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Im taking Cat's Claw does anyone have experience with it??

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Posted 9/14/2010 11:41 PM (GMT 0)
Hello guys...I havent posted in a long while but I check in now & again.   Long time Lymie.... Im Sick of all the Meds and now that Im doing OK, (and my LLMD lost his licence)....I wanted to try to go Herbal.  I found Cat's Claw in the organic section @ Wegmans....Whats the deal??? Does it work??
Posted 9/15/2010 2:51 AM (GMT 0)
My LLND seems to think it works for Bartonella and probably Lyme too. He prescribed a homeopathic medication for me called Bar-1 and the first ingredient in it is Cat's Claw. I took it for over a month, and I just ran out and need to get more. I do feel a bit clearer in the brain than I have.....maybe the Bar-1 has something to do with it, since my doctor thinks that a lot of my neuro symptoms are from Bart rather than Lyme.

I've read that high doses of straight Cat's Claw is supposed to cause pretty strong herxes at times; I asked him if I could take it and he said I wasn't ready for that yet.
Posted 9/15/2010 5:42 AM (GMT 0)
Yes, I am taking Cat's Claw - I had no choice but to try something herbal as each antibiotic (at the lowest dose possible) caused a bad enough herx to risk my life and put me in the hospital. I'm very discouraged and find it hard to believe an herb is going to help much (I used to have a lot more faith in alternative medicine before I got sick - then I just got to a point where I felt like nothing but straight-up Western medicine was going to help me).

The "recipe" comes from Stephen Harrod Buhner, published in his book, "Healing Lyme: Natural Healing and Prevention of Lyme Borreliosis And Its Coinfections." Ironically my mother had bought me the book and before I had a chance to read it, my doctor told me about his method...which is called Lyme Tea. My doctor works with a medicinal herbalist who puts the ingredients together and mails them to me. I'm currently using a tincture made of the same five herbs because I wasn't too keen on the tea. Anything can cause a herx reaction (and I've experienced it from Samento, too!)...so I always start very slow and work my way up to the full dose.

The ingredients for Lyme Tea are:

Japanese Knotweed
Stephania
Sarsaparilla
Cat's Claw
Red Root

Here is a web site I just found (and was pleased to notice my doctor noted at the bottom!): http://www.arizonaadvancedmedicine.com/articles/lyme_tea.html

Good luck - if you try it, I'd be so happy to hear from you on your progress...I sort of feel like I'm at the last resort here and not too optimistic, but we shall see!

Rachel

Post Edited (madrivergirl30) : 9/14/2010 11:45:56 PM (GMT-6)

Posted 9/15/2010 6:24 PM (GMT 0)

Make sure your product does not contain the tetracyclic oxindole alkaloids (TOAs) that are found in traditional Cat's Claw. TOAs disrupt central nervous system function and greatly inhibit the effects of the POAs. Used the product and it did seem to help somewhat.

Posted 9/16/2010 4:01 PM (GMT 0)
Ditto what Allie said about quality. I take 500 mg capsules. I started with 2 caps 3 times a day with a meal. Then went to 3 caps, 3 times a day, then 4 caps 3 times a day and maintained this. Now I tweak it based on how I'm feeling - usually between 6-9 caps a day. Everyone in my office is sick so I'm doing 9 a day because I started feeling some twinges of sick. I'm determined to not get this bug, lol!

So sorry about your LLMD - what area of the country are you in, if you don't mind?
Posted 9/16/2010 7:04 PM (GMT 0)
I just looked at my bottle of Cat's Claw and it says that it "is a concentrated water and alcohol extract..." which must be why my 1st doctor told me not to take it since I am also on Flagyl. You can't have even a drop of alcohol when taking Flagyl! I learned that the hard way when I put some drops of a tincture for parasites under my tongue and was vomitting violently within a half an hour for a few hours! skull   It took me days to figure out that the tincture had alcohol in it!

So if you are taking Flagyl (Metronidazole) and one of your supplements has alcohol in it - DO NOT take it!!!
Posted 2/15/2012 8:03 AM (GMT 0)
Flagyl made me throw up too (it hits C Diff and plenty of other bacteria)

I don't think the alcohol interferes with Flagyl (but I could be wrong)
Posted 2/16/2012 5:09 AM (GMT 0)
I've been on cat's claw for a while now, although not the TOA-free kind - my LLMD doesn't seem too concerned with that although the general consensus seems to be to avoid it - and I know that when I first started, I definitely herxed much more than I had been previously...I've also started herxing more since I increased my dose, although it's hard to say if that's from the cat's claw or something else.

Definitely seems to work, though, and I also think it's good for inflammation :)
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