAFL for Babesia. Especially if you have been treating Lyme for some time already.
D Bergy
Posted by hardynaka (Member # 8099) on :
I'm in full remission since about June last year.
My recipy was PC-Noni, I already wrote it here, I took it together with Buhner's core protocol. I had done Riamet before (worked for 2 weeks), had tried all protocols with artemisinin, was loosing hope when my naturopath prescribed me about 3 drops of PC-noni/ day.
I even didn't know it was for babesia, she didn't say anything. I had taken noni juice before, that did nothing to me, so I was not very positive about the noni tincture.
By June, I realize all my babesia symptoms had gone and read that Pc-Noni is said to fight babesia. That's when I connected the dots.
These few drops of PC-Noni caused me strong herxes. I can't remember anymore, as it's too long ago, but I feared PC-Noni!
Only recently I re-took it again for bartonella this time. In my experience, bartonella is tougher to elliminate than babesia. But it causes less debilitating symptoms.
Babesia caused the worst symptoms of all for me (extreme fatigue, air hunger attacks, night sweats, daily heat waves followed by a 'collapse', like a seizure, mood variations, depression, anemia).
Getting babesia down is the first big step up in healing. Selma
Posted by beachcomber (Member # 5320) on :
I have just started my third round of Babs treatment.
The first time I did Mepron and Zith for several months. I was also on IV Rocephin. I felt awful the first month. A little better the second month. We took Zith out of the mix and added Artemisinin and I continued to improve.
I stopped for many months and then started feeling the symptoms again. So, I did Malarone for a few months. I was also on Bicillin. My gut got trashed so, I stopped all Rx for 5 months.
I went on Minocin in September and felt ok once I got used to it but, never could get to a consistant level of feeling well. I was having sweats, fevers/chills, killer headaches, insomnia, vertigo etc. My MD and I deciced I needed another round of Babs meds. Right now I am on week 2 of ramping up on both Mepron and Zith. We are taking it slowly to start. In 2 more weeks I will be at Mepron 2 tsp./day and Zith at 500 mg every other day (I think).
That's my story.
Bc
Posted by oxygenbabe (Member # 5831) on :
Selma, how does pc-noni work? What does "pc" mean?
Everybody else, it's probably not so much that it's a tough bug as that the medications prescribed for it are only partially effective. They are protozoal or malarial medications. The bug hasn't been studied much. It's too bad. And I read somewhere that they were thinking of reclassifying it into another species of bugs--and I'm sorry, I can't remember what those were. So its a strange hybrid. I think it needs weedkillers. Not joking, it carries an apicoplast, an organelle that evolved from cyanobacteria, which are what turned into chloroplasts in plants.
Posted by sixgoofykids (Member # 11141) on :
I'm treating babs right now. I've been on meds since Jan. 20th. I was about 15% then. Now I'm about 60% when I'm not herxing like I am today.
I take Mepron, Biaxin, Artemisia, doxy (now mino). I just started Plaquenil. I took Omnicef/Probenecid for two months, but had GI issues so they stopped that. They tried bicillin injections in place of them, but I bruise too easily and don't have enough meat back there to absorb the injections.
The LLMD assistant mentioned that I will be switching to Malarone next month. I hate to hear that it's worse on the appetite than what I have already as I'm losing weight and have no hunger now!
I KNOW I'm improving ... and the speed of my improvement amazes me.
I take a daily FIR sauna and supplements for detox. I think detox is key to feeling better. So is watching the candida.
Posted by peter j (Member # 11825) on :
Please tell your dosage sixgoofykids
Posted by Beverly (Member # 1271) on :
Hi Myco,
Babesia treatment is what finally made me feel better. I can't believe how much better I am now after a few years on Malarone, Zithromax, Plaquenil and Bactrim. It's truly amazing.
I am still treating, but I do not know how long I have had Babesia, so I don't know how long it may take to get it into remission. I never had any major drenching night sweats, my symptoms were more psychiatric.
Hope you feel better.
[ 13. October 2007, 08:08 PM: Message edited by: Beverly ]
Posted by sixgoofykids (Member # 11141) on :
quote:Originally posted by peter j: Please tell your dosage sixgoofykids
Okay, but I'll have to do it later, I'm herxing right now and am too dizzy to walk downstairs and look.
I take Mepron - 2 tsp. twice daily. Doxy was 200 mg. twice daily, but mino is 100 twice daily.
The others I'll check on later.
Posted by mtnwoman (Member # 8385) on :
I didn't even think I had babs (no fever, sweats, air hunger) but I did Mepron 750mg am and pm + Ketek 800mg for 8 week, 3 weeks on, one week off.
It really seems to have helped my chest pain sx and decreased (a lot) some hip and knee pain.
I've been off the Mepron about 4 weeks and can feel some joint pains returning. Prob should have done Mepron longer.
Posted by seibertneurolyme (Member # 6416) on :
oxygenbabe,
pc-noni is a brand name for a noni tincture available from
This is one of the products in the Cowden protocol. Supposedly this company has some sort of proprietary extraction process that is used for their herbal tinctures.
Hubby has not tried this yet, but plans to soon.
Bea Seibert
Posted by peter j (Member # 11825) on :
thanks sixgoofykids. I know the feeling of being too dizzy
Please people, continue to post your experiences.
Remember to post what drugs, at what dose, for how long, and how did it work??
Posted by hardynaka (Member # 8099) on :
Bea, are you sure pc-noni (biopure) is the same as the noni tincture from Nutramedix? The names are different and they don't say their tincture fights babesia.
I sent Oxygenbabe a PM. Just do a search here, you'll find other info of PC-Noni (biopure), how to take it (specially from Gigi).
I hit babesia with few drops of it/ few weeks, but many people need more. I was also on whole Buhners' core protocol , and andrographis is said to kill malarial pathogens, so I'm not 100% sure it was the pc_noni alone or the whole set of things I was taking that made all my symptoms vanish.
Selma
Posted by Myco (Member # 9536) on :
Is the Cowden Protocol for Babs specifically? Can someone tell me what it is? I am curious.
Can you try taking PC Noni alone for Babs?
Curious if it would cause a herx as all my tests were negative and I am having a hard time figuring out if this is my Mycoplasma or Babs.
Posted by jasonsmith (Member # 10914) on :
Interesting.
Which would be better, the Biopure brand, or that other company?
![[group hug]](graemlins/grouphug.gif)
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
Not joking, it carries an apicoplast, an organelle that evolved from cyanobacteria, which are what turned into chloroplasts in plants.
![[Frown]](frown.gif)