Greetings, good folks!

This time of year, living in New England, I am exposed to a lot of airborne viruses and do my best to be vigilant about germs as well as to fortify my immune system. Among other things, I load up on echinacea and elderberry, sometimes also olive leaf, particularly when I have been in public a lot or around kids.

After a few weeks of these herbs, last year and this year, I have developed some hip, upper thigh, and shoulder issues - feels like nerve pain, weakness, soreness. When this happens, I think I might be getting sick and take more of these herbs. Recently it has occurred to me that perhaps these are the problem. Perhaps the pain is something autoimmune?

No other symptoms, so I'm not thinking it's a herx from my amped-up immune system doing some killin.' In my experience, herxes are quite dramatic and all-encompassing and very long-lasting....

Autoimmunity is controversial, I realize, and I welcome all ideas about what could be going on here.

I’ve written about this before. My theory is that anything that is immunomodulatory can flare the autoimmune aspect of Lyme. Just a theory but I’ve noticed this