This is topic Do antibiotics contribute to mineral deficiencies? in forum Medical Questions at LymeNet Flash.


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Posted by James1979 (Member # 31926) on :
 
First of all, I realize that many infections can cause mineral deficiencies, but I'm not asking about that.

Here's the story:
I'm reading this book called Transdermal Magnesium Therapy, and it's saying that antibiotics can deplete us of the following nutrients: "vitamin A, B-12, C, E, K, Biotin, Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Potassium".

Is that true? Is it dependant on which antibiotics we're using? Does anyone know which minerals the tetracyclines affect most?

I was thinking the other day that if doxy binds to calcium and other minerals, how do we know that it's not binding to the minerals that are already inside our bodies and contributing to deficiencies?

If it were true that the abx contribute to nutrient deficiencies, then I would've thought that we'd be hearing more about this on the forum.

Thanks for the thoughts! [Smile] Peace.
 
Posted by Lala (Member # 29864) on :
 
I think abx can contribute to some vitamin deficiencies, to such that are normally produced by intestinal bacteria, but minerals? You can let your minerals have checked through blood tests. Those that I was tested for were ok after almost 6 years of abx, including doxy..
 
Posted by Harmony (Member # 32424) on :
 
hey james, slideline Q: how do you get the transdermal Mg? what product?

thanks!
 
Posted by Liz D (Member # 16739) on :
 
after about a year and a half or so of ABX my muscles suddenly started seizing up. Not cramp but seizing up so the affected part of my body was totally painfully 'locked up'. llmd suggested I may have developed a shortage of magnesium and recommended mag. malate. It fixed the problem. If I stop taking it - the seizing comes back. So lyme and or abx is a big influence in my book.
 
Posted by James1979 (Member # 31926) on :
 
Lala - thanks for the info. I also don't have mineral deficiencies (checked through lab tests), but I'm just wondering if we are made more susceptible from the abx. I guess individual cases like yours and mine would support the theory that it's not a big deal. Maybe that's why we don't hear about it very often?

Liz - Thanks for the info. The thing is that it's already well-known that Lyme depletes us of magnesium. There's really no question about that. I'm just curious if the abx also add to that depletion.

BTW everyone - there's a specific reason why I'm asking this. I have some serious mineral balance problems (strange and rare stuff), and that's why I like to know exactly what is affecting my mineral levels.
 
Posted by Liz D (Member # 16739) on :
 
James hi, I didnt know that and I thought I had a new discovery lol
 
Posted by James1979 (Member # 31926) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by Harmony:
hey james, slideline Q: how do you get the transdermal Mg? what product?

thanks!

Oh my goodness, girl! You COMPLETELY derailed my thread!! What's going on here? Are you trying to violate me? In my entire life I've never seen a bigger derailment! I'm gonna go back and rename this thread "Titanic II".

Just kidding. [Wink] I just contributed to your recent magnesium thread here:
http://flash.lymenet.org/ubb/ultimatebb.php/topic/1/111748#000001
I hope it was helpful.
 
Posted by James1979 (Member # 31926) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by Liz D:
James hi, I didnt know that and I thought I had a new discovery lol

LOL! [Smile] No problem. Thanks for joining the discussion.
 
Posted by Harmony (Member # 32424) on :
 
James, not sure this is ok on thread or a PM question but I don't mind sharing

wondering how low you Mg was on the bood test

mine came back as 2.1 and the normal Range/Units are 1.6-2.8 Mg/dL; they measured Magnesium, serum; it says Compontent is Magnesium,BLD,QN

I don't expect that this measn a lot to you, but just in case

the point is, it looks ok to me

what were your values, if ok to share?
 
Posted by Lala (Member # 29864) on :
 
James what mineral balance problems do you have? I for example was low in potassium from time to time. So I supplemented with few tabs of potassium orotate and on next blood tests my potassium was too high. [Smile]

BTW: Abx I use were on the markets for decades and used by millions of people. I can not imagine there would be such unknown side effect like mineral deficiences.
 
Posted by NanaDubo (Member # 14794) on :
 
James - mineral imbalance/deficiencies can be caused by heavy metal toxicity. There is an interesting and very LONG story at

www.mercurylife.com

Somewhere along the way in his story - he says this regarding tetracyclines (the last paragraph may be what you are looking for) :

"Anyway, back to my story. At some point during my six-month leave, while I was still recovering from the Stretta procedure, I started a course of tetracycline-family antibiotics, to try to get

the meibomian (oil-producing) glands on my eyelid to start working again, hopefully to ease the allergic reaction my eyes were experiencing. On retrospective analysis of my records, I see that my next, and biggest, problem started just about two weeks after starting these antibiotics.

This alone is strangely coincidental, but when the problem doubled in size almost a year later, within two weeks of starting another course of tetracycline-family antibiotics, I once again realized that I had likely found a causative factor.

The new problem I developed was substantial back, groin, and leg pain. The link to mercury: in a study of rats given high doses of oral antibiotics, the half-life for excretion of mercury (i.e., the amount of time required for one-half of the mercury to be

excreted from a rat) increased from 10 days to greater than 100 days. (Rowland IR, Robinson RD, Doherty RA, "Effects of Diet on Mercury Metabolism and Excretion in Mice Given Methylmercury: Role of Gut Flora," Arch Environ Health, 1984:39(6); 401-408).

In other words, antibiotics reduce the body's ability to excrete mercury, and tetracyclines in particular have been to shown to increase mercury toxicity (e.g., Prof. Boyd Haley of the University of Kentucky has found tetracycline increases thimerosal's toxicity to neurons)." End of quote.
 
Posted by James1979 (Member # 31926) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by Harmony:
James, not sure this is ok on thread or a PM question but I don't mind sharing

wondering how low you Mg was on the bood test

Harmony - Dang, girl! You want me to expose my Mg levels to the public?! Do you think I should also post my social security number? How about some credit card information? [Big Grin] If you want, I could give you the name and address of my very first high-school girlfriend. She was pretty cool. [lol] [lol] [lol]

Seriously - Mg testing is very complex, and there are different ways to do it. Most LLMDs agree that serum levels are worthless. My LLMD checked for intracellular last time. I'm not sure what the exact numbers were, but they were considered normal. Some doctors even consider the intracellular test results to be inadequate, but I don't know how popular that theory is.

Lala - I have a lot of unique and rare problems. My mineral levels are checked frequently, and they are always in the normal ranges (even checked by an ND, because sometimes the MDs are clueless). I really don't like to share specifics over the net, for confidentiality purposes (plus I'm probably the only person here with this specific disorder [Smile] ).

But for example, I have to take a ton of potassium supplements every day just to keep my levels normal. Also I'm very high in lead and mercury, and I have higher-than-normal levels of 5 other toxic metals. I have a serious bone disorder (even though I'm young and basically healthy) which is very rare and is caused by these problems. Also I have a tendency to be overly-acidic, even though I follow a strict alkalizing diet. It's all weird stuff.

Thanks for your info and thanks for the concern! [Smile]

NanaDubo - WOW!! Thanks a ton for that interesting information!! I've been trying to work on my metal toxicity problems, but I would've never known that the abx make it more difficult. I'm so glad to know that, and now I can't wait until I can finally stop these abx. I'm gonna check out that mercurylife link now.
 


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