Augmentin

My LLMD wants me to add Augmentin for a short run. Due to past high strep tigers Will it hit bart? Or Lyme

Augmentin is amoxicillin plus clavulanate - and clavulanate's purpose in the medication is to help keep the blood level of amoxicillin higher so it doesn't have to be dosed as frequently.

Like regular amoxicillin, augmentin should hit Lyme but with one qualification - the clavulanate makes it harder for the medication to penetrate brain tissue. Some old medical research papers I found at one point had determined that a higher percentage of people who were otherwise apparently successfully treated for Lyme with augmentin went on to develop neurological disease, vs. those who were treated with amoxicillin alone.

As with other penicillin-based drugs, augmentin is not known to be effective against Bartonella.

1yrinVA said...
Augmentin is amoxicillin plus clavulanate - and clavulanate's purpose in the medication is to help keep the blood level of amoxicillin higher so it doesn't have to be dosed as frequently.

Clavulanate inhibits a bacterial enzyme that breaks down amoxicillin. Borrelia burgdorferi does not have such an enzyme so it really makes no difference. I took amoxicillin with and without clavulanate and really couldn't tell the difference. Amoxicillin really doesn't cause much herxing as it just causes borrelia to become inactive, and is ineffective against bartonella.

Amoxicillin is often used for streptococcus infections, and if you had streptococcus that was resistant to amoxicillin due to beta-lactamase then clavulanate could overcome that.