Dear Stephen,
It has been suggested I use teasel while treating for coinfections of lyme as it draws the bacteria out of organs and makes them easier to kill. Do you have experience with teasel? Is there anything I need to be careful of while taking it? Do you know of any non-alcoholic tinctures available? Thank you for your time.
Stephen’s response:
In my experience teasel is most effective for helping with arthritic symptoms from lyme; I don’t know of any contraindications. Here is a source for a
glycerite of teasel, normally you should increase dosage intake if using glycerites by 1/3 as they are less strong than alcohol tinctures.
Stephen
[Editor’s note: This reader wrote in afterwards to report that she experienced the worst herpes outbreak of her life after taking teasel. She felt the teasel drew out the herpes and wanted to warn others of this potential.]
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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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Hi,
The alcohol of tinctures can be eliminated by leaving it evaporate in a wide shallow glass prior to ingestion for at least 1/2 hour. The taste of it completely disappear.
Pascal
Hi, I don’t remember if it caused me a herpes outbreak while I was using the tincture for the lyme, but I can certainly say I haven’t had facial herpes for years afterwards (Had been suffering from it from my early childhood), so I guess I have a very opposite experience.