I like this explanation the best I think. I found it here:
www.foundhealth.com/lyme-disease/lyme-disease-and-astragalus"When being used as a treatment for Lyme Disease, astragalus can be extremely useful in the early-stages of the disease, when the recent tick bite (and subsequent infection) reduces interferon-gamma an dinterleukin-2 levels in the body (which astragalus is known to increase.) However in the late-stages of Lyme disease, increasing Th1 levels (which are already overstimulated in late-stage Lyme Disease) will actually exacerbate Lyme symptoms, thus making this astragalus a good treatment for early, but not late, stage Lyme disease."
For those who don't mind reading Buhner's writings, here is his explanation:
"If you are not currently sick, you can certainly take astragalus. The reason for not recommending it is that astragalus raises the parts of the immune system that are overactivated in chronic lyme. Those parts of the immune system are highly effective against lyme early on and help prevent or reduce the disease but if they are low to begin with and you are infected the infection can spread more easily. After awhile the immune system does ratchet up those parts to attack the lyme bacteria but by then the spirochete has altered itself and is no longer very affected by them, those parts of the immune system then begin to cause some of the lyme symptoms people have making the disease a kind of autoimmune problem. "
I found Buhner's writings on his website here:
planetthrive.com/2011/03/astraglus-chronic-lyme/ Yazzer, With the progress you are still having, I would venture to guess what you say to be true - maybe you are taking it in small enough amounts and you are far enough past the "chronic" part enough that it won't essentially turn your body against itself????? It's so hard to know - it's still all guess work for the individual!!