I've also got Sarcoidosis, some pulmonary involvement, but certainly not debilitating (as long as I remain on medication anyway). However, every time I get prescribed antibiotics for something unrelated, damn I feel so much better for a few weeks after taking them!
A few months back I had an infection that required fairly high dose antibiotics and my Sarcoidosis has been noticeably better since, despite a significant increase in other things that usually cause flare-ups e.g. stress and lack of sleep. I am still on Hydroxychloroquine, but in the past I required Methotrexate (which was horrid).
There's been a heap of studies regarding Mycobacterium and Sarcoidosis. Doesn't seem to be the cause for everyone. As another poster pointed out — Sarcoidosis, Rheumatoid Arthritis; these are basically catch all names for conditions of unknown cause that exhibit similar symptoms. That said I'm pretty optimistic about all this research into bacterial involvement.
My completely naive and unqualified opinion on why antibiotic therapy worked in my case is that some percentage of sarcoidosis and possibly other autoimmune disease like RA is caused by 'internal acne' of some tissues causing runaway inflammation. Minocycline is mostly used to treat skin/face acne but has fallen out of favor because of side effects. IIRC this is because it penetrates deeper into tissues and can cross the blood/brain barrier.
I'm putting this info here in case it helps anyone. I am not a doctor and not giving medical advice, just sharing my personal story.
I haven't thought about this stuff in over 10 years, but there seems to be a lot of evidence now supporting this theory of bacterial acnes causing runaway inflammation. I can't believe that steroids plus pain killers are still the standard treatment for autoimmune diseases without any investigation into root causes. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14620162/
A few months back I had an infection that required fairly high dose antibiotics and my Sarcoidosis has been noticeably better since, despite a significant increase in other things that usually cause flare-ups e.g. stress and lack of sleep. I am still on Hydroxychloroquine, but in the past I required Methotrexate (which was horrid).
There's been a heap of studies regarding Mycobacterium and Sarcoidosis. Doesn't seem to be the cause for everyone. As another poster pointed out — Sarcoidosis, Rheumatoid Arthritis; these are basically catch all names for conditions of unknown cause that exhibit similar symptoms. That said I'm pretty optimistic about all this research into bacterial involvement.