Antibiotic Controversy
Throughout her years treating tick-borne illness, Dr. Marra has watched the debate over antibiotics in treating these stealthy, persistent infections continue. She doesn’t believe that controversy is any easier to resolve today than it was decades ago. What she has noticed over time is a shift in how sick patients are when they come to the practice. Patients today tend to be much sicker than those she saw early in her career in Connecticut, and most now have multiple infections.
Dr. Marra also knows this illness firsthand. When she faced her own battle with Lyme disease and Bartonella, she chose an integrative medicine approach because she felt it gave her the best chance of clearing the infections while supporting her body along the way. Not every patient makes that choice. Some prefer to rely only on diet changes, herbal remedies, Rife machines, or other healing modalities that fit their beliefs. A combination approach worked very well for Dr. Marra, but it may not be right for you, and that’s a personal decision.
In her experience with treating thousands of patients with tick-borne illness, she has not found patients to become affected by long-term antibiotic use, if they are used properly. Frequent rotation of antibiotics, pulsing techniques, timing and dosing changes, with multiple probiotic sources has proved time and again, to be the quickest way out of the Lyme Disease maze of symptoms. Her patient’s recoveries are also significantly influenced by diet choices, hydration, immune system status, genetic predispositions, hormone balancing, detoxification, and a myriad of other factors.
Without question there is a group of patients who simply cannot handle antibiotics for various reasons largely having to do with histamine status and detoxification pathways. In these cases, her patients use herbal formulas that absolutely work, just not as fast. Targeted nutritional medicine is also very helpful in supporting healing.
The point is simply this, as a long time steward of antibiotic use for patients with tick-borne illness, Dr. Marra has not seen any long term damage for their use, provided they are used correctly. She is not suggesting that patients go on lifelong antibiotics because that is not the answer either. Rather, there is a variety of treatments that can be very beneficial to patients, as long as precautions are taken.
In our practice, Dr. Marra has patients on herbs, antibiotics, nutritional’s, diets, detox protocols, and everything in between because she believes you need to do what works, and what works for one patient may not work for the next. An individual and tailored treatment that reflects a well thought out plan for return to function is, in her opinion, the only way to heal from multiple tick-borne disease. Dr. Marra speaks here from both a personal and professional position which hopefully sheds a ray of hope on your condition.