Archive for the ‘Herbs’ Category

Which Herbs For Inflammation?

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/324368.php?

Which herbs help reduce inflammation?

By Aaron Kandola
Reviewed by
Many herbal remedies could have anti-inflammatory properties. However, the evidence to support the majority of these claims is lacking. Inflammation is the body’s primary defense mechanism against infections, wounds, and other forms of harm.

However, inflammation itself can be harmful in some cases. For example, many conditions can cause inflammation to remain elevated, resulting in tissue damage.

A range of anti-inflammatory drugs exist to help control inflammation in the body. However, they often have side effects and may not always be effective.

Natural compounds that are present in certain herbal remedies also have the potential to be anti-inflammatory. However, there is much less research in this area.

This article will list herbal remedies with the most evidence for their anti-inflammatory properties.

Turmeric

Anti inflammatory herbs

 

Turmeric typically comes in the form of a yellow powder from the root of the turmeric plant.

It contains a chemical called curcumin, which may have anti-inflammatory properties.

Several studies have shown that turmeric can help reduce inflammation and discomfort in people with arthritis.

It works by limiting the production of molecules called cytokines, which cause inflammation.

Researchers continue to investigate how curcumin affects inflammation in a range of other conditions, such as inflammatory bowel disease. Curcumin has the most substantial evidence base for its anti-inflammatory effects compared with other herbal remedies.

Turmeric is available in the form of capsules, tablets, teas, pastes, and extracts. Methods of taking turmeric will vary, depending on the intended use.

Ginger

Ginger, or Zingiber officinale, is a tropical plant that has long had a place in traditional medicines.

Ginger may have anti-inflammatory properties. There is evidence showing that many of ginger’s constituents can limit the production of cytokines and the activity of cyclooxygenase enzymes, which promote inflammation.

Research has found that the anti-inflammatory properties of ginger could be useful in treating several conditions, including arthritis and pain.

Ginger can be fresh or a dried root. It can also come in the form of tablets, capsules, and teas.

Green tea

Anti inflammatory herbs green tea

Green tea comes from Camellia sinensis leaves. Research has linked it to a variety of health benefits, such as aiding weight loss.

Green tea has anti-inflammatory properties that could underlie some of these specific health benefits.

For example, there is evidence to suggest that a component of green tea could disrupt processes that cause inflammation in the arthritis.

Other studies have found that green tea can have a positive effect on inflammation in people with metabolic disorders. Researchers suggest that it may drive these anti-inflammatory effects.

Green tea typically comes as a hot or cold drink. It is also possible to buy capsules, tablets, and creams that contain green tea.

Many other herbal remedies may also have anti-inflammatory properties. Examples include:

  • thyme
  • white willow bark
  • frankincense
  • resveratrol

However, there is not much research available on these remedies. Without this research, it is not possible to say with certainty whether these anti-inflammatory effects exist, or if they are effective treatment options for people with inflammatory conditions.

While a greater evidence base exists for the remedies in this article, the research in this area is still in the early stages.

For example, scientists have conducted many studies into the anti-inflammatory benefits of turmeric. However, the quality of these studies is not high enough to support the claim that turmeric can effectively reduce inflammation in humans.

It is also important to remember that studies in this area tend to use highly concentrated forms of these herbal remedies.

In some cases, certain compounds are isolated. One example of this is curcumin from turmeric. This means that the effects may differ when taking different forms of the remedy.

Risks

Anti inflammatory herbs doctor

  • gastrointestinal problems
  • liver problems
  • abdominal discomfort
  • heartburn
  • diarrhea
  • gas
  • sleep problems

It is also possible for these herbal remedies to interact with certain medications. For example, green tea can interact with certain beta-blockers such as nadolol.

It is important to discuss any herbal remedies with a doctor, who can advise further on drug interactions that may occur.

Summary

There is some evidence to support the claim that turmeric, green tea, and ginger have anti-inflammatory properties.

For people with inflammatory health conditions, consuming these herbal remedies could be useful for reducing inflammation.

However, more high-quality research will be necessary to confirm these effects. These herbal remedies are generally safe, but it is important to consult a doctor before taking them in conjunction with other types of medication.

_________________
Both DMSO & MSM are anti-inflammatory.  This in depth article explains their many uses – with recipes as well.
Both LDN and CBD are anti-inflammatory.

Category:

Herbs, Inflammation, Pain Management, research, Supplements, Treatment

Marijuana, Mental Illness, & Violence

https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/marijuana-mental-illness-violence/?

The following is adapted from a speech delivered on January 15, 2019, at Hillsdale College’s Allan P. Kirby, Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship in Washington, D.C.

By Alex Berenson
Author, Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence

Seventy miles northwest of New York City is a hospital that looks like a prison, its drab brick buildings wrapped in layers of fencing and barbed wire. This grim facility is called the Mid-Hudson Forensic Psychiatric Institute. It’s one of three places the state of New York sends the criminally mentally ill—defendants judged not guilty by reason of insanity.

Until recently, my wife Jackie —Dr. Jacqueline Berenson—was a senior psychiatrist there. Many of Mid-Hudson’s 300 patients are killers and arsonists. At least one is a cannibal. Most have been diagnosed with psychotic disorders like schizophrenia that provoked them to violence against family members or strangers.

A couple of years ago, Jackie was telling me about a patient. In passing, she said something like, Of course he’d been smoking pot his whole life.

Of course? I said.

Yes, they all smoke.

So marijuana causes schizophrenia?

I was surprised, to say the least. I tended to be a libertarian on drugs. Years before, I’d covered the pharmaceutical industry for The New York Times. I was aware of the claims about marijuana as medicine, and I’d watched the slow spread of legalized cannabis without much interest.

Jackie would have been within her rights to say, I know what I’m talking about, unlike you. Instead she offered something neutral like, I think that’s what the big studies say. You should read them.

So I did. The big studies, the little ones, and all the rest. I read everything I could find. I talked to every psychiatrist and brain scientist who would talk to me. And I soon realized that in all my years as a journalist I had never seen a story where the gap between insider and outsider knowledge was so great, or the stakes so high.

I began to wonder why—with the stocks of cannabis companies soaring and politicians promoting legalization as a low-risk way to raise tax revenue and reduce crime—I had never heard the truth about marijuana, mental illness, and violence.

***

Over the last 30 years, psychiatrists and epidemiologists have turned speculation about marijuana’s dangers into science. Yet over the same period, a shrewd and expensive lobbying campaign has pushed public attitudes about marijuana the other way. And the effects are now becoming apparent.

Almost everything you think you know about the health effects of cannabis, almost everything advocates and the media have told you for a generation, is wrong.

They’ve told you marijuana has many different medical uses. In reality marijuana and THC, its active ingredient, have been shown to work only in a few narrow conditions. They are most commonly prescribed for pain relief. But they are rarely tested against other pain relief drugs like ibuprofen—and in July, a large four-year study of patients with chronic pain in Australia showed cannabis use was associated with greater pain over time.

They’ve told you cannabis can stem opioid use—“Two new studies show how marijuana can help fight the opioid epidemic,” according to Wonkblog, a Washington Post website, in April 2018— and that marijuana’s effects as a painkiller make it a potential substitute for opiates. In reality, like alcohol, marijuana is too weak as a painkiller to work for most people who truly need opiates, such as terminal cancer patients. Even cannabis advocates, like Rob Kampia, the co-founder of the Marijuana Policy Project, acknowledge that they have always viewed medical marijuana laws primarily as a way to protect recreational users.

As for the marijuana-reduces-opiate-use theory, it is based largely on a single paper comparing overdose deaths by state before 2010 to the spread of medical marijuana laws— and the paper’s finding is probably a result of simple geographic coincidence. The opiate epidemic began in Appalachia, while the first states to legalize medical marijuana were in the West. Since 2010, as both the epidemic and medical marijuana laws have spread nationally, the finding has vanished. And the United States, the Western country with the most cannabis use, also has by far the worst problem with opioids.

Research on individual users—a better way to trace cause and effect than looking at aggregate state-level data—consistently shows that marijuana use leads to other drug use. For example, a January 2018 paper in the American Journal of Psychiatry showed that people who used cannabis in 2001 were almost three times as likely to use opiates three years later, even after adjusting for other potential risks.

Most of all, advocates have told you that marijuana is not just safe for people with psychiatric problems like depression, but that it is a potential treatment for those patients. On its website, the cannabis delivery service Eaze offers the “Best Marijuana Strains and Products for Treating Anxiety.” “How Does Cannabis Help Depression?” is the topic of an article on Leafly, the largest cannabis website. But a mountain of peer-reviewed research in top medical journals shows that marijuana can cause or worsen severe mental illness, especially psychosis, the medical term for a break from reality. Teenagers who smoke marijuana regularly are about three times as likely to develop schizophrenia, the most devastating psychotic disorder.

After an exhaustive review, the National Academy of Medicine found in 2017 that “cannabis use is likely to increase the risk of developing schizophrenia and other psychoses; the higher the use, the greater the risk.” Also that “regular cannabis use is likely to increase the risk for developing social anxiety disorder.”

***

Over the past decade, as legalization has spread, patterns of marijuana use—and the drug itself—have changed in dangerous ways.

Legalization has not led to a huge increase in people using the drug casually. About 15 percent of Americans used cannabis at least once in 2017, up from ten percent in 2006, according to a large federal study called the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. (By contrast, about 65 percent of Americans had a drink in the last year.) But the number of Americans who use cannabis heavily is soaring. In 2006, about three million Americans reported using cannabis at least 300 times a year, the standard for daily use. By 2017, that number had nearly tripled, to eight million, approaching the twelve million Americans who drank alcohol every day. Put another way, one in 15 drinkers consumed alcohol daily; about one in five marijuana users used cannabis that often.

Cannabis users today are also consuming a drug that is far more potent than ever before, as measured by the amount of THC—delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, the chemical in cannabis responsible for its psychoactive effects—it contains. In the 1970s, the last time this many Americans used cannabis, most marijuana contained less than two percent THC. Today, marijuana routinely contains 20 to 25 percent THC, thanks to sophisticated farming and cloning techniques—as well as to a demand by users for cannabis that produces a stronger high more quickly. In states where cannabis is legal, many users prefer extracts that are nearly pure THC. Think of the difference between near-beer and a martini, or even grain alcohol, to understand the difference.

These new patterns of use have caused problems with the drug to soar. In 2014, people who had diagnosable cannabis use disorder, the medical term for marijuana abuse or addiction, made up about 1.5 percent of Americans. But they accounted for eleven percent of all the psychosis cases in emergency rooms—90,000 cases, 250 a day, triple the number in 2006. In states like Colorado, emergency room physicians have become experts on dealing with cannabis-induced psychosis.

Cannabis advocates often argue that the drug can’t be as neurotoxic as studies suggest, because otherwise Western countries would have seen population-wide increases in psychosis alongside rising use. In reality, accurately tracking psychosis cases is impossible in the United States. The government carefully tracks diseases like cancer with central registries, but no such registry exists for schizophrenia or other severe mental illnesses.

On the other hand, research from Finland and Denmark, two countries that track mental illness more comprehensively, shows a significant increase in psychosis since 2000, following an increase in cannabis use. And in September of last year, a large federal survey found a rise in serious mental illness in the United States as well, especially among young adults, the heaviest users of cannabis.

According to this latter study, 7.5 percent of adults age 18-25 met the criteria for serious mental illness in 2017, double the rate in 2008. What’s especially striking is that adolescents age 12-17 don’t show these increases in cannabis use and severe mental illness.

A caveat: this federal survey doesn’t count individual cases, and it lumps psychosis with other severe mental illness. So it isn’t as accurate as the Finnish or Danish studies. Nor do any of these studies prove that rising cannabis use has caused population-wide increases in psychosis or other mental illness. The most that can be said is that they offer intriguing evidence of a link.

Advocates for people with mental illness do not like discussing the link between schizophrenia and crime. They fear it will stigmatize people with the disease. “Most people with mental illness are not violent,” the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) explains on its website. But wishing away the link can’t make it disappear. In truth, psychosis is a shockingly high risk factor for violence. The best analysis came in a 2009 paper in PLOS Medicine by Dr. Seena Fazel, an Oxford University psychiatrist and epidemiologist. Drawing on earlier studies, the paper found that people with schizophrenia are five times as likely to commit violent crimes as healthy people, and almost 20 times as likely to commit homicide.

NAMI’s statement that most people with mental illness are not violent is of course accurate, given that “most” simply means “more than half”; but it is deeply misleading. Schizophrenia is rare. But people with the disorder commit an appreciable fraction of all murders, in the range of six to nine percent.

“The best way to deal with the stigma is to reduce the violence,” says Dr. Sheilagh Hodgins, a professor at the University of Montreal who has studied mental illness and violence for more than 30 years.

The marijuana-psychosis-violence connection is even stronger than those figures suggest. People with schizophrenia are only moderately more likely to become violent than healthy people when they are taking antipsychotic medicine and avoiding recreational drugs. But when they use drugs, their risk of violence skyrockets. “You don’t just have an increased risk of one thing—these things occur in clusters,” Dr. Fazel told me.

Along with alcohol, the drug that psychotic patients use more than any other is cannabis: a 2010 review of earlier studies in Schizophrenia Bulletin found that 27 percent of people with schizophrenia had been diagnosed with cannabis use disorder in their lives. And unfortunately—despite its reputation for making users relaxed and calm—cannabis appears to provoke many of them to violence.

A Swiss study of 265 psychotic patients published in Frontiers of Forensic Psychiatry last June found that over a three-year period, young men with psychosis who used cannabis had a 50 percent chance of becoming violent. That risk was four times higher than for those with psychosis who didn’t use, even after adjusting for factors such as alcohol use. Other researchers have produced similar findings. A 2013 paper in an Italian psychiatric journal examined almost 1,600 psychiatric patients in southern Italy and found that cannabis use was associated with a ten-fold increase in violence.

The most obvious way that cannabis fuels violence in psychotic people is through its tendency to cause paranoia—something even cannabis advocates acknowledge the drug can cause. The risk is so obvious that users joke about it and dispensaries advertise certain strains as less likely to induce paranoia. And for people with psychotic disorders, paranoia can fuel extreme violence. A 2007 paper in the Medical Journal of Australia on 88 defendants who had committed homicide during psychotic episodes found that most believed they were in danger from the victim, and almost two-thirds reported misusing cannabis—more than alcohol and amphetamines combined.

Yet the link between marijuana and violence doesn’t appear limited to people with preexisting psychosis. Researchers have studied alcohol and violence for generations, proving that alcohol is a risk factor for domestic abuse, assault, and even murder. Far less work has been done on marijuana, in part because advocates have stigmatized anyone who raises the issue. But studies showing that marijuana use is a significant risk factor for violence have quietly piled up. Many of them weren’t even designed to catch the link, but they did. Dozens of such studies exist, covering everything from bullying by high school students to fighting among vacationers in Spain.

In most cases, studies find that the risk is at least as significant as with alcohol. A 2012 paper in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence examined a federal survey of more than 9,000 adolescents and found that marijuana use was associated with a doubling of domestic violence; a 2017 paper in Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology examined drivers of violence among 6,000 British and Chinese men and found that drug use—the drug nearly always being cannabis—translated into a five-fold increase in violence.

Today that risk is translating into real-world impacts. Before states legalized recreational cannabis, advocates said that legalization would let police focus on hardened criminals rather than marijuana smokers and thus reduce violent crime. Some advocates go so far as to claim that legalization has reduced violent crime. In a 2017 speech calling for federal legalization, U.S. Senator Cory Booker said that “states [that have legalized marijuana] are seeing decreases in violent crime.” He was wrong.

The first four states to legalize marijuana for recreational use were Colorado and Washington in 2014 and Alaska and Oregon in 2015. Combined, those four states had about 450 murders and 30,300 aggravated assaults in 2013. Last year, they had almost 620 murders and 38,000 aggravated assaults—an increase of 37 percent for murders and 25 percent for aggravated assaults, far greater than the national increase, even after accounting for differences in population growth.

Knowing exactly how much of the increase is related to cannabis is impossible without researching every crime. But police reports, news stories, and arrest warrants suggest a close link in many cases. For example, last September, police in Longmont, Colorado, arrested Daniel Lopez for stabbing his brother Thomas to death as a neighbor watched. Daniel Lopez had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and was “self-medicating” with marijuana, according to an arrest affidavit.

In every state, not just those where marijuana is legal, cases like Lopez’s are far more common than either cannabis or mental illness advocates acknowledge. Cannabis is also associated with a disturbing number of child deaths from abuse and neglect—many more than alcohol, and more than cocaine, methamphetamines, and opioids combined—according to reports from Texas, one of the few states to provide detailed information on drug use by perpetrators.

These crimes rarely receive more than local attention. Psychosis-induced violence takes particularly ugly forms and is frequently directed at helpless family members. The elite national media prefers to ignore the crimes as tabloid fodder. Even police departments, which see this violence up close, have been slow to recognize the trend, in part because the epidemic of opioid overdose deaths has overwhelmed them.

So the black tide of psychosis and the red tide of violence are rising steadily, almost unnoticed, on a slow green wave.

For centuries, people worldwide have understood that cannabis causes mental illness and violence—just as they’ve known that opiates cause addiction and overdose. Hard data on the relationship between marijuana and madness dates back 150 years, to British asylum registers in India. Yet 20 years ago, the United States moved to encourage wider use of cannabis and opiates.

In both cases, we decided we could outsmart these drugs—that we could have their benefits without their costs. And in both cases we were wrong. Opiates are riskier, and the overdose deaths they cause a more imminent crisis, so we have focused on those. But soon enough the mental illness and violence that follow cannabis use will also be too widespread to ignore.

Whether to use cannabis, or any drug, is a personal decision. Whether cannabis should be legal is a political issue. But its precise legal status is far less important than making sure that anyone who uses it is aware of its risks. Most cigarette smokers don’t die of lung cancer. But we have made it widely known that cigarettes cause cancer, full stop. Most people who drink and drive don’t have fatal accidents. But we have highlighted the cases of those who do.

We need equally unambiguous and well-funded advertising campaigns on the risks of cannabis. Instead, we are now in the worst of all worlds. Marijuana is legal in some states, illegal in others, dangerously potent, and sold without warnings everywhere.

But before we can do anything, we—especially cannabis advocates and those in the elite media who have for too long credulously accepted their claims—need to come to terms with the truth about the science on marijuana. That adjustment may be painful. But the alternative is far worse, as the patients at Mid-Hudson Forensic Psychiatric Institute—and their victims—know.

Alex Berenson is a graduate of Yale University with degrees in history and economics. He began his career in journalism in 1994 as a business reporter for the Denver Post, joined the financial news website TheStreet.com in 1996, and worked as an investigative reporter for The New York Times from 1999 to 2010, during which time he also served two stints as an Iraq War correspondent. In 2006 he published The Faithful Spy, which won the 2007 Edgar Award for best first novel from the Mystery Writers of America. He has published ten additional novels and two nonfiction books, The Number: How the Drive for Quarterly Earnings Corrupted Wall Street and Corporate Americaand Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence.

Category:

Activism, Herbs, Marijuana, Psychological Aspects, research, Treatment

Novel Herbal Compounds Effectively Kill Borrelia burgdorferi (in vitro)

https://www.oatext.com/pdf/GMO-2-153.pdf

Effective killing of Borrelia burgdorferi in vitro with novel herbal compounds

Kati Karvonen* and Leona Gilbert

Department of Biological and Environmental Science and Nanoscience Center, PO Box 35, FI-40014, University of Jyvaskyla, Finland

 

Abstract
Introduction: The tick-borne disease Lyme Borreliosis is caused by Borrelia bacteria. The disease can persist even after treatment with antibiotics, which is why other methods of treatment are needed. Herbal compounds and phytochemicals have been recently examined in relation to eradicating Borrelia bacteria in vitro.

Objective: The possible antimicrobial effect of two novel compounds, Biocidin Liquid and LSF Broad-Spectrum Liposomal formulas, was examined in the hopes of discovering an alternative method for eradication of Borrelia bacteria.

Methods: minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) and minimum bacterial deaths (MBDs), as well as, time-kill effect of each compound were utilized in the study.

Results: The Liquid formula effectively killed the spirochetes with 1:10 dilution, while the MIC for the Liposomal formula was 1:25. Moreover, the MIC for both compounds with Round Bodies was 1:50 and for biofilms 1:10. Though long-term effect (MBD) was seen only with 1:5 dilutions for both formulas. Additionally, the killing effect of each compound was observed already at 10 min post-treatment.

Conclusion: The study conducted here provides new insight into the antimicrobial effect of herbal compounds. Furthermore, studies such as these are required in order to discover possible alternatives to antibiotics in the battle against Borrelia infections.

___________________

**Comment**

The work was done in vitro (in a lab setting, not the human body) and funding was, “supported by Bio-Botanical research Inc. However, the authors devised the study design, collected and analyzed the data, and prepared the manuscript without input from the company. e decision to publish was the authors.”

Bio-botanical research manufactures Biocidin.

I’ve personally used Biocidin with no noticeable effects.

This work, similar to the in vitro work on stevia and essential oils still needs to be done in vivo (the human body) to determine it’s true effect, if any.

For Stevia info:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/08/11/stevia-clinical-trial-underway/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2015/11/19/stevia-and-bb/

Essential Oil info:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/10/13/oregano-cinnamon-and-clove-found-to-have-high-anti-persister-activity-for-bb/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/10/26/essential-oils-as-treatment-against-lyme-disease/

Personally, my husband and I have tried Stevia and EO’s internally.  We relapsed on both.  We also didn’t have any noticeable herx reactions.  That isn’t to say they won’t work on someone else but for me and my husband we’ve ALWAYS responded to antibiotics with noticeable herxheimer reactions upon starting treatment.  

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/12/10/johns-hopkins-researchers-plant-compounds-may-be-better-than-current-antibiotics-at-treating-persistent-lyme-bacteria/

 

Category:

Herbs, Lyme, research, Treatment

Your Liver is Your Detox Organ. Here’s Why & How to Support it

https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/support-liver-detox-with-supplements-and-herbs?

Your Liver Is Your Detox Organ. Here’s Why & How To Support It

By William Cole, D.C., IFMCP Functional Medicine Practitioner
Image by Marc Tran / Stocksy
January 3, 2019

We humans are alive because of brilliant biochemistry, and while each system of our body has its own unique function, they are all inextricably linked and work together to keep us alive and thriving. When one system goes awry, it often affects other seemingly unrelated aspects of our health. This is especially true when it comes to detox, which is one of the biggest factors of poor health that I see in my patients.

With research starting to show the link between our increased toxin exposure and autoimmune conditions, it’s more important than ever for your body’s detoxification systems to be working properly. As your body’s largest organ, your liver is also the main detoxifier.

Why your liver is your detox organ.

Working in constant communication with your stomach, pancreas, gallbladder, and the rest of your digestive system, your liver is responsible for storing and converting nutrients from the foods we eat for our bodies to utilize. Through its role in the metabolism of fat, protein, and carbohydrates, your liver works to ensure that blood glucose levels are stabilized to prevent blood sugar imbalances and other metabolic problems. It works to filter out toxins from the foods you eat and environmental exposures as well as acting as a blood purifier, clearing out your blood of these impurities and only utilizing the necessary nutrients. Needless to say, if your liver isn’t working well, your ability to detox is going to be greatly affected.

When your liver is overloaded with toxins, it creates a cascade of systemic chronic inflammation, which further affects your liver’s ability to rid itself of these toxins. It becomes a vicious cycle between toxin buildup and inflammation that can only be broken through limiting your toxin exposure and supporting your liver’s natural ability to detox.

Detox rituals that support your liver.

I’ve written in the past about various ways to make your life a cleanse. But to really boost your detox pathways and liver function, these targeted natural tools are my go-to for next-level liver and detox support:

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1. Dandelion tea

Methylation is your body’s biochemical superhighway that controls your body’s ability to detox. B vitamins act as fuel for methylation and are found abundantly in dandelions. Brew up a cup of dandelion tea to support methylation and help support optimal liver function.

2. Milk thistle

This plant is one of the most well-researched natural remedies for treating liver problems and has been used for years to treat a number of different liver conditions, including hepatitis and alcoholic liver disease. Milk thistle aids in eliminating toxins that have built up in the liver in addition to helping restore liver cells that have been damaged from increased toxin exposure. You can take it in a supplement capsule or as a tea.

Image by Yoyochow23 / iStock

3. Garlic

Garlic helps to activate liver detox enzymes that work to break down the toxins that enter your body in order to effectively eliminate them. Thankfully, garlic makes a delicious addition to almost any recipe, so don’t be afraid to load up while cooking your next meal!

4. Sulfuric vegetables

Vegetables such as broccoli, broccoli sprouts, mushrooms, Brussels sprouts, and cauliflower are considered sulfuric and contain the powerful antioxidant glutathione. This antioxidant is essential for activating phase 1 and phase 2 liver detoxification.

5. Beets

Beets are great for helping break down toxins through increasing enzyme activity so that your body can eliminate them quicker. I love roasting them as a side or adding them to a salad seasoned with garlic!

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6. Red clover

This is one of my favorites for its ability to rid toxins from not only your liver but your spleen and lymphatic system as well. You can take it in capsule form or as an herbal tincture.

7. Burdock root

As a tea or supplement, this root does wonders for removing toxins, specifically heavy metals. With its natural diuretic properties, it works to flush out toxins by increasing fluid excretion as well as boosting your lymphatic system.

You don’t have to adopt all these rituals to support your liver, but by making yourself a cup of dandelion tea, adding garlic and beets to your next meal, or taking a red clover supplement, you can support your detox pathways going into 2019.

________________

More on Detoxification:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/02/24/top-3-lyme-detox-myths-busted-dr-rawls/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/03/02/dmso-msm-for-lyme-msids/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/01/03/the-invisible-universe-of-the-human-microbiome-msm/

Briefly, MSM stands for Methylsulfonylmethane and is 34% sulfur by weight. Sulfur plays a crucial role in detoxification and is an important antioxidant for producing glutathione. If you aren’t getting enough sulfur, glutathione can not work. Even if you have a diet rich in sulfur (think cabbage, onions, garlic, broccoli, etc – essentially the stinky veggies – and many other food items as well) your body still could use supplementation.

 

 

 

Category:

Detoxing, diet and nutrition, Herbs, Inflammation, Supplements, Treatment

Essential Oils – Highly Effective at Destroying Lyme Bacterium (in a Petri Dish)

 Approx. 7 Min.

Dec. 17, 2018

Written by Joseph Mercola

Story at-a-glance

  • In lab tests conducted at Johns Hopkins, essential oils from garlic and other herbs and medicinal plants were found to be highly effective at destroying the bacterium that causes Lyme disease
  • At least 300,000 Americans are diagnosed annually with Lyme disease, which is a bacterial infection spread by ticks commonly found in the U.S. and at least 60 other countries
  • Treating Lyme disease is often complicated by coinfections, nutrient deficiencies and toxin overload, as well as the fact many of its symptoms mimic illnesses like fibromyalgia and multiple sclerosis
  • While conventional medicine most often turns to long-term antibiotic use to treat Lyme, I encourage you to investigate the many natural solutions available, including the use of antioxidants, probiotics and lumbrokinase
  • If you are not finding the help you need and your condition is worsening, you may want to consider learning more about the treatment protocol recommended by Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt, one of the leading authorities on Lyme disease

Lab-based research conducted at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health suggests various essential oils, including garlic, can effectively kill persistent forms of Lyme disease bacterium. While clinical trials are needed to validate the lab-based results, this is good news for anyone who had previously been relying on antibiotics alone to treat this life-threatening, tick-based disease.

Notably, 10 of the 35 essential oils tested showed strong killing activity against dormant and slow-growing “persister” forms of Lyme disease bacterium.1

If you are struggling with Lyme disease, I encourage you to look beyond conventional treatment, which often focuses on the use of long-term antibiotics. You owe it to yourself to investigate essential oils and other natural solutions, which I highlight below.

Essential Oils Shown To Be Effective for Treating Lyme Disease

As presented in the featured video, a new study published in the journal Antibiotics2 suggests essential oils such as garlic and eucalyptus may be useful in treating Lyme disease.

Interested in the oils’ strong antibacterial properties and many other health benefits, a team of researchers from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health conducted lab tests designed to treat Lyme bacterium with 35 essential oils.

Previously, lead study author Dr. Ying Zhang, professor in the department of molecular microbiology and immunology, and his colleagues identified five essential oils, including oregano, cinnamon bark and citronella, that have higher antipersister activity than the commonly used Lyme antibiotic drug daptomycin.3 Results of the current research revealed:4,5,6

  • Ten of the 35 essential oils that were tested showed “strong activity” against persister forms of Lyme disease bacterium
  • Essential oils derived from allspice berries, cinnamon bark, cumin seeds, eucalyptus, garlic cloves, myrrh trees and thyme leaves are among those found to effectively combat persister forms of Lyme disease
  • Five of these oils were effective against dormant forms of the Lyme bacterium in a concentration of only 1 part per 1,000
  • Essential oils from allspice berries, garlic, may chang trees, myrrh trees and spiked ginger lily not only eradicated all Lyme disease bacteria in seven days, but also prevented regrowth in 21 days

About the study outcomes, Zhang stated, “We found that these essential oils were even better at killing the ‘persister’ forms of Lyme bacteria than standard Lyme antibiotics. At this stage, these essential oils look very promising as candidate treatments for persistent Lyme infection, but ultimately we need properly designed clinical trials.”7

Given the study outcomes, essential oils are certainly worth consideration when it comes to addressing Lyme symptoms. Later in this article, I will share other natural remedies you may want to consider. For now, let’s take a closer look at what causes the disease and how it is most commonly contracted.

What Causes Lyme Disease?

Lyme disease is caused by a spirochete — a corkscrew-shaped bacterium called Borrelia burgdorferi. It is primarily transmitted by deer ticks and black-legged ticks found in grassy and wooded areas throughout the U.S. and at least 60 other countries.8

Lyme is sometimes accompanied by a characteristic bullseye rash and may include flu-like symptoms such as: body aches, fatigue, fever, headaches and stiff or swollen joints.

As I have often mentioned, early treatment is vital because it may help you avoid future complications such as chronic joint inflammation (Lyme arthritis), cognitive defects, heart rhythm irregularities and neurological symptoms.

Quite often, Lyme disease can be complicated by factors such as coinfections, nutrient deficiencies and toxin overload.9 LymeDisease.org provides the following facts about the disease:10

  • Most people contract Lyme from the bite of an immature tick — and the bite is often so tiny and painless, you may not realize you’ve been bitten
  • An undisturbed tick can feed for several days; the longer it is attached to your body, the greater the chances it will transmit Lyme and other pathogens into your bloodstream
  • Lyme, which is known as “The Great Imitator,” is very challenging to diagnose because its symptoms mimic conditions such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), chronic fatigue syndrome, depression, fibromyalgia and multiple sclerosis
  • Lyme disease can affect any organ of your body, including your brain and nervous system, muscles and joints and even your heart

Who Gets Lyme Disease?

Lyme disease is no respecter of persons and one bite from a tick the size of a poppy seed may be the only thing separating you from this devastating illness. At least 300,000 Americans are diagnosed with Lyme disease annually.11

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Lyme disease cases are mainly concentrated in the Northeast and upper Midwest, with 14 American states accounting for more than 96 percent of the cases reported to the CDC.12

The people at greatest risk of picking up a Lyme-infected tick include children and older adults, as well as firefighters, park rangers and others who spend time in areas known to increase their exposure to ticks.13

Antibiotic Treatment for Lyme Disease Is Not Always Effective

In most cases, the first line of treatment for Lyme disease usually involves the administration of antibiotics such as amoxicillin, cefuroxime or doxycycline for two to four weeks. That said, antibiotics are not always effective. It’s also important to note that the overuse of these drugs contributes to antibiotic resistance, which is becoming an increasingly bigger issue worldwide.

A 2013 study suggested 36 percent of antibiotic-treated patients continued to suffer from fatigue six months after taking the medication, whereas 20 percent experienced ongoing joint or musculoskeletal pain and 45 percent dealt with persistent neurocognitive symptoms.14

This poorly understood condition that lingers after standard treatment has been completed is known as “persistent Lyme infection” or “post-treatment Lyme disease (PTLDS) syndrome.”15 While the cause of so-called persistent Lyme infection is unknown, experts have observed that the Lyme bacterium can enter a dormant stage in which its cells multiply very slowly or don’t divide at all.

As such, these so-called persister cells are known to be more resistant to antibiotics. About this aspect of Lyme disease, authors of the Johns Hopkins study stated:16

“We found that the variant persister forms such as round bodies, microcolonies and biofilms with increasing degree of persistence in vitro, cannot be killed by the current Lyme antibiotics or even persister drugs like daptomycin alone. [T]hey can only be killed by a combination of drugs that kill persisters and drugs that kill the growing forms.

These observations provide a possible explanation in support of persistent infection despite antibiotic treatment in vivo.

Although daptomycin has good antipersister activity, it is expensive and is an intravenous drug and difficult to administer and adopt in clinical setting, and it has limited penetration through blood brain barrier (BBB). Thus, there is interest to identify alternative drug candidates with high anti-persister activity.”

Natural Strategies to Fight Lyme Disease

As mentioned, conventional Lyme treatment usually focuses on antibiotics, which often stop short of addressing the underlying issues associated with the disease. Due to the damage it will do to your gut microbiome, I do not recommend long-term antibiotic use for Lyme.

The use of antibiotics also increases your risk of fungal or yeast infections. Moreover, antibiotics tax your natural immune function and increase your risk of antibiotic-resistant infections.

Rather than choose antibiotic therapy as your primary means of treating Lyme, you’d be wise to investigate the many natural alternatives first, or, at least use the natural remedies in concert with any recommended pharmaceutical medications. You may find the following nutritional supplements useful in addressing Lyme disease:

Andrographis and artemisinin — herbs that treat a Lyme coinfection called Babesia Krill oil — this omega-3 powerhouse helps reduce inflammation and relieve Lyme symptoms
Astaxanthin — a powerful antioxidant that neutralizes toxins and relieves joint pain Probiotics — promotes healthy gut flora and boosts your immunity
Cilantro — a natural chelator for heavy metals Quercetin — an antioxidant known to reduce histamine, which is usually high in Lyme patients
CoQ10 — a potent antioxidant that alleviates muscle pain, boosts cardiac health and reduces brain fog Resveratrol — this antioxidant helps with detoxification and may treat the common coinfection called Bartonella
Curcumin — the active ingredient in the spice turmeric, which eliminates neurological toxins and helps reduce brain swelling Serrapeptase — helps dissolve biofilms
GABA and melatonin — two great sleep supplements that will help address insomnia, a common complaint of Lyme sufferers Transfer factors — help boost your immune function
Grapefruit seed extract — known to kill bacteria, Candida and parasites and may help treat the Borrelia bacterium in cyst form Whey protein concentrate — may be useful as a dietary supplement

Lumbrokinase Also Shown to Help Treat Lyme

Beyond the natural remedies mentioned above, lumbrokinase, a group of six proteolytic (protein digesting) enzymes derived from earthworms, has been successfully paired with antimicrobial remedies for the treatment of Lyme disease.

Lumbrokinase is believed to effectively penetrate through thick clumps of gut bacteria known as biofilms, which are one of several factors involved with Lyme. When pathogenic bacteria hide within biofilms, they can feed and replicate out of the reach of your immune system.

As such, they remain strong and unaffected by any antimicrobial medications, including antibiotics and herbs, you may be taking. The fact lumbrokinase is helpful in breaking down fibrinogen is an important aspect of Lyme treatment because the pathogenic bacteria use fibrinogen, which they convert to fibrin, to strengthen their network.17

Researchers studying the effects of lumbrokinase18 say earthworms have been used for thousands of years within traditional medicine in Asian countries such as China, Japan and Korea. In these countries, dry earthworm powder taken orally has been shown to promote healthy blood circulation.

Dr. Miguel Gonzalez, a functional, integrative and holistic medicine specialist from Thousand Oaks, California, and creator of the Lyme People website, suggests lumbrokinase, “appears to assist in dissolving the excess fibrin that covers and hides the bacteria, is involved in the regulation of blood clotting and also eliminates the abnormal proteins that are released as a result of the bacteria’s activity.”19

You May Want to Try Klinghardt Academy’s Lyme Treatment Protocol

My mentor Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt, founder of the Klinghardt Academy in Woodinville, Washington, is one of the leading authorities on the treatment of Lyme disease. Having been used successfully to restore health to hundreds of patients, his Lyme disease treatment protocol is most definitely something you should check out, especially if you have been unable to get the help you need elsewhere.

Be Vigilant: Preventing Lyme Disease Is Your Best Option

Lyme disease is a complex, controversial and extremely challenging condition to treat, making prevention your safest and best option. Your first line of defense is to take precautions to avoid the ticks that transmit the disease. After all, no tick bites, no Lyme disease. Because the ticks can be as small as poppy seeds, you must be vigilant to safeguard yourself, your loved ones and your pets from ticks.

Whatever you do, do not spray your body or your clothes with insect repellant containing N,N-Diethyl-m-toluamide, also known as DEET. Because DEET is a known neurotoxin,20 I recommend avoiding all DEET-containing products. If you live or spend time in a high-risk area, you can protect yourself from tick bites by:21,22

  • Avoiding tick-infested areas such as densely wooded areas and always walk in the middle of trails to avoid brushing against tall grasses and other plant material that may house ticks
  • Looking for ticks on your body and hair immediately upon returning from a high-risk area and continuing to check your body, hair and bedding daily for several days afterward
  • Wearing long sleeves and pants, as well as closed shoes and a hat, when venturing into wooded areas
  • Checking your pets for ticks, which can latch onto collars and fur
  • Removing ticks properly and, if possible, keeping them alive; for detailed instructions on handling ticks, visit the lymedisease.org tick removal page

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**Comment**

Please remember, this study is in vitro (in a lab) not in vivo (the human body).  I believe they are in the process of mouse studies.

Back to EO’s.  My husband and I both used the combination of clove, cinnamon, and oregano (2 drops each, so 6 drops in a capsule twice a day for a grand total of 12 drops of EO’s).  I also added 2 drops of turmeric for inflammation as well as 8 or so drops of black seed oil as a good fat).  We used this protocol 1 week out of every month as a maintenance program as we have treated extensively with both antibiotics, herbs, blood ozone under UV light, and with high dose vitamin C IV’s for over FIVE YEARS.

WE BOTH RELAPSED ON THIS EO maintenance program.  

I got the EO idea from here:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/10/13/oregano-cinnamon-and-clove-found-to-have-high-anti-persister-activity-for-bb/

When I went to the ILADS convention I happened to catch Greg Lee, who uses many modalities in treating Lyme/MSIDS, including liposomal EO’s & I ran my protocol by him.  He agreed that the protocol seemed sound and of the correct strength.

However, again, we BOTH relapsed.

I do not believe at this point that EO’s ALONE with conquer this beast.  They very well could help and in combination with other modalities could be quite powerful.  Also, the other detail is perhaps this only works on a daily basis with no breaks.  So, either the dosage is too low, we didn’t take it often enough, or it just flatly doesn’t work.

I must add a final personal observation because I know the desperation out there is very great.  The “naturalists” who hate antibiotics always jump on these in vitro studies as if they are the 10 commandments or a sure thing.  BTW:  I hadn’t taken abx for over 20 years until Lyme/MSIDS and consider myself a quasi-naturalist! Please be aware of folks’ well-meaning biases.  In the end, it’s your body and your choice what treatment you will follow.  Do your homework.  It’s complex and much is still unknown.  I chose to go with the biggest bang for my buck that I actually saw noticeable improvement upon.  This looks differently on everyone.  For some, abx doesn’t appear to help them and in fact for some, they flatly can not tolerate them.  If this is true for you, then by all means, don’t use them!  However, also keep in mind that how you feel during this nightmare is quite different than anything you’ve ever experienced before.

In other words, I felt like _ _ _ _ on a stick for the entire 5 years of treatment with a few “good days.”  Treatment is hard.  But, you know you are making progress when you notice a herx.  Managing that herx is an entirely different matter and books could be written about this, but here’s a start:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2015/08/15/herxheimer-die-off-reaction-explained/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2015/12/06/tips-for-newbies/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/06/28/jarisch-herxheimer-a-review/  At the end of the article I explain my herxes.  I would like to also add that since that time I’ve started taking MSM daily with great success for pain.  In fact, I’m pain-free and have been for some time.  I know; however, that when pain returns, that’s the beginning of my spiral downward and the sign of a relapse.  Upon another stint of abx (usually 2-3 months) I’m back to normal, but this is how it has played out for me, my husband, and my LLMD states this is how it plays out for many others she treats. I tried MSM earlier while IN treatment to no effect but now that I’m off treatment it works well.  I do believe the pathogen load needs to be decreased substantially, at least in my case, for the MSM to work.  Please see this article on it:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/03/02/dmso-msm-for-lyme-msids/

Please remember, these experiences are my own so yours may be slightly different depending on your presentation.  I feel it’s important to share this as it’s important to collect as much knowledge as you can, but always remembering that this complex illness varies from person to person.  And lastly, please find a knowledgable health professional.  One who is trained by ILADS and is open-minded.

Two heads are definitely better than one when it comes to tick-borne illness!

P.S.  I didn’t notice a darn thing on stevia or grapefruit seed extract.  My LLMD feels they aren’t strong enough.  For me, Tinidazole was a game changer as well as minocycline for the ability to cross the blood/brain barrier.  I NEVER only took one thing.  I was on 3-4 things simultaneously throughout treatment but we did pulse these.

Read more here on Tindy: https://www.dovepress.com/evaluation-of-in-vitro-antibiotic-susceptibility-of-different-morpholo-peer-reviewed-article-IDR
However, both metronidazole and tinidazole had far superior action:
Metronidazole led to reduction of spirochetal structures by ~90% and round body forms by ~80%. Tigecycline and tinidazole treatment reduced both spirochetal and round body forms by ~80%–90%.
In terms of qualitative effects, only tinidazole reduced viable organisms by ~90%. Following treatment with the other antibiotics, viable organisms were detected in 70%–85% of the biofilm-like colonies.

LLMD’s almost all use drug combinations due to the complexity of the organism as well as to ward off any potential resistance, and the fact coinfections are often involved. For examples: https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/02/13/lyme-disease-treatment/

More on Mino:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/06/04/minocycline-for-ms-and-much-more/

 

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Herbs, Lyme, research, Treatment