Ways to treat Bart and babesia with natural treatments?

http://buhnerhealinglyme.com/

Look on the left hand side of the home page for the coinfections protocols. Start herbs one at a time. I would try to get all the herbs going at very low dosage (perhaps 1/16 - 1/8 of suggested) and then increase one herb at a time every couple of weeks until you start herxing (then you will know which herb is causing the die-off), then back off.

We have only made it to 1/4 recommended dosages for every one of his bart/babs herbs except for Japanese knotweed - we are doing both protocols at once. His associate says this is fine, that low dosages over extended periods are as useful as higher dosages over shorter periods. According to Julie:

http://www.gaianstudies.org/herbal_consult.html

with multiple herbs the development of resistance should not be an issue.

Houttuynia caused us anxiety/panic attacks and palpitations at 1/2 dosage, 1/2 dosage of sida over 6 months resulted in hair loss. CSA produced a babs herx (air hunger, chest pressure, dry cough, sighing) for our daughter (but not for me) at 1/2 dosage. All of these symptoms cleared for us when we decreased dosage. The improvements have remained.

Buhner says it is fine to use his herbal protocols with abx. Some herbs may even increase the effectiveness of abx because they act as efflux pump inhibitors, decreasing the ability of the bacteria to pump abx back out of their cell membranes.

If you are interested in how these herbal antimicrobials work, purchase his books either from his web page or from Amazon:

Healing Lyme Disease Coinfections: Mycoplasma and Bartonella
Herbal Antibiotics: 2nd edition. Natural Alternatives for Treating Drug Resistant Bacteria

These books cover information on most of the herbs used in the treatment of bartonella and babesia. I think reading them is a must if you are going to use his protocols.

If you have other specific questions about his protocols, his associate Julie McIntyre is available for consult, at prices a lot lower than most LLMD's charge.

http://www.gaianstudies.org/herbal_consult.html

I used Houttuynia alone for my Bartonella infection and it worked well for me - although it did cause quite the herx! I started off with 1/2 doses and it took 3 weeks for me to quit herxing, but 9 months later, I was and have stayed symptom free for the last 2 1/2 years.

Babesia was much harder for me to treat. My practitioner and I tried many different things. I go into it better in the thread that is in my signature below.

I had several years in between abx and herbal treatment, so there's no doubt that it was the herbal treatments that worked for me. I got really, really sick (like in Under Our Skin) with seizures and severe cognitive dysfunction after abx treatment - but to be fair, a good portion of that was likely due to not detoxing well.

I was told that Houttuynia that I used for my Bartonella infection, and the 'Chronic Tonic' that I used for my Lyme treatment are fine to take with abx - but you might want to check with a good herbalist in your area just to be sure.

How much Green Tea do you drink Georgia Hunter?

I've been taking 400mg green tea extract (with 200 mg EGCG) every day - I wonder if this is enough?

My LLND has me on Byron White's A-Bab for Babesia and on Beyond Balance's MC BAR-1 for Bartonella. I started on Byron White's A-Bart for the Bartonella, but once I got up to 10 drops 2x/day (which took 4 months) I had a huge herx and became too sensitive to it. So far so good on the MC Bar-1, though I'm only at one drop/day. And I'm only on 1/2 drop a day of the A-Bab, but I don't seem to have a serious Babesia infection, and all those symptoms are under control.

(Interestingly, my LLND has stated several times that Babesia is actually easy to treat, but Bartonella is the real stickler. I've seen different narratives from folks on this site...I wonder why that is?)

Now, since my flare up from the A-Bart, I've had constant, crippling Lyme Arthritis for 4 months and nothing we've added or taken away herbally (including LOTS of detox) has resolved that. So, for the first time in 10 months of treatment I have an appointment on the books with a LL*M*D to add an antibiotic protocol into the mix. I'm hopeful that the combination will do the trick. Will start that, whatever he has in mind, the end of this month. And I plan/hope to keep up on the herbals in tandem. I've read and heard that the combination can be quite powerful and increase the chances for a long-term remission. I'd initially wanted to stay away from abx, but I think it's probably worse to continue to suffer and not get better without trying all options available.

Good luck to you!

Thanks :). I take Meriva as well as Curaphen (both with Turmeric, the Curaphen with Boswellia) and I take a Beyond Balance tincture called Cyflacalm II that has many other mentioned natural anti-inflammatories. And, in my morning smoothie I add some organic stinging nettle leaf. Daily take a supplement called Arthroben (a form of collagen), as well as several supplements that contain either collagens or Glucosamine/Chondroitin/MSM/Hyalaronic Acid plus Celadrin. I feel pretty confident I have my natural anti-inflammatory/joint support bases covered. I think I just have a really intense infection in my joints and the treatment has really brought it all out to play. So fingers crossed that adding abx to the herbal treatment will be the answer. (Sorry to hijack this post! :)

Georgia Hunter - would White tea have the same effect as the green tea? Doesn't the white tea have more catechins? Maybe I got it wrong.

There are several different strains of Babesia, so the studies may have used a different strain than most of us are infected with.