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A single prophylactic 200mg dose of Doxycyline prevents Lyme disease

cdc.gov

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Re: A single prophylactic 200mg dose of Doxycyline prevents Lyme disease

#121

Post by elif »

sterlind wrote: post #109
elif wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is one of my biggest gripes with the American medical system. Every physician is entitled to act like it's his duty to play global health director rather than attending physician. Pro-tip: take a trip to central or south America, and buy over-the-counter antibiotics from a farmacia for pennies on the dollar. Source: I inherited this wisdom from Kari Mullis, Nobel prize winning inventor of PCR.

Kary Mullis has some really weird beliefs, such as astrology and HIV denial. His work on PCR was brilliant but I wouldn't take medical advice from him. That said, I think long-term antibiotics are appropriate if they help with symptoms. My dad developed an autoimmune reaction from long-term doxycycline though, so please do check in with your care team if you go the Farmacia route, at least for labwork.

Agree I would never consider long term antibiotic use.. but in addition to the risk of too much antibiotics, there are many pathogens which can be dormant/suppressed for years, so there is also hazard to completely avoiding antibiotics for decades.. which is the defacto state many Americans end up in if they don't have a probably treatable acute infection.

I fear that risk over the risk of e.g. a 10-day course that is routinely taken prophylactically around the world.

Re: A single prophylactic 200mg dose of Doxycyline prevents Lyme disease

#122

Post by treeman79 »

GordonS wrote: post #116
treeman79 wrote: post #79

Have a severe autoimmune condition. Tons of weird issues. But didn’t know it. Would occasionally take doxycycline. My issues would clear up for a few weeks. Mentioned this once to a doctor neuro-ophthalmologist). He grew interested and started asking about how dry my eyes and mouth were. I said they were fine. He insisted on testing. I failed. I was just used to them being dry Declared I had had Sjogrens. An autoimmu…

Interesting, how long is a course for you, and what dosage please?

I don’t recall anymore. Been a few years. Doctors didn’t like the theory are were not willing to try.

Re: A single prophylactic 200mg dose of Doxycyline prevents Lyme disease

#123

Post by bicx »

wlesieutre wrote: post #41
bicx wrote: post #27

It's easy for some of us to forget that Lyme disease is an ongoing danger parts of the world. I used to have to keep it in mind when I lived in Tennessee, but that's one thing I don't think about much now that I'm in San Francisco. Of course, I have a lot of other problems instead, just not ticks!

There are ticks and they have lyme disease! https://www.sfchronicle.com/local/environment/article/Lyme-c...

Damn it, can't escape!

Re: A single prophylactic 200mg dose of Doxycyline prevents Lyme disease

#124

Post by wlesieutre »

bicx wrote: post #123
wlesieutre wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are ticks and they have lyme disease! https://www.sfchronicle.com/local/environment/article/Lyme-c...

Damn it, can't escape!

Funnily enough, I just moved to Tennessee and I'm much less worried about it now. Barely exists compared to New England.

California is a tiny bit lower incidence rate than Tennessee, but both are waaaay down the list.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/742936/incidence-rates-o...

Re: A single prophylactic 200mg dose of Doxycyline prevents Lyme disease

#125

Post by drc500free »

robocat wrote: post #110
drc500free wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Welcome to the world of rare (or at least not common) chronic diseases. Private companies work by firing their least profitable customers. If you have a less common disease, the insurance company can simply claim that your preferred treatment is insufficiently backed by data. With a small patient population, there is no incentive for for-profit companies to fund a study. And because few can afford the treatment, you…

> Private companies work by firing their least profitable customers Are there any co-op or non-profit health insurance companies available to join? In New Zealand the single biggest health insurer is a non-profit society, Southern Cross Health Insurance[1]. Unimed[2] is #4 and it specialises in company plans even though it is also not-for-profit. They are both very cheap compared to US plans, in part because they onl…

Not that I've found, and there isn't much consumer choice since so much is built around the employer-provided model. You've got one for-profit entity making decisions about the offerings of another for-profit entity, and either one would happily fire you (either as a patient or as an employee) for making costs go up.

The closest US equivalents to the NZ elective insurance is probably the Medicare Supplement plans. Non-profits like AARP (a major US lobbying group / non-profit for retired people who use Medicare) sell their branding rights to for-profit companies like UHC. So even if you go through a non-profit, the actual operator of the insurance plan is a for-profit.

Re: A single prophylactic 200mg dose of Doxycyline prevents Lyme disease

#126

Post by radicaldreamer »

erisinger wrote: post #65
radicaldreamer wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ticks in california don't carry lyme typically. I'd be a lot more worried if you were on Long Island or on the east coast generally. If you do get bit though, the bite is very obvious and you'd know. If you catch the tick, you can send it in for testing, although it might be easier just to take the doxy.

Almost nothing stated here is accurate…

Which part is inaccurate? (genuinely curious)...

I was bit by a tick in Marin a few years ago (I caught the tick as well), got very nervous about Lyme and researched it thoroughly, was much less concerned after consulting a few folks in the Bay Area. Lyme seems rare here (UCSF estimates 2-15% prevalence in ticks but its far less common than on the east coast).

https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/stats/tables.html

Re: A single prophylactic 200mg dose of Doxycyline prevents Lyme disease

#127

Post by AndrewVos »

erisinger wrote: post #24
AndrewVos wrote: post #13

Wow I had Lyme Disease a few weeks ago, it was INTENSE. The antibiotics they give you make you puke every day too. Or they did for me at least.

If they put you on probiotics at the same time, it might have been that. Took me weeks to figure out that it wasn’t the meds making me sick, it was the probiotics they recommended to keep the meds from damaging my gut. I just didn’t tolerate them well for some reason.

Actually they didn't. Which is concerning. This is the UK so they try and do everything as cheap as possible.

Guess I'll medicate myself as usual.

Re: A single prophylactic 200mg dose of Doxycyline prevents Lyme disease

#128

Post by WalterGR »

jrumbut wrote: post #64
lostlogin wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the scrip ran out. Assuming that was written intentionally, I had no idea that this was a word, and that this was a usage. I’ve learned something.

It should be "script" I believe, short for "prescription". Scrip is a word, but its meaning is different and it's close to archaic.

People in medicine use "scrip" to mean "prescription" when speaking to others in the field.

Re: A single prophylactic 200mg dose of Doxycyline prevents Lyme disease

#129

Post by SpikeDad »

elif wrote: post #95
russiasux wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am right there with you. Took one week Doxy after being bit and got a rash anyway. About two years later mental fog and all our hell took over, tested positive but doc wouldn't give me antibiotics because I took the initial one week "and it's not possible that I have Lyme". Years later I have lost a business I founded and countless months where I couldn't even think let alone function. One day IS ABSOLUTELY not eno…

This is one of my biggest gripes with the American medical system. Every physician is entitled to act like it's his duty to play global health director rather than attending physician. Pro-tip: take a trip to central or south America, and buy over-the-counter antibiotics from a farmacia for pennies on the dollar. Source: I inherited this wisdom from Kari Mullis, Nobel prize winning inventor of PCR.

You can order whatever you want from Indian online pharmacies. Assuming you think you know how to prescribe antibiotics for yourself which is a dangerous mindset

Re: A single prophylactic 200mg dose of Doxycyline prevents Lyme disease

#130

Post by Madmallard »

GordonS wrote: post #118
Madmallard wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if you've taken antibiotics this is a more likely cause our food is toxic and everyone is developing stomach and autoimmune conditions so this is also more likely

I don't understand; are you claiming that anyone who ever takes antibiotics is putting themselves at risk of developing autoimmune conditions?

yes of course. altering the gut microbiome is well established at this point to create deleterious outcomes potentially years down the line. But I'm saying our food in general is pretty toxic compared to what it was a hundred years ago. It i s drastically more processed and has much higher concentrations of unregulated and regulated chemical contaminants compared to ever before, and our physiology has not evolved to tolerate these things, so there is again higher potential for problems.
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