Dear Stephen,
I know I’ve read from your column that you needs to titrate your dosage depending on how your body reacts. I tried taking cat’s claw – only 1/4 of one pill – and had a very strong reaction. My herx reactions are the glands swelling up huge in my neck and extreme pressure and fluid in my ears. The swelling is so bad that I need to take benedryl. I’ve experienced this time and time again with medications so I knew to take a little of the herb to start. My question is: How do I proceed? I want to follow the protocol but I think it will take a while for me to be able to take a whole pill 3-4 times a day. Can you advise on how to proceed and if the protocol will still be effective at such a low dose?
I know I’ve read from your column that you needs to titrate your dosage depending on how your body reacts. I tried taking cat’s claw – only 1/4 of one pill – and had a very strong reaction. My herx reactions are the glands swelling up huge in my neck and extreme pressure and fluid in my ears. The swelling is so bad that I need to take benedryl. I’ve experienced this time and time again with medications so I knew to take a little of the herb to start. My question is: How do I proceed? I want to follow the protocol but I think it will take a while for me to be able to take a whole pill 3-4 times a day. Can you advise on how to proceed and if the protocol will still be effective at such a low dose?
Stephen’s response:
I would switch to tinctures so you can control the dosage better. Some people only need a few drops to treat their condition. They tend to be tremendously sensitive and yes, that low of a dose does work for them. Just begin with 5 drops or so of the herbs (especially cat’s claw, eleuthero, knotweed) and then slowly work up to the point side effects begin and then back off a bit. They will work at this low a dose for you.
I would switch to tinctures so you can control the dosage better. Some people only need a few drops to treat their condition. They tend to be tremendously sensitive and yes, that low of a dose does work for them. Just begin with 5 drops or so of the herbs (especially cat’s claw, eleuthero, knotweed) and then slowly work up to the point side effects begin and then back off a bit. They will work at this low a dose for you.
Stephen
Being a sensitive individual, I have to start with one drop of any tincture, and can never take the recommended dosages. I have to build very slowly and sometimes climb and retreat, climb and retreat. A friend of mine only increases one drop per week and she has been able to avoid many reactions as she does a slow and steady climb to the top and then stays there. Less is often more for the sensitive individual.
How do I know whaether I’m a “5 drops only” person?
The book mentiones that about 1% of people with Lyme disease are hypersensitive to all outside substances and can’t tolerate more than 1-5 drops of a rememdy. How do I tell if I’m one of them?
I was rather suspicious as I have a history pf bad reactions to things, so I started with 5 drops (echinacea), then as nothing mucn seems to be happening, I went up to a full odse of 1 tsp, but there didn’t seem to be any difference.
I later went down to 5 drops again, because things had been rallly dire, but things contiuniued much the same i.e. bad.
How do I know which is right? What is “being unable to tolerate higher doses” supposed to consist of?
I have a child that is a poor detoxer. Same thing. His LLND would get so frustrated he couldn’t get up to the full recommended 30 drops. Too much too quickly would result in severe neuropsychiatric symptoms, so we continued with antibiotics the whole time for him alongside herbal medicine. We also did his 23 and me genetics test and ran methylation filters through Genetic genie and other programs to find out what genetic mutations he had that were causing detoxification issues. I gradually added in most of the recommended supplements for these and he is the only one of us to now test negative for Lyme. We eventually stopped alot of the supplements but I am going to revisit this approach since he still has viruses, mycoplasma and bartonella. The issue is some folks have really messed up detoxification due to genetic mutations and you have to also work to get that side of things going properly or toxins get jammed up. Just do what you can tolerate, take daily binders and take sarsaparilla alongside your antimicrobials too.
Just replying to my own postint to test whether I get an e-mail notification or not.
No, I didn’t.