can artemisinin cause pain?

Started on artemisinin last week, twice a day. Also, started A-inflamm, a Byron White product. 20 drops 2x/day. I started with 5 drops 2x/day a couple days ago.
That's the only thing that has changed in my life.

So last night I had this stiff, sore neck out of the blue. Slept really well though and today it seemed better if still a little stiff. Stupidly told my DH that I was feeling better (when will I learn) and then about 1pm my lower back started to really hurt. It got worse and sitting became impossible. Took an epsom bath and that seemed to make things even worse yet, short of breath, nausea, still back pain, rapid pulse, lightheaded. I started to wonder if I was having heart trouble. Went to the ER. Nothing wrong of course. But man, my lower back is killing me! Is artemisinin doing this? What the heck? Lyme, babesia, bart or herxing or what? I can think of no physical reason for this pain out of nowhere. I haven't done anything strenuous or lifted anything lately at all. I putzed in the garden a couple days ago with a shovel but didn't overdo it and it's been days and days.

That would be a strong babesia herx die off. All of those are babesia symptoms. Most people ( including myself ) didn't realize that shooting pain can be babesia until I read up on it or met others with babesia.

Artemisinin put my babesia in remission. Some people can't even do a single drop. It just depends. Herxes can be really tough.

PeteZa said...
Lyme just plain sucks. Out of the blue my lower back hurt. I could not think of what I could have possibly done to myself. When it is like that I just know it is lyme being a turkey butt and messing with my body and my mind.

Stupid symptoms! I had so many it was a joke in our house. Well, we made it a joke because I got tired of whining. I swear I complained 3 to 4 times a day about each different symptom.

It will get better. I know it will because I got better. If I can, anyone can!

Detox, be super nice to yourself, say no a lot, detox, eat healthy and stay with the protocol.

I know with all the crazy symptoms.... mine is a rotating list of about 60+ symptoms.
You would never think it but when you get all us lymies in a room you would be surprised how much of it is similar!!!!

Artemisinin - put your babs in remission, Jackie?

Would you mind sharing how long you were on it...and what the dosage was?

(hoping you're back reading this thread again.)

Is Artemisinin the active ingredient in Artemisia?

Is a prescription required?

I'll take a look at the thread you linked.

I did it 4 times with a break of three weeks to a month in between each. Detoxing like mad. Each round of pulsing I had less herxing. The first pulse was like dropping a nuclear bomb ( everything mentioned by tillybear at a very high scale ). The last pulse I had little reaction.

I just used Doctors Best from amazon honestly.

All the best! Let us know how it goes.

JMOON

Is this the same drug as Artemisia?

I didn't take it this morning, I'm afraid to.

Blueberrymuffin - I believe Artemesia is whole herb and Artemisinin is the active constituent.

Oh thank you for responding. I think I'll pulse it. How did you pulse it, project? Like how many on and off?

Update: Haven't taken any since 3-30, so 2 full days off. yesterday was pretty awful with the mood and also still the back. Ended up using a cane to help me stand up. Good grief! Today (so far) the mood seems to have lifted and although still quite sore and stiff, the lower back isn't quite as bad. I took melatonin and ibuprofen before bed and slept almost 12 hours! Only got up once for the bathroom. Maybe twice, can't remember. Twice. Anyway, the plan is to stay off the artemisinin until Monday after next and then take for another 4 days and see how it goes. This stuff is scary, though! Or maybe it is. I guess if it happens again when I start taking it then I'll know for sure.

I took Artemisinin for a total of 30 days (per Buhner's advice) but I pulsed it at times even though he recommends against that. I opted to pulse because it seems the majority of LLMD's do so.

Buhner says once the enzymes are produced, pulsing can't get around that...basically, the effectiveness of Artemisinin decreases significantly once the intestines produce that enzyme. That is the basis for the higher doses LLMD's often use.

Buhner worries about high doses for extended periods of time (over one year) due to risk of neurotoxicity.

Because of the contradictions between Buhner's position and that of many LLMD's, I was so on the fence with the stuff lol. I remember herxing with Lyme symptoms on it....and I even created a thread about the situation:

www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=30&m=3492892

It does seem that people either find Artemisinin very effective.....or not at all. There is documented resistance to it and that's why Artemisinin is often paired with an anti-malarial.

And, yes, Artemisinin is the isolated constituent and, in this case, is what Buhner recommends for Babesia.

We all know he usually prefers whole herb but, again, not in this case.

Tillybear..

I'm glad you considered the info "good" - the processes surrounding my decisions and my experiences with Artemisinin were some of the most unusual ones for me out of this whole journey.

I have basically been on my own since my LLMD told me to start either Buhner, Cowden or White. I learned the hard way that he knows nothing about herbs. He released me in October of last year with the door open to come back for abx if I ever thought I needed them.

I'd imagine someone dealing with resistance wouldn't necessarily respond to a particular treatment.

Sorry to say, I don't think "cured" is a term that applies to our situation. Remission seems more accurate to me because we'll always have *some* bugs still in us (just as many of us have chicken pox virus in us). And, just as we can get Shingles, it's reasonable to think we stand a chance of revisiting these infections. It's really all about the health of the immune system.

Remission is absence of signs/symptoms of disease.

Yes, life needs to be lived and herxes don't help us heal. That's where an effective detoxing protocol comes in....it makes us better able to handle treatments.

Still, even though I lived a life before Lyme that incorporated detoxing....and I was doing more than 20 things for detoxing by the time I started Artemisinin (over a year after the tick bite)....the herxes were something else.

If you read that long thread I linked, I opted to plan Artemisinin dosing around my life priorities. And, despite my best efforts, I still wound up having to reschedule a few things due to herxing.