I am looking for any literature on the Dr B/Pamela Weintraub 3 cycles of Ceftin treatment regime. My new doctor is interested in it and may try it with me. I know it is described in Cure Unknown but if anyone knows of any other sources of information or even patients who have tried it, I would love to hear.
Thanks anyone.
[ 10-23-2014, 02:05 PM: Message edited by: migs ]
Posted by steve1906 (Member # 16206) on :
Dr B. shared his treatment approach recently:
Thu 10 Jul 2014 0:33
One of the techniques I used with many of my patients to break a treatment plateau is to cycle antibiotic therapy on and off based on the clinical symptoms and their intensity. When applied correctly, this invariably broke the plateau and allowed the patients to go on to recover!
Let me explain:
The usually used antibiotics will kill Borrelia only during their growth phase. So during a prolonged course of treatment, after initial improvement occasionally there is a plateau- not getting better but not getting worse. Presumably the Borrelia and the antibiotics are in a stalemate- not growing but not being killed.
So what I then did was to totally stop all treatment (all antibiotics and all herbs if any were being taken). Over the next few days, the patients felt a little better as the antibiotics washed out and any mild Herxheimers halted. By the third week off, because of the four-week growth/regeneration cycle of Lyme Borrelia, symptoms began to creep back.
But now, obviously, the Borrelia are growing again! They are again susceptible to antibiotics.
So I would resume full dose therapy and sure enough, there would be a Herxh that would settle down over the next few weeks. When back on a plateau, which in most people meant after about six weeks of meds, I would again halt treatment and the cycle would repeat.
In most cases, this worked out to being off about 3 to 4 weeks, and then on for about 5 to 6 weeks. Critically, this cycle is determined solely by symptoms and not by the calendar!
In general, it took three full cycles to get the remaining infection controlled such that I was able to stop treatment and the patients remained well.
This type of treatment regimen is described by Pam Weintraub in her landmark book “Cure Unknown”. That is how I was able to get her well.
I began using this approach many years ago, well before the concept of “persisters” was presented. However, the idea is the same- Borrelia, like treponemes, can have prolonged “latent” periods in which they remain viable, but grow and reproduce little if at all, yet nevertheless continue to cause symptoms due to cytokine activation, presumably because they continue to secrete antigenic materials (blebs, DNA, glycoproteins, etc.).
By treating steadily for as many months as is necessary to reach this plateau, and then cycling treatment, an increased rate of success can be achieved.
Note this applies to Borrelia only and not to the co-infections.
I hope this is helpful- feel free to share! Dr. B……………..!
Open this link for replies - also some people replies today - 10-23-14
I believe this is the approach my doc is taking with lyme.
Thanks for the info Steve! I was wondering also if there was more detail to what Pamela described in Cure Unknown.
Posted by migs (Member # 16496) on :
Thanks. For an approach that has reportedly cured two "name" people in the Lyme world, it seems little explored...
Dr J in DC uses similar but less abx and shorter breaks in between.
Posted by steve1906 (Member # 16206) on :
This was posted by (Keebler)on - 24 January, 2012 12:27 AM Profile for Keebler
Ive heard through the grapevine that Burrascano (sp?) cured himself by stopping all meds, letting symptoms get bad, then take ceftin heavily for a period. stop and repeat 2 more times.
Can someone tell me where I can read about it. Or can someone give me more info?
thanks. (MazzyStar)
-------------------------------
amid other posters' replies, here are three from Pam, posts: # 36; 38; 44.
-------------------------------
Pam Weintraub - Member # 15718
posted 28 February, 2010
To all: Everyone is different. There are so many strains of the Lyme spirochete; alternate spirochetes; and various strains of coinfections, some of them still controversial or unknown.
People have varied immune profiles, adding more complexity.
In MY case, I believe I was lucky to have classic northeast strains of babesia and Lyme, period... I was treated for babesia with mepron and zithromax over the course of a couple of months, and that really did get rid of my babesia symptoms.
I am convinced, and Dr. was convinced, that what continued to dog me for years vis-a-vis relapses, was Lyme disease and only Lyme disease.
I had no response whatsoever to medicines for babesia or even other coinfections --eventually my Lyme was pushed to remission again and again with amoxicillin, but I relapsed whenever I stopped treatment, thus the trial of pulsing with ceftin.
This did the trick for me. It is an individual story and only an anecdote, which I state in my book. I state there, and I hold now, that it may have little meaning for others, but the book was my memoir, and that was part of my story.
yes, only for Lyme: after four years, my relapses were pure Lyme disease, no treatment for any coinfection had any impact on me anymore, as in the past.
My babesia --once the biggest problem-- was gone and it was the Lyme, alone, that remained.
The pulsing worked, I believe, because in stopping treatment for a long time I let all the spirochetes come out in motile form in force, and it was therefore possible to kill them.
But this was only possible because I started from a completely asymptomatic place.
There are so many strains of the Lyme spirochete; alternate spirochetes; and various strains of coinfections, some of them still controversial or unknown. People have varied immune profiles, adding more complexity.
In MY case, I believe I was lucky to have classic northeast strains of babesia and Lyme, period... I was treated for babesia with mepron and zithromax over the course of a couple of months, and that really did get rid of my babesia symptoms.
I am convinced, and Dr. was convinced, that what continued to dog me for years vis-a-vis relapses, was Lyme disease and only Lyme disease.
I had no response whatsoever to medicines for babesia or even other coinfections --eventually my Lyme was pushed to remission again and again with amoxicillin, but I relapsed whenever I stopped treatment, thus the trial of pulsing with ceftin.
This did the trick for me. It is an individual story and only an anecdote, which I state in my book. I state there, and I hold now, that it may have little meaning for others, but the book was my memoir, and that was part of my story.
I had much success w/ this sort of pulsing tx but only after long term intense treatment. After years of being sick I knew my pattern of Lyme growth and was able to pulse accordingly. After about 2 years straight high dose abx.s w/ current llmd I started pulsing.
Posted by Jessiep (Member # 35399) on :