Dear Stephen,
I’ve been on the core protocol plus stephania for about a month and a half. I’m currently taking 2 each 3x day, which I got to in about 2 weeks, and have stayed there so far. I was on 20 mg+ hydrocortisone for about a year and a half for adrenal insufficiency (it was BAD). I found that very soon after getting to the 2 stephania 3x day, I was able to lower my hydrocortisone dose to about 12.5 mg. As I am trying to wean off hydrocortisone, this is really good.

I’m wondering if stephania root has some cortisol-like properties? Because this didn’t happen a few months ago when I did a month and a half on the core protocol without stephania. (I had major depression/fatigue herxing then, and went to 2 months antibiotics, with the same herx results, by the way…). These days I am not experiencing the same intense herxing, which is great. I also did a month of cryptolepis, and it was WONDERFUL—definitely improved something (one doctor suspects bartonella and the other babesia). All I know is I saw more improvement in that month than in the last year and a half.

To the point, if stephania does have cortisol-like properties, would it also somewhat suppress the adrenals like hydrocortisone does, or is there some other effect which just improves adrenal function? Thanks for everything.