Has anyone used Erythromycin for GERD?

[Mountains]

GI Specialist is willing to prescribe low dose Erythromycin to see if it helps our 12 year old daughters’ severe GERD. She is taking Azythromycin MWF 250mg once per day and right now she is doing a 3 round cycle of Alinia 2 weeks on at 500 per day (split in 2 doses) and 2 weeks off. I understand the Erythromycin is in the Tetracycline family, so we’re good helping a little more with the Mycoplasma but has anyone used it for upper GI motility? Has it helped? Can doing 3 antibiotics like this be overkill and cause resistance or other problems? She is on a daily dose of a good probiotic and never misses.

I will say this. Her arthritis and Raynaud’s are almost non-existent (she has only complained once of Raynaud’s in the past month and maybe 3 times of joint pain in the last month). This is greatly reduced from where she was only 5 months ago. Also, she had two hard patches starting on her hands at the middle knuckles and on one hand it’s gone completely and the other is almost gone!! Although the reflux is still bad I am so very thrilled to see these results! 🙂

[Pinkmoth]

I have seen a lot of people in the SIBO support group I’m in be prescribed Erythromycin for SIBO/motility, though I’m not sure if it’s upper GI motility. but seems to be commonly taken and tolerated well.

did your daughters H pylori test come back negative? I am skeptical of the standard breath and stool tests for h pylori because after I took the GI map stool test which is highly sensitive, it indicated a severe h pylori infection. then I took the standard breath and stool tests and said I had no infection at all.

I wonder if it would be worth taking something more sensitive like the GI map to be sure the h pylori is actually eradicated and not continuing to cause problems.

really glad to hear that her skin/renauds indicates she is on the track back to health.

see any good results with the addition of the alinia?

Autoimmune: ANA positive speckled. Probable MCTD with SD overlap. Hashimoto's. Possible Erlos Danlos. Mold Illness.
Infections: Bartonella, toxoplasmosis, mycoplasma, EBV
Meds: minocycline (Zydus generic) 100mg 1x daily,
Supps: digestive enzymes, Monolaurin, Betaine hydrochloric acid, iron, quercetin, biocidin

[Suzanne]

Mountains wrote:

I will say this. Her arthritis and Raynaud’s are almost non-existent (she has only complained once of Raynaud’s in the past month and maybe 3 times of joint pain in the last month). This is greatly reduced from where she was only 5 months ago. Also, she had two hard patches starting on her hands at the middle knuckles and on one hand it’s gone completely and the other is almost gone!! Although the reflux is still bad I am so very thrilled to see these results!

Mountains, I was thinking of you and your daughter the other day and I’m so happy to see this update! Great news!

I always thought erythomycin and azithromycin were just different generations of macrolides? Also, when I googled the two together, it is interesting that this is the first thing that came up:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19924535
“CONCLUSIONS:
Azithromycin stimulates antral activity similar to erythromycin and moreover has a longer duration of effect. However, unlike erythromycin, azithromycin does not have significant drug-drug interactions and maybe a potential new medication for the treatment of gastroparesis and gastrointestinal dysmotility.”

Maybe she is already receiving benefits from the azithromycin?

Mom of teen daughter with Poly JIA since age 2. Current med: azithromycin 250 mg MWF.

[Mountains]

Hello Pinkmoth,

So interesting about your H. Pylori testing. For her H. Pylori we had stool testing done several times through the Pediatrician but all those came back negative. She never had the breath or blood test done for H. Pylori but we did do several GI mapping test the main one showing high amounts of H. Pylori was through DGR labs. The Matula Tea from South Africa took care of her H. Pylori. We used it almost 2 years ago and she hasn’t had the pain after eating since. Sierra did have a hard time with SIBO. I could go on and on with all we used in over 3 years of non-stop treatment. That is where I first learned about Erythromycin for motility. The GI Specialist did mention she is getting some motility help from Azithromycin but thought the Erythromycin low dose right before bed along with an acid reducer would help the acid reflux. Hope you find relief soon for your H. Pylori. For us the Matula Tea did the trick.

[Mountains]

Hello Suzanne,

Great article you found on Pub Med!! The GI Specialist did mention she was probably getting some motility aid with the Azithromycin but thought maybe a small dose of Erythromycin before bed would give her additional relief from the acid reflux. At least we are seeing results in the other ways I mentioned above. We are relieved and so happy the antibiotics are working 🙂

[Author]

Posts