Over the years I have tried many things to restore my lyme ridden body back to health. At this point I have figured out the things that work for me and the things that just left a bigger hole in my pocket. One of the the most important tools in my medicinal arsenal has been good old doxycycline at low doses over long periods of time. This part is important! I, like many lyme patients, suffer from horrific herxheimer reactions when put on large doses of antibiotics. I have tried so many different ones, but the one that allowed me to live a semi normal life and feel much better has been 100mg of doxy two times a day. Usually you would take more than this dosage because it is only bacteriostatic at 200 mg a day, and becomes bacteriacidal at 400-600mg a day.

I could never tolerate the larger doses, I just simply got too sick to stand it. But eventually I stayed on the 200mg a day for about a year at one point and I began to feel better and better. I am not cured, but after many trial and error episodes I have realized that this drug works best to keep me going. It is my fall back, it is my love. I always relapse when I come off of antibiotics, always. So while I still search for a cure, I know I have my trusty doxy to use and maintain a better quality of life. I think the reason I do so well with this regimen is because it is bacteriostatic (stops the lyme from growing, but is not killing it off actively), so over time my load gets less and less without creating a massive die-off in my body because of the slow kill off effect. And of course I begin to feel better because of the lower load in my body. This may be helpful to those of you still suffering. Doxy also seems to cause few side effects in my body, which is another important positive aspect to this regimen. I don’t get yeast infections from it, but I do take it with nystatin daily. While this is obviously not the best way to live, total dependence on medication, it is my reality right now and as I embrace it, I get to forget about lyme for a little while, take my little blue pills and live! I hope this helps.