Bactrim for Lyme - has someone experience with it ?

[Hanna]

Hi
My Lyme doc wants me to take some Bactrim 480 mg, along with my basic combo of Tetralysal and Plaquenil.
Has someone some experiment with this drug? Some good advices for a very sensitive patient (like all of us )
Thanks for telling your Bactrim-story
NB : Trade names, Bactrim, Bactrimel, Biseptol, Co-trimoxazole, Cotrim, Resprim, Septra ....

 

[Dufresne]

I've fairly recently started antimicrobials for Lyme and co. Conveniently I found some Bactrim SD (800-160) in the medicine cabinet that had been prescribed to my GF a couple years back and figured I'd add it to the Alinia and Buhner herbs I've been taking. I took one tablet in the morning and one at night, and this produced considerable die-off over the next several days until I ran out of pills. I immediately placed an order for more.

I herxed much harder with the Bactrim than I did with Metronidazole, which I'm now taking. This quite surprised me as metro is the one most have difficulty with.

Bactrim hits borrelia, bartonella, and babesia quite effectively. It's the single drug that has most impressed me thus far.

 

[zzz]

Although Bactrim is a very effective drug, it can also be very dangerous, with possibly fatal reactions. Most doctors don't know this. When using Bactrim for treating Lyme, it can be extremely difficult to tell the difference between a herx reaction and a potentially life-threatening adverse drug reaction. Please see the thread "Antibiotics: complete the round or stop?" for details.

 

[Valentijn]

I personally would not try Bactrim, because both my aunt and my mother have had allergic reactions to sulfa antibiotics in the distant past.

Both components of Bactrim work by inhibiting folate in different ways.

 

[Hanna]

I've fairly recently started antimicrobials for Lyme and co. Conveniently I found some Bactrim SD (800-160) in the medicine cabinet that had been prescribed to my GF a couple years back and figured I'd add it to the Alinia and Buhner herbs I've been taking. I took one tablet in the morning and one at night, and this produced considerable die-off over the next several days until I ran out of pills. I immediately placed an order for more.

I herxed much harder with the Bactrim than I did with Metronidazole, which I'm now taking. This quite surprised me as metro is the one most have difficulty with.

Bactrim hits borrelia, bartonella, and babesia quite effectively. It's the single drug that has most impressed me thus far.

Wow! more herx with Bactrim than with metronidazole? I hope I will survive the lighter version of Bactrim (480 mg). From 1997 to 2003 I had several courses of Flagyl which were a pure nightmare (for amybes) and even didn't do the trick.
Next month I am introducing both Bactrim (12 days), then Tinidazole - 1 gr/day during a week... What a festival!

 

[Hanna]

Thanks @zzz and @Valentijn for the information... though it is a scarrying one.
@zzz in the mentioned thread, you precised you took several times Bactrim with success, so there is also room for hope... Was it the light version or the heavier one?
@ valentijn, I have the same question for you ... And do you know what type of allergic reaction it was?
(my doc prescribed the light one - 480 mg twice a day - 12 days)

 

[Countrygirl]

It might be wise to bear in mind that Septrin was considered by to be one of the causes of an ME-type illness in the UK back in the '80s. (The research of Doris Jones dating back to the '90s which can be read in the so-called secret files highlighted this association.) There used to be a patient support group for those who developed ME after taking this antibiotic.

If I recall correctly, a number of ME victims were paid compensation by the manufacturers. Many years ago, I read that Septrin was quietly removed from the UK following this problem and re-packaged and sold in the USA as Bactrim.

I was particularly interested because I took regular courses of Septrin for a few years before I developed ME.

You might be wise to check this out before you take this long term.

 

[Valentijn]

@Valentijn, I have the same question for you ... And do you know what type of allergic reaction it was?

One had a rash with "really weird purple spots" all over her body. The other had to go to the hospital with a really horrid rash. So rashes of varying intensity in both cases.

 

[Helen]

As @Valentijn stresses it interferes with the folate metabolism. For people with polymorphisms in the MTHFR, like most of PWME according to posted results from genotyping, I assume this drug should be risky to take. It is recommended to supplement with folate when taking Bactrim, but what happens if you start with a methylfolate deficiency? Couldn´t you discuss this with your doctor? Maybe there is a better alternative for you.

 

[Hanna]

It might be wise to bear in mind that Septrin was considered by to be one of the causes of an ME-type illness in the UK back in the '80s. (The research of Doris Jones dating back to the '90s which can be read in the so-called secret files highlighted this association.) There used to be a patient support group for those who developed ME after taking this antibiotic.

If I recall correctly, a number of ME victims were paid compensation by the manufacturers. Many years ago, I read that Septrin was quietly removed from the UK following this problem and re-packaged and sold in the USA as Bactrim.

I was particularly interested because I took regular causes of Septrin for a few years before I developed ME.

You might be wise to check this out before you take this long term.

Thanks @Countrygirl for mentioning the corellation ME-Septrim, hqvn't heard about it. I am going to study it more. That does mitigate the motivation this drug.

 

[Hanna]

One had a rash with "really weird purple spots" all over her body. The other had to go to the hospital with a really horrid rash. So rashes of varying intensity in both cases.

That's frightening. Hubby didn't want to tell me (he didn't want to interfere with another doc's prescription) that bactrim is the medication number one for giving Steven Johnson's syndrome. As a dermatologist in Hospital he met more than once poor people who got this hellish reaction. This reaction begins with a rash...

 

[Hanna]

As @Valentijn stresses it interferes with the folate metabolism. For people with polymorphisms in the MTHFR, like most of PWME according to posted results from genotyping, I assume this drug should be risky to take. It is recommended to supplement with folate when taking Bactrim, but what happens if you start with a methylfolate deficiency? Couldn´t you discuss this with your doctor? Maybe there is a better alternative for you.

Thanks Helen, you're right. Better safe than sorry.

 

[Hanna]

I have begun the Bactrim today, first dose at 7.30 a.m. (not the forte - the lightest one) as Sunday is the only day when Hubby is able to come and go... and watch after some "possible problematic evolution".

Around 11h-11.30 am, I began to feel some burning/tingling in both my eyes, went to the bathroom and noticed that some conjonctivite has developped (tiny blood vessels in both eyes exploded on an horizontal scheme).
No need to say that I don't feel safe, and fear that it may develop into something more scary.

Conjonctivite has been reported - though less often- with bactrim.
Has someone experimented such reaction? How has it turned ?

For the time beeing, the bactrim will return to the drawer...

 

[soxfan]

I am on Bactrim DS along with Zithromax. I take one in the morning and one at night along with 250mg Zithro. I haven't had any problems so far and been on for almost 2 weeks.....

 

[Helen]

I assume that the individual reactions could be due to genetics. CYP 2C9 metabolizes Bactrim.

https://faculty.sharepoint.illinois...default/Cytochrom P450 metabolism article.pdf

 

[maryb]

Can someone tell me where I will find this information in my 23 and me data, thanks.

 

[Helen]

Can someone tell me where I will find this information in my 23 and me data, thanks.

I sent you an e-mail. Two SNP´s of the actual CYP seem to be analyzed, maybe more.

Maybe @Valentijn, @Sea or anyone else could help?

 

[maryb]

@Helen
thank you, I really appreciate you taking the time.

 

[Hanna]

Thanks for the reaction. @soxfan I am glad the treatment doesn't cause any pbs. For the moment, I still have the cunjunctivitis but nothing more has developed.
I havn't done the 23andme test, so I can't figure out if I am a good candidate for complications, nevertheless thanks for the info @Helen, perhaps I will offer to myself this test after all...

 

[Helen]

Thanks for the reaction. @soxfan
I havn't done the 23andme test, so I can't figure out if I am a good candidate for complications, nevertheless thanks for the info @Helen, perhaps I will offer to myself this test after all...

If you have sensitivities to chemicals and drugs of different kinds you might get some useful information from a 23andme test (among all other information that could be useful). Many things in my medical history were explained when I got information about my gene defects. Now I know better how to avoid exposure that is negative for me.