Dear Stephen,
I just started cryptolepis as the first part of a regimen for Babesia duncani. I am helping educate one of my wonderful lyme doctors about the Buhner Protocol as she is very open to utilizing more herbs. Her question is why you have made the change from artemisia (she uses artemisinin) to cryptolepis as the first herb of choice for babesia. I have your book and CD but did not have an answer as to why you may prefer cryptolepsis, or at least for certain patients. What may I tell her? Also, is crypto as hard on the liver as artemisinin? I survived serious liver damage from Ketek in 2005 and have my liver enzymes checked very frequently, but my lyme doctors and I try to choose antibiotics and herbs that are less hepatotoxic for me. Thank you.
Stephen’s response:
Artemisinin is an isolated constituent, cryptolepis is a whole herb, as such it is better for the body and much harder for bacteria to develop resistance to—at this point malaria is developing a rapid resistance to artemisinin but not to cryptolepis. Artemisinin has more side effects, crypto much less—it is much safer for the liver, no side effects have been noted to its use. That is what I would use if I were you.
Stephen
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Stephen Harrod Buhner was an Earth poet and an award-winning author of twenty-four books on nature, indigenous cultures, the environment, and herbal medicine including the acclaimed book Healing Lyme: Natural Healing & Prevention of Lyme Borreliosis & Its Co-infections.
Stephen came from a long line of healers including Leroy Burney, Surgeon General of the United States under Eisenhower and Kennedy, and Elizabeth Lusterheide, a midwife and herbalist who worked in rural Indiana in the early nineteenth century. The greatest influence on his work, however, was his great-grandfather C.G. Harrod who primarily used botanical medicines, also in rural Indiana, when he began his work as a physician in 1911.
Stephen’s work has appeared or been profiled in publications throughout North America and Europe including Common Boundary, Apotheosis, Shaman’s Drum, The New York Times, CNN, and Good Morning America. Stephen lectured yearly throughout the United States on herbal medicine, the sacredness of plants, the intelligence of Nature, and the states of mind necessary for successful habitation of Earth.
He was a tireless advocate for the reincorporation of the exploratory artist, independent scholar, amateur naturalist, and citizen scientist in American society – especially as a counterweight to the influence of corporate science and technology.
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