LymeNet Flash: Artemisia annua, inputs needed

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Posted by Sylvie (Member # 188) on :

Hi gang, I bought bulk artemisia annua in a herbs store yesterday, but have no idea of how much the dose is for Lyme. I know some of you had it prescribed by Chinese docs, so who could help me on this please?

I would also be interested in various experiences on the artemisia annua derived products: artemisinin, artesunate, artemether. If you have used one of those products, could you tell me how it worked for you please?

Thanks a lot!

Posted by lou (Member # 81) on :

I took 500 mg x 3 of artemesinin, which came from the U.S. based Allergy Research Group. These were pills. Kinda doubt that all these products are the same, not standardized. And I haven't the foggiest notion how bulk herbs would compare. Any Chinese medical practitioners there that you could ask?

Took it with mepron, since Dr. B I think said it was no good on its own, needed to taken in combination. Hope I am quoting him correctly. Other people may have tried it alone and can give you their experiences.

Am thinking my babesia is gone because I gained back all the weight I lost, and some other symptoms have disappeared. Have several bottles of mepron and artemesinin sitting on the shelf which I hope not to need. Seems like some people have had what they thought were relapses, so I am waiting and watching.

[This message has been edited by lou (edited 15 March 2005).]

Posted by minoucat (Member # 5175) on :

Hi Sylvie.

We took artemesia annua according to Dr. Zhang's protocol, but it did not touch the babs. You'd have to look up his site to see the dosage. (google on Dr. Zhang, Lyme Disease)

We also took the Allergy Research Group artemesinin, 300 mg 2x day. Instant reaction to that -- epic headache, legs ached, rages, etc. Then started on mepron/zith with the same dose of artemisinin. Seems to have been very successful for us. We were on babs meds for 7 months (me) and 10 months (hubby), taking art the whole time (with breaks, because of the stomach absorption problem). Our tx seems to have been very successful.

We did the PCR through IgeneX for babs, and it came up negative. But we were so symptomatic for babs, and had such a strong response to artemesinin, and were infected in an area endemic for babs, that our LLMD treated us based on clinical dx.

It's hard for us in the US to get definitive bloodwork for babs -- most people who get positives seem to go through Bowen, but perhaps the Igenex FISH test (not available when we tested) is also getting better results.

Someone on the board -- Bpeck? used artemether, I think. And Gigi and Runner 21 used Riamet, which I understand has an artemesia derivative. You might want to post this out in medical, where more people will respond.