Why does the Marshall Protocol take so long?
Imagine a lifetime of acquiring a variety (there are almost sixty identified) of pleomorphic bacteria that have been allowed to multiply and hide within the various tissues of your body.
The first phase of the MP uses low-dose, pulsed minocycline to reduce your bacterial load. But not all those bacteria will be susceptible to minocyline alone. When you move to phase two where a second low-dose, pulsed antibiotic is added, you probably still have many varieties of bacteria to eliminate. Minocycline potentiates the second antibiotic to weaken different bacteria. This combo is continued until you no longer much of an immune system reaction and that may take 3-18 months or more. At this point, there may still be some remaining that aren't susceptible to this combination, even if you no longer have any disease symptoms.
The third phase is called the 'clean-up' phase. Additional low-dose, pulsed antibiotics are used in various combinations to make sure that there are no remaining bacteria as evidenced by no immunopathology, no disease symptoms and blood work returned to normal.
It's a long process because these bacteria are living within the cells of the immune system, deep in tissues that may be hard to penetrate with the antibiotics. You should see a gradual resolution of your disease symptoms but as long as you are responding to antibiotics with symptoms that wax and wane, there are still bacteria to be killed. It isn't easy but you should feel encouraged by your immune system reactions because it means that you are going to beat these nasty little critters.
Dr Marshall says: You need to understand that killing the bacteria is a CURE, not a therapy.
Fibrosis may extend the length of treatment
"When the immune system fails to deal with a pathogen it encases the diseased tissue in collagen. This process is known as fibrosis.
Fibrosis represents the body encasing pathogens which have escaped the immune system. You can expect to be killing pockets of these for a long time, as the fibrosis remodels after you return to health.
Of course, clinical medicine neither recognizes collagen deposition (fibrosis) as the body's response to out-of-control pathogens, nor does it accept that collagen ever remodels.
Fibrosis is supposed to be permanent, but it isn't. As you know from studying Rheumatoid Arthritis, collagen especially when under mechanical stress (as it is in the lungs), will resorb and potentially release some of the diseased tissue.
So if you have significant fibrosis there is reason to expect ongoing low-levels of pathogens to deal with.
Added to that, as the immune system becomes more competent again it has the ability to go after species which it could not deal with during earlier phases of your recovery."
We have to remember that there are many species we are fighting against. Second, the immune system is so finely balanced between not killing them, and killing them, that small changes to our lifestyle, or to our food, or caused by other drugs we are taking, might stop the immune system from killing the bacteria. If there is no killing the patient will generally feel better.
I think it would be a miracle if anybody was able to clear their bodies of the bacteria in less than 12 months, and it seems to take 2-3 years (typically).
Long term therapy with any single antibiotic will cause the killing of bacteria susceptible to that antibiotic, and the repopulation of the tissues with bacteria resistant to that antibiotic. So your bacterial load may well be increasing while your original symptoms are feeling better. Chances are that the immunopathology is being manifest as a totally different set of symptoms by the 'newer' species.
An MP abx holiday usually does not accelerate bug killing, but the same level of bug-killing can continue unabated. The exception to this is if you are using higher doses than the MP suggests, or taking the antibiotics more frequently, so that they have a suppressive effect on the immune system.
Dr. Trevor Marshall, PhD
Subclinical inflammation
As we learn more and more about the Th1 pathogens it becomes obvious that sub-clinical Health problems, that folk attribute to serendipity or aging, or allergy, or whatever, are also due to the microbiota, and it is best to concentrate on getting rid of the pathogens entirely, even though one may be satisfied with progress of the primary symptoms for which the MP was initiated. ..Trevor..
Annual antibiotic cleanup
The immune system seems to be able to do the cleanup job on its own, once folk have fully recovered. IMO There is no harm in doing an annual cleanup though - but it no longer seems that it will be necessary to maintain good health. ..Trevor..
Continuing Benicar
Benicar becomes purely palliative once the immune system is working properly again. The VDR can activate itself in the normal way, it doesn't need the agonism of Benicar.
Luckily, Benicar can still be used to deal with surges in IP when the immune system finds patches of bugs which have escaped the earlier antibiotics (eg in fibrotic tissue). For those of us that were really ill to start with, there appear to be far too many of those "patches" of bugs popping up for the immune system to go after 
..Trevor..
Members' experiences
-I'm not having trouble with the timeline, it's the doc who wants a 2 year fix.
I was in a rush to get functional again, and that took about 2 and a half years. Now, just as I'm considering backing off on the abx and going slower so I can enjoy a bit of life, he is thinking it should be time to shut it down.
Anybody with a doc who actually understands the MP should be thankful. If the doc is enthusiastic about the MP, give him or her a kiss for me at the next appointment. ;-)
The topic list for my next appointment will be:
1. It's more than one bug, so we need more than one abx combo, several in fact.
2. It takes time; one can tolerate only so much herx.
3. The herx is a very sensitive indicator that more curing is being done.
4. We aren't just curing one thing here (sarcoid) - consider it a sequential cure for: retinopathy, osteoporosis, lofgren's syndrome, IBS, cholesterol and prostate trouble. And, since the other 3 members of my family are all positive for Lyme, let's put that on the list. Any cure at all for these things is amazing, even if it took 6 months. Taken all together, 3.5 years is quick. ~Chris
-Unfortunately classic fibro and chronic fatigue patients like us will probably be in for the long haul. What that long hall is no one is quite sure. This is a tough road. What makes it tougher is not seeing so many definitive changes that we initially experienced and have taken for granted during the earlier stages of our recovery. This feeling of confusion and stagnation becomes more pronounced when we have adjusted our abx or when we’ve taxed our stamina, via physical exertion or light exposure. It can make you feel that your invested work was built on sand.
Believe me I have experienced that demoralizing feeling. I think that the best thing to do is to recognize that your improvement will not be linier. Regardless of your level of physical stamina if you look closely you may see continued levels of cognitive improvement. I know that time frames for greater stability in symptomatic responses vary and are problematic. For some this maybe 18-24 months for others I am quite aware that this has not yet arrived.
The best thing to do is to recognize that you are continuing to herx and will subsequently show signs of more definitive improvement at some predetermined time which will lead to your eventual recovery. In the meantime I personally find that continuing with other diversions outside the MP helps elevate my occasional frustration. Certainly Compartmentalizing does not always come easy but it maybe worth the effort.
Hang in there we will all make it…..forgive me Barney, it was just too irresistible. ~Tom
Related FAQs:
How long does the Marshall Protocol take?
Is there a right pace for the most effective healing on the Marshall Protocol?
What degree of healing is possible with the MP?
Improvement in pulmonary function tests
Last edited on Mon Aug 4th, 2008 08:44 by Foundation Staff
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