Immunity to herbs??

Often when I try a new herb, I feel immediately better. I get very excited because I feel like I have found the key to my illness, or at least a big piece of the puzzle. And yet, after taking that herb for a while, it grows less effective, and slowly my symptoms creep back. Usually it is still effective, just not nearly as much as when I started it.

I do not believe that this is the illness becoming resistant to the herb (although it is possible). If I stop the herb for a while (several weeks or more), and then take it again, it seems to be just as effective as it once was. I believe that somehow, my body is slowly restricting the amount of the substance. Does anyone know much about this sort of thing? Does our own body block out these substances over time? Does our immune system somehow identify these herbs as "enemies," and then attack or limit their efficacy?

I'm using teasel as a carrier herb, also japanese knotweed which is a synergist. I'm not so sure about your theory, because what happens is my symptoms will slowly return even while I am still using the herb(s).

When I first tried teasel, I took 3 drops. I felt a lot of relief and a slight herx reaction, I was confident it was working well. Now after a month or so of taking it, the symptoms that were initially relieved, have returned. Not fully returned, but returned enough to make me feel like teasel has almost stopped working. This has happened with many of the lyme/co herbs that I have tried.

Yes, I have taken up to 1tsp (100 drops) 3x a day.
Oddly, the higher I dose, the less effective I have found it to be (this goes for pretty much all the herbs I've tried)... which has contributed a lot to my belief in some sort of immune action. :/

Hmm, quite interesting. I would agree with Opugirl at that point! Start rotating herbs to see if that helps. Once one starts to loose it's effectiveness, switch to another that does the same job, and so on.

My Dr. said teasel(when taken for 6-9 months)changes the environment in the body so the immune system is able to see the bacteria, and it also warms the tissue to make them come out. He said teasel is great, but it's best taken long term, and to look at it as an immunity builder, and kind of like bait, not so much as an actual killer(though it will kill the bacteria for some long term). So he told me keep taking it whether I feel it working or not.

Just as an example for a cystbuster I was using wobenzyme and jeez did it work well for me. Ironically I had been put on flagyl for the same thing and didn't feel anything and the wobenzyme hit me like a brick wall. Then I switched to nattokinase which isn't exactly a cystbuster but it does remove fibrin from the blood not sure but for whatever reason she wanted me to rotate these two. Then when i went back on the wobenzyme it was the "brick wall" feeling again - though not as bad. Perhaps you can figure out rotations based on what you are treating and try it that way.

Most folks say to start very slow with teasel. 1 drop/day just to warn you sooverthis!

My LLMD got me started on Buhner protocol for bart about two weeks ago. She's having me do it for one month on and then take two weeks off and repeat. Maybe same principle as pulsing with some abx?

I've been on it for 15 days and am doing better today, but then I've also been on daily b-12 shots for a week too.

Not doing teasel, but have it unopened in cupboard. Wish I'd tried it, but made a desperate trip to see LLMD thinking I needed abx again. She said she was having good results with the herbs so we'll see.

I'm looking forward to the two weeks off because this is so complicated. Also hoping to see if I do deteriorate then that I'll get better again when back on them.

I agree, it's a choice. People need to be presented the upsides and downsides of each. There are places for both types of treatment. That said, after reading Stephen Buhner's book "Herbal Antibiotics," I have become pretty convinced that herbs are the way to go, and herbal treatment is the future. I dare anyone to read that book and not find themselves developing a similar opinion. :P

As we can see though, herbal treatment is not perfect, either. For me, they have been very "hit or miss." I'm waiting on something to start working consistently.