I am fairly new to this site and would like to thank everyone who has responded to some of my questions.
My daughter was bitten last summer and tested negative in June 06, she had another test 2 weeks ago and tested positive. The dr. says its probably a recent infection since only one band showed positive for IgG and two bands showed positive for IgM. She has been sick for over a year. Her dr. would only prescribe 200 mg of doxcycline per day for three weeks, which according to everything I have been reading isn't enough.
Does anyone know if taking an herbal supplement along with the doxcycline is safe. I read somewhere about an herbal supplement called Samento. Since I don't think my daughter is getting enough doxcycline and not for long enough I want to get her started on the Samento, but am unsure if it is safe, and if so, how much to give.
Has anyone tried both of the drugs at the same time for a new infection of lyme? I still think my daughter has had lyme for the past year even though she tested negative last June. She has all the typical symptoms of lyme
As far as hexing goes, all I know is that after taking her antiobiotics for 4 days she became even more sick and could not get out of bed for almost three days. Naseau, vomiting, headache, joint pain, skin feeling like on fire, dizzy and lightheaded and extreme exhaustation.
I can't imagine how anyone who has lyme disease deals with this on a daily basis for such a long time. I think it is a horrifying illness and anyone who has it has an awful lot of courage and strength to get through each day.
I have watched my daughter struggle every day for over a year now and she still tries to stay positive. God bless her and all the rest of you lyme sufferers.
Posted by Vermont_Lymie (Member # 9780) on :
Hi fedup,
sorry to hear your daughter is sick.
Just want to make one important point you may already know about doxy --
it is very important to take it with lots of food.
That helps alot with the nausea. If I took it alone, I would throw up.
With food, like a big dinner, there was no nausea or stomach problems.
400 mg/day of doxy helped me alot, even though I only took it for a few weeks before switching to amoxicillin. that was 200mg in the morning with breakfast, and 200mg in the evening with food.
Personally, I take herbal supplements -- resveratrol and andrographis mainly -- with any antibiotic. Not at the same time, but the same day. But yes, you must check it out with your doctor -- and get to an llmd if at all possible!
take care
[ 16. May 2007, 10:00 PM: Message edited by: Vermont_Lymie ]
Posted by randibear (Member # 11290) on :
i am positive that taking andrographis, cat's claw, and my ceftin at the same time, put me in the ER.
My heart rate was around 130 or so, and my blood pressure was 184 over 145.
I tried to think of everything I could have done, and guys, that's the only thing I have ever done and it was by accident.
So I would say no, don't take them together.
Course, I am very sensitive to all meds and herbs.
Posted by luvs2ride (Member # 8090) on :
Don't mix the abx and herbs without discussing it with your doctor. If he is not up on herbs, he has the resources to check it out. Sometimes they do interact in a negative way.
Posted by JimBoB (Member # 8454) on :
The best thing you can do, IMHO, is to buy the "Healing Lyme" book and read it cover to cover, then study it closely, underlining all the important points as you find them, so you can re-read them time and time again.
Then follow Buhner's Core Protocol, BUT start out VERY slowly. Don't think just because they are natural that herbs do not have lots of power.
I personally would stay away from TOA Samento and use the WHOLE HERB in capsule form.
You may try Stephania Root also. AND for ME at least, Devil's Claw has been a tremendous help with my Neuro Lyme. (Brain fog and Vision problems). As well as Periwinkle too.
And last, but certainly not least, be SURE to take the Lymph cleansers right from the beginning, so you don't herx bigtime. These are Red Root tincture, Milk Thistle. AND while you are at it take Sarsaparilla which is an excellent blood cleanser. Start out VERY slow on every one of these.
I had terrible stomach problems and the Doxy totally killed it. I tried taking Doxy for 28 days but could only take it for 24 days, and didn't think I could make it that long. I took it with my meals and that didn't help very much. Even Amoxicillin can be very hard on my stomach.
With the Amoxyicillin, it was terrible on my stomach, even though I had healed it with C-Salts from nutri.com. BUT I found out by experimenting a couple of months ago, that I could take it in very low doses for about 3 weeks, IF I took it at least one hour before or after a meal, and IF I took it with about 1/3 glass of skim milk.
Otherwise the herbs Buhner recommends for the most part are VERY safe for the majority of people out there. Only a select few have problems with them. Mostly, they go at it TOO fast. In a hurry to get healed. It doesn't work that way.
The herbs will make you "feel" a lot better than the abx, but won't necessarily get rid of the Lyme any quicker for many people. However, many people who relapse from abx and/or don't get good results with the abx, do very well on the herbs.
MOST LLMDs and others have little or no experience with the proper herbs to heal Lyme. There are only a few really good ones out there that do.
And I find that many of us can't afford the really good ones no matter how hard we try. Therefore the "Healing Lyme" book.
Take care and happy healing for your daughter.
Jim Posted by caat (Member # 2321) on :
I took cat's claw with doxycycline and didn't notice any interactions. Cat's claw is the raw herb- samento is the derivitive.
I DID have mild halucinations and diareah- BUT those are side effects of raw cat's claw in SOME people. It wasn't bad... I've heard you don't get those with samento...
You could do a search for both and see if anyone has had any interactions with those 2.
Personally I think it's best to ask your doc AND do searches for interactions with any drugs or herbs. Some herbs have antioxidant qualities (interferes with mepron), hypercoagulant properties, increase some medications absorbtion or half life rates (grapefruit & G seed extract for doxycycline etc). etc etc etc.
Posted by hardynaka (Member # 8099) on :
Sorry to hear another awful story... I would go slow with herbs. Go first with doxy ONLY, who knows it won't help lowering the load of infection fast?
If she's having trouble with doxy alone, I can't imagine going through more killing and more herxes with herbs (unless you use cleansers like milk thistle - a must to help liver, and other herbs)... You can do a search here, there's a lot of info on cleansing. Cleansing reduces herxes, they can even go down to zero.
Unfortunately, you (or daughter) have to read a lot about herxing, reaction to antibiotics, available treatments, and inform about the basics of lyme disease. It will take a few days/ weeks to get an idea of the picture. Then you can better choose the treatment.
I treated my 2 year old daugther with amoxy then added herbs after. She was newly infected, so I didn't really notice any visible herx (she was in bad mood the whole time though, but I think because of the disease). She got well in few months (acute infection takes MUCH less time to treat).
If your daughter is alreay long time infected, it will take longer, but remember that many children react better to treatment than adults, because they usually have a better immune system.
When doxy finishes, I would CERTAINLY add a cocktail of herbs (samento-ONLY is not a cure if it's already long term infection). YOu can be sure about it. Just post a question here, even though samento only can help, it has never been a solo 'cure'.
I would also buy the book of Buhner and read it carefully, he explains well how this borrelia organism is extremely complicated and that it does need a multi-factorial approach to get it killed.
I use Buhner protocol, so did my daughter, with some added things, they worked well (she's symptom free since last October, I'm not sure if I'm symtpom free yet as I just have been bitten again)...
Good luck for you and your daughter. Selma
Posted by MariaA (Member # 9128) on :
I've had very good success with treating my chronic Lyme with both herbs and antibiotics, then herbs alone.
I've read some recent concern that cats' claw/samento combined with doxy can be a problem, in terms of raising liver enzyme levels. This is from Burrascano who's a famous and very good Lyme researcher. Your doctor will tell you best, but you can always test for liver enzyme levels- I think the test is about $100 so it's not too bad compared to some others.
Posted by Vanilla (Member # 11155) on :
I am on abx and also Tibetan herbs with my LLMD's approval. So far the combo seems to be helping. I would rather just take the herbs but oh well.
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