My daughter started the core protocol a few weeks ago, and has been having extreme sleepiness, sleeping about 18 hrs a day. Can you tell me if this could be a side effect of any of the herbs? She is taking; Japanese knotwood, eleuthero tincture, cat’s claw, ashwagandha at bedtime (1000 mg), teasel, smilax, and rhodiola. Thanks.
Ashwagandha will indeed cause more sleeping, smilax can under some circumstances. You can cut those out of the protocol and see if that helps.
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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.
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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.
I also went through a period of extreme sleepiness on the protocol. Basically just getting out of bed to use the bathroom and eat. And interestingly, I ate a lot, despite barely moving, and no, I wasn’t gaining weight at all. My only explanation is that my immune system got very busy. I think sleeping was the way my body coped with all the increased immune activity. After a few weeks my energy returned, and I got more active again. It was the start of getting better for me.