What would Andrographis herx imply?

i believe it has some fairly broad anti-microbial properties - acc to Buhners books - so like most herbs its not really possible to specifically identify which infection by herx

the other possibility is some kind of immune reaction - its a member of or related to ragworts i believe - and is known to cause full on allergic reactions in a small proportion of people who take it ( less than 1 in 10 i think)
typically this is a severe outbreak of hives that can last some weeks - but could manifest as other forms of immune reaction - of which sweating / feeling very hot is another pretty common one.

buhner later removed it from his protocol for lyme - as although the herb has some useful CNS anti-inflammatory properties and also stimulated bile production ( its an intense bitter) it wasn't found generally effective as an anti-spirochaetal herb - as some of is history of use against syphilis had originally indicated and why it was originally included in his protocol.

Drenching night sweats are typically associated with babesia, which is a blood parasite.

the astragalus issue was separate - he still recommended it in his later books for Lyme - just made the distinction that it works best for people as a preventative if they are bitten by and infected tick - or for treatment of early stage Lyme - when the changes it invokes in the immune system are usually helpful
but that once lyme is chronic - lyme already tends to drive the TH1 system high - which is one of astragalus's main effects - and so some people find it makes their symptoms worse, not better.

even then he wasn't against its use - saying some people still seemed to do well on it - or that it could be included in a regimen in small doses - so it was more an induvial trial and error type thing - but just to be aware of the possibility of it worsening symptoms.

some people here who were in the chronic stage have reported they have done well with "chronic tonic" which was a herbal combination that included lots of astragalus along with other herbs

the Andrographis was definitely removed from his core protocol in the second edition of his Healing Lyme book.
he said that his experience from clinical practice (one of his partners was a practicing herbalist) just didn't bear out its early promise - and this combined with its relatively high risk of allergic reactions that could be severe or take weeks to settle down, meant he didn't think it was worth recommending as part of the core protocol for lyme.

i still used it for some time after that as one of its useful effects is as a pretty good CNS anti-inflammatory herb - which seemed to help my constant head soreness and maybe also help sleep a little.

and all that said, a persons response to herbs are a very individual thing - so if you find something you feel is helping you - i would say by all means go on using it no matter what is written about it, as long as its not dangerous.

all the best

RobWireGuy said...
Last year I purchased Healing Lyme (2nd Edition).....and Andrographis is still part of the Core Protocol in this version. Wondering where the confusion is originating from?

apologies Rob - you are correct. its in the 2nd edition.

its a few years ago now so i cannot pin down exactly where he wrote that - maybe on the healinglyme website - or maybe on his facebook page - but i clearly recall reading it and it stuck with me.
Andrographis helped with some CNS symptoms for me but not much else

perhaps its there for lack of anything better - he said he hoped further research would reveal some as yet undiscovered powerful anti - spirochaetal herb