I'm just re-posting a thread from Buhner's forum, of someone that's been using the protocol for more than a year.
She doesn't post here at lymenet.
--------------------- To answer your question, I've been on the protocol since Oct '05.
That's about 16 months.
Started gradually, but reached full dose CP within 3 weeks. Took 4 pills 4x day for 3 weeks, found it was better at 4 pills 3xday.
Stayed on this dose until Jan/Feb. Gave the book to my LLMD, however she had relatively little herbal experience & did not respond to Buhner's book the way I did (have not seen her in over a year).
Armed with Buhner's book, I felt my knowledge of herbs & supplements made self administering viable.
I gave away about a dozen of his books to various health practitioners, got some feedback from a few and kept on searching for info on the web. That's the short version.
I'll answer your other questions listed below:
1)- How much did the CP help you?
Immensely! Gradually, & continually. Looking back I realize there is a long list of health problems that have disappeared...
Here are some: No more joint/muscle/foot pain, no more eyes swelling shut, no migraines, rarely headaches, no funny tingles & bursts in my nerve endings, no more aching teeth,
weight normalized , regained energy - no longer pasted to the bed every morning, no more shingles, impetigo & other unexplained infections, etc.,
improved cognitive issues, almost no more brain fog/ADD ,no itchy skin, heal faster and no more raging hot flashes which had persisted for 9 years.
Despite extreme precautions, within this 16 month period I had 3 more tick bites -- the last in September '06 ( I live in a lyme-endemic area & have 2 cats who spend a very small amount of time outdoors....).
Each time I returned to the higher dose for 2-3 months. Basically I have spent most of this year on a 3-4 pills/3x day regimen.
From the book I took or still take the brands Buhner suggests of Andro, Cats Claw & Knotweed, Smilax, Eleuthero, Red root, Alpha lipoic Acid,C, NAC, LAC, Hup A, Vincamine, Ginkgo, glucosamine, nettles, B complex, probiotics, occasionally pregnenolone.
And lots of other things intermittently. After about 8-9 months on the cp I introduced astragalus. I have just begun encapsulating Stephania this week and last week temporarily stopped andrographis.
2)- What other parallel treatments really helped you and you think are missing in Buhner's approach?
Chiropractic & acupuncture help.
Basically I work on immune building, liver & lymph cleansing, rebuilding collegen & detoxing metals - ---
would like Buhner to address chelating heavy metals as it appears to be critical with lyme.
Milk thistle, Chlorella, cilantro, dandelion, burdock, lots of green tea, various mushrooms, tumeric, CoQ10, organic whey powder, fish oil, flax, hempnuts...the list goes on and is ever changing.
I eat predominately organic & prefer organic or wild crafted herbs.
3)- What are your plans for a post-lyme maintenance protocol?? (if you're in this phase).
I will keep indefinitely a maintenance dose (1-2 pills 3 x day) of Knotweed, cats claw, astragalus, intermittent eleuthero & smilax and reintroduce andrographis if my symptoms recur.
I have noticed if I drop the protocol entirely I experience occasional headaches and have some difficulty with keeping focused-- attention deficit.
The cognitive supplements seem to keep me balanced otherwise. I'm going to use Stephania for a few months at high doses and see what happens.
So that's it basically, I think Buhner's program has vastly improved my health. It's been extremely helpful reading everyone's posts on yahoo as well as planet thrive.
Thanks to all of you!
Signe
Posted by Annxyz (Member # 9097) on :
Selma, The thing that amazes me is that she worked herself up to almost 12 capsules daily in a few weeks !
I am on four each daily and can barely turn myself over on the sofa today .
I do not doubt that this can be effective for many people. I am having strong herxing after a year of doxy ( and was not having much herxing with doxy anymore ) .
Thank you for posting this . I am encouraged bythe posts I read and the folks who are getting better this way . Some are combining with ABX ( herbs) also and doing better . From what I read in personal experience , most say they felt the andro made the most difference .
Posted by JimBoB (Member # 8454) on :
Not everyone can ramp up that fast though Ann.
It took me about 5 or 6 weeks at least to get to the maximum that I got to of 12 capsules of each a day. Except for Devil's Claw. I only got up to 8 a day of those and am STILL on 8 a day of them a Sarsaparilla. All the rest I am down to 6, except milk thistle and nettle which I am down to 2 a day of each from the original high of 3 a day.
Don't overdo it for yourself, just because someone else can go higher. Do what YOU can handle. All the abx that you took are probably still affecting your system also.
When I quit doxy, it took me many weeks to start feeling a lot better on herbs only.
Jim Posted by mtnwoman (Member # 8385) on :
Hardynaka, can you please give the link to the forum that you are referencing --
thanks!
Posted by serendipity (Member # 8474) on :
Hi,
I believe the forum is Lyme_Aid_Buhner at Yahoo groups.
Thanks for posting the success story. I've started the protocal with interesting results (in detail in another thread.)
Posted by JimBoB (Member # 8454) on :
IF this doesn't work for you, i am sure you could Google and get there.
Jim. Posted by hardynaka (Member # 8099) on :
Yes, it's amazing how Signe could ramp up so fast. Each body is so different!
Some like me, never reach average doses! Even level 2 was hard (2 pills 3 times a day).
Ann, I guess what's important is to go on slow and improve, no matter on how much you're working on. Even tiny doses could be fine!
I'd rather go slow (one tiny step forward a day) than do 3 steps forward one day to come back 7 steps the next... And keep stuck there for a week or two due to excess of toxins. Or even longer!
It was the first time I read her post (of Signe), I was looking for other long term users of the protocol.
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