Hi. I've been taking abx from an LLMD for about 8 r 9 months after a tick bite (removed the tick myself, not even knowing it was a tick!) and bull's eye rash. To make a long story short, my LLMD is thinking I may have babs too. Started melarone and went back to biaxin.
My question is: if babs results in a decrease of red blood cells, would it help overall health to supplement iron? and possible vitamin c? these are commonly used in mild cases of anemia?
Carol
Posted by ByronSBell 2007 (Member # 11496) on :
WAIT A SECOND! If I have low iron (really low!) could that mean I have babesia??? I havn't been tested for it but my LLMD siad it is worthless to test for co infections becuase false negatives are more common in them than they are in lyme tests... Posted by tdtid (Member # 10276) on :
I too have low iron and my lyme doctor said that even though I tested negative on the bab's lab work, he still had suspected it just by my symptoms so has been treating it.
In any case, I just got the lab work back saying I was low in iron so he wants me taking one iron tablet every other day. It does need to be monitored since too much can be deadly.
I was told to take B Complex with my iron, but just started today, so time will tell. I would definitely talk with your llmd before taking the iron without it being monitored since I'm told that although it's bad to be anemic, it's worse to be overdosed on it.
But yes, babs takes our iron I'm told.
Cathy
Posted by ByronSBell 2007 (Member # 11496) on :
I am not saying your wrong or anything but, I would love to hear if anyone had evidence of this? Maybe a website or link? Posted by jasonsmith (Member # 10914) on :
I have Babesia Microti, and my iron is real good.
Posted by csperanza (Member # 9613) on :
I'm not sure exactly what kind of links you're looking for.
I am not a medical professional, I am just trying to parse this out myself, using (dare i say it? common sense). The reason I'm asking is because I don't know if there is something I'm missing about this. E.g. does the kind of anemia caused by babs have something different about it that would make iron supplements not a good idea?
I agree that asking my llmd before taking any new supplements is the smart thing to do.
Carol
Posted by Cass A (Member # 11134) on :
According to Dr. S's book on diagnosing and treating Babesia, Artemisinin kills the babesia parasite by attaching to it due to how much iron it has, this causes a reaction, and it kills the babs. If you don't have enough iron--no sparks, no dead babs, according to him.
also, as the blood cells die that have the babs in them, they get processed by the body and you can lose iron that way, according to the book.
You can get it, The Diagnosis and Treatment of Babesia, at Amazon.com and sort this all out for yourself.
Love,
Cass A
Posted by von (Member # 8333) on :
Byron, It is way more comon for women to be low in iron then men. (monthly blood loss)
Babs is a red blood cell parasite. It causes hemolysis by bursting red blood cells.
Sooo, I think low iron is a suspicious clue about babs for women and men.
And extra for a man, as they have less possible reasons why they would be low on Iron.
Make sure you have your ferritin level checked and B12.
Von
Posted by Vanilla (Member # 11155) on :
Get a liver panel done before taking Artemisinin because it is hard on the liver. I want to take it but must wait until my liver improves according to my acupuncturist.
Posted by csperanza (Member # 9613) on :
Thanks for all the info! I hadn't realized there was a whole book about babs. Now I"m going to search about artemesia/artemsinin. I have Buehner's book which talks a little about it. Carol
Posted by maestro (Member # 11458) on :
csperanza--
Like you, my son (15 yrs. old) is anemic. He was bitten by two ticks one year ago after hunting with my husband. My husband pulled the ticks off, I noticed (and took pictures of) the bulls-eye rash about 10 days later. I called our family practitioner and he put my son on a 4 week (?) dose of doxocycline. That is all we did. When I asked should we follow up with a specialist, my FP said he saw absolutely no reason and implied there would be professional embarrassment for him because "we just don't see lyme around here." I asked that he at least run the Western Blot test, thinking that would suffice. Of course, the WB test came back negative, but my doctor said he discovered why my son was feeling soooo lousy. He was anemic! We began iron supplementation (along w/vitamin C and B complex).
It took 8 months of supplementation for my son's iron count to squeak into "normal" range. Our doctor had even referred him on to a pediatric hematologist because he wasn't responding to 650 mg/day of iron. No one, not even the specialist, ever made the connection that the tick bites could possibly be at the root of the problem.
About four weeks ago I awakened in the middle of the night thinking about how my son still doesn't look/seem right to me. He had been running a low grade fever for about 10 days and our FP had him tested for mono and EBV. Both were negative. (Blood iron count still at bottom end of "normal" even though still supplementing.) At 2:00 am I got on the internet and googled "lyme disease and anemia." Multiple hits came up for babesia. Wish I'd thought of it sooner.....
Now, one year after initial tick bites, we have our appointment in two weeks with a supposed LLMD. I hope we get some answers.
I want to stress that we still do not know this is causing the anemia, but from all I read here I believe it's very possible. Why else would an otherwise healthy 15 yr old be anemic? (The specialists said "it could simply be puberty.")
Any more suggestions from all you out there would be greatly appreciated! I feel lucky to have found this forum!
I am also thankful to learn of the book about babesia. I will be ordering it, too.
maestro
Posted by Beverly (Member # 1271) on :
Both my son and are Anemic.
Babesia would make me have more than one period a month at times and I hated taking Iron, it gave me a headache. As for my son he has been Anemic since he was 6 that I know of. It's getting better for both of us and we were both treated for Babesia.
Posted by Vanilla (Member # 11155) on :
A good source of iron is Ferrum Phos 6x by Hylands and you can carry it around in your purse - it works quickly too. Some mornings I wake up looking very pale and I take it right away and it makes a big difference. I saw the babs book at my doctors office the other day and found it to be very useful - I only had a chance to look at it for 5 minutes or so.
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