Cost of herbal treatments?

Hi, momofthree, and welcome!

For me herbs have never been a big expense because I tolerate (and see effects from) very low dosages. I usually stick with the Herb Pharm brand of liquid extracts, and it's often organic and easy to find; I prefer liquids so that I can titrate doses, starting very slowly and one-at-a-time in order to minimize herxing and identify the source of any bad reactions. Other brands are fine, too, and sometimes Buhner specifies a specific brand for a particular herb. I've also used Gaia and Montana Farmacy brands. They're usually about $12 per ounce.

People save a lot of money by purchasing herbs in bulk and filling their own capsules.

You probably know this already, but people usually take a lot of things in addition to the core protocol herbs. Supportive supplements can make a huge difference - vitamins, minerals, probiotics, omega 3 fatty acids, etc. Those can add a lot to the financial picture, so I've never added up the cost of the Buhner herbs only.

For the core Lyme protocol (just cat's claw, andrographis, Japanese knotweed) I spent about $40 per month when taking recommended dosages.

I have a friend doing Rawl's Vital Plan, which is basically Buhner in a condensed capsule. I believe it runs $240/ month for the full protocol, though you can start slow and a stretch them out.

I use minerals like boron, msm, Bentonite clay, etc.. which are cheaper and more effective for me.

You should look up monolaurin as well, which is made from coconut oil. It’s on amazon, I’d get the pellet form and not the capsules if you try it.

The herbal tinctures can become somewhat expensive over time, but its all relative. A lot of peoples insurance wont pay for Lyme drugs, so without insurance, herbs will be way cheaper, but they can still be somewhat expensive. (I recommend combining both)

The best prices I have found on herbal tinctures is from a company in maine called "crescent moon herbals" they have an ebay site. They have the lowest prices on herbal tinctures I have found, and they have many of the herbs Buhner recommends and many others as well.

I was able to get my health back, by combining doxy and ceftin with several different buhner tinctures and other herbs, most of which were ordered from crescent moon. So I can attest to their effectiveness and their price.

Good luck and dont let price stop you from getting well. I incurred about $12,000 of credit card debt in my path to wellness, but it was worth every single penny, even with credit card interest. I would have glady gone into $100,000 if thats what it took to beat this.

Its MUCH better to have your health and be in debt than to be debt free, or even filthy rich, in poor health. Trust me.

logmoss, can you talk a little more about your experience with the abx and herbals? Like how long your treatment was with each. When you started to feel better. Did you always take abx at the same time as the herbals? Etc.

Powdered herbs bought in bulk are the most economical. I use a lot of tinctures. I am like sara and take tiny doses of some, though larger of others. I use some capsules.

I bought Japanese knotweed powder in 1 lb bags and store them in large glass jars. I use Plum Flower or Nuherb. I also bought powdered cat’s claw. I got the powdered herbs from 1st Chinese Herbs online (Buhner recommended source).

Some buy capsule machines and put the powder in capsules. I use small enough doses, that I just mix the loose powder in a glass of water with all the tinctures and drink it.

I posted the excerpt from tax code a long time ago when I started visiting here. I'll search for it.

Here's what a quick search just came up with:


Prescriptions as Qualified Expenses
Medications that must be prescribed by a health care professional are on the IRS list of qualified medical expenses. The cost can be included along with other medical expenses and may be deductible. You can write off only the amount you actually pay. If a prescription drug plan or health insurance policy covers part of the cost, you claim just the unreimbursed portion. For example, if you are responsible for a 25 percent co-payment for a $40 prescription, only the $10 you pay is a qualified medical expense.

Related Medical Expenses
The IRS doesn't usually consider non-prescription medications tax-deductible. However, if your doctor writes you a prescription for an over-the-counter drug, you can write off the cost. Not every prescription is for a medication. For example, doctors write prescriptions for eyeglasses and contact lenses. Health care professionals can order or authorize other items as well, including hearing aids, orthotic shoe inserts and dentures. Oxygen isn't usually thought of as a drug, but it is often prescribed for people with chronic breathing problems. All of these items qualify as deductible medical expenses. As with medications, you claim just the portion of the cost that is not paid for by insurance.

Thank you, tickbite666. I will definitely be looking into that.

From a quick search, looks like things are still the same as 2015 regarding the nutritional supplements.

"logmoss, can you talk a little more about your experience with the abx and herbals? Like how long your treatment was with each. When you started to feel better. Did you always take abx at the same time as the herbals? Etc."


Yes i can. My story is a bit complex and unusual (is there any USUAL Lyme story?)

So i got bit by nearly 100 large and small ticks over the summer of '15.

I always walked my dog deep in the woods in the summer and removed ticks without worrying about it as we are told constantky there is no lyme in my state.

By september, both me and the dog were in bad shape. I knew something was seriously wrong. He tested pos for several tick diseases. I only tested presumptive pos for Lyme, but I just knew. The tick bites, and the research allowed me to focus on what I knew was the problem.

Then I started treatment with an LLMD who put me on doxy ceftin tinidazole and diflucan. (no herbs at this time) Having never taken ABX in my life, I became unsure whether my symptoms were side effects from drugs or the disease itself.

So after about 3-4 months of treatment, i simply stopped altogether. i had so much uncertainty. Not about whether it was Lyme or not, i was still sure it was, but my uncertainty was in finding the best perfect way to treat.

People had always told me it took at least 1 year. And the idea of treating that long just seemed too daunting. So i just kept researching for hours and hours a day. This only really led to more confusion. Still i wasnt treating.

I kept reading people here and elsewhere highly recommending buhner and herbal treatment. But I mistakenly thought it was all snake oil and sticks and twigs. I read about people taking IV antibiotics for years and still sick and I remember thinking 'if people are spending tens of thousands of dollars on IV antibiotics and not getting better, how is some $20 herbal tincture bottle going to help?" this of course was a mistake. I kept believing it was only advanced science and synthetic drugs that could help me, still there was a small voice inside me saying nature would be the key.

But I still never respected the herbs until i started reading buhner and seeing the scientific studies. It became a paradigm shift for me as I began to learn that all drugs are derived from plants or mimick plants in some way. Plants are the very basis of all medicine.

At that time, my dog was doing very bad, and I decided if Im too confused to treat me, I still owe it to him to treat him. After all, I m the one who drug him deep into woods for those walks.

So I put him on doxy then ceftin. I started noticing he was getting better. I then put him on rifampin. The turnaround was remarkable. After about 8 months total treatment he was back to perfect health. His fatty tumors disappeared, his eyes glowed again, and he was running again.

seeing how well he responded and with no issues from the meds, is what really inspired me start back treating myself.

So in may of last year, I finally did, after 3 and a half years of being sick and 3 solid years with no treatment whatsoever.

I had an elaborate 5 stage plan I pieced together from LLMD's online and in person as well as reading books by Stephen Buhner, Kenneth Singleton, Marty Ross, and Bill Rawls.

I started with just doxy and jap knotweed. Then a week later added ceftin. i also used vitamin supplements, antioxidants, and a very expensive liquid called biocidin.

A week later I added cats claw, andrographis,ashwaganda, astragualus, Kudzu,and a few other herbs that arent lyme specific, just for good health like ginger and holy basil.

After just 3 weeks of doing this, and just 4-5 weeks of total treatment, I had a miraculous unexpected breakthrough.
For me it wasnt gradual at all. it was very extreme and sudden.

I dont know how to explain it but it I just woke up and nearly all my symptoms had just melted away over night. It was absolutely amazing, but also in a way kind of scary. I didnt think I was supposed to get results that fast after being so badly sick for so long.

I felt so great so fast, and all the good things about life, things i thought were gone forever, started coming back.

I continued that same protocol adding a few other herbs here and there including chinese skullcap, gu tang, Bai hu tang, and even pine pollen which increases mens testosterone and was helpful for me. Theres probably a few other herbs im forgetting. But my symptoms stayed away, allowing me to have one of the best summers of my life, traveling, hiking, kayaking, rock climbing, running, and even working out in the gym again. Most of which i was sure i would never again experience just a few months before.

Then I reached a decision point. I was in phase 3 of my treatment. Phase 4 was to include rifampin and tinidazole. Would I ratchet up or not? I just listened to my body and I felt incredible so i chose not to.

4 months in, I stopped both ABX (doxy and ceftin) but still used various herbs until about this past christmas. I was curious to see if my body could take over completely on its own with no symptoms and I wanted to see if stopping treatment would lead to a relapse. It didnt.

I still plan to return some of the herbs to my protocol because they are excellent for general health and cancer prevention.

So thats pretty much it. I closed a chapter on Lyme and am moving on and its a miracle to me. This time last year I never would have believed it was possible.

I have a few regrets. Mainly waiting too long to start treatment. Why did I waste 3 years waiting when I could have been cured in just a month?

But looking back, that may have possibly been the key to what made my treatment so effective and so short.

You see the entire lifespan of Lyme is only a couple months. And then they reproduce and a new generation takes over.

They are all constantly adjusting to the environment in your body and passing on this feedback to each successive generation.

So the feedback in my body was "hey this guy isnt doing anything to stop us. Dont worry about any antimicrobial threats just relax and go where you please and set up shop." So this message kept being repeated to each Lyme generation in my body over 3 years.

Then all of the sudden there are serious threats introduced to them in my body in the form of ABX and herbs, at the same time, and they didnt recognize these as threats because they had evolved for generations in the absence of any threat. They had never seen these before so they had no defense and perhaps thats why they were obliterated rather quickly.

But if I had just continued to pound them with treatment all those 3 years, they may have been able to adapt to the threats and pass on these defenses to the new generations, keeping me sick the entire time and even after that.

Thats just a small theory of mine to try to explain why treatment was so unusually fast and effective for me, even after reaching far into the stages of what most would consider longstanding chronic Lyme.

So maybe that LONG break was the key? I'll never know for sure. Im just so glad its over.

I posted a link to my entire 5 stage treatment plan with every supplement vitamin and herb that I used including dosages. I hope it can help you in some way. I believe in this protocol, and I think if people do everything on here they will notice at least some benefit.

Good Luck, and Good Health!

https://www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=30&m=4127564