Back in 1990, Garth Nicolson believed that mycoplasma was the cause of both. I actually appear on a news report with him as a sample patient doing antibiotics (but different ones). Some of his articles:
- 1998, Diagnosis and Treatment of Chronic Mycoplasmal Infections in Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndromes: Relationship to Gulf War Illness[5]
- 2002, High prevalence of Mycoplasma infections among European chronic fatigue syndrome patients. Examination of four Mycoplasma species in blood of chronic fatigue syndrome patients[6] (Full Text)
- 2003, Nutritional Supplement (NT Factor™) Restores Mitochondrial Function and Reduces Moderately Severe Fatigue in Aged Subjects[7] (Abstract)
- 2003, Evidence for Bacterial (Mycoplasma, Chlamydia) and Viral (HHV-6) Co-Infections in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Patients[8] (Abstract)
- 2003, High Prevalence of Mycoplasma Infections in Symptomatic (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) Family Members of Mycoplasma-Positive Gulf War Illness Patients[9] (Full Text)
- 2003, Deregulation of the 2,5A Synthetase RNase L Antiviral Pathway by Mycoplasma spp. in Subsets of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome[10] (Full Text)
- 2004, Review – Gulf War Veterans: Evidence for Chromosome Alterations and Their Significance[11] (Abstract)
- 2006, Lipid Replacement and Antioxidant Nutritional Therapy for Restoring Mitochondrial Function and Reducing Fatigue in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Other Fatiguing Illnesses[12] (Abstract)
- 2007, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Patients Subsequently Diagnosed with Lyme Disease Borrelia burgdorferi: Evidence for Mycoplasma Species Coinfections[13] (Abstract)
- 2014, Lipid Replacement Therapy: a natural medicine approach to replacing damaged lipids in cellular membranes and organelles and restoring function.[14] (Full Text)
- 2014, Mitochondrial Dysfunction and Chronic Disease: Treatment With Natural Supplements.[15] (Full Text)
- 2017, Membrane Lipid Replacement for chronic illnesses, aging and cancer using oral glycerolphospholipid formulations with fructooligosaccharides to restore phospholipid function in cellular membranes, organelles, cells and tissues[16] (Full text)
- Doxycycline Treatment and Desert Storm [1995]
- Gulf War Illnesses: Complex Medical, Scientific and Political Paradox [1998]
- Pathogenic Mycoplasma Infections in Chronic Illnesses: General Considerations in Selecting Conventional and Integrative Treatments [2019]
Follow up Study — FAILED
“WASHINGTON, D.C.–A major trial has found no evidence that antibiotics help patients with Gulf War illness. Moreover, the outcomes of the $6 million study suggest that the hypothesis underlying it–that a microbe causes the mysterious set of complaints–is false.”
Antibiotic Fails in Gulf War Syndrome [Science] 2021-08-14
I am not surprised at the Failure
Back in 1999 when I had major ME/CFS, Nicholson’s protocol was one that I considered but did not take because I perceived Jadin’s Protocol to be significantly better [ Dr. Jadin’s Current Protocol for ME/CFS ]. I knew enough about antibiotic resistance to deem any monotonic(just one) antibiotic (or that matter, anti-viral) protocol to likely fail over time. The classic model of antibiotics is that it reduces the infection to the point that the body can take over bacteria suppression. If the immune system is misfiring, this becomes a major and wrong assumption.
Since those days, my understanding is that the cause of ME/CFS, Chronic Lyme and Q-Fever, and Long COVID is not a single bacteria (or virus) infection. It is an altered microbiome placed into a dysfunctional state by a bacteria, infection, stress or other environmental factor; and the microbiome was unable to return to normal. It is unlikely that a single antibiotic taken continuously will remedy this situation. Normalizing the microbiome is a complex thing and, IMHO, requires continuous intelligence (i.e. microbiome tests).
With the Remission Biome Project for ME/CFS we are seeing subject and objective (i.e. in follow-up microbiome tests) improvements.
CFS Remission 