mpost said...
happyjo said...
Some caution re skullcap & mixng with other meds. It can effect the liver adversely so like with all herbs & meds, do your homework or have medical supervision! Also said to e a no-no with children.
http://livertox.nih.gov/Skullcap.htm
https://umm.edu/health/medical/altmed/herb/skullcap
Yep, Skullcap is hepatotoxic, so i don't know if one can use it long term, i guess you should do regular liver enzyme blood tests.
On the other hand, these herbs hold lots of chemicals. The study says the active ingredient from Skullcap is baicalein. Who knows how much baicalein is in the regular Skullcap pills/tinctures we use. I found one on iHerb, but says nothing about
its chemical contents except it has "root extract":
eu.iherb.com/Dragon-Herbs-Standardized-Scute-500-mg-Each-100-Veggie-Caps/55598Baicalein itself seems to be good for the liver, so i guess there's something else in the Skullcap that is hepatotoxic:
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23236235Another source for baicalein is Indian trumpet flower (especially the leaf):
/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oroxylum_indicumOf course it is bitter (there is something with bitter plants and Lyme...) and "the bark of O. indicum (Singhala / Sri Lanka: Totila, Totilla) is one of main ingredients in Sri Lankan indigenous medicine (in decoctions) as a remedy for pains in joints or rheumatism.[7]". Joint pains and rheumatism. Imagine that :)
Last but not least... coconut oil & butter... you can eat as much as you want. I knew they are good for beating candida, boost metabolism and to maintain a healthy gut, but this finding about
Lyme is one extra reason to eat more coconut products.I know this is old but just so no one gets scared off it should be clear that chinese skullcap is NOT hepatotoxic and is even sometimes indicated for use in jaundice. Idiosyncratic drug induced liver injury is another thing entirely and has more to do with preexisting inflammatory stress. The mechanisms are unclear, but given the potent antimicrobial nature of this herb probably has to do with flooding the system with endotoxins when there is already a high level of baseline endotoxin stress. Just a guess and herbalists i've talked to seem to think it's from poor detox. But nonetheless IDILI research models usually go as follows: Endotoxin + herb/drug = liver damage. So use in things like lyme requires extreme caution as you would any abx or antimicrobial, but nonetheless it can be a valuable tool.