Started houttuynia yesterday and it is kicking my butt

So I finally decided to join the many here who have started to take houttuynia. I had ordered the dried whole herb, a pack of empty tea bags and a scale.

I did 1 1/2 ounces on three cups of hot water (not boiling) and let it steep for 10 minutes. I allowed it cool off a bit.

Because I am very medicine sensitive, I only drank half a cup. Well, the smell is sweet and the taste is not bad at all. However, it does have a fishy aftertaste which stays in your mouth.

20 minutes after taking it I began to get itchy all over the body, although not as bad as an allergic reaction. No hives or redness which is good. I then got very gassy but no bloated stomach. Within the hour, the bottom of my feet began to ache as if someone was separating the bone into two. My ears began to ring and the left ear felt as if wax was dripping from it.

I then began to feel this warmth all over my body which made me feel dizzy. After an hour and a half of taking it I had this urgent urge to go #1. Did I mention the gassiness? some time later I began to get this pain in my left side of the chest which I assume was from my stomach. My stomach was also making gurgling sounds. I then went to sleep. I kept waking up every couple hours and had terrible nightmares.

I woke up this morning tired from not sleeping well and with mild anxiety. My nose is stuffed up and my nervous system is jittery, including my motor skills. Imagine having taken 20 cups of coffee. Also, my whole body hurts. Feels like I got hit by a truck.

Well, I honestly did not expect for one cup of tea to impact me so much. houttuynia can really pack a punch, I can only imagine what the tincture and capsules do to people.

So for today I am going to start with two ounces of it once a day for a week until my body gets used to it. Overall the experience was way better than I've had with other herbs. Because of its impact, I have high expectations that it will bring my bacterial load down eventually. I hope to be able to bring up the dose to what Dr. Buhner recommends eventually.

If you read my experience the other week- I got the jittery thing from it too. Awful. I am not touching that stuff for now! Way too scary for me to handle unsupervised. I do think it works for bartonella but I could not handle the intensity of it.
I think my body could not handle the die off. So, my advice is don't push it. Either take it WAY down in dosage or work on building up your body more before doing it. Just my experience- but I don't think the stronger the herx the better- I think we need to try to make the herxing as mild as possible.
My houttuynia experience was actually another step that led me to want to go to Hansa because I felt like- wow I just cannot handle this all on my own, I need someone to gently walk me through this. good luck.

I have the Houttuynia tincture that Buhner recommends (woodland essence I think?). I started it about 3 weeks ago and am already up to 30 drops 2x/day. I haven't herxed on it one bit. I was expecting something but thus far, nada. That's either a good or bad thing haha. Good because it may mean I don't have bart, though my doc seems to think I do.

It could be bad too because I may have bart but the Houttuynia tincture just doesn't work for me for whatever reason. So confusing.

It's hard to tell which is stronger, but it may be that some people respond better to the tea or the tincture.

I know that the tea kicked my rear too!! A hard three week herx at 1/2 dose (1.5 grams Houttuynia to 3 cups water).

I'm so sorry that you had such a rough time, Healing!! You may need to reduce the dose further! I do hope that you feel better soon though!!

Healing, I hope your day of recovery is going well!