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In every issue of Herbs for Health, professionals from a variety of health-care fields answer your questions about using medicinal herbs. In this issue, Jill Stansbury and Terry Willard answer your questions on Lyme disease and restless leg syndrome.

Terry Willard is a clinical herbalist, president of the Canadian Association of Herbal Practitioners, and founder of the Wild Rose College of Natural Healing in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He is the author of eight books and a CD-ROM, Interactive Herbal.

Jill Stansbury has been a naturopathic physician for more than ten years, with a private practice in Battle-ground, Washington. She is the chair of the Botanical Medicine Department at the National College of Naturopathic Medicine in Portland, Oregon, and the author of many books including Herbs for Health and Healing (Publication International, 1997).

Please send your questions to Herbs for Health “Q & A,” Herb Companion Press, 243 E. Fourth St., Loveland, CO 80537; fax (970) 663-0909; or e-mail us at HerbsForHealth@HCPress.com. Provide your name and full address for verification, although both will be kept confidential.

The information offered in “Q & A” is not intended to be a substitute for advice from your health-care provider.

Antimicrobial and antiparasitic plants are promising options for Lyme disease.
—Jill Stansbury

LYME DISEASE

I have had Lyme disease for eleven years. For the first five years, I was taking a drug that suppressed the symptoms. After a round of antibiotics, which worsened my migraines, I went back to herbs and have been controlling it with teasel and chaparral. I am concerned about long-term side effects of the herbs. I also wanted to see if any other herbs are known as anti-spirochetal. Lyme disease is caused by a spirochete, like syphilis, with the same ability to go dormant, thus making a cure questionable.
K. R.
via e-mail

Stansbury responds: Unfortunately, natural treatments that are effective in eradicating Lyme disease remain to be proven. Antibiotics are the mainstay of allopathic therapy, and antimicrobial and antiparasitic plants are the most promising botanical options. If you are seeing good results with teasel (Dipsacus spp.) and chaparral (Larrea tridentata), by all means continue. However, it would be advisable to take breaks from the chaparral and have liver-function tests performed at least yearly. As you may be aware, there have been some rare but reported cases of liver pathology associated with the use of chaparral capsules.

Stillingia (Stillingia sylvatica), once popular for cancer and chronic infections, and spilanthes (Spilanthes spp.) are two other immune-enhancing and antiparasitic plants that may prove to be of value for Lyme disease. Spilanthes is noted to have antiparasitic and possibly anti-spirochetal effects. Both stillingia and spilanthes are considered possible therapies for syphilis in the homeopathic literature, as are the remedies based on highly diluted metallic mineral salts. Poke (Phytolacca spp.), a potentially caustic and blood-altering plant to be used by skilled practitioners only, has also been credited with antiviral and immune-enhancing effects in modern times and as having anti-syphilitic properties in the folkloric literature. Taheebo (Tabebuia heptaphylla) and other Tabebuia species have been verified as having antifungal properties; and myrrh (Commiphora spp.), an antimicrobial of biblical fame, is a fairly strong and broad-acting natural antimicrobial agent. Both have been reported in the historical literature for syphilis, but any effect on spirochetal illnesses is unknown.

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