Dropping levels or complements C3 and c4 when first starting mino

[Mdavidson]

Hi,

Been reading the forum for a while and trying to catch up. I’m learning a great deal.

I started on minocycline about a month ago. I had a baseline blood work done and have checked every two weeks since then. Only major change has been with the complements levels of c3 and c4. These dropped from the normal range into the low range c3(1.09g/L,.86,.6) c4(.19g/L,.17,.12). My reading says that low complement numbers are associated with SLE not DILE. As far as I can tell there are no other symptoms.

Has anyone had this kind of situation or have any idea what may be happening? Or if it’s anything to even worry about!

Thanks, Michelle

RA – diagnosed November 2017
Taking minocycline 50mg Monday Wednesday Friday
Take compounded t4 for thyroid
React badly to sulfa drugs
Stomach problems after one month of plaquenil.
Have mostly been able to control my ra symptoms with the AIP diet, but I’m finding it less effective and therefore I’m trying pharmaceuticals.

[Maz]

Hi Michelle,

How were you diagnosed with RA? Did you have any positive lab markers? Do you think it’s possible that there is a SLE overlap?

Sometimes newly-diagnosed rheumatic patients aren’t totally clear about diagnosis in the early days and it takes a while to get a more full picture of what is occurring.

Aside from this, my experience of early AP in 2006 was that all my highly seropositive RA labs significantly worsened for the first few months (with severe herxing – I was on triple therapy in high doses for Lyme), but then slowly started to improve in tiny increments the following year when I stepped down to Pulsed AP. Shared experience here, over the years, seems to be that sometimes APer labs improve before symptoms, but in others the opposite occurs. Either way can be unnerving, but even small improvements in labs or symptoms are reassuring as the months/years roll by.

One month in is still very early days for AP, but it’s certainly worth discussing your concerns about your complement numbers with your doc, as it may be worthwhile running or re-running further rheumatic labs.

Very nice of you to join us here! It’s been quiet, especially since the new FB page went live a few months ago. I’m an old fogey and admit to preferring this forum to the fast-paced convo there.

PS Did you intend for your email to be your User ID? If not, you should be able to change it in your profile. If you have trouble, just PM me what you’d like it to show publicly and I’ll try to help.

[Vincentpre23]

Hi Michelle,

Nice to meet you . I have a slightly similar development. I have an undiagnosed connective tissue disease and have been on Minocycline for about 6 months. Before starting abx my c3 when it was tested a year ago was normal. A year later c3 is low c4 still normal. I retested for lupus antibodies and they were still negative and histone antibody which indicates dile is also negative. My wbc has been low as well but that was even before starting Minocycline. I have heard a few integrative doctors mention that a low c3 indicates infection. Hope things normalize for you.

4/19 symptoms onset
UCTD , 1:40 ANA Speckled, Now negative
Mycoplasma P IGG IGM, EBV, HSV1, Igenix Bartonella IGG
Doxycycline 100mg b.i.d. , Bactrim ds 960 mg b.i.d. , Biodisrupt, fluconazole 100mg q.d , Monolauren, Visbiome probiotic 112.5b b.i.d ,B-complex, Vitamin D , Quercetin, saccharomyces boulardii, raw garlic , paleo, WHM

[Mdavidson]

Thanks Maz and Vincent for your replies. I was diagnosed with a positive RF and anti-ccp blood work, the usual bilateral joint pain, exhaustion, etc. and a family history.

Having other people have weird blood work is very helpful! In terms of SLE, I was tested for the ANA just before starting on the minocycline and it was negative. My double strand DNA is also negative (as of last week).

As someone who doesn’t like Facebook, I’m very happy the forum still seems to work.

Thanks again,
Michelle

[Maz]

Hi Mdavidson,

You might find Dr. Raphael Stricker’s article interesting? It may not be entirely relevant to you but it discusses how infections, like Lyme, alter Complement numbers according to studies he’s conducted:

ROLE OF C3A AND C4A COMPLEMENT PROTEINS IN CHRONIC LYME DISEASE

Glad you’ve found the forum, too, and your input is important as RBF only recently started a FB group, which is pretty active, but it’s good to know others still prefer the old style forum.

[Author]

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