Anybody use Stevia as a serious Lyme treatment?

Dean,

Traveler and I mentioned this in the other thread. It has been used ONLY in a test tube. It would take an extensive amount of Stevia, more than meant for human consumption, to kill the bacteria.

www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=30&m=3595508

Same here, I've used it for many years and it never once helped me beat Lyme - but is sure has made avoiding candida easier!!

Stevia is destroyed by stomach acid I believe.

Are we all sure that it would take a lot more stevia to kill bacterium in a human body? The entire stevia plant must be used in order to achieve it's antibiotic/antimicrobial effects I think. And if they concentrated it down into a usable form, I think that would pose a potential treatment option for us?

DaveNJ41 said...
Are we all sure that it would take a lot more stevia to kill bacterium in a human body? The entire stevia plant must be used in order to achieve it's antibiotic/antimicrobial effects I think. And if they concentrated it down into a usable form, I think that would pose a potential treatment option for us?

I started using stevia when only the liquid extracts were available, which is what was used in the study.www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4681354/

The leaf was the only part used in this study: " The leaf extract of Stevia possesses many phytochemicals, which include austroinullin, β-carotene, dulcoside, nilacin, rebaudi oxides, riboflavin, steviol, stevioside, and tiamin with known antimicrobial properties against many pathogens."

We don't know what brand or if it was a powder or liquid that was used: "Different Stevia extracts manufactured by Nutramedix®, Now®, Sweet leaf®, and Truvia® were purchased from health food stores in the USA and were labeled randomly as Stevia A, B, C, and D. The extracts A, B, and C were formulated by standard alcohol extraction method whereas extract D was purchased in a powder form dissolved in distilled water. "

Doses used are not easily explained.
But I did find this in that study:
These antimicrobial studies used a high concentration of purified stevioside, and in our study, we achieved similar antimicrobial effect against Borrelia by using a lower concentration of the whole leaf extract. Our data with purified Stevioside did not show any significant antimicrobial effect on Borrelia spirochetes and persisters compared to the whole leaf extracts of Stevia.

And finally, we simply cannot ignore what the researchers themselves say: "Our future goal is to further investigate the individual components of whole leaf Stevia extract against B. burgdorferi and to identify the most effective component responsible for its significant antimicrobial effect. In conclusion, the overall antimicrobial effectiveness of Stevia A extract on the different morphological forms of B. burgdorferi was comparable to the combination of certain antibiotics. Although the results of this preliminary study cannot be extrapolated directly to clinical practice, further follow-up studies are necessary which can address the safeness of Stevia and to further identify the most effective component(s) against Borrelia."
(Trav added the underline above for emphasis)

Just so you know, you can't use the Stevia you buy at the grocery store, the stuff in packets, it is just a sweetener. To treat Lyme disease you must use "whole Leaf Stevia Concentrate". The brand my doctor told me to purchase is "Sweet Leaf Whole Leaf Stevia Concentrate. It is just over $10 and is available from Iherb.com.
I have been diagnosed with Lyme for the third time in one year. My doctor thought we should try this because while doxycycline is effective against Lyme initially, once the bacteria begins morphing doxy can't touch it but the Stevia can.
Something else to consider is that taking antibiotics can mess with your gut flora, so taking a probiotic is advised. It will help alleviate the side effects of the antibiotic.
I've ordered my Stevia so wish me luck! Hopefully this will save me from another five months on antibiotics!

Hi KatS - welcome to our community!

Have you been infected three times? Or have you relapsed? Were the co-infections treated?

I don't advise you only use Stevia to treat your infection. Besides Doxy, there are many other antibiotics that can be used to treat lyme disease and co-infections.

Is your Dr. Lyme Literate?

We encourage all new members to read through the "New to Lyme?..Start Here!" thread - that sits at the top of the page. Lots of useful information in there.

i have used Stevia in a serious way, i think, taking large doses (30+ drops a day) plus choosing one of the alcohol extract stevia that was covered by Eva Sapi's in vitro test.

I am not cured and i have not noticed huge herxes from it. I believe it might help with gut bacteria, spirochetes in the gut. But i am really skeptical it works systemically, throughout the body. In Vitro tests are just guidance for in vivo tests. In vitro tests are useful when chemicals that are known and used in other conditions are rebranded. So an antibiotic for example, that everybody knows how it disseminates, can be tested in vitro and the results can be important even without in vivo tests because you more or less know what how it works in vivo, that is

- where is the body processing it
- what tissues does it go into
- how long does it take the body to remove it (half life)
- what is an expected peak plasma MIC when u receive an abx dosage

None of these are known with stevia, which is an extract that probably contains dozens of active chemicals, not just one/two as an antibiotic does. So the in vitro study on stevia is not useful as it is, it can guide further research but should not be used to treat people. Nevertheless, it does not hurt to try because is a rather harmless sweetener , worst you can do is to have your tea sweeten by it.

Anyway, i tried it for over one year and it did nothing except make my tea sweet

KatS!
Have you noticed any improvement using stevia?
Thanks!