i thought there was a mention of a test for the cpn towards the begining of this thread page one or two if i recall correctly

SandyC, the Wheldon protocol (which many feel is easier to cope with than the Stratton or Powell protocols, because of CPn die-off and inflamation effects relating to the die-off) consists of the following:-

A) N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) 600mg - 1,200mg twice daily. This is a common supplement that can be bought in any health food shop. It breaks the bonds of the EB spore, causing the extracellular EB form to die of starvation and be swept away by your immune system.
This should be taken continously.

When able to tolerate this,

B) Doxycycline 100mg once daily is added.

When NAC & Doxy are well tolerated,

C) Azithromycin 250mg orally, three times weekly should be added. (Roxithromycin, 150mg twice daily, is an alternative.)

When all three agents are well tolerated,

D) Doxycycline is increased to 200mg daily.

The reason for taking Doxy and Azith (or Roxi) is to ensure that bacterial resistance is impossible when taking the antibiotics on this forum long term. (Of course, you MUST continously take a probiotic, to replace the good bacteria whilst on this protocol)

Doxycycline and Azithromycin (or Roxithromycin) hit the bug in it's intracellular RB form, causing some of the CPn to die, but causing most to convert to the cryptic form.

Finally when all of the above are tolerated well, which you should continue to take constantly to ensure the bug is kept on it's feet, the following should be added,

E) Metronidazole, building up to 100mg twice per day for 5 days every 3 - 4 weeks, eventually increasing to 400mg 3 times per day.

An alternative is building up to 5 day pulses of 500mg Tinidazole twice per day every 3-4 weeks.

Metro and Tini, destroy the intracellular cryptic form, causing a large die-off and inflamation effect, which is why you start off very slowly and only pulse for 5 days every 3-4 weeks to give your body a chance to recover.

Taking Doxy alone will not kill all of the Cpn, but simply force most of it into the cryptic form until the Doxy isn't in the blood anymore, when it will start all over again.

The above antibiotics are pretty cheaply available and mostly generic versions exist. These have been proven by Stratton and others to be the best ones to wipe out Cpn if you have it.

The problem is, that Cpn is a newly discovered bug. It has only been known about for 25 years or so, which accounts for such a lack of knowledge in the medical establishment.

This info comes from

http://www.davidwheldon.co.uk/ms-treatment1.html

I am trying not to step on anyone's toes.

Here's your answer Jo, but if I remember correctly, the test shows a lot of false positives. Check the link that Snoopy put in her post.

There have been many pathogens implicated as possible causative factors for multiple sclerosis. Among the most commonly named culprits are chlamydia pneumonia, HHV-6, Borrelia (B.) burgdorferi (the Lyme Dsease bug), and Epstein-Barr virus. There is intriguing research behind up all of these claims. Here is a page devoted to research connected with the Lyme-MS hypothesis:

http://www.lymeinfo.net/multiplesclerosis.html

My own neurologist, a noted researcher here in New York City, is convinced that EBV plays some role in the MS disease process. His research has shown that MS patients are almost universally infected with the bug. More info on the EBV-MS link:

http://www.mult-sclerosis.org/EpsteinBarrvirus.html

There certainly are patients that appear to benefit from combination antibiotic protocols; there are also many patients that have tried such protocols and failed. Keep in mind too, that many of the antibiotics used in these protocols have been shown to have neuroprotective properties. It is possible that the benefit that some patients are seeing comes not from the antibiotic properties of these drugs, but from the neuroprotection they also afford.

In my opinion, multiple sclerosis is more a syndrome than a disease. When the MS mystery is finally unraveled, I firmly believe that we will find that what is called MS is actually a collection of many different diseases that share common symptoms and pathology. This would account for the wide disparity of responses among different MS patients to different treatments.

Research by The Lesion Project, which has looked at postmortem brain tissue samples from MS patients, has shown that there are four distinct types of lesions implicated in MS. Any individual patient only exhibits one of these four types of lesions. Some of these lesion types appear to be infectious in origin, others appear to have an autoimmune genesis. And some appear to be a combination of the two.

http://www.neurologyreviews.com/aug0..._mslesion.html

What this tells us is that MS is a heterogeneous disease, and that any one-size-fits-all solution is bound to fail. A small subset of MS patients may indeed find that their disease is directly infectious in nature, and will find relief in antibiotic therapy.

A larger cohort will probably find that it is infectious pathogens in combination with other factors that has led to an immune cascade that has set their immune response offkilter. Most likely, it is the combination of infection + environmental toxin, or infection + genetic predisposition, or infection + different infection that sends patients down the road to multiple sclerosis. In these patients, the infection only plays a part in setting off a series of immunological events that lead to ongoing central nervous system damage. In this disease model, it is questionable whether therapy to eradicate the original infection will reverse the immunologic cascade. Once that cascade has started, its processes become divorced from the initial infection.

In short, the complexities of multiple sclerosis don't lend themselves to one simple answer. Due to the heterogeneous nature of the disease, any one solution will most likely only address one subset of disease sufferers. We must all keep open minds as we make our treatment choices. There is no one-size-fits-all solution. Antibiotics could very well be the answer for some patients, but certainly not for all patients.

Thank you for your answers.

So there are no safety risks, and no one making money from this? What about the testing requirement, is it free too, and if not, how much does it cost?

How did you convince your neurologist to rx this regime? Is there resistence to this by the medical profession (rxing), and has anyone prepared information that we could hand over to our docs to read/evaluate?

I'm still curious whether this would contradict with any of the meds we are currently taking for RRMS?

Thanks again,

Cherie

Another problem with the ABX therapy is those of us who are allergic to a lot of the ABX on the market these days. The "one size fits all" approach to disease therapy doesn't always work when you are allergic to the treatment. That's why it is beneficial to have options/choices for treatments.

There are many reasons why people choose the treatment options they choose.

Thank you so much, Marc, for your well informed Post. As far as I'm concerned, you've hit the nail right on the head. We are @#%$#@..:D

Just kidding....'cause there is still HOPE that we will all find OUR cure.:) In the meantime, there are some good drugs out there, helping us to maintain our illness until that happens.

True Cheryl. Jim's so allergic to certain antibiotics that they could be deadly to him.

Thanks Mark Hall for replying with such a detailed post. I don't think Jim can take the Azithromycin as he is allergic to some of the thromycin's out there.

Again, I am going to bring this up to Jim's doctor and get his take on it. I throughly trust his opinion.

Hey, I'm just posting info that people may like to look into, that's all.

Mark

Same with me, Sandy...I am allergic to all the mycin's. When someone makes comments about your reasons for your choices of treatment, they should take into consideration that maybe you have done your homework!

I don't have a list of allergies, I have a 1-800 number to call! :D And a note that says, don't administer anything before calling this number!