FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT ANTIBIOTIC THERAPY

1. HOW DOES ANTIBIOTIC THERAPY DIFFER FROM CONVENTIONAL THERAPY?

Antibiotic therapy is based on the theory that inflammatory rheumatic diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, scleroderma, lupus, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, polymyositis, ankylosing spondylitis, etc. have an infectious cause such as mycoplasma and other bacterial L forms. Significant evidence supporting this theory has been published in medical literature for decades. The use of low dose antibiotics, particularly from the tetracycline or macrolide families, attack the disease process at its source, namely the infectious agent. In contrast to the treatment of ordinary, acute bacterial infections with faster growing bacteria, the bacterial forms which trigger the chronic infectious disease processes are much slower growing organisms; thus, the antibiotic protocols prescribed for treating the rheumatoid diseases are based on the use of long-term, low-dose antibiotics, usually given only three days per week - sometimes more frequently.

This therapy is equally effective in patients with severe and/or long-standing disease as it is in those with mild to moderate disease. Thomas McPherson Brown, M.D. (1906-1989), a well known rheumatologist who practiced in the Washington, D.C. area, pioneered this treatment over fifty years ago and successfully used it to treat over ten thousand patients during his lifetime.

In contrast, however, the toxic medications used by rheumatologists today in conventional therapy are prescribed to try and control or suppress symptoms rather than to eradicate the underlying bacterial infection, which is the root cause of the disease process. These more toxic drugs may or may not be effective. If they do work, it is only a matter of time before they either lose their effectiveness or the patient develops side effects, forcing him/her to discontinue usage of them. The patients often are left worse than before they ever started the medication.

The ultimate decision about whether this antibiotic therapy is appropriate for you should be made with advice from your physician. Treatment must be tailored to the individual patient. While this therapy is effective for the vast majority of rheumatoid patients, it does not always work for everyone. If treatment failure occurs, then other misdiagnosed medical problems must be investigated carefully, always keeping in mind that one can have more than one disease process as well as more than one diagnosis going on in one's body at the same time.

For example, toxic root canal teeth and Lyme Disease (caused by a spirochete) are two of the most commonly overlooked problems which can lead to treatment failure because they require separate treatment programs. In fact, if either of these two diagnoses is so much as suspected of being even a remote possibility, then appropriate testing should be done before starting any long term antibiotic protocol in order to prevent unnecessary complications with this therapy. [Lyme Disease is now associated with over 300 medical conditions including ALS; Alzheimer's disease; Parkinson's disease; MS; almost any inflammatory or degenerative central, autonomic, and peripheral neurological disturbance; fibromyalgia; IBS; eye inflammation; rheumatoid arthritis; scleroderma; lupus, etc. Patients need to be aware that current guidelines for testing Lyme often result in false negatives. Researcher Joanne Whitaker, M.D. has developed a more accurate test for Lyme Disease called the Q-RIBb test which actually looks for the cell wall deficient form of Borrelia Burgdorferi, rather than relying on detection of antibodies. This test is available from Central Florida Research, Inc. They accept billing for Medicare and most major insurance companies. Check their website for more information. www.centralfloridaresearch.com. The phone number is 863-956-3538.]