This is in early clinical trials and involves SOD1 mutations in familial ALS, which is a small fraction of the cases. The chemistry is tricky, since this blocks folic acid, and CU and ZN are interferred with, so experimenting by lyme patients who have ALS-like muscle wasting would be dangerous. The right kind of lyme treatment before it is too advanced, in this situation, would be much preferable to taking this drug without having toxoplasmosis.
The other name for pyrimethamine is daraprim. Several on this board including hubby have used that med for babesia. It is one of the older malaria meds and unfortunately is not really all that effective for babesia.
As with all babesia protocols in my opinion it takes multiple meds with different methods of action to make a real difference when it comes to getting rid of blood borne parasites -- just one med or herb is rarely enough.
From what I have read almost all ALS patients who have tickborne diseases have babesia or a blood borne protozoa infection in addition to lyme.
And yes the daraprim does deplete folic acid -- that is the method by which it tries to kill the babesia parasite. Other drugs such as Bactrim work by the same method but do not deplete folic acid to the same extent.
Bea Seibert
Posted by poppy (Member # 5355) on :
I am not convinced of the protozoan link to ALS type wasting in lyme. This responds to antibiotic treatment in patients whose babesia has been treated already and is apparently gone, no symptoms. So, antibiotics rather than anti-protozoal meds means bacteria, presumably chronic infection which leads to inflammation, both of which can kill neurons. It is neuron death that precedes muscle wasting. Don't think babesia has been found in neurons.
Posted by seibertneurolyme (Member # 6416) on :
Poppy -- I could be wrong -- but my guess is that a bad babesia infection could disrupt blood flow significantly enough to cause neuron death.
Bea Seibert
Posted by canefan17 (Member # 22149) on :
Didn't Dr K say a long time ago that he suspected ALS was Bart/Myco
Posted by sheltielady (Member # 42710) on :
Here's a good site to check....
When ALS is Lyme/ALS -Cure
My other Doctors stated I have ALS....
Now I am waiting for testing from Lyme Literate Naturopathic Doctor (:
Posted by mlg (Member # 35383) on :
The reason why I posted this was that I had also seen another site that mentioned this. Also, I asked my doctor how you treat toxoplasmosis and she said the same way we are treating babesia/proto. I just thought I would share the info.
Posted by Carmen (Member # 42391) on :
Treatment of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and Multiple Sclerosis With Antibiotics .... and in some cases may be Lyme
Dr. F in AZ is doing major studies linking protozoan, vector borne bites and infections with ALS. He has two major colleges with grants towards these studies. F Labs doing them.
It's maybe not just babs, bart, or lyme that is the connection, maybe vector borne diseases as a whole. It's a DNA thing in how our bodies fight these infections. In my family, my dad had ALS, and so did his sister, an aunt of mine. And now I have all this.... I feel I have protozoan's more than I had lyme or babs.... but all treatment really is the same.
ABX, and anti fungal, and anti malaria. I happen to be a Dr.F patient for years.
Posted by ladyjenie (Member # 21098) on :
I recently treated Toxo Gondii with Sepra twice daily for 30 days. My LLMD said this was enough time to clear the infection but he did another blood test to see if I was still POS.
I already take (3) Plaquenil daily. I have no symptoms. This was found from the labs I had pre Lyme trtmt.
Do I need other treatment?
Posted by ladyjenie (Member # 21098) on :
Boo-hoo, just saw my Toxo results and my numbers are still high. Bummer.
Just as I was about to start treating Lyme with Zith. Don't know if Sepra and Zith can be taken together.