Erythromycin vs Azithromycin

[Mountains]

Quick update on our daughter trying Erythromycin with the hopes it would help with her severe acid reflux. Even though I have read and have seen a Pub Med study showing Azithromycin is a better prokinetic, our Daughters GI doctor would not prescribe it for her severe acid reflux. He would only prescribe Erythromycin. Since Erythro is in the Tetracycline family and is mentioned by Dr. Brown in his work, we thought we would try it. We stopped the Azithromycin and had her take the Erythromycin (250mg 4 times per day) for 2 weeks. On the 3rd week, her Raynaud’s came back and her joint pain increased a great deal. We then stopped the Erythromycin and went back to the Azithromycin (only 250mg 3 times a week) and over the next two weeks her Raynaud’s slowly disappeared and her joint pain greatly improved again. No improvement with Acid Reflux with either drug. Since then under Doctor supervision, we have increased her Azithromycin to 5 times per week taking weekends off (250mg once a day). The thought was that since her symptoms returned so quickly and so strongly, perhaps taking Azithromycin 3 times per week was only keeping a few symptoms at bay and not enough to continue progress with any other symptom, like her reflux. I am very grateful that she has two major symptoms at bay with the medication. Both Raynaud’s and joint pain (including tightness of fingers) has improved 80% to 90% on the Azithromycin and this gives her a much better quality of life but after 6 months on Azithromycin, we seem to be stuck here. AP Doctor just prescribed Tinidazole for 10 days. We are going to try it to see if we make a dent in any other symptom.

[Luck20]

I’m so glad to hear her joint pain and finger tightness has improved so much! That’s wonderful.

I’ve heard Tinidazole can work as a biofilm buster so that sounds like a good addition.

Has she taken anything for fungus or yeast? The more I read, the more that seems to be a root cause for many. Not sure if that can trigger reflux but it wouldn’t surprise me if it somehow affected it in a roundabout way.

Is she having problems with her esophagus having spasms or motility? I was and found a herb that helped a lot.

Originally +Ana May 2018 (now negative Jan 2019), scleroderma or uctd, Morphea (now mostly gone!), Myositis ( better now) Probable Lyme w/coinfections, had Bartonella marks that disappeared,
Mild reflux, mostly gone,mild ild, skin hardening (continued softening and some parts normal again) Impaired liver function, now normal after 1 year and CK, LDH all normal again, 14 mo after starting ap.

Minocin m-f 2x, antibiotic rotation, ldn 4.5, cellcept 3000, probiotics, Monolaurens, Olive leaf extract, fish

[Spiffy1]

This is great news, Mountains. I am so glad to hear she has seen improvement. I wonder how long they will willingly keep her at this dose? I don’t understand why regular conventional rheumatologists would not hear of these successes and become interested. They must really do a number on them in medical school to keep them away from being curious toward AP therapy. Please continue to keep us posted.

Flare fall of 2014...muscle aches, joint pains, fatigue, hair loss, rashes, etc.
RA Factor 71 in Jan 2015 down to 25 as of September 2017
DR4/DQ8 HLA...biotoxin illness
IGG food allergy to wheat, egg, and dairy...probably all grains
Vit. C&D, probiotics, milk thistle, turmeric, fish oil, methyl b 12, methyl folate, digestive enzymes, Candisol, Ubiquinol, berberine, chlorella, Moducare, LDN, monolaurin, Triphala, Patriot Greens, Paractin
MTHFR compound heterozygous
Igenex IGM positive Lyme, minoMWF

[Spiffy1]

I can’t remember. Has the doctor mentioned trying LDN?

Flare fall of 2014...muscle aches, joint pains, fatigue, hair loss, rashes, etc.
RA Factor 71 in Jan 2015 down to 25 as of September 2017
DR4/DQ8 HLA...biotoxin illness
IGG food allergy to wheat, egg, and dairy...probably all grains
Vit. C&D, probiotics, milk thistle, turmeric, fish oil, methyl b 12, methyl folate, digestive enzymes, Candisol, Ubiquinol, berberine, chlorella, Moducare, LDN, monolaurin, Triphala, Patriot Greens, Paractin
MTHFR compound heterozygous
Igenex IGM positive Lyme, minoMWF

[Linda L]

Does your daughter have reflux at night or during a day?

RA tried everything: Methotraxate, Arava, Humira. Pneumonia three times. Anemia. Very low iron. Hypothyroidism
AP from April 2014 till August 2015. No luck.
Current medications: Natural thyroid, Mobic, supplements,
vitamins and minerals.
MTHFR heterozygous

[Mountains]

Luck20,

I would be very interested in the herb you used for Esophageal spasms. They don’t happen as much as they use to but when they do it is VERY painful for her. Two winters ago she was in a flare that was really affecting her lungs and she had shortness of breath often, at that time she had months of terrible esophageal spasms. She would go days without eating. At that time we didn’t know she had Scleroderma and the Doctors couldn’t figure out why she was having such a hard time. They said it’s probably asthma or allergies but those remedies didn’t work. I think after 4 months her immune system got out of that flare and/or maybe some of the herbs we were doing to kill SIBO and H. Pylori affected the Mycoplasma. No way of knowing for sure but I’m glad she isn’t in that place anymore. The only time she gets them now is if she takes Ibuprofen. She was tested for yeast in her stool a few years ago and it came back with no yeast. Her acid was worse then. She doesn’t get much acid during the day. It’s always at night for 4 to 8 hours. Starting at 9 or 10 pm every night. It’s probably a good time to test yeast again since she’s on so many antibiotics. Please let me know which herb you use. Thank you! 😉

[Mountains]

Spiffy1,

I too don’t understand either why the Specialist doesn’t ask us more questions. The most open Conventional Doctor we have is our Gastroenterologist. He at least looks at the information I give him and acknowledges that we should continue with our AP doc and the Azithromycin. I brought up LDN to him recently and he didn’t say no but he wants to try a new vagus nerve stimulator that will be placed behind her ear to hopefully help regulate her esophageal activity to a more normal one. It was just approved by the FDA and they are awaiting insurance approval. No surgery, just an external unit. Kind of reminds me of the tens unit. She actually tried a tens unit for a few months a few years ago but it didn’t seem to make a difference. I will bring up LDN to our AP when we go to see him in September. My husband was on LDN for a while to see if it would help with his Psoriatic Arthritis but it didn’t seem to be of any benefit. Then again he hasn’t done the AP either. I wonder if once he starts AP he should revisit LDN. Sometimes it’s not that something doesn’t work, it’s just that the timing or dose is wrong. I’ve learned to put things on a shelf and revisit them at a later time.

[Mountains]

Linda L,

She rarely has acid during the day anymore. She use to the first few years but now it’s mostly all at night. Starts about 9pm and will last 4 to 8 hours. Sometimes it’s 4am and she still is having severe reflux. I mean loud reflux that I can hear from the next room. I really don’t understand since her last meal or snack is always before 7pm. So what is in her stomach 6 to 8 hours later to reflux?? I forget what the test is called but it’s the one where they measure transit time. They give you a meal with trace amounts of Radiation and then photograph every hour for 4 hours to see if your transit time is normal and hers came back a little slow but nothing that would take twice the amount to digest her food like this all night reflux would seem to indicate. We’ve also tried many restrictions and diets. When I say try, I mean for a minimum of 6 months and some restrictions we have had her on for years now and the only improvement has been the daytime reflux. My feeling is something else is going on with her vagus nerve or a parasite or it may be that the Mycoplasma is buried deep within her esophageal tissues and it will take some time before we see relief with the reflux. Reflux was her very first symptom and it has always been one of her worse.

[Luck20]

I forgot to say, you can probably get the Tinidazole much cheaper on the Bylowdrugs.com website. For me, it was a 1/3 the price of walgreens!

It was a tincture of FRESH Bidens Piloso that helped with my esophagus. I got it from Montana Farmacy listed just as Fresh Bidens. Fresh is much more potent than made from dried.

I’ve read, probably in Steven Buhner books, that is good for difficulty swallowing, increases effects of tetracycline, good for systemic infections, cmv, candida and mycoplasma. My one issue with it was it increased estrogen and my cycles got really messed up. Maybe because I was using it with Cordyceps tincture too??? That increases estrogen as well. Everyone is different and I certainly wouldn’t let that discourage anyone from trying it, at least short term, unless they have severe estrogen problems. I only used it 2 weeks and it helped! I’ve read herbs act as a synergy and arent ment to be used singularly. I used the Fresh Bidens with Cordyceps, Houttynia and Chinese Skullcap. Also, Redroot and Burdox for detox. At first I neglected detox and now I know better! I also started on Pectasol or something like that and it helped immensly.(that’s a capsule) All others are tinctures and very low dosages. I start with a drop and work up, integrating a new herb every few days and watch for herxing. I herx easily with very unusual joint pain that goes away in a day or two once my body is used to the herb. Over and over again I doubted how these tiny bottles of plant medicine could really work and I’ve been humbled by them. All these herbs listed above, work for mycoplasma and various lyme coinfections. Steven Buhner can provide hours of fun reading and interesting protocols for various things. Herbs are an exciting world that I’m thankful to have found!

My energy and muscle tone is coming back. I expect my labs to all be normal next appointment! Even my CK levels that were around 3000. Things have really improved in 2 months. I’m off Prilosec and just rely on a tums here and there. In the last year, my reflux has improved so much. It wasn’t nearly as bad as your daughter’s but I did have scary swallowing issues and countless reflux triggers that have disappeared. At one point, pills kept getting stuck and some kinds really triggered the reflux. Now I can take huge ones, but I love just using drops of herbal medicine. I’m so grateful this option exist. Just be warned, some herbs themselves trigger reflux. I had trouble originally with Hawthorn, Alchornea, Japanese Knotweed and the capsule of Serrapeptase. I intend to go back to them later and try again.

Originally +Ana May 2018 (now negative Jan 2019), scleroderma or uctd, Morphea (now mostly gone!), Myositis ( better now) Probable Lyme w/coinfections, had Bartonella marks that disappeared,
Mild reflux, mostly gone,mild ild, skin hardening (continued softening and some parts normal again) Impaired liver function, now normal after 1 year and CK, LDH all normal again, 14 mo after starting ap.

Minocin m-f 2x, antibiotic rotation, ldn 4.5, cellcept 3000, probiotics, Monolaurens, Olive leaf extract, fish

[Luck20]

I’ve had the same issue too of nightime reflux 8 or 9 hour after eating for no reason. Its mild but annoying.

I’m really hoping as the disease goes into remission, these things disappear. I’m not sure if that is possible for everyone but I tell myself that everyday that it is. I think it’s important to believe its possible.

Originally +Ana May 2018 (now negative Jan 2019), scleroderma or uctd, Morphea (now mostly gone!), Myositis ( better now) Probable Lyme w/coinfections, had Bartonella marks that disappeared,
Mild reflux, mostly gone,mild ild, skin hardening (continued softening and some parts normal again) Impaired liver function, now normal after 1 year and CK, LDH all normal again, 14 mo after starting ap.

Minocin m-f 2x, antibiotic rotation, ldn 4.5, cellcept 3000, probiotics, Monolaurens, Olive leaf extract, fish

[Spiffy1]

Could it be that the acids in her stomach actually need some more food at that time so that it has something to digest and work on besides her own tissues? Just thinking, but I know nothing about reflux.

Flare fall of 2014...muscle aches, joint pains, fatigue, hair loss, rashes, etc.
RA Factor 71 in Jan 2015 down to 25 as of September 2017
DR4/DQ8 HLA...biotoxin illness
IGG food allergy to wheat, egg, and dairy...probably all grains
Vit. C&D, probiotics, milk thistle, turmeric, fish oil, methyl b 12, methyl folate, digestive enzymes, Candisol, Ubiquinol, berberine, chlorella, Moducare, LDN, monolaurin, Triphala, Patriot Greens, Paractin
MTHFR compound heterozygous
Igenex IGM positive Lyme, minoMWF

[Linda L]

Try to give your daughter probiotic after her evening meal, after 7 pm

RA tried everything: Methotraxate, Arava, Humira. Pneumonia three times. Anemia. Very low iron. Hypothyroidism
AP from April 2014 till August 2015. No luck.
Current medications: Natural thyroid, Mobic, supplements,
vitamins and minerals.
MTHFR heterozygous

[Mountains]

Hello Spiffy1,
We have tried to give her something to eat late to see if that would help. The reflux does stop, I guess the stomach is busy digesting but then in about an hour it comes back with a vengeance. It’s the same every time. I appreciate the input though. You never know what could work unless you try.

[Author]

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