HoldsUp

Richard Horowitz

Richard Horowitz is a physician specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease, tick-borne coinfections, and chronic illness. His published research primarily focuses on treatment protocols for chronic Lyme disease and post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome, particularly evaluated through dapsone combination therapy regimens and the Multiple Systemic Infectious Disease Syndrome (MSIDS) model. Additionally, his work includes studies on diagnostic assays for babesiosis and clinical reports on therapies for COVID-19.

47 claims checked on air: 5 context 1 contradicted 8 overstated 19 supported 14 unverified

What they said on air - citing their own research

6 citing their own research

0:24:10supportedvery lowtheir own paperUndiagnosed Infections Are Silently Causing Chronic Disease!

Richard Horowitz published the first article in world medical literature on glutathione's efficacy in COVID-19 in April 2020.

"I wrote the first article in the world literature in COVID-19 in April 2020 on glutathione and how it helps with COVID." (said at 0:24:10)

Richard I. Horowitz and colleagues published a two-patient case report titled 'Efficacy of glutathione therapy in relieving dyspnea associated with COVID-19 pneumonia: A report of 2 cases' in Respiratory Medicine Case Reports in April 2020. This was the first published article in the medical literature evaluating clinical treatment with oral and intravenous glutathione in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia. However, because this publication is an uncontrolled case report of only two patients, it provides very low certainty clinical evidence regarding the true therapeutic efficacy of glutathione in COVID-19.

0:34:45overstatedvery lowtheir own paperUndiagnosed Infections Are Silently Causing Chronic Disease!

Dapsone exhibits antimalarial activity and is effective against approximately 25% of Babesia cases.

"It has antimalarial properties; it hits, not great, but about 25% of the Babesia cases." (said at 0:34:45)

While dapsone has established antimalarial activity (historically used in antifolate combination therapies such as Lapdap and Maloprim), no clinical trials or published evidence establish that dapsone monotherapy or protocols achieve efficacy in approximately 25% of Babesia cases. Standard first-line treatments for human babesiosis remain atovaquone plus azithromycin or clindamycin plus quinine; in observational reports of dapsone combination regimens used for chronic tick-borne illness, Babesia coinfections typically require separate antimalarial regimens.

0:35:15overstatedvery lowtheir own paperUndiagnosed Infections Are Silently Causing Chronic Disease!

A 9-week dapsone antibiotic protocol induces remission in approximately half of patients with chronic Lyme disease who do not have active Babesia, Bartonella, or mold illness.

"if you have Lyme without active Babesia, Bartonella, without mold, this protocol will put about half of the people in remission from nine weeks of antibiotics." (said at 0:35:15)

Published retrospective chart reviews from the clinician's practice report similar figures: in a retrospective series of 40 patients treated with 7–8 weeks of double-dose dapsone combination therapy (DDDCT), 45% (18/40) remained in remission for 1 year or longer. In a subsequent review of 25 patients receiving 8 weeks of DDDCT followed by a 5–7 day high-dose pulse (~9 weeks total), 30.5% (7/23 evaluable) achieved remission at 3–9 months and 13% (3/23) at 1.5 months (~43.5% total). However, presenting these findings as a definitive clinical rule ("will put about half of the people in remission") overstates the evidence, which consists entirely of small, unblinded, uncontrolled retrospective chart reviews and case series from a single practice without randomized controls.

0:35:39supportedvery lowtheir own paperUndiagnosed Infections Are Silently Causing Chronic Disease!

A culture study conducted with Eva Sapi demonstrated that combining dapsone with doxycycline, rifampin, and azithromycin progressively reduced Borrelia biofilm persister cells.

"So, we found, and I did a study with Eva Sapi from the University of New Haven in culture... every time we added a drug, like when we added doxycycline to dapsone, it lowered the biofilm persisters; we added rifampin to doxy and dapsone, it lowered the biofilm even more. We added Zithromax." (said at 0:35:39)

A 2020 in vitro study co-authored by Richard Horowitz and Eva Sapi evaluated dapsone alone and in combination with doxycycline, rifampin, and azithromycin against Borrelia burgdorferi biofilm forms. The culture study showed that combining dapsone with these intracellular antibiotics significantly decreased biofilm mass, viability, and protective glycosaminoglycan content compared to monotherapies. Because these findings are derived exclusively from in vitro cell culture models, certainty regarding clinical translation to human Lyme disease remains very low.

0:54:56supportedlowtheir own paperUndiagnosed Infections Are Silently Causing Chronic Disease!

The Horowitz Multiple Systemic Infectious Disease Syndrome (MSIDS) questionnaire was validated in a study of 1,600 people.

"And the Horowitz MSIDS questionnaire, which is on my website, cangetbetter.com, if you take this questionnaire, it will give you a probability of tick-borne, but also you bring it to your doctor. There's 38 items on there... The beauty of the questionnaire is we validated it in 1,600 people." (said at 0:54:56)

A 2017 validation study by Horowitz and Freeman published in the International Journal of General Medicine evaluated the construct, convergent, and discriminant validity of the Horowitz Multiple Systemic Infectious Disease Syndrome Questionnaire (HMQ). The publication reported empirical evaluation across cohorts totaling over 1,500–1,600 participants (including Study 1 with 537 patients and Study 2 with 999 participants, alongside a third comparison cohort), finding acceptable internal reliability and ability to distinguish self-reported or confirmed Lyme disease patients from healthy controls.

1:13:40unverifiedvery lowtheir own paperUndiagnosed Infections Are Silently Causing Chronic Disease!

In a study of 375 patients, dapsone combination therapy statistically improved patients' memory as its primary effect.

"But here's the beauty is dapsone combination therapy, the number one effect it always had was improving people's memory statistically in these 375 patients." (said at 1:13:40)

No published record matching a study of 375 patients evaluating dapsone combination therapy with statistically improved memory as its primary effect was located; this does not prove the claim false. Published retrospective chart reviews and observational cohorts on dapsone combination therapy in chronic Lyme disease/post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome report cohorts of 200 patients (evaluating eight general symptom categories without isolating memory as a primary endpoint), 40 patients, and 25 patients, rather than 375 patients.

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