Book Review, Why Can't I get Better

Dr. Richard Horowitz is a well known doctor and activist in the Lyme disease community. Whenever I have a question, this book is one of the first places I go.
Dr. Horowitz is a pioneer in the treatment of resistant babesia, a malaria like organism. Babesia is becoming more resistant to common drugs such as atovaquone and atovaquone/Proguanil. These drugs are some of the most used and reliable methods for ridding the blood of these horrible parasites.Whenever someone no longer responds to conventional or even alternative treatment for babesia, they turn to Dr.Horowitz.

He describes in great detail the many, many infections a tick can transmit to a human. Lyme disease is only a single drop of water compared to the amount of pathogens a tick can transmit. Information on bartonella, brucella, erhlichia, mycoplasma, Q-Fever, etc is scarce online, all of these are well highlighted by Dr. Horowitz.  Incorrectly treating co-infections can lead to treatment failure! That makes this book beneficial for not only the patient, but doctors as well.
Treating the bacteria borrellia burgdorferi alone, without testing for and treating co-infections will result in the persistence of symptoms. It takes away the point of treating in the first place doesn't it?

In this book, he uses an abbreviation to sum up what Lyme disease patients live with-MSIDS.
It stands for Multiple Systemic infectious disease syndrome, it is a summary of the symptoms and infections commonly associated with Lyme disease complex. This has since became a useful term to describe those that suffer from multiple, systematic illnesses.

Dr. Horowitz describes all of the common symptoms associated with each infection, this is paramount for someone like me who had to be diagnosed on symptoms alone. The tests for tick borne diseases are inaccurate, I only ever tested positive to Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. Yet, I responded very well to babesia treatment, which is an infection my blood was negative for.
He details his methods for treating Lyme disease, like combinations of herbs and antibiotics. Combining antibiotics alone can be dangerous for someone (non-llmd) who is not well educated in the affects of drug combinations. There are several drugs that should never be mixed. MSIDS patients often have afflictions requiring treatment of not just the illness, but the symptoms also. Insomnia for example is huge; he estimates about 70% of those with MSIDS suffer from insomnia. Sleep drugs and some babesia drugs do not mix well, both can have strong psychological side affects. This is just one example of why when treated using pharmaceuticals, it is essential to find an LLMD educated in drug safety.

Another amazing thing about this book is how he highlights treatments. The book is full of information about antibiotics and herbs that are useful in treating MSIDS. I personally learned about the herb cryptolepis, which was essential to beginning my babesia treatment. He also teaches about how some of these work in the body, such as their effects on cytokine levels.

There is so much to be said about Dr. Horowitz and his book Why Can't I Get Better. It is what really jump started my treatment. I felt confident after reading this book, I no longer felt like a helpless sick person. I could identify what was making me ill, and learned how to destroy it! He not only writes about the infections and their treatments, he writes about their effects on our bodies. Like cytokines which cause inflammation for example. I had never heard of this before reading this book. Reading this book gave me the tools to help myself, I would recommend it to anyone suffering from Lyme complex.