Teasel root tincture
Dear Stephen,
I was diagnosed with lyme disease 2 years ago by an alternative therapies doctor having spent the previous 5 years up and down at my local G.P. who didn’t seem to have a clue what was going on. I took a course of antibiotics (about 3 weeks) and was advised that I was cured albeit that my symptoms seemed to worsen. I am 100% certain that I still have this disease. But having had such a bad time with the antibiotics, I have decided to take a holistic approach. I’ve read your book with interest and Matthew Wood’s book as well. I am currently being treated by a great herbalist and am taking teasel root tincture. In the last week and a half, I’ve increased the dose from 1 drop 3x daily to now 10 drops 3x daily and can’t really see a great effect and haven’t herxed at all. I’ve read that teasel root tincture does not work for everyone and I’m wondering if that might be the case for me or whether it is too soon to tell. My symptoms are predominantly inflammation in the pelvic area and especially my pelvic bone with pain in my abdomen. I was originally bitten on the top of the leg and the inflammation seemed to travel from there to my pelvic area. I’ve also experienced problems with my periods lessening and shock-like pains in my head and neck. When I took the antibiotics I also experienced a lot of hair loss and extreme pain in my head but this seems to have lessened in the last 2 years. I’m from Scotland so unfortunately there doesn’t appear to be a lot of information on this disease or a lot of lyme literate doctors. Any assistance or advice would be much appreciated.
I was diagnosed with lyme disease 2 years ago by an alternative therapies doctor having spent the previous 5 years up and down at my local G.P. who didn’t seem to have a clue what was going on. I took a course of antibiotics (about 3 weeks) and was advised that I was cured albeit that my symptoms seemed to worsen. I am 100% certain that I still have this disease. But having had such a bad time with the antibiotics, I have decided to take a holistic approach. I’ve read your book with interest and Matthew Wood’s book as well. I am currently being treated by a great herbalist and am taking teasel root tincture. In the last week and a half, I’ve increased the dose from 1 drop 3x daily to now 10 drops 3x daily and can’t really see a great effect and haven’t herxed at all. I’ve read that teasel root tincture does not work for everyone and I’m wondering if that might be the case for me or whether it is too soon to tell. My symptoms are predominantly inflammation in the pelvic area and especially my pelvic bone with pain in my abdomen. I was originally bitten on the top of the leg and the inflammation seemed to travel from there to my pelvic area. I’ve also experienced problems with my periods lessening and shock-like pains in my head and neck. When I took the antibiotics I also experienced a lot of hair loss and extreme pain in my head but this seems to have lessened in the last 2 years. I’m from Scotland so unfortunately there doesn’t appear to be a lot of information on this disease or a lot of lyme literate doctors. Any assistance or advice would be much appreciated.
Stephen’s response:
I would urge you to try both Japanese knotweed and stephania as well as cat’s claw. Teasel root does generally help with arthritic inflammations; it sometimes helps those with the disease itself though from my experience this is pretty hit and miss. Some people do respond to low dose teasel tincture, many do not. I generally start people off at the 3 drop dosage but if after a week there is no improvement I up the dose and continue to do so for a month or so. My preferred dosages for most herbs are high and I think that up to 1 tsp of teasel 3x daily is fine for most people and often the higher dose is necessary. You might also have GI tract lyme in which case I would highly suggest the use of grapefruit seed extract for a week or two to see how you respond while at the same time taking something like Pepto Bismol as the lyme spirochetes are very sensitive to bismuth.
I would urge you to try both Japanese knotweed and stephania as well as cat’s claw. Teasel root does generally help with arthritic inflammations; it sometimes helps those with the disease itself though from my experience this is pretty hit and miss. Some people do respond to low dose teasel tincture, many do not. I generally start people off at the 3 drop dosage but if after a week there is no improvement I up the dose and continue to do so for a month or so. My preferred dosages for most herbs are high and I think that up to 1 tsp of teasel 3x daily is fine for most people and often the higher dose is necessary. You might also have GI tract lyme in which case I would highly suggest the use of grapefruit seed extract for a week or two to see how you respond while at the same time taking something like Pepto Bismol as the lyme spirochetes are very sensitive to bismuth.
Stephen
posted on October 7, 2011 in Herbs, teasel root
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Anna McCarthy
October 9, 2011 at 10:50 pm
However Pepto Bismol can cause deafness with repeated use, as it says on the package. My own mother went quite deaf with it and a good friend was doing Teitlebaum’s protocol and started going deaf when she read the package. I would like to do more but am now very leary….But thanks so much for all your good ideas.