Why use doxycycline?

[brd888]

Hello,
Doxy is commonly advised for MGD etc for it's anti-inflammatory properties. This is meant to help inflamed meibomian glands and inflamed eye lids.
Why don't we just use ibuprofen which is a much cheaper and readily available anti-inflammatory?
Bruce

[irish eyes]

Hi Bruce

Doxycycline is an antibiotic and Ibuprofen is an anti-inflammatory.

[EllMitcho]

Hi Bruce

Doxy prevents the 'flora' form forming in the eye which somehow prevents the inflammation. As previously stated doxy is an anti-biotic where as brufen and similar are anit inflams - they work differently.

Plus you can get serious complications from taking ibruprofen too regualry (liver or kidney probs I think)

As you can tell from the above I am no doctor though!

I'm on 50mg doxy at the mo and believe it helps tame my posterior bleph / MGD

Cheers

EllMitcho

[rhad]

Hi Bruce,

I really think that underlying problem of inflammation originates from the Intestines or gut. Think about it, your immune system is what would normally keep the bad bacteria(that happen to normally live around your eyes anyway) in check, so that they cannot overgrow and cause problems. ordinarily your immune system will deploy Phagocytes, Macrophages, and Microphages, which are cells that are responsible for consuming and destroying invading bacteria in the body. well the medical community knows that 80% of our immune system is in our Gut or intestinal lining. so if their is an overgrowth or a bacterial problem in another part of the body, such as the meibomian glands, then wouldn't that mean that their is a weakness in the gut? as that the gut is what makes up the majority of our immune system.

rhad

[clairvoyant]

It has certain properties that are basically anti-inflammatories. I think tacrolimus contains similar ones. Other antibiotics like ciprofloxacin do not I believe but macrolides like azithyromycin do.

[brd888]

Not bacterial

I quote "According to Dr. Donnenfeld, among the tetracyclines, doxycycline has a greater anti-inflammatory, anti-collagenolytic effect than tetracycline or minocycline.1 "It's my drug of choice," he says. "For patients with gastrointestinal intolerance, I go to minocycline."

Bacterial blepharitis (anterior blepharitis) is less common than non-bacterial (posterior blepharitis). I'm sure Dr Latkany posted that doxycycline is primarily used in dry eye for its anti-inflammatory properties.

[kitty]

My recent research finds that doxycyline has greater anti inflammatory properties than topical steroids, like Lotemax.