Benadryl?

[York]

My allergies have been acting up a bit and I have been taking 1/2 of a Benadryl pill for the last couple of weeks or so. One whole pill knocks me out!

I have noticed that I have been feeling completely symptom free since taking 1/2 a pill. Has anyone else had a similar experience?

I know Benadryl is a histamine blocker – but I’m just wondering if this could somehow be a bad thing?

Thanks for any thoughts.

[Maz]

@York wrote:

My allergies have been acting up a bit and I have been taking 1/2 of a Benadryl pill for the last couple of weeks or so. One whole pill knocks me out!

I have noticed that I have been feeling completely symptom free since taking 1/2 a pill. Has anyone else had a similar experience?

I know Benadryl is a histamine blocker – but I’m just wondering if this could somehow be a bad thing?

Thanks for any thoughts.

Hi York,

This might help to allay your concerns. Brown often employed anti-histamines during anti-microbial therapy to off-set hypersensitivity reactions (too much die-off causing increased bacterial allergy). I’ll cut and paste the relevant part of a presentation he gave on the topic of “Hypersensitivity,” for you below:

The following is an excerpt from a presentation made probably in the mid to late 1970s by Thomas McPherson Brown, M.D., (1906-1989) who practiced rheumatology for 52 years in the Washington, D.C. area.

Excerpt taken from: GUIDELINES FOR INFECTIOUS HYPERSENSITIVITY APPROACH TO THE TREATMENT OF RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS

A fairly standard approach to treatment then would be one of the anti-inflammatory drugs as often as necessary to reduce pain through the reduction of inflammation. This may be as little as Clinoril or Naprosyn twice daily or Motrin three or four times a day, or Ascriptin, three tablets four times a day. If pain is not subdued with this approach, then Tylenol #3 or Empirin #3 or other pain relievers can be added. We generally employ tetracycline in 250 mg. amounts every other evening at bedtime combined with an antihistamine which seems to potentiate its action such as Ateldrinspansule, 8 mg., or Benadryl, 25 mg. As time goes on, often 500 mg. every other night is well-accepted and helps to promote improvement. Very often fluid retention is noted due to release of antigen from the antimicrobial medications in stirring up the hypersensitivity reactions, and this can be treated with a diuretic in the morning such as Diazide or any other acceptable form of diuretic.

Lupies, in particular, tend to be pretty hypersensive to many meds and it sounds like you’ve hit on a nice palliative adjunct to your therapy. 🙂

If you’d like me to send you the full article, I’d be happy to do this in a private message to you – just let me know.

[dianne-sunshinecoast]

hi york and maz, just read your posts this a.m., and very interested, it was going to be one of my questions to the forum too . hope it would be ok for me to request the full transcript as well maz? thank you both..kind regards ..di.

[Fergie]

I have always wondered about taking bendryl or other antihistamines. I always understood it was counterintuitive for lymies. In Dr. Burscano’s guidelines he does not recommend it. I have taken them and have felt better.. Do they not turn off the immune system or surpress it?

[mlouise]

I took benedryl for intense itching about 4 months into the mino and I stayed on it for 6 months. it was the only thing that could help me keep my sanity. I took 100 mg every day and I was still wishing for more. I could hardly stay awake though. I think I was living in a fog most of the time, but at least it kept the itching at bay. mlouise

[York]

I thought I had read somewhere as well that Benadryl is not advised for Lyme patients – but both of my LLMD’s have suggested it during a herx.

It’s hard to know what’s right and what’s wrong.

I don’t think Benadryl acts like a steroid – I think it just turns off the histamine response – but I’m not sure.

I have a friend who has children with Lyme and her LLMD advised her to give them Benadryl each night to help them sleep and also to turn off that histamine reaction. He also advised it for herx’s.

It seems to be helping me though – but I am worried that it’s the calm before the storm!

Maz – I’d love to see that article when you get a chance. – thanks so much for posting that!

[Valsmum]

Maz,
Do you take the benadryl the same time as mino or do I seperate them by an hour or so? I think this might be just the thing I need as I am so hypersensitive to mino after 8 months. Thank you!
Sheri

[dianne-sunshinecoast]

hi sheri, how are you? pardon my ignorance, bue what does hypersensitive to mino mean? ..kind regards..di 🙂

[Maz]

@Fergie wrote:

I have always wondered about taking bendryl or other antihistamines. I always understood it was counterintuitive for lymies. In Dr. Burscano’s guidelines he does not recommend it. I have taken them and have felt better.. Do they not turn off the immune system or surpress it?

Hi Fergie,

I must have missed this contraindication in Burrascano’s guidelines, but I think I’d get clarfication from a LLMD, because the actions of different histamine antagonists are variable. From checking up on this, benedryl is an H1receptor antagonist (there are 4 different types H1,H2, H3 and H4 – see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antihistamine).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benedryl

“Antagonism is achieved through blocking the effect of histamine more than blocking its production or release. Diphenhydramine inhibits most responses of smooth muscle to histamine and acts as a vasoconstrictor by inhibiting the vasodilator effects of histamine. The antagonism may also produce anticholinergic effects, antiemetic effects, and significant sedative side-effects.”

Fergie, I’m not entirely clear how the physiological effects of benedryl might produce adverse effects in particular for Lymies, except perhaps for the effects on blood vessels and acetylcholine receptors in neurons of the brain (because benedryl does cross blood/brain barrier)? It may well be that the cardio-vascular and neurological systems that are affected by this first-generation antihistamine are more the issue than that it is immune-suppressive….which I don’t think it is, because benedryl doesn’t block histamine production per say, just blocks its effects. 😕

Think we should probably just go with whatever our LLMDs say is fine for us, but definitely to ask these very pertinent questions. Thanks for bring it up, Fergie. 🙂

[Maz]

@Valsmum wrote:

Maz,
Do you take the benadryl the same time as mino or do I seperate them by an hour or so? I think this might be just the thing I need as I am so hypersensitive to mino after 8 months. Thank you!
Sheri

Hi Sheri,

From the transcript above, Brown seems to imply they should be taken together, but this of course should always be double-checked with one’s doc to be sure it is right for the individual 😉 :

“We generally employ tetracycline in 250 mg. amounts every other evening at bedtime combined with an antihistamine which seems to potentiate its action such as Ateldrinspansule, 8 mg., or Benadryl, 25 mg.”

Btw…he also says to “take at bed-time,” but any of the tetras (mino, doxy or tetracycline) should always be taken a good hour or so prior to lying down, just to ensure there is no damaging reflux or a capsule hasn’t quite gone down completely to avert esophageal burning.

[Maz]

@York wrote:

Maz – I’d love to see that article when you get a chance. – thanks so much for posting that!

Hi York, I’ll send the transcript to you in a PM now. 😉

Hi Di, just sent you a copy, too, as requested. Just click above where it will say (1 new message).

[Valsmum]

Thank you Maz,
I think I fell asleep sitting upright one night in bed, waiting for a half hour or so to pass after taking mino 🙂

-Sheri

[Jan Lucinda1]

I started taking benadryl at bedtime because of severe itching from eczema but if it potentiates the mino that is a plus.

Jan

[Fergie]

Thanks Maz.

[Valsmum]

Hi Diane,

I think if I’m right, hypersensitive means that one is really sensitive to any adjustment with their minocycline or even when they start minocycline that their reaction to it is much stronger than the norm. In Dr. Brown’s book one of tha patients could only take 10mg of minocycline because the die-off was so bad and so was her herx reaction. I have been on AP for 8 months and I only take 25-50mg twice a week, otherwise I swell up so much it can’t penetrate. I hope that helps 🙂
Take care,
Sheri

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