Buhner Herbs and Herx / Hives / Rash?

Hi! So I have a pretty intense hive / rash problem right now and wondering if anyone can give me some insight. Here is the back story and run down of what led up to it. Long post 

1. Had been previously treating mold, MCAS, and parasites with many different mixed herbal formulas over past year in including beyond balance, Byron white, and some other companies.

2. Decided it’s time to finally target lyme and co-infections. Started with Byron white A-BART, A-BAB, and A-L along with his detox supporting formulas. Worked up to 8 drops 2x/day of each. Had a moderate herx early on, but flu-ish symptoms went away after a few days and continued taking for about 4 weeks. I started with Byron White formulas because I already had them.

3. Next, stopped all Byron White, and started Biopure Cocktail + Biopure Cistus and worked up to 2 droppers full 3x/day. Also added in Cryptolepis 20 drops 3x/day. Felt good, no significant herx. Again used Biopure tinctures because I already had them. I took for about 2 weeks until Cocktail bottle was finished. Biopure Cocktail ingredients: Proprietary Blend – 400mg of Astragalus root extract, Cilantro leaf extract, Cistus leaf, stem & flower extract, Stevia leaf extract, Sweet wormwood (Artemisia annua) leaf, stem & flower extract, Phosphatidylcholine (from purified sunflower seedlecithin), Brazilian Green Propolis extract, Andrographis (Andrographis paniculate) leaf & stem extract, Chinese Smilax (Smilax glabra) root extract, Japanese Knotweed (Polygonum cuspidatum) root extract, Red Root root extract

4. Started Buhner herbs about a week and a half ago. I thought since I have used quite a bit of herbs in the past I would start at 20 drops 3x/day of the following- Japanese knotweed, Andrographis, Cryptolepis, Artemesia Annua (fresh herb tincture), Red Root, Eluethero, Ashwagandha, Rhodiola. Also 5 drops stevia and 3 pumps liposomal Cat’s Claw from Quicksilver – using because I already had.

5. So after about 2 days of the above I felt like complete garbage. All symptoms for the most part increased. Seemed like a pretty intense herx and was waking up very early and not well rested. Continued these doses for about 3 days, but herx persisted so I cut all doses in half to 10 drops 3x/day and continued for another day or two. Still felt terrible and finally dropped all doses to 5 drops 3x/day and stopped taking the adaptogens Eluethero, Ashwagandha, and Rhodiola, as I thought they could be interfering with sleep, even though I wasn’t taking past 12 pm.

6. Then I started noticing these small red bumps appear on the side of my hips. And after two days, more were appearing and they were getting more hive looking. They “spread” all over my upper tights, buttock area, and a patch in my right upper back. They didn’t/ haven’t spread anywhere else.

7. So I thought I could be the 1% that has an allergic response to Andrographis, so stopped it as well stopping cat’s claw.

8. The past 3 days I have only been taking the herbs that are included in the Biopure Cocktail tincture – Artemesia Annua, Japanese Knotweed, Red Root, Smilax, Stevia (5 drops 3x/day)+ Cistus + Cryptolepis (20 drops 3x/day), minus Andrographis.

9. The rash / hives seem to have gotten more inflamed and red, and slightly itchy. They haven’t spread to other areas of my body though. Since stopping the Andrographis and Cat’s Claw, and decreasing the doses of Buhner herbs to 5 drops 3x/day, I no longer have herx symptoms, and am feeling back to baseline/ pretty good.

10. Side note: I’ve also been consistently taking Quicksilver’s liposomal glutathione, liver sauce, and ultra binder for quite some time 2x/day.

11. So lol, this turned into a longer post than anticipated.
-The strange thing about my Andrographis hive theory is that Biopure Cocktail contains it and I didn’t have a reaction while taking for 2 weeks?
-Maybe this is due to Biopure Cocktail being a mixed tincture and so doses of each herb are quite low?
-Do you think these hives / rash are from the Andrographis or another herb?
-Is this an allergic reaction or part of the herx from Borellia or Bartonella?
-Any idea how long it will take for these hives / rash to go away?

I appreciate any insight!

My bet is on the Andrographis for sure. I would not take anymore of the individual tincture nor the Biopure mix that contains it. I believe Buhner said the hives can take up to a month to completely resolve.

@skinnyjoe Interesting. Is Japanese Knotweed one that typically causes hives? Man, they just started itching for me. A month of this is not going to be fun lol. I may have to stat taking claritin as well.

@walkingbyfaith That is what I was thinking too. Either Andrographis or JK? I think at this point I'm going to have to stop all herbs like @dcd2103 suggested. If they take a month to go away even if I stop just Andrographis, but it is JK, I won't have that relatively instant feedback to know whether I took out the correct herb. I think I may just got back on the Byron White formulas until this clears up and add one single Buhner herb at a time, 3 days a part.

The amount of hives I have going on right now looks like I have some type of serious disease.

I have taken JK for years with no issues. I had not heard of that causing hives before. I only recall Buhner warning of hives with Andrographis and Lomatium.

I never took Andrographis for fear of the hives, but for whatever reason I was willing to risk it with Lomatium. I have successfully taken Lomatium at max doses with other herbs a number of times for 3-6 week rounds.

@walkingbyfaith and @skinny_joe- thanks for the recommendations. I decided yesterday to stop all Buhner herbs that I started to get back to baseline and eventually introduce one by one, once all hives are gone. In the meantime I'm going to go back to Byron White A-L, A-Bart, A-Bab, along with their supporting formulas as I know they don't induce hives. I am also going to start quercetin, vit. c, broccoli sprout extract, and up my probiotics to help with the hives and if needed add in some anti-histamine. Kind of a bummer with the rough start to the Buhner protocol, but it is all part of the process. I am am excited to eventually start layering it in though. I'm hoping the hives were from andrographis and not JK.