After reading Stephen Buhner's book,
"Healing Lyme", I've decided to give some of the recommended herbs a try. My first herbal trial will be with Resveratrol. Stephen recommends that the herb comes from Japanese Knotweed (and is not the red wine source). After searching and searching to find the right product, I've settled on
Japanese Knotweed from Dragon Botanicals. What I like about Reseveratrol is that it has immune modulating properties, which can be helpful for a variety of conditions. It's also good that it can regulate the immune system if it was over on under active. What I didn't like about the antibiotics is that the idea there was just "kill, kill, kill". The problem is, they were killing everything. The bad bacteria, the good bacteria, and my immune system. As someone who has been on and off antibiotics for over two years, I am definitely not against antibiotics for Lyme, but I feel that at this point in my treatment it is necessary for me to take a step back from the antibiotics. I will definitely post my progress and my experience with the new herbal protocol. You can read more about this protocol on
Stephen's website.
According to the book, "Healing Lyme", Buhner indicates that the actions of Japanese Knotweed are as follows: antibacterial, antiviral, antischistosomal, antispirochetal, antifungal, immunostimulant, immunomodulant, antiinflammatory, angiogenesis modulator, central nervous system relaxant, central nervous system protectant and anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antiathersclerotic, antihyperlipidemic, antimutagenic, anticarcinogenic, antineoplastic, vasodilator, inhibits platlet aggregation, inhibits eicosanoid synthesis, antithrombotic, tyrosine kinase inhibitor, oncogene inhibitor, antipyretic, cardioprotective, analgesic, antiulcer, hemostatic, and astringent. (1)
Reference:
1) Buhner, Stephen. (2005)
Healing Lyme. Silver City: Raven Press.
