Lyme Sensitivity Test

Is there a way to test to find out exactly which antibiotics would work against a person's particular Lyme infection? I haven't heard of this being done, I wonder why not? Could they do a blood test to culture the Lyme and determine which abx would work best?

I would feel better taking an antibiotic I knew was effective than using a "shot gun" approach.



My understanding is that the borrelia spirochete is ironically very susceptible to MANY abx, and moreover, it isn't very effective at developing resistance. However, borrelia as other more ingenious and inisious defence strategies.

First, it loves to hide in inflamed tissues. This is part of the problem that the Marshall protocol is intended to address.

Second, when confronted with abx, a good percentage of the spirochete load will transform itself into other forms, including a seed-like nearly dormant, double cell-walled form often referred to as the cyst form. This form is incredibly hard to kill. Flagyl is widely accepted as a cyst-buster, and many folks believe the herb coptis is a cystbuster. BE CAREFUL WITH COPTIS. IT IS BELIEVED TO BE ONE OF THE MOST POTENT ANTI-BORRELIA AGENTS, AND CAN INDUCE A SEVERE HERX. I GET SCARY HEART PAINS FROM IT, TO MY PROFOUND DISSAPOINTMENT.

Borrelia can also shed it's cell wall and become intracellular.... it can even penetrate white blood cells and other immune related structures such as granulomae. Marshall it can actually lead to the unatural formation of granulomae in order to protect itself, and this particular situation is believed to be related to sarcoidosis. Per MP, minocin is widely accepted to be the most effective abx for this form, as it can apparently act intracellularly.
See the information regarding the Marshall Protocol for information on reducing the inflamation and a protocol for using the minocycline.

The story gets worse. Folks like Dr. Klinghardt believes borrelia infects other common coinfections. Thus, even if you effectively used a combination therapy for wiping the bodies borrelia load, the coinfections could ultimately reseed and thus reinfect you. BTW, an example of a combination therapy might be a cystbuster (flagyl, coptis) with a kete-buster (perhaps rocephin IV's and/or bacillin shots, or perhaps an increasingly popular samento/cumanda therapy, or perhaps best yet using rifing) and fially minocin IV's or the MP for the cell wall deficient form.

Dr. K likens these other coinfections as aircraft carriers. He obviously believes you need to eradicate the aircraft carriers before the final blast against borrelia. However, he appears to feel that one should treat borrelia throughout this entire antimicrobial phase. Examples of the aircraft carriers include tape worms, MANY other worm parasites, I believe he includes giardia here, and I presume liver flukes as well. HE FIRS AND FOREMOST RECOMMENDS SALT/C FOR DEALING WITH MANY OF THE WORM PARASITES. He also likes the abx alinia, which my llmd claims is a cyst buster. I took a 20 day MEGA-COURSE of alinia, and to my delight, it did not appear to wipe out normal flora.

He has MANY other antimicrobials in the arsenal for dealing with these multiple infections, and he goes as far as recommending an order in which to treat the various possible co-infections. I simply CANNOT recommend his papers on the subject.. he has them at http://neauraltherapy.com .

So to sum up, I don't think finding abx effective against the spirochete is the problem. The problem is killing all possible forms of borrelia simultaneously, and getting access to all three forms wich can be hidden in cyst-like buds, in our own cells, in a morass of inflamed tissues or within in coinfections, many of which have nasty consequences of there own.

BTW, probably the most problematic coinfection is babesia, the malaria-like protozoal infection. This bug totally sucks. It does indeed have a profound ability to develop resistance to treatment. It has to studied carefully, as the vast majority of lyme patients have it. I'm personally losing faith that s/c treats babesia, but perhaps given enough time it will. Other folks at LS still apparently believe s/c is effective against babesia. Also, the most common opinion is that one will never overcome lyme with a significant babesia infection.

I'm of the opinion that the long time "cure" is rifing and s/c. I'm hoping that even if I never entirely eliminate borrelia and babesia (which is likely), rifing and s/c will keep the organisms ineffective.


Compared to normal bacteria, which grow within 24 hours, Borrelia Burgdorferi, the causitive agent of Lyme is extraordinarily difficult to culture. The culture medium has to be precisely formulated and culture takes between 1 and 3 weeks

Here is an interesting paper on culturing Borrelia Burgdorferi from chronically ill patients who relapsed after aggressive ABX treatment

What is fascinating is the way that, like Candida, BB has the ability to change forms to avoid destruction.


I noticed the date was 1998. Is this still current information? If so, I wonder why despite politics, the medical community controversy continues.

Steve, below is an excerpt from the paper. Does this mean yeast could be beneficial to someone who has Lyme, in other words, does yeast inhibit Lyme growth? I remember that yeast envelopes mercury and actually is a protection for mercury poisoned until things get out of control. Hmm, yeast overgrowth is probably a symptom of something else wrong in the body.

"the methods must be followed precisely. Even small variations produce no growth. For example, 2% yeast extract instead of 1% is inhibitory, or if the yeast extract is autoclaved with the rest of the medium instead of separately, that too will be inhibitory.


There are other papers on culturing Borrelia Burdorferi but most are from around the same date.

What surprised me most was the percentage of relapsed patients that came up positive in culture..91%. Although the test takes 3 weeks, it struck me that it could be very reliable way to diagnose chronic Lyme. Zero false negatives from the control group!


I have been busy and havent had a chance to post much but I will try to get some web sites for you soon that might be helpful. Did you get my last email?


Hi liz,

I'm so glad you told me. I didn't get your last email until just now. I will write soon.