Article: NK Cells/African Sleeping Sickness,Tyrosine and ME/CFS: A Professor and his Wife

Article: NK Cells/African Sleeping Sickness,Tyrosine and ME/CFS: A Professor and his

You can view the page at http://forums.aboutmecfs.org/content.php?292-NK-Cells-Blow-Out-African-Sleeping-Sickness-and-Tyrosine-A-Professor-and-his-Wife

 

i've taken L-tyrosine 2-3g/day as a workout supplement along with dozens of other sport supplements (many of which are recommended for CFS) +6 years PRIOR to getting disabling CFS/ME. Other than this article, i've never heard of any PWC cure themselves with L-tyrosine nor got better with it.

 

The nature of the interaction

Hi, I can only comment that erythromycin and theophylline are never to be taken together. I'm not schooled in pharmacology but competent pharmacists will tell you is the case. My wife's emergency room doc was a pathologist, likely trying to earn some extra money and may not have remembered his pharmacology from med school. Sorry, I can't be of more help.

This is all very interesting in trying to elucidate the events that may set one up for acquiring ME/CFS. Thank you for posting your fascinating article.

As I did not recall any horrible interactions between these meds I looked it up. Apparently there's been some controversy, but the bottom line is that when taking erythromycin (often prescribed for pneumonia) and theophylline (used for bronchodilation in asthma and COPD) are taken together, the levels of each drug in the blood can be affected. The clearance of theophylline can be (isn't always) decreased, meaning that levels of theophylline can become higher than desired, potentially to toxic levels. Conversely, e-mycin levels can be lower than desired, so that the antibiotic treatment is not as effective as desired. In this case, it sounds like the concern was for theophylline toxicity, which can cause nausea, vomiting, agitation, electrolyte imbalances, cardiac arrhythmias, irritability and seizures. Theophylline is notoriously difficult to dose, having a narrow therapeutic index, meaning that there isn't much difference between the effective and the toxic doses. It isn't used much anymore, now that there are more, safer, bronchodilators on the market.

As for studies of the effects of theophylline on cortisol, the ones I've found so far didn't show a significant impact. I did however, find evidence that theophylline inhibits NK cell function, which is interesting, as the proposed mechanism is through the action of phosphodiesterase inhibition. What is the most common phosphodiesterase inhibitor? Caffeine!

 

This is all very interesting in trying to elucidate the events that may set one up for acquiring ME/CFS. Thank you for posting your fascinating article.

As I did not recall any horrible interactions between these meds I looked it up. Apparently there's been some controversy, but the bottom line is that when taking erythromycin (often prescribed for pneumonia) and theophylline (used for bronchodilation in asthma and COPD) are taken together, the levels of each drug in the blood can be affected. The clearance of theophylline can be (isn't always) decreased, meaning that levels of theophylline can become higher than desired, potentially to toxic levels. Conversely, e-mycin levels can be lower than desired, so that the antibiotic treatment is not as effective as desired. In this case, it sounds like the concern was for theophylline toxicity, which can cause nausea, vomiting, agitation, electrolyte imbalances, cardiac arrhythmias, irritability and seizures. Theophylline is notoriously difficult to dose, having a narrow therapeutic index, meaning that there isn't much difference between the effective and the toxic doses. It isn't used much anymore, now that there are more, safer, bronchodilators on the market.

As for studies of the effects of theophylline on cortisol, the ones I've found so far didn't show a significant impact. I did however, find evidence that theophylline inhibits NK cell function, which is interesting, as the proposed mechanism is through the action of phosphodiesterase inhibition. What is the most common phosphodiesterase inhibitor? Caffeine!

2 of the things that I regret most regarding my past healthcare practices are: 1) taking theophylline, constantly (2-3x per day) for over a decade, starting in my early teens, and 2) taking courses of antibiotics (often erythromycin) for various colds, flus, and bouts of bronchitis. The continuous doses of theophylline quickly left me vulnerable to episodes of tachycardia (a vulnerability that continues to this day), which my doctor deemed an acceptable side effect (better than asthma). Nowadays I run from anything that has even a mild stimulating effect, even coffee. I think the repeated use of antibiotics contributed to my gut dysbiosis/leaky gut/digestive problems. I had not known that it was dangerous to mix theophylline and some antibiotics until I read this thread. I wish I had never taken them together, as I must have on several occasions, before my CFIDS symptoms emerged full force in the mid to late 80s. (I also wish that I had never taken either theophylline or antibiotics at all.) It’s a moot point now, as I haven’t touched theophylline since 1988, when my then-acupuncturist insisted that I stop. And I avoid antibiotics as well.

 

Hi Dr Buckelew,

Thank you for your interest in trying to share your and your wife's medical history and your professional experience with doctors who are interested in XMRV and ME/CFS. It seems quite a valuable resource to share to me.

I am writing this email as a consequence of first learning today of XMRV and its possible relationship to CFS and prostate cancer. At first, I hoped to contact Dr. Lous Katz, Dr. John Coffin and Dr. Lucinda Bateman who appear to have considerable interest in XMRV and CFS. I was directed to your website and thought you might be interested. If you have access to the emails of any of the above docs, I would appreciate it if you might forward this letter.

We are both doing well but I thought there might be a nugget of info in this email that could be constructive in their research.

Have you tried contacting the Whittemore Peterson Institute as well? Or any of the authors of the first study that found XMRV in people with prostate cancer and ME/CFS (which was published in Science Oct 2009 http://www.sciencemag.org/content/326/5952/585.abstract ),

Dr Mikovits & Dr V Lombardi, Whittemore Peterson Institute judym{at}wpinstitute.org (from the Science paper)
Dr R Silverman, THe Cleveland Clinic
Dr F Ruscetti, NCI Immunology
Dr S Ruscetti, NCI Cancer

or the authors of the confirming study done by the NIH/FDA, published in PNAS http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2010/08/16/1006901107.abstract
Dr H Alter, NIH
Dr SC Lo, FDA
(from the PNAS paper) shyhching.lo{at}FDA.hhs.gov or halter{at}mail.nih.gov

The others I would recommend are (and others here may chip in with more):

Dr Nancy Klimas, University of Miami
Dr Ila Singh, University of Utah

and Dr Leonard Jason DePaul University (a pyshologist, but one of the long-time researchers into a biophysical cause and extremely well- aware of who's who and what's what in the field)


I hope you will persist a bit longer in trying to get in personal contact with one of the leading-edge doctors in the field. Thanks again for your efforts to date.


shrewsbury