1. Spirochete. This is when the spirochete (again, a coil), just kind of rides your body’s metro system, as a presence in the blood vessels. My understanding is that this is how the infection begins, though the stage is not exclusive to early infection.
Antibiotics such as doxycycline and minocycline are best used to treat the Lyme organism in this form.
2. Cell-wall-deficient form. My doctor told me that once you start using an antibiotic that is effective against the spirochete form, Bb sheds its cell wall and retreats into your body cells—your neurons, your muscle cells, et cetera. Now those antibiotics can’t penetrate your cell’s membranes to get at the Bb. The presence of Bb in your cells is what commonly causes the wide array of symptoms you might experience. Bb is especially drawn to fatty cells, like the glial cells in your nervous system, causing any number of psychiatric, cognitive, or neurodegenerative problems. In your muscle cells, it might cause pain or weakness, for example.
My doc said the best antibiotic—and perhaps the only one—to penetrate the cells and kill the Bb is azithromycin, also known as z-pack.
