Travelling in sweltering heat with additional effects of doxy?!

wynwyn

Hi all!!!

My doc prescribed me Doxy tablets. Im travelling over 2months in India- mainly Kerala and Goa during May and June.

I've read that Doxy is a broad-spectrum antibiotic with side effects that can cause sun-sensitve skin and thrush in women. Im despising the idea of having to take an antibiotic for 2 months (3 in total once im back home!) Plus the fact that im travelling during the HOT HOT HOT season- having drug-induced sensitive skin doesnt help! Any recommendations of what herbs/vitamins i can take to help boost my immune system, normal gut flora/ skin so i wont have to suffer from such side effects?

Or should i opt for a different anti-malarial tablet?

Thanx heaps!!!

dzibead

Doxycycline doesn't make you more susceptible to heat; it makes your skin more susceptible to sunburn. I've taken doxy for malaria without any particular problems. If you wear sunscreen and stay covered up, which is a good idea anyway, you should be OK. Doxycycline is probably your least expensive and least intrusive option among the various malaria prophylactics. As for how to prevent other side effects (which I never got), I don't know, but I guess taking ordinary "pro-biotics" available from a health food store would help.

Nick-H

Hmmm... Mid-Summer Tropical holiday + sun-sensitising side effect.

I think you are right: it doesn't add up.

Otherwise, the usual pro-biotics --- even my dentist prescribes pro-biotics along with anti-biotics.

You will find a vast array of opinion here on anti-malarials, probably this very thread will attract another bout. Of course, none of it is qualified medical advice, and it is important to get that.

There is a very thorough and comprehensive pulication from the british health service, aimed at doctors advising travellers, but understandable to the non-medical person too -->here (PDF). Your own medical authority may have a similar publication, and it is worth researching these documents.

My impression from scanning those various malaria threads here over the past months is that there is very little malaria in Kerala, but more in Goa.

<cross-posted with dzibead --- good points!>

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SFtoBLR

As if you needed another reason to be careful w/doxy -

Both my kids took it for acne, and they both had to stop because their fingernails were starting to come loose from the top down - very gross!