Written by Dr. Diane Mueller
This is a very controversial topic because doxycycline is
the most commonly prescribed drug for Lyme Disease, especially in the acute
stage. It is clear that doxy definitely makes many people’s acute symptoms go
away, which is part of why it is prescribed so frequently. To talk about doxy
as a possible treatment strategy, first we need to take a step back to make
sure that we are on the same page as far as how Lyme works in the body.
Lyme Disease is caused by an infection from the bacteria, Borrelia. Borrelia has the ability to morph and take different shapes. This ability allows it not only to hide from our immune system, but helps it be resistant to many different drugs/medications. Doxycycline works very well to help with removal of some of the shapes of Lyme disease. The problem is that it increases the amount of the cystic (hidden/dormant) form of Lyme Disease by two-fold. (continue below)
So the problem with doxycycline is that often times people take it and it removes the active form of Borrelia from the bloodstream and the person gets better acutely. However, since doxycycline will increase the dormant hidden form of Borrelia, it essentially puts the Borrelia into hiding.[1] And the Borrelia can later (usually due to stress) convert into the active forms again and start causing symptoms. The problem with this is that later stage symptoms of Lyme Disease are quite a bit different than acute symptoms. Later stage symptoms may manifest as chronic headaches, fatigue, fibromyalgia, or strange neurological symptoms. Often people think they treated Lyme Disease effectively because of use of doxycycline and elimination of the symptoms and therefore it does not cross their mind that their symptoms could be due to that insect bite many years ago.
Doxycycline can be the right choice for people in acute Lyme, but how it is used is really important. You will want to combine it with other drugs or herbs that kill the cystic form of Borrelia. This way if doxy is converting more Borrelia to the form of the microorganism that exists in hiding, you are also giving support to treat and eliminate this other shape of the microorganism. Combining doxy with drugs such as flagyl, metronidazole and tindemax can be really helpful to attack the cyst form of Borrelia. Alternatively, cryptolepsis and grapefruit seed extract work really well from a natural perspective to combat the cyst form of the microorganism.
[1] Sapi E, Kaur N, Anyanwu S, Luecke DF, Datar A, Patel S, Rossi M, Stricker RB. Evaluation of in-vitro antibiotic susceptibility of different morphological forms of Borrelia burgdorferi. Infect Drug Resist. 2011;4:97-113. doi: 10.2147/IDR.S19201. Epub 2011 May 3. PMID: 21753890; PMCID: PMC3132871.
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