I'll step in to give my feedback on Buhner's protocol. Rowingmom thought me a lot in the beginning and I bought the books she suggested. I did not buy the Lyme book, because I am waiting for the new one, which should be ready this year.
I started to use the tea at first but then I started to also make my own tinctures. Now I no longer use teas.
I use a modified protocol and my 5, 9, and 10 yr old use it. Again, I do it a little different, I learned how to make my own tinctures. It is super easy and I save money. I bought most of the herbs from mountainroseherbs.com and from 1stchineseherbs.com. I prefer mountainrose because they give a 25% discount for purchases over 25 LB items of herbs and teas and I did buy that many. They do charge for shipping. Most of their products are organic. 1stchineseherbs are a little more, sometimes a lot more, but a few items are a little less and they have free shipping on purchases over $40, so I use both sites.
*I do not use sida for now
*Hawthorn tincture I use much less, sometimes I skip it all together because it makes me tired in combination to what I am taking--my children had the same reaction; I use it at night, 10 drops; I can't stay up if I use it during the day; it makes me fall asleep
*Japanese knotweed, 10 drops, will increase next week; 3x/day
*Houttuynia--excellent, it produced very good results every time I increased dose I herx; I am up to 13 drops/day, 3/day.
*Milk Thistle 10 drops, 3x/day
And then I use:
*cat's claw, 10 drops, 3x/day
*red root up to 10 drops--it depends, sometimes I use it 3 times per day, sometimes I use it less, I have 2 lymph nodes that hardened and I try to use it different ways; so far so good--they almost resolved, although at one point they got worse while using red root
*Ashaganda at bed time for one of my kids that has problems falling asleep
I may be missing something. I can't remember. Next week I will add a little bit of Artemisia and St. John's wort. I just have to strain them and get them in little bottles.
And I am tincturing all the herbs from the Chronic Tonic and some others from Dr. K's protocol. This may seem confusing, but I do follow Dr. K (Klinghardt) and I like his approach. He says it's good to surprise the bugs, so I intend to switch herbs around every few months.
Oh, and instead of Diatomaceous Earth, I am using Chlorella. It is a lot more expensive ($25 per pound from mountainroseherbs) but it has the B's vitamins in a natural form with no additives, Iron, Peptides, aminoacids, etc So it's not only a binder, but also a supplement, very nutritive, similar to mother's milk. That way we don't have to buy the B vitamins separate and swallow one more thing, either.
I tinctured cilantro as well as a few other herbs that I was intrigued by.
THE ABOVE DOSES IS WHAT I USE AFTER 2 MONTHS. I STARTED MUCH LOWER. Everyone is different. My 9 year old can only use up to what my 5 year old uses, or she gets weak and tired. I tried to give her a couple of drops more but she is herxing from it.
My 5 year old is about
35 lbs. She is able to tolerate 4 drops of each very well; she made the most progress; I may increase her dose next week. My 10 year old is 95 Lb and he gets 8 drops of each. He does herx sometimes, but he is carrying the most bacterial load from all of us and he had the most medical problems including seizures. His seizures resolved as of December 2nd, after he started 1 mo of abx for a so called "sinus infection" likely due to Lyme. He has made amazing progress but still has a long way to go. Minor balance problems especially at night before bedtime. He used to have seizure-like episodes, at worst hundreds of times per day. He hasn't have one in 2 weeks--amazing :)
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Rowingmom: Do you take the cilantro tincture together with your tea or apart from it? Also, thank you for all your help, I will write an update in a week or so.
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**For a person with high bacterial load, you have to start at low doses.
**I did not find Astragalus to be a problem for neither of us.
**There are many other herbs that can be added or changed if **something doesn't work well--for example, some people are allergic to ragweed and therefore, to Milk Thistle as well, so try just a drop or 2 at first; none of us are allergic to it. There are other products that you can replace MT with if you are allergic to it.
Post Edited (Simela1) : 4/25/2015 10:00:14 PM (GMT-6)