OUCH- what is happening?

[John McDonald]

…so much contradictory info comes pouring forth…

I quite understand. That is a hazard of having peer support.  There are some other sites out there that have a strong central figure, a leader. Those sites tend to have a consistent message which can be comforting provided that you trust their kool-aid.

The Road Back isn't about diet or supplements or even microbial etiology. It is about promoting Dr. Brown's work in which he had such astounding results treating rheumatic disease with tetracycline based antibiotics and other bacterio-static antibiotics such as zithromax or clindamycin. It turns out that you can vary the other bits quite a bit and still get amazing relief from the antibiotics. Most, but not all patients are successful achieving remission this way. I never worried much about diet excepting that I avoided dietary D as a nod to the Marshall Protocol. I didn't observe a 2 or 4 hours food window. I started with twice daily dosing of Doxy, after a bit used alternate day AM and PM dosing, then one dose with breakfast on alternate days. After months on Doxy doc let me switch to Minocycline. I was doing fine on Doxy but Minocycline is a newer generation than Doxy and is said to perfuse better and to be more lethal to more microbes.  So I switched. Later I adopted the Marshall Protocol. All with doc's consent though often I experimented with a change and consulted with doc after for her endorsement. That isn't kosher but doc had learned to trust me and this protocol; it was working. I have seen people improve here when they dosed daily, alternate daily, MWF, high doses, low doses and other antibiotics. I have seen folk improve with food windows and without and while observing or not observing dietary restrictions. I have seen them improve while mixing antibiotics with classic meds, usually while weaning from the latter as I did with Plaquenil. I have seen them mix antibiotics with biologics and prednisone. In general my non-scientific observation from what others report suggest that steroids and methotrexate seem to slow the benefit of AP but it doesn't stop it.

I personally am convinced the diseases are microbial. On the MP I can reliably elicit a herx each 48 hours in synchrony with my abx dosing and so far I think a microbial cause is the best explanation of that herx and a dozen or two dozen other phenomena that I can't explain otherwise. I think Marshall may be right about the need to avoid dietary D and I do so. But I have seen a few people who prosper here and who confound me by reporting that D is part of their success formula. Go figure. I also think the microbes mess up our digestion and give us food intolerances and sometimes smell intolerances. I think that these are symptoms and not causes, and should be treated symptomatically  by avoiding the offending foods until the gut and body heal. Others here think these things are causal and you won't get better until you address them. Either way you avoid the food until maybe sometime down the road you cheat and may find that you can eat it again.

It is tough to chart your course through all of this. But it can be done and it is well worth it.  Good luck.

-john

 

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