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August 19, 2012 By Living Lyme

Basics of Antibiotics

By Thomas M. Grier, M.S. ©

Here are some basics to know about antibiotics:

1) Fat soluble antibiotics get into the brain and nerves and fatty tissues better than water soluble antibiotics. (70 % of fat soluble antibiotics are used in agriculture uses)

(Oxytetracycline is more water soluble than tetracycline which is more water soluble than doxycycline, and minocycline is the most fat soluble of the cyclines.)

Water soluble antibiotics are used in agriculture more than 10x the levels that are used in humans. These are the antibiotics that can get into the water supply by run off. When we talk about over use of antibiotics, this is the number one offender.

All antibiotics get into the brain in higher concentrations if you can get your body temperature to 102F or higher. Heat loosens the Blood Brain Barrier.
(See Dr. Herman Bundeson 1942 and his fight against Syphilis in Chicago with Heat and Penicillin – “Life Among the Doctors by Paul DeKruif)

2) All antibiotics work by affecting the bacteria’s internal functions and the bacteria die from disruption from within: where as antiseptics kill on contact by disrupting outer cell wall and membrane integrity.

3) Most antibiotic work by blocking specific ribosome function (ribosomes decode genetic strands of messenger RNA and assemble essential proteins for the bacteria)

4) Of the antibiotics that affect ribosomes: they usually affect either the 30s ribosome or the 50s ribosome:

30s Ribosome: Blocking the 30s ribosome causes suppression of high metabolic functions in the bacteria like cell division. (This includes the drugs in the doxycycline class and other macrolides like Biaxin and Zithromax)

If the bacteria isn’t killed it is up to the host’s immune system to finish the job. If the bacteria that survive inside the host are nowmetabolically suppressed, and are in a safe immune-sequestered site in the human body, they are safe from immune attack.

More importantly they are now in a dormant state and can revive and become active pathogens when the antibiotic levels diminish.

Bacteria that are suppressed come back to life.

Bacteria that were in the blood stream when they come in contact with a bacteriostatic antibiotic like doxycycline will almost certainly be killed by the immune system.

This is why diseases like anaplasmosis that are obligated to live in granulocytes will almost always be eradicated by a short course of tetracycline.

50s Ribosome: Antibiotics like cephalosporins and penicillins will block the 50s ribosome’s ability to assemble new bacterial cell wall.

This means when the bacteria divides, it cannot make new cell wall and will usually die unless the bacteria can create a Cell-Wall-Deficient form know as a Lister body or L-form that survives without the rigid cell wall. All cell wall deficient forms including spirochetes are spherical blobs.

If bacteriostatic antibiotics prevents bacterial division (a high metabolic function of the cell) then it never makes sense to use aBacteriostatic antibiotic combined with a Bactericidal antibiotic that can only kill during division.

Bacteriostatic Antibiotics

Tetracyclines
Macrolides (might work best in alkaline environments, common alkalizing agents are amantadine and hydroxychloroquin or plaquinil)
Trimethoprin / Sulfamethoxazole (Bactrim)
(May work synergistically with macrolides possibly by alkalizing the cells?)
Sulfonimides
Spectinomycin
Chloramphicol (can cause life threatening blood disorders in 1:10.000 patients.)
Lincosamides
Bactericidal Antibiotics
Cephalosporins – Ceftin, Rocephin, Claforan,
Penicillins- amoxicillin, ampicillin
IM- Penicillin – Bicillin

(Bicillin intramuscular given once a week gives low 24 hour blood levels of penicillin. You can peak these blood levels significantly by also taking oral amoxicillin/penicillin once or twice a day.

The oral medication goes through the portal absorption directly from the gut to the liver, where it saturates the liver receptors allowing the blood levels of the two drugs to go much higher.)

Flagyl- metronidizole, tinidizole (Can be combined with macrolides)

Vancomyacin (Hard on the kidneys and can cause skin flushing, often last resort drug)

Telithromycin

Ciprofloxin- DNA Gyrase inhibitor, (other similar drugs caused Lupus Like Symptoms in humans.)

Rifampin – Rifampicin or rifampin (USAN) is a bactericidal antibiotic drug of the rifamycin group.[1] It is a semisynthetic compound derived from Amycolatopsis rifamycinica (a mold found in soil) It cause the urine to turn reddish brown.

It is metabolized in the liver by the cytochrome p450 enzyme. (

Drugs that disable Rifampin’s effectiveness maybe macrolides and artemisinen, it has been observed that some drugs taken with Rifampin turn the urine from reddish-brown backe to normal.)
Bactericidal antibiotics kill bacteria; bacteriostatic antibiotics slow their growth or reproduction.

Aminoglycosidic antibiotics are usually considered bactericidal, although they may be bacteriostatic with some organisms. Pathogens that can evade the immune system may not be killed by bacteriostatic antibiotics.

I will also be sending some information on cytochrome liver enzyme metabolism of antibiotics.

Filed Under: Tom Grier Research Articles

Tom Grier Research Articles

  • My Story-Tom Grier
  • Basics of Antibiotics
  • Chronic Lyme Post-Mortem Study Needed
  • The Complexities of Lyme Disease A Microbiology Tutorial: Part 1
  • Cures, Promises, and Snake Oil: False Hopes in a Bottle
  • DEET vs. Permethrin as a Tick Repellent
  • Laboratory Tests
  • Lyme Disease: What We Know and What We Don’t Know
  • Motile Menace
  • MS and Lyme
  • Notes and Observations on Cell Wall Deficient Forms
  • Optimizing Our Probiotics With Dietary Carbohydrate Choices
  • Real Concerns About Colloidal Silver
  • Self-Expression Or Not Self-Expression – That is the Question!
  • What Lyme Disease Research Needs To Be Done And Why
  • Will There Ever Be An Accurate Test for Lyme Disease?
  • Who Will Be the Heroes of Lyme Disease, Who Will Be the Villains?
  • Why Are We Still Sick
  • 11th International Research Conference
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