I started Artemisinin yesterday and have a couple of questions I'm hoping someone can answer.
I've previously read here that artemisinin should be taken with something else to prevent resistance.
The two natural supplements I remember are Olive Leaf Extract or Enula. Is there anything else that is recommended?
Would Quina work?
Also, does this mean that you take them at exactly the same time during the day or is good enough to have them on board at some point during the course of the day.
Thanks so much.
Posted by bettyg (Member # 6147) on :
anyone? on page 2
Posted by Need Lots of Help (Member # 18603) on :
I just got it too. I can't remember if I am supposed to take it with or without food. With or without my other antiboitics.......
Shalome
Posted by eagle (Member # 19278) on :
I've only read about pulsing artemisinin to prevent resistence.
Posted by lymielauren28 (Member # 13742) on :
I believe that Lymetoo took artemisinin in combination with Zith to prevent resistance. It cured her babs too by the way!
Lauren
Posted by MariaA (Member # 9128) on :
pulsing isn't for resistance in the same sense that malaria meds are taken in combinations to prevent the parasite from becoming resistant.
Pulsing artemesinin is done because your body builds up enzymes that can inactivate the artemesinin rapidly after a few days.
one way to prevent the detox action and to keep levels high is to also take grapefruit juice with the drug. Grapefruit juice also affects a LOT of other drugs, though , so do an internet search on what this action is (it slows down processing of drugs via the cytochrome p450 enzyme pathway) and ask your doctor whether he/she approves of you using it with the artemesinin.
Posted by brf (Member # 8748) on :
Thanks for the comments and explanations.
I've stopped it for now. I was beginning to herx on it but the veins in my hands, arms, feet were so intensely swollen to such an enormous size, it rather scared me.
My veins swell often with other things but this is probably the worse I remember.
Anybody know what this could indicate?
Posted by Keebler (Member # 12673) on :
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What brand and was it a single ingredient or a combination/formula?
How is your liver support?
Artemisinin uses the detox pathway Cytochrome P-450. The herb, schizandra, can help support that. So can glutathione precursors such as NAC.
I think it needs to be in a more specific formula. Zhang's protocol has a good balance but you would take it with allicin, Circ. P and AI#3 to prevent that herx effect.
Still, even on the full protocol, I also had problems with the nerves in my hands with it. However, I do have porphyria and should not have been talking it (since my C P-450 pathway is deficient). I had no choice though. I took it for two months and my hands got better after that.
I would not mix and match on my own as you really want to have an expert guide you on this. I don't know if Olive Leaf would be enough to match with Artemisinin and it's a huge risk unless you know for certain.'
Good luck.
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Sorry for this being piece-mealed - I keep thinking of things.
You would have to search his site and previous books for Cyptolepis (it is not in his lyme book but is at his site). However, that is nearly impossible to get right now due to some vendors being unable to replenish their supplies.
Bear Creek Herbs may still have some. They ship out only on Thursdays. 505 - 388 - 5035 (ET)
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Posted by Keebler (Member # 12673) on :
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My brain is so spaced out today.
You will also find some books about Babesia treatment by Schaller - he has a web site you can search for - and books can be found at Amazon.
Cryptolepis: an African traditional medicine that provides hope for malaria victims.
HerbalGram. 2003;60:54-59.
Excerpts:
In traditional African medicine, the root cryptolepis (Cryptolepis sanguinolenta) is used to treat a host of diseases, including malaria, jaundice, and hepatitis.
Compounds isolated from this plant have been shown to have antibacterial, antihyperglycemic, antiinflammatory, and antimalarial activities.
The focus of this review is on the antimalarial potential of cryptolepsis, with emphasis on the safety and efficacy of a recently formulated tea derived from the root.
. . .
Aqueous extracts of the plant, which are usually used in herbal medicines, have been shown to be less effective than ethanolic extracts in some studies.
Cryptolepis has received increasing attention in recent years from the Phytomedicine Division of Phyto-Riker Pharmaceuticals (Accra, Ghana), which has developed an herbal tea (Phyto-laria�) from the root of cryptolepis for the treatment of malaria.
. . .
The efficacy of Phyto-laria was assessed in an unpublished, open-label, uncontrolled clinical trial conducted in Ghana.
Forty-six adult patients with uncomplicated malaria were provided one tea bag (containing 2.5 g of cryptolepis root powder and flavorings) for consumption three times per day for five days.
The tea was prepared by steeping the tea bag in approximately 2.5 g of boiling water for 5-10 minutes. (It is unclear exactly how many total tea bags were provided to the subjects.)
A mean parasitic (Plasmodium falciparum) clearance time of 82.3 hours and a mean fever clearance time of 25.4 hours were observed. . . . A previous study of an aqueous extract of crytolepis supported this finding.
Because safety is paramount for any agent used to treat disease, the safety of Phyto-laria was assessed in vivo by administering it orally to rabbits, mice, and rats.
The tea bag formulation was shown to be safe; the LD50 (the dose of a chemical that kills 50% of a sample population) was greater than 2,000 mg/kg, "more than two orders of magnitude higher than the effective dose."
There is a write-up on Cryptolepsis (p.25-26) in Stephen Buhner's 1999 paperback book Herbal Antibiotics, Natural Alternatives for Treating Drug-Resistant Bacteria
Copies are likely readily found via an amazon search (ISBN 1-58017-148-6).
Cryptolepsis is apparently active against Malaria, Staphylococcus aureus, Shigella dysenteriae, Neisseria gonorrhea, Escherichia coli, Candida albicans and Campylobacter .
Here is an excerpt from his book:
"Cryptolepsis has been found to be remarkably potent for malaria in human clinical trials.
One such trial compared the effectiveness of cryptolepsis with chloroquine, the usual synthetic drug for malaria treatment, in comparative patient populations at the outpatient clinic of the Centre for Scientific Research into Plant Medicine at Mampong-Akwapim in Ghana, West Africa.
Clinical symptoms were relieved in 36 hours with cryptolepsis and in 48 hours with choloroquine.
Forty percent of the patients using chloroquine reported unpleasant side effects necessitating other medications; those using cryptolepsis reported no side effects."
References
Boye, G. L. 'Antimalarial Action of Cryptolepsis sanguinolenta Extract:' The International Symposium on East-West Medicine, chapter 14, pages 242-255, 1989.
Cimanga, K., et al. "In Vitro Activities of Alkaloids from Cryptolepsis sanguinolenta." Planta Medica 62(1): 22-27,1996. Abstract.
-------------------. "In Vitro and Vivo Antiplasmodial Activity of Cryptolepene and Related Alkaloids from Cryptolepsis sanguinolenta." J Natural Products 60(7): 688-691, 1997. Abstract.
Dean, Karen. "Cryptolepine Analogs" and "Cryptolepis." HerbalGram, no. 42, spring 1998, page 21.
Greller, P., et al. "Antitimalarial Activity of Cryptolepine and Isocryptolepine, Alkaloids Isolated from Cryptolepsis sanguinolenta." Phytother Res 10(4):317-321, 1996. Abstract.
Paulo, A., et al. "In Vitro Screening of Cryptolepsis sanguinolenta Alkaloids,." J Ethnopharmaco144(2):127-130, 1994. Abstract.
Cryptolepsis is a shrub from the Asclepiadacea family. It has been used for hundreds of years in the treatment of many serious illnesses. It has the following benefits: antiparasitic, antimalarial, antibacterial, antifungal.
Human clinical trials have shown cryptolepsis to be very effective in the treatment of malaria. In fact, one of these trials showed this herb to clear malarial symptoms in a shorter time then its synthetic counterpart, chloroquine, and without the side-effects associated with that medication.
Taken Internally
Tea -- mix a teaspoon of cryptolepsis with 5 ounces of boiling water -- can be taken up to twice a day
Tincture -- Make a 1:5 ratio mixture in 60 percent alcohol -- use between 20 - 40 drops up to four times a day.
Capsule -- Take up to 3 capsules twice a day. Up to 20 capsules can be taken for acute conditions providedthat you are under a homeopathic doctor's care.
Nature Structural Biology 9, 57 - 60 (2001) Published online: 3 December 2001; | doi:10.1038/nsb729
The antimalarial and cytotoxic drug cryptolepine intercalates into DNA at cytosine-cytosine sites
Excerpt:
. . .
Cryptolepine (5-methyl indolo[2,3b]-quinoline) is an indoloquinoline alkaloid first isolated from the roots of Cryptolepsis triangularis collected in Kisantu (Congo).
Extracts of the roots of the related climbing liana Cryptolepsis sanguinolenta, in which cryptolepine is the main alkaloid, have been used clinically in Ghana for the treatment of malaria2, and also as a remedy against colic and stomach ulcers.
Cryptolepine itself has been found to produce a variety of pharmacological effects, including hypotensive and antipyretic properties, presynaptic -adrenoreceptor blocking action, antimuscarinic properties, anti-inflammatory properties and antibacterial effects (for review see ref. 3).
. . . .
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Posted by brf (Member # 8748) on :
Keebler,
Thanks so much for all the info and links you so kindly provided.
The artemisinin I was using is the Allergy Research Group 100 mg. I've been on high quality 80% milk thistle for quite a while.
Within hours of stopping the art, my veins went back down to their regularly fluctuating size.
I then tried out Enula for the first time and now have badly blood shot eyes.
Just trying to figure out whats going on and the next step to take.
Posted by Need Lots of Help (Member # 18603) on :
Keebler,
Help me out here please. I am sick, my face, head and neck hurt and my nose and eyes burn like crazy.
I am taking doxy and biaxin.....is that enough with the artemisinin?
When I told the doctor that after 4 months of antiboitics I didn't feel one bit better, she added that.