Alternative Lyme Disease Therapy

Lyme disease is caused by a bacteria called Borrelia burgdorferi that is transmitted to humans from the bite of several varieties of hard-bodied ticks. The standard treatment for Lyme disease is oral antibiotic therapy, according to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). There is, however, a raging controversy in the medical community over a condition reffered to as chronic Lyme disease (CLD), in which symptoms persist for years and do not always respond to antibiotic therapy. Many people with CLD seek alternative treatments for the condition.

The Buhner Protocol

Herbalist Stephen Buhner, in his book "Healing Lyme," published in June 2005 by Raven Press, outlines an herbal approach to battling the Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria that has spawned several support forums on the Internet, where people treating their own CLD post testaments to their own experiences.

The Buhner protocol uses three core herbs: Andrographis paniculata, Japanese knotweed and Uncaria tomentosa, commonly know as cat's claw. Andrographis is an extremely bitter herb used in the Ayurvedic system of medicine for treating parasitic infections, such as malaria. Japanese knotweed is very high source of the antioxidant known as resveratrol. Cat's claw is the bark from a South American rainforest tree that has long been used by indigenous people to fight a large variety of illnesses.

These herbs are taken on a daily basis. Others herbs such as astragalus, an herb from the traditional Chinese herbal pharmacopoeia, red root, which is native to North America and was used extensively by the Native Americans, and stephania root, a lesser known herb from the Chinese tradition that is used as an anti-inflammatory, are often added to the mix.

Dr. Zhang's Protocol

Dr. Qingcai Zhang is a prominent physician who attended Harvard Medical School and is on the advisory board to Dr. Andrew Weil, renowned founder of the field of integrative mecicine. Zhang is also a practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine who runs a clinic in New York City that specializes in chronic infectious diseases. He has written a book titled 'Lyme Disease and Modern Chinese Medicine' that was published in March 2006 by the Sino-Med Research Institute. Zhang's protocol for treating chronic Lyme focuses on three herbs: allicin, which is a highly potent extract of garlic; artemisinin; an extract of Chinese wormwood; and HH, an extract of the Asian plant Houttuynia cordata. Other herbs such as Smilax glabrae, or common sarsaparilla, coptin, an extract from the coptis plant, and skullcap (Scutellariae Radix) are added to the formula for Lyme. In China, these herbs were selected for their succeess in treating other bacterial parasites with the unique spiral-tail characteristic (spirochetes) also found in B.burgdorferi, according to Zhang's website.