Dear Stephen,
I saw another’s question to you about loss of taste while on the protocol. I have read your book and have been taking the knotweed, andrographis, and cat’s claw. One month after starting the herbs I lost all taste over a period of three days, but I retained some sense of smell. However, I have been feeling so much better after taking the herbs even for this short time that I do not wish to stop any of them. Even objective opinions from others are that I seem much healthier and energetic after having started the protocol, to the extent that people who did not know I was taking anything asked if I had had some type of treatment!
I take no prescription drugs of any kind, I run half an hour every day except Sunday, I eat only fruits and vegetables and fish for protein, no bread or pasta at all (or any processed foods – e.g., pasta, crackers, candy bars). I weight lift 3x week, am 6′ 1″ tall and 190 lbs with a low BMI, and I have no diseases or health issues other than lyme with lyme arthritis, so I think most other factors are out for etiology of the taste issue.
I am willing to trade no taste, even complete lack of it, forever if I keep feeling this much better. My question is: do you feel (and I understand this would be only your opinion, not official medical advice) that there are any serious implications in continuing the herbs based on this one deleterious effect they are having?
Stephen’s response:
This happens sometimes, no one really knows why. I suspect the knotweed is the main culprit. There does not seem to be any long term problems accruing from that loss of taste but it is a rare response to the herb and there is not much in the literature about it.
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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