My question now is about knotweed. I could take it for a few months last year in low doses but recently developed a clear reaction to it. My mouth burns, gets red, I get diarrhea and other normal food I usually take without problems (like bananas!) start to burn my mouth and react the same way too. If I discontinue its use for a while, everything gets back to normal. I re-started it again later on 1/3 of a capsule A DAY and got similar reactions in my mouth…I believe I developed a sort of intolerance to it. Knotweed also never tested good on ART for me either, even different brands. I can take all other herbs without problems if in low doses. I feel I’m reaching an end of my lyme story, but still have minor symptoms and wonder what herbs would you recommend me to stay in as maintenance dose, if I can’t tolerate knotweed? Or do you think if I insist, my body should accept it one day? I tried both Planetary Herb brand and dried root (I did capsules myself or boiled in tea). All of the forms burned my mouth. Can I continue with andrographis for years?? I’m on my 13th month of it now, 4 capsules a day. Or teasel tincture? Thanks for any input!
Thank you for your feedback on this. The first side effect to knotweed! Diarrhea is a possible side effect but I have never heard of the mouth problems. If you want to continue with something like this I would suggest stephania as an alternative.
Many times, when people take an herb that they need, once the body is better it begins to reject the herb which indicates that it is no longer needed.
As to the andrographis I think it can be taken long term. I think a good maintenance dose is 1 tablet 3x daily, knotweed (or stephania) the same. Teasel should work long term as well. My goal would be to find the smallest dose needed to keep all systems going well and then stick with that.
If under unusual stress for one reason or another (home for the holidays?) I would add eleutherococcus tincture to keep immune function high. If you pay close attention to your body you should be able to determine just how low a dose is right for you and perhaps, as your body gets more and more healthy the herbs can be discontinued completely.
In my own case (hepatitis C and severe chronic fatigue) I just keep the herbs I need on hand and if I experience a relapse (rare these days and only from extreme stress and overwork) I take them to help me get back on course. And I always have eleuthero around as it is the best thing for helping restore health if overstressed.
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