Book Notes: Pain Free 1-2-3
Chapter 3: Eliminating the Causes and Triggers of Your Pain
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Managing Infections
Yeast
Although it is uncommon, Diflucan and Sporanox can also cause liver inflammation. If you are taking Diflucan or Sporanox for more than 6 to 12 weeks, I would consider intermittent blood tests to check liver function—specifically checking blood levels of ALT and AST, two inexpensive and good indicators of injury to the liver. If you have preexisting active liver disease, you should be cautious about using Diflucan or Sporanox—or do not use them at all. I recommend taking 200 to 300 mg of lipoic acid a day whenever you take Sporanox or Diflucan. This is a natural supplement that helps to protect and heal the liver (and can also be helpful for nerve pain). I also recommend lipoic acid for anyone with nerve pain (200 to 300 mg 2 to 3 times a day) or active liver disease (e.g. hepatitis), at doses up to 1,000 to 3,000 mg a day, as it may prevent and/or help treat cirrhosis (lipoic acid is not in the vitamin powder).
Antibiotic Sensitive Infections
The following antibiotics are most likely to have an effect on these organisms:
• Doxycycline or minocycline ( Minocin®), usually at dosages of 100 mg 2 times a day, especially in patients with rheumatoid arthritis
• Ciprofloxacin (Cipro®), 500 mg twice a day. When treating males, Cipro has the additional benefit of treating hidden prostate infections, as does doxycycline. You should not take oral magnesium or any supplement containing magnesium (such as the vitamin powder) within 6 hours of taking Cipro or you won’t absorb the antibiotic
• Azithromycin (Zithromax®), 250 mg a day or clarithromycin (Biaxin®), 500 mg 2 times a day. They may work against infections missed by doxycycline and Cipro.
Although all these antibiotics can be effective, it is not uncommon for infections that are sensitive to one to be resistant to the others. Therefore, it is best to try either doxycycline or Cipro first. If they are not effective, then try Zithromax or Biaxin. Antibiotic treatments should be taken for at least 6 months. If there is no improvement in 2 to 4 months, switch to, or add, the other antibiotic or simply stop the treatment. If you have a low-grade fever (i.e. over 98.6) that drops with the antibiotic, it suggests that you do have one of these nonviral infections and the antibiotic is helping. This would encourage me to continue the antibiotic trial—even if it takes up to 18 months to see an improvement in your symptoms.
As with the yeast treatments, it is not uncommon to get what is called a Herxheimer (die-off) reaction that includes chills, fever, night sweats, and general worsening of your symptoms when the antibiotic first kills off the infection.
