4 ms·

I was bit by a tick and I got sick. No doctor could figure out what was wrong. I tested negative for Lyme. I took antibiotics (Biaxin) and 3 months later I was

I was bit by a tick and I got sick. No doctor could figure out what was wrong. I tested negative for Lyme. I took antibiotics (Biaxin) and 3 months later I was fine. I stopped taking antibiotics. Within 2 months I was sick again. I took Biaxin for 6 months. I felt great. I stopped antibiotics. Within 2 months I was sick again. I took Biaxin for a year. I felt great. I stopped taking antibiotics. Within 2 months I was sick again. This time, the symptoms were completely different. I assumed it was a new illness. Doctors were mystified. One said it was psychosomatic. I was off antibiotics for more than 6 months. I got sicker and sicker. I was in bad shape when I decided this illness was the same as the previous illness. I took a combination of Cipro and Zithromax for 1 year. I got better. Then I stopped. I got sick again. I was eager to get back to my career so I tried a few antibiotics that might be light, cheap, easy and sustainable. A friend of mine, as a teenager, had acne and the doctors had them on antibiotics for 4 years to deal with the acne. They’d taken something similar to doxycycline. I tried it but it did nothing for me. I tried hyperbaric oxygen therapy, which gave me great energy but did not cure me. Then I tried Amoxicillin. That worked great. I took that for 11 years. Then I quit and got sick again. I went back to Biaxin, and took that for another 2 years. My business was going well so I could not focus on my health. I was busy. The simplest thing was to take antibiotics, which kept me healthy so I could focus on work. So long as I took antibiotics the illness kept its distance. In that sense, the illness was similar to leprosy — I could live a normal life but only if I took antibiotics every day. But I was irritated with my business partner (I’ve written about that elsewhere). So I sold my share of the business. Now I had time to focus on my health. What had I not yet tried? What about fasting? I went 2 weeks without food. I took antibiotics the first week but not the second. I felt sick. The fast ended. I had a vegetarian meal. I fell asleep. I woke up the next day and had a large vegetarian meal. That night I felt funny. The feeling was similar to that moment, if you have a flu, when the fever breaks. With a flu, you get sicker and sicker till a moment the fever breaks and then you know that your immune system has kicked in. That was exactly the feeling that I had then. I have not taken any antibiotics since that fast, and I’ve been blessed with excellent health.

rb808 7y ago
The problem is that Lyme isn't the only tick borne disease. There are a bunch and some speculate there are more undetected ones. When someone has "chronic lyme" maybe they have some other prion that no one has diagnosed yet. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tick-borne_disease https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tick-borne_disease
- mgamache 7y ago
  I don't think you mean 'prion' here as that's a different problem altogether, right?
  - tomxor 7y ago
    yeah it's bacteria, antibiotics are for bacteria, not prions, if it was a prion there are no cures, they are really nasty.
  - rb808 7y ago
    Yes I meant other diseases like this one http://healthland.time.com/2013/07/19/theres-a-new-disease-spread-by-ticks-and-its-not-lyme/ http://healthland.time.com/2013/07/19/theres-a-new-disease-s.... I'm sure I saw a prion spread by ticks too, but maybe that is some weird theory. https://jmm.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/jmm.0.47159-0 https://jmm.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/jmm/10....
VintageLight 7y ago
This is amazing. Have you followed up with any of the doctors since? What did they say in response to your recovery?
- lkrubner 7y ago
  When I was healthy for 6 months, and I felt confident that I was going to remain healthy, I went back to my main doctor of those 20 years. They simply said, “Yes, fasting seems to work really well for some people.” I was irritated that they had apparently known about this but hadn’t suggested it to me.
Galaxity 7y ago
Now I'm no medical expert but antibiotics resolve an infection after a certain amount of time. Even for Lyme and leprosy. There may be health after-effects but those would not be resolved by antibiotics since the infection is gone. What could possibly outlast 20 years of continuous antibiotics that isn't either completely killed or mutates and renders the antibiotics ineffective? And then be resolved with a fast?
- lkrubner 7y ago
  Teenagers with acne often take antibiotics for many years. I had one friend with severe acne who took antibiotics well into adulthood. Those teenagers, who take antibiotics, with a microscope at home can do this simple experiment: prick your finger with a needle and put a drop of blood on steriled glass, then put that under a microscope. Do you see bacteria? Yes, of course you do. Even if you take antibiotics for 20 years, your body will still be seething with bacteria. There is no way to get rid of the bacteria on your body. That isn’t what antibiotics do. Antibiotics work with your immune system to bring bacterial load back to a reasonable level. If antibiotics killed all bacteria then people with compromised immune systems could be kept safe from bacteria with antibiotics. But there isn’t a doctor in the world who thinks that’s possible.
  - mrfusion 7y ago
    I’m under the impression that blood is very sterile. That’s the point of your immune system.
    - lkrubner 7y ago
      "that blood is very sterile" Please, if you can find a microscope, go look. Use your eyes. Your blood system is absolutely not sterile, that is a wildly non-scientific thing to say. Your immune system can not possibly go after ever protein it meets, otherwise you would be allergic to all food, and you would die. When you see an article such as "The dormant blood microbiome in chronic, inflammatory diseases" ask yourself, what is a dormant blood microbiome? https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4487407/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4487407/
citrablue 7y ago
Minor nit, the feeling of awfulness from the flu is the effect of your immune system kicking in. The feeling of relief is when it kicks out, because the tide of the battle has turned.
- lkrubner 7y ago
  I like your point, though if we're talking about the overall disease fighting system, it is the evolutionary oldest part that handles the initial inflammation, nasal drip, and fever. The later part, the adaptive part, the part actually works on the principle of immunity, gets going later, and once it has asserted itself, then you feel relief, at least in part because that primitive initial reaction begins to recede.
CptFribble 7y ago
Are you still vegetarian? Do you think you acquired Alpha-Gal allergy from the tick bite? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha-gal_allergy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha-gal_allergy
- lkrubner 7y ago
  No, but you’d have to be insane to eat meat when you’re coming off a 2 week fast. One has to go back to food gradually
mariushn 7y ago
A connection I see is microbiota in your gut. Both antibiotics & fasting affect it (study on flies: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5988561/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5988561/) Maybe antibiotics kept under control a bad microorganism, but which had resistance not to be killed. Maybe fasting helped kill it. I'm not a doctor.

rb808 7y ago

The problem is that Lyme isn't the only tick borne disease. There are a bunch and some speculate there are more undetected ones. When someone has "chronic lyme" maybe they have some other prion that no one has diagnosed yet. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tick-borne_disease https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tick-borne_disease

mgamache 7y ago
I don't think you mean 'prion' here as that's a different problem altogether, right?
- tomxor 7y ago
  yeah it's bacteria, antibiotics are for bacteria, not prions, if it was a prion there are no cures, they are really nasty.
- rb808 7y ago
  Yes I meant other diseases like this one http://healthland.time.com/2013/07/19/theres-a-new-disease-spread-by-ticks-and-its-not-lyme/ http://healthland.time.com/2013/07/19/theres-a-new-disease-s.... I'm sure I saw a prion spread by ticks too, but maybe that is some weird theory. https://jmm.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/jmm.0.47159-0 https://jmm.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/jmm/10....

VintageLight 7y ago

This is amazing. Have you followed up with any of the doctors since? What did they say in response to your recovery?

lkrubner 7y ago
When I was healthy for 6 months, and I felt confident that I was going to remain healthy, I went back to my main doctor of those 20 years. They simply said, “Yes, fasting seems to work really well for some people.” I was irritated that they had apparently known about this but hadn’t suggested it to me.

Galaxity 7y ago

Now I'm no medical expert but antibiotics resolve an infection after a certain amount of time. Even for Lyme and leprosy. There may be health after-effects but those would not be resolved by antibiotics since the infection is gone. What could possibly outlast 20 years of continuous antibiotics that isn't either completely killed or mutates and renders the antibiotics ineffective? And then be resolved with a fast?

lkrubner 7y ago
Teenagers with acne often take antibiotics for many years. I had one friend with severe acne who took antibiotics well into adulthood. Those teenagers, who take antibiotics, with a microscope at home can do this simple experiment: prick your finger with a needle and put a drop of blood on steriled glass, then put that under a microscope. Do you see bacteria? Yes, of course you do. Even if you take antibiotics for 20 years, your body will still be seething with bacteria. There is no way to get rid of the bacteria on your body. That isn’t what antibiotics do. Antibiotics work with your immune system to bring bacterial load back to a reasonable level. If antibiotics killed all bacteria then people with compromised immune systems could be kept safe from bacteria with antibiotics. But there isn’t a doctor in the world who thinks that’s possible.
- mrfusion 7y ago
  I’m under the impression that blood is very sterile. That’s the point of your immune system.
  - lkrubner 7y ago
    "that blood is very sterile" Please, if you can find a microscope, go look. Use your eyes. Your blood system is absolutely not sterile, that is a wildly non-scientific thing to say. Your immune system can not possibly go after ever protein it meets, otherwise you would be allergic to all food, and you would die. When you see an article such as "The dormant blood microbiome in chronic, inflammatory diseases" ask yourself, what is a dormant blood microbiome? https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4487407/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4487407/

citrablue 7y ago

Minor nit, the feeling of awfulness from the flu is the effect of your immune system kicking in. The feeling of relief is when it kicks out, because the tide of the battle has turned.

lkrubner 7y ago
I like your point, though if we're talking about the overall disease fighting system, it is the evolutionary oldest part that handles the initial inflammation, nasal drip, and fever. The later part, the adaptive part, the part actually works on the principle of immunity, gets going later, and once it has asserted itself, then you feel relief, at least in part because that primitive initial reaction begins to recede.

CptFribble 7y ago

Are you still vegetarian? Do you think you acquired Alpha-Gal allergy from the tick bite? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha-gal_allergy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha-gal_allergy

lkrubner 7y ago
No, but you’d have to be insane to eat meat when you’re coming off a 2 week fast. One has to go back to food gradually

mariushn 7y ago

A connection I see is microbiota in your gut. Both antibiotics & fasting affect it (study on flies: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5988561/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5988561/) Maybe antibiotics kept under control a bad microorganism, but which had resistance not to be killed. Maybe fasting helped kill it. I'm not a doctor.