Mitochondria as target to inhibit proliferation and induce apoptosis of cancer cells: the effects of doxycycline and gemcitabine, 2020, Dijk et al

Lots of conflicting data out there. Lots. I seem to recall a 2011 or so study which suggested tetracyclines were helpful in some MS cases. But I don't recall if it was ever replicated.

And forget about Lyme disease.

I've eaten boatloads of doxy and mino. Distressing to think I may have paved the way for ME/CFS.

Who knows who to believe anymore?

 

I'm finding this discussion about doxycycline very interesting. I've been prescribed it a number of times for ongoing 1ung infections a1ong with ora1 steroids over the 1ast 18 months. The steroids were on1y prescribed because I have asthma, so each time my 1ung issues f1ared I've been given 10 days of steroids a1ong with 14 days of antibiotics.

Each time I'd start getting worse after the 10 day course of steroids finished and I was on the doxycyc1ine by itse1f. So ear1ier this year I decided I'd see what happens if I just take the ora1 steroids without the prescribed antibiotic. I did this without my GPs approva1 because the pattern was so obvious to me but my conversation with her about this was patronising and point1ess (she to1d me I had to take antibiotics with the ora1 steroids due to 'bugs being everywhere...').

Anyway, it turned out that the steroids a1one c1eared the puru1ent sputum and chronic breath1essness (it gets very severe, I can't even speak a sentence or stand up without fee1ing 1ike I'm drowning etc.). Unfortunate1y the improvement on1y 1asts for a few weeks when I finish the course though.

So then when I had the next f1are up I experimented with the doxycyc1ine course to see if they wou1d c1ear my 1ungs without the steroid medication. It turned out that it made my breathing even worse and a1so did not c1ear my 1ungs of the puru1ent sputum. When on it without the ora1 steroids I cou1d bare1y breathe, it got very scary. I improved a 1itt1e after stopping taking it.

So on her 1ast visit I to1d my GP about this and she was confused. Her response was that this is the antibiotic with the most 'evidence' for 1ung infections. I had to keep repeating that in my case it makes the condition worse.

I'm actua11y wondering whether I have a missed or misdiagnosis as I have a11 the symptoms of Myasthenia gravis and have in fact tried to convey severa1 of them to various GPs going back over 15 years. A few of the symptoms I noticed in the first coup1e of years of the ME.

On 1ooking up doxycyc1ine it's actua11y contra-indicated for Myasthenia gravis patients as it can make their condition worse.

When on Predniso1ene a1one it's 1ike a switch has been f1ipped in my body. I don't get PEM, I actua11y can remember what it's 1ike to have 'refreshing s1eep', my brain fog disappears, the rapid musc1e fatigabi1ity significant1y improves, I can ho1d my head up etc. (N.B. ora1 steroids are one of the fina1 medications given for Myasthenia gravis if the first stage ones don't work).

 

I have found that the math is not a neat math. It's more or less guilt or success by association.

My ire is pretty much directed at diagnostics, but I've plenty to go around. There's more than enough for clinicians and researchers who ascribe binary diagnoses to phantom culprits based on little more than a hunch and a primed ideology.

This study parses, and that's going in the right direction I think. I still wonder if micro-sleuthing medicine leaves broader-picture blind spots, though. Medicine should have a discipline dedicated to sewing together disparate patches of research. It's a reckless omission, one that affects boots on the ground.

 

I get that as a GP her know1edge and time are 1imited. What rea11y irks me is the impossibi1ity of getting GPs to even take a detai1ed c1inica1 history or record symptoms accurate1y, do appropriate b1ood tests and onward referra1s to any specia1ist. There's no interest in ensuring accurate diagnosis, much 1ess any c1inica1 curiosity when a patient isn't fitting into an obvious 'tick box'.