Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673
posted
- The matter of stevia has bothered me for quite some time for many reasons. One of my major concerns is the use of a substance that is so very sweet and the body having that super sweetness on board around the clock.
While it may not raise blood sugar and can be excellent as a dietary supplement to food or green tea, say, and can be important to our health & enjoyable in MODERATION . . .
in my mind there is a huge - huge - risk to constant sweetness causing some kinds of problems with the "control panels" of our brain / pancreas, etc. I think it could boomerang in very unexpected, unforeseen ways.
Still, this is what I really came to post:
Posts: 48021 | From Tree House | Registered: Jul 2007
| IP: Logged |
Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673
Stevia’s antibacterial actions against lyme disease / biofilm
Dear Stephen,
What are your thoughts on the New Haven Group’s study of the antibacterial actions of stevia against Borrelia bacteria?
Stephen’s response: Jun 21, 2017
I have a short response in the second printing (and later) of the second edition of Healing Lyme (I had to squeeze it in).
The study, in my opinion, is useless and misleading.
Here are a few of the reasons why (I have similar problems with most of the New Haven group’s studies — though this does seem to be the first one they got a journal to accept): . . .
1) The study is in vitro and hence has nothing to do with how the herb will actually work in a living body.
It is not possible to extrapolate from a single in vitro study UNLESS there is corresponding data from centuries of historical use, etc (e.g. clinical use and so on).
2) Stevia is not a very systemic herb.
To work in a live body against infection, especially with Borrelia, an herb has to be VERY systemic, that is it has to spread widely in the body, especially in hard-to-reach places. Stevia does not.
3) We have over a decade of clinical experience with stevia in the treatment of lyme disease; we suggest it as a supportive herb for a number of problems (blood glucose, etc).
We have not seen ANY antimicrobial effects in clinical practice. NONE.
However, the herb, because of effects on the GI tract, does help increase the bioavailability of herbs and pharmaceuticals (as does licorice, for example), as such it can help make antibacterials more effective.
4) The herb is also touted as helping break up biofilms.
NOTE: Most herbs contain substances that help break up biofilms; plants figured out how to do that millions of years ago.
Plants get sick, just like us, they can’t go to the doctor, they can’t call a medic, they have to treat their own diseases by figuring out what is wrong and crafting substances to deal with the infections they have.
Part of the reason they are better than drugs is that they contain multiple substances that they have created to deal with bacteria –
they had to deal with bacteria long before our species even existed, so they created antibacterials;
they had to deal with bacterial resistance long ago so they create anti-resistance chemicals;
they had to deal with biofilms so they created biofilm breaking agents, and so on.
There is a list of perhaps 40 herbs that break up biofilms in the second edition of Healing Lyme, this is by no means exhaustive. ALL plants break up biofilms to varying extents.
So, in short, this study is not groundbreaking, it is not news, it is not the antibacterial cureall for lyme disease.
Further, given the massive data on Borrelia from exhaustive research the past decades, including some of the really good work that has been done by other researchers, the study is not really all that good.
(I have read, at a conservative estimate, some 30,000 journal articles on bacteria, viruses, and herbs over the past 5 years, many of them are listed in the bibliographies in my last 5 medical herbals.
Some of the bibliographies run rather long, in Healing Lyme alone it is over 50 pages long.) -
Posts: 48021 | From Tree House | Registered: Jul 2007
| IP: Logged |
Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673
posted
- RexL
Most certainly, not comfortable thinking a degree or intent is fake. The degree is real and to suggest otherwise even if to write that you "wonder" could be seen as defamation so I wish you would consider deleting that part, in fairness.
I do not question her education or abilities.
However, she is caught in a system and has to do things exactly the way that system demands, the way medical institutions work - and grant funding - is by setting up studies as the stevia one has been done.
It just does not work in the wider equation, though, for this matter. Herbs are much more complex and with medical school studies, they only want to look at one tiny bit of one thing at a time.
And they want to have a simple finish to market as a solo agent.
My brain and word skills fail me yet Buhner speaks very clearly and with better sentences to this research "study set-up" issue - separate from the stevia question.
The TAO-PAO article is excellent and, by the way, Buhner also agrees with Taylor's distinction between the original cat's claw and the other. He refers to her article in his first book about lyme.
He also tried to get the research sources from those who brought Samento to life but was never able. I tried as well when it first came out but was never sent the citations they said they would send. I kept in contact to no avail.
While Samento failed me in substantial ways (not just my body but my hope & time, especially) it does puzzle me that I've spoken with a couple folks who did find some good help with it. Yet, there are many variables always.
Yes, Leslie Taylor's work (articles/web/book) is also excellent. Very unique in the world of herbal medicines for her focus on plants from the Amazon forest. She is tops in that field, for sure. -
Posts: 48021 | From Tree House | Registered: Jul 2007
| IP: Logged |
Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673
posted
- It is entirely possible to disagree with or question aspects of a professional's work while still holding in good regard their educational accomplishments, their ability & character.
To set the record straight: her degrees are valid from well respected medical institutions. To imply, to "wonder" otherwise is not fair or accurate - and really is defamation of character / libel in print / slander in speech.
. . . Eötvös Loránd University is internationally recognized and its programs are accredited by the Hungarian Accreditation Board.
The diplomas issued by Eötvös Loránd University are acknowledged worldwide, and its course credits are transferable in all countries in the European Union.
Over the last hundred years, Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) has had many world famous scientists and four Nobel Prize laureates among its teachers and alumni.
The current number of students enrolled yearly has reached 28,000, and there is an academic staff of 1,800 highly-qualified teachers and researchers. . . . -
Posts: 48021 | From Tree House | Registered: Jul 2007
| IP: Logged |
Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673
posted
- When you give a presentation about your lab work, you do speak to the topic of that conversation. That is expected.
Yet, it has to be condensed to the key points. Months and years of study & work cannot possibly be contained in one video presentation.
In no way should she lay out the entire contents of her education / research / brain / mind or speak to all she knows. To expect that is just unfair. -
Posts: 48021 | From Tree House | Registered: Jul 2007
| IP: Logged |
posted
So I am in a Facebook Lyme/Bart group. I noticed a lot of people are using Stevia in their treatment plans.
So I decided to ask "How" they were using Stevia. Some were adding it their coffee. One was drinking Crystal Light with Stevia. Another putting drops in their oatmeal. Certainly, this could not be the way Stevia was intended to be used to treat biofilms, could it?
My doctor has never mentioned Stevia to me, so I am not sure how to use it. But if drinking Crystal Light will dissolve biofilms then I will surely get some! Thoughts please.
Posts: 160 | From NJ | Registered: Dec 2009
| IP: Logged |
posted
Sorry to Keebler if I posted in the wrong section. I just figured since you were talking about Stevia, that this was a good place for my question.
Posts: 160 | From NJ | Registered: Dec 2009
| IP: Logged |
posted
I use it as a sweetener, since it appears to be the safest of the available sugar substitutes (and I'm doing a keto diet, as most of us are.) If it helps break up biofilms, so much the better. Just my 2 cents.
-------------------- "Looks like freedom but it feels like death.. It's something in between, I guess"
Leonard Cohen, from the song "Closing Time" Posts: 822 | From California | Registered: Jan 2006
| IP: Logged |
The Lyme Disease Network is a non-profit organization funded by individual donations. If you would like to support the Network and the LymeNet system of Web services, please send your donations to:
The
Lyme Disease Network of New Jersey 907 Pebble Creek Court,
Pennington,
NJ08534USA http://www.lymenet.org/
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
Printer-friendly view of this topic