posted
As far as herbs go, which is the better one to take overall? I took cats claw for a while and it may have helped, and I am taking olive leaf extract now and it doesn't seem to be doing much if anything. But maybe cat's claw didnt really do anything either...
posted
I think they are both good. I take both but have only been taking Cat's Claw for a few days so I'm not sure on that yet.
OLE is really more to keep yeast at bay while you are on abx. I take it even when off of abx since I think it has really helped me in that area.
Cat's Claw is more of a natural abx.My doctor recommended I try that to fight the lyme and build up my immune system.
That's a simple answer and I am not as knowledgeable as others here so maybe someone else will chime in with more info.
-------------------- TxLymie IgG-Negative IgM - Postive bands 23 and 41
Other dx: 2000: Endometriosis 2009: Chronic EBV, Mycoplasma infection, HHV6, H.pylori Posts: 297 | From Houston | Registered: Jun 2009
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Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673
posted
- We are taking here about adjunct treatment, supplemental support.
There is no best one - each is different. Read from at least 5 sources about each and discuss it with your LL doctor. Not all brands are the same, either.
And, why choose from one or the other? There are hundreds of common herbs - each different (and thousands more that most of us have never heard about). Might you have a LL ND (naturopathic doctor) near you - someone who has four years' training and a degree in this very subject but who is also ILADS-educated?
I will say that I would never ever even consider taken abx without Olive Leaf Extract as it has kept candida away when I've been on abx and used it before and during. With probiotics, still, but they were never enough before I learned about OLE.
Seagate is the best brand of OLE, according to one author who has a book on the subject. Cross search at Google: "Morton Walker" OLE
I can also say that regular Cat's Claw has been a life-saver for me, literally. To help guard against sound-vibration triggered seizures each week when the lawn crew is at my apt. complex for hours - and come right to to the metal doors with a team of leaf blowers for not just one, but two, sweeps - this saves my life.
Cat's Claw has this wonderful property of being very calming to the nervous system. So, with shuffling between which level of ear muffs work at different points in time, Cat's Claw has been the best help to my nervous system, by far. When I run out and have to wait to order more, I can tell a huge difference.
Scullcap can help, too, but is more sedating than I want for daytime. And the Cat's Claw seems to impart some sense of well-being, or at least seems to help me not spiral down a victim vortex and just better able to deal with the torture of noise . . . but not melting down from it or getting all emotional about it. So, I sense some adrenal support, too. Were I to have a car or a way out, I'd take it. But that is not an option and, so, Cat's Claw has help to protect my nerve endings.
By Cat's Claw - you mean regular Cat's Claw (as that is very different from the TOA-free) . . . so when you read about that you need to be very sure that you are reading about the right thing. And the thing is that TOA-free has zero third party research so it'd be hard to really know all you need to know about.
Buhner writes of Cat's Claw in "Healing Lyme" and I'm not sure which LL author writes of OLE, but it's good to read them all, anyway.
After reading all that an LL author has to say on the subject of any particular supplement:
And: Rain-Tree at www.rain-tree.com --- for Cat's Claw (they don't have a page on OLE as it's not from the Rainforest)
Then: See what a broader Google search brings up but stay away from places that actually sell the products UNLESS they have 3rd party research and provide citations at the end of the articles.
However, the problem is that you can read about this or that desired property you would like to gain from the use of a particular herb, but these are usually all best with other herbs as part of a carefully thought out plan for YOU, based on your needs.
It's important to know that if you have a cold it could be different from someone else who has a cold and your overall formula would be different, too. However, lyme changes so much about us so it's important to take that all into account.
That is why it's so good to have an ILADS-educated LL ND to guide you in this. -
[ 03-01-2010, 02:08 PM: Message edited by: Keebler ]
Posts: 48021 | From Tree House | Registered: Jul 2007
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Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673
My ND (naturopathic doctor) recommended MYROLEA B. Most naturopathic doctors and acupuncturists know about the Seven Forest formulas. Absolutely effective in my case to keep candida away when I was on abx. However, this formula was not enough - at all - by itself for the larger picture of lyme and other coinfections. A great helper, but not enough alone.
Myrolea-B (White Tiger) is a simple formulation of highly concentrated extracts from four Chinese herbs and one Western herb.
The Chinese herbs include forsythia and lonicera, two of the key ingredients of Ilex 15 (and the main antiviral ingredients of Yin Qiao Jie Du Pian), thus boosting the dosage of these essential ingredients.
Myrolea-B also contains the antiviral agents scute (huangqin) and terminalia (hezi). The Western herb in this formulation is olive leaf, which is one of the primary anti-viral herbs derived from the European tradition.
SHUANGHUANGLIAN: Potent Anti-Infection Combination of Lonicera, Forsythia, and Scute - by Subhuti Dharmananda, Ph.D., Director, Institute for Traditional Medicine - 2003
Shuanghuanglian (SHL for short) is a modern formula that was devised in the 1960s to treat a variety of infections. It is comprised of the alcohol-water extracts of three herbs: lonicera (shuanghua, often called jinyinhua), scute (huangqin), and forsythia (lianqiao). . . .
. . . One of the early preparations of the SHL was a tablet made of equal proportions of the extracts of each herb. This was used to treat leptospirosis, a disorder caused by a spirochete bacteria, related to the organism that causes Lyme disease.
Leptospirosis causes initial symptoms of fever and chills, headache, and muscle ache (especially in the shoulders); these are consistent with "flu-like" symptoms described for the onset of many acute infections.
In a 1971 report, the formula was described as being made in 500 mg tablets derived from 3.7 grams of the crude herbs, and being administered in doses of 10-15 tablets (thus, equivalent to the extract of 37-55 grams of herbs) every 6 hours (1), a very high dosage.
. . . Recently, Shuanghuanglian has been applied successfully to treatment of Coxsackie B3,
. . . The general indications for SHL . . . are "relieving the exterior syndrome, clearing away heat and toxic material," and its indications are "treatment of fever, cough, and sore throat that arise from wind-heat syndrome."
It is said to have "a good action in treating upper respiratory tract infection, tonsillitis, laryngopharyngitis, pneumonia, acute enteritis, viral dysentery, etc., when caused by virus or bacterial infection."
- full article at link above. -
[ 03-01-2010, 04:11 PM: Message edited by: Keebler ]
Posts: 48021 | From Tree House | Registered: Jul 2007
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annxyzz
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
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Excellent information , Keebler!!!! You are extremely helpful to us here . Thanks !
-------------------- annxyzz Posts: 1178 | From East Texas | Registered: May 2009
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annxyzz
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
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posted
Excellent information , Keebler!!!! You are extremely helpful to us here . Thanks !
-------------------- annxyzz Posts: 1178 | From East Texas | Registered: May 2009
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