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Japanese Knotweed making me sick?

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Posted 3/21/2018 5:42 AM (GMT 0)
Is anyone else taking Japanese Knotweed capsules and getting nauseated? I've been taking 500 mg caps long enough to nearly empty a 100 cap bottle @ 2/day for a week, then 2 twice a day. Now I feel too sick to do anything, like eating, all the time. anyone else?
Posted 3/21/2018 6:49 AM (GMT 0)
Allergies are pretty common with lyme. If Japanese knotweed doesn't agree with you then substitute
as Buhner suggests:

Dear Stephen,
I am using cat’s claw, smilax and andrographis and for my lyme. I found that the Japanese knotweed caused breast swelling and tenderness, so I stopped using it. Is there another herb you would recommend in its place? I also believe I have babesia, even though the one test I had ( Lab Corp.) came up negative.


Stephen’s response:
Yes, use stephania. I would also recommend arabinogalactan.
Stephen
Posted 3/21/2018 7:09 AM (GMT 0)
Hi Seagazer101 - welcome

Other members have substituted Stephania.


Were you taking the JK caps on an empty stomach ...?

You could try taking it and following up with food.

The other option is maybe trying tincture form.
Posted 3/21/2018 6:14 PM (GMT 0)
Japanese knotweed gave me very bad burping, and also wheezing and a rash around my ankles. The rash didn't show up until months after I started taking it though. I think more people are allergic to it than some of Buhner's other herbs. I'm taking stephania and I haven't had any problems with it.
Posted 3/21/2018 8:02 PM (GMT 0)
Thank you. Any ideas as to dosage with stephania?
Posted 3/21/2018 8:30 PM (GMT 0)
I'm taking 600mg three times a day.

I'm not sure what Buhner recommends. The book I have (the old edition of Healing Lyme) doesn't have the dose in milligrams. Maybe it's on his website.
Posted 3/21/2018 9:09 PM (GMT 0)
I get nauseous if i don't eat. At a point where i was taking too large of doses the herxes came with a lot of fatigue and nausea. The solution for me was just to lower the dose and climb up at a slower pace. If you have access to a doc who can run blood work though I would suggest making sure it's nothing more serious. I doubt it is. Knotweed is pretty safe. But a lot of safe herbs and medicines can cause damage in a very small minority of people and I wouldn't want to push through mysterious symptoms like that without making sure it was nothing serious. That was always one thing that scared me when I had those symptoms. Fortunately nothing major showed up and I got passed them just by lowering the dose but everyones experience is different
Posted 3/21/2018 9:19 PM (GMT 0)
Thank you both. I also have what seems to be Lyme hepatitis although my actual MD doesn't know Jack about Lyme and doesn't care to learn, but the liver problem has no other obvious cause. I know that makes me sick when the LFT's are elevated, but not what's causing it. We have a severe shortage of doctors where I live; I just went 14 months with NO doc at all, so I have no choice. At least he can order tests.
Posted 3/22/2018 3:35 AM (GMT 0)
When I researched Stephania, I discovered at least 29 species. Does anyone know which of them it is?
Posted 3/22/2018 1:17 PM (GMT 0)
Buhner's Healing Lyme 2nd Ed. says (p. 379) Stephania tetandra or Stephania cepharantha.

Same book, p. 380, says dosage for Lyme arthritis and/or neuro-Lyme should be:

Powdered herb: 1-4 "00" capsules
Tincture (1:5, 65% water/alcohol solution): 1/2 teaspoon 3x/day

See buhnerhealinglyme.com/resources/herb-source-list/ for a list of companies through which the herbs can be obtained. Stephania root is listed, but you have to scroll way down the page almost to the end to find it.

Take care,

-Razzle
Lyme & Bart.; too many health issues to list...
Posted 3/22/2018 3:24 PM (GMT 0)
Knotweed has high levels of emodin. It's harmless but causes gastric upset, cramping, diarrhea etc.. it bothers me, too
Posted 3/22/2018 8:06 PM (GMT 0)
Ah, thank you all; this is such a help to me . I might as well be in outer Mongolia as far as my health is concerned.
Posted 3/22/2018 10:44 PM (GMT 0)
Geeze, I looked up emodin. It's horrible, not only a purgative - the worst kind of laxative - but also an emetic! No wonder I have nausea and diarrhea. I quit the JK altogether.
Posted 3/23/2018 12:36 AM (GMT 0)
Yah, i can only takr 1 tsp/day now, myself. Otherwise i have really bad diarrhea. I think I've heard Buhner say that Stephania is a substitute for knotweed. Does anyone know if it also contains resveratrol
Posted 3/23/2018 3:24 AM (GMT 0)
I don't think stephania contains reveratrol, but I could be wrong.
Posted 7/29/2018 5:59 PM (GMT 0)
Hey all - since last Oct at least I've been having all kinds of gut issues and loose bowels. Recently I've been on Alinia to treat my infection and my gut has felt good so I attributed it to the Alinia. However, just yesterday I started up Japanese Knotweed again as an herbalist suggested it for my swollen blood vessels. I had taken it for a long time, but recently stopped due to concerns it might be heating me up too much, but thought I'd try and see if it would work as the herbalist suggested. This morning the old gut cramps and discomfort came back suddenly with loose bowels (and Alinia is an anti-diarrhea med). So, I decided to check with Google and sure enough found this:

"When taking Japanese Knotweed capsules of dried powder root, the presence of emodin, a purgative, may irritate the intestine and cause rapid bowel movements."

I'm going to stop the JK immediately and see how I feel.

p.s. Just googled Emodin and it says "An orange crystalline compound, C14H4O2(OH)3CH3, obtained from rhubarb and other plants and used as a laxative."

When I recently had my colonoscopy they remarked that I had melanosis coli (basically a darker than average colon) and was asked if I have taken laxatives for a while as it can cause that...

Folks I think we have Bingo...
Posted 7/29/2018 6:19 PM (GMT 0)
Mr. Buhner addresses the subject in the latest edition of Healing Lyme. He said he's seen tiny women who could handle large doses of the herb and big men who could only handle small amounts.
I've taken 3 tblspns per day of JK and thought I was dying. I'm very sensitive to the herb and can handle 1 1/2 tsp per day. That's taking it for 4 months. But..it's working. Sometimes a very small dose will work.
Posted 7/29/2018 6:41 PM (GMT 0)
Thanks DonN - apparently JK tinctures don't have the same issue. Something to look into me thinks...
Posted 8/17/2018 11:30 AM (GMT 0)
Don't know about the emodin, but I was taking JK powder and having GI upset, mostly nausea. JK is high in oxalates, but only a problem with the raw herb or tablets made from it. Tincturing leaves most oxalates behind, as does simmering the raw herb for twenty minutes and just drinking the liquid. I was doing the latter, adding in lots of fresh ginger, no more nausea.
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