artemesinin

Started HCQ 3 weeks ago as a DMARD for autoimmune arthritis. Unfortunately it seems to really be upsetting my stomach, even if I take it with food. Been 3 weeks and still have liquid stools. Consulting w/ my Dr soon. This is the least worst option for autoimmune arthritis, as the other DMARDS (methotrexate, sulfasalazine) and biologics have much more harsh potential side effects. So not sure what I will do if I have to stop.

Also considering adding minocycline or clarithromycin as an adjunct DMARD, supposedly people get good results for this type of symptom.

That being said, I've been reading some interesting information wrt to artemesinin as a DMARD. Apparently there was a trial for RA and one for Lupus, both w/ very positive outcomes. What is odd to me is that this is an anti-malarial just like HCQ, yet works in a completely different way...but somehow functions as a DMARD as well? Could parasitic infection be behind these arthritises?

Anyway, I was curious, people who have tried it...did you use it compounded or OTC?

I understand the herxes can be quite debilitating at first. Did anyone try starting out super low (maybe in tincture form, just 1 drop) and working up?

Anyone who stays on it regularly? I understand that for Babs it needs to be pulsed due to accumulated resistance, but as a DMARD you can stay on indefinitely?

Thanks!

I did a run of artemisinin years ago - as my LLND wasn’t licensed to prescribe Mepron or Malarone.
I don’t think it did much if anything.

final thought - if the intention were to take it longer term - i might be worth looking at the liposomal formulations - as they might have a chance to bypass the first pass liver detoxification or be somewhat less effected by it and therefore achieve slightly high blood concentrations over a longer period - i saw some papers on its use in malaria research to achieve better blood concentrations

i would be wary of herx though as i think it can hit a number of microbes - not just babesia

yep - that's about the size of it dcd - the body responds to some substances like this - ramping up the pathway needed to detoxify it in the liver after detecting it - its just that in the case of artemisinin this seems to happen very quickly - in just a few days - and to a surprising extent - Buhner wrote about it in detail in his lyme book

its used in high doses ( i think up to 1500mg / day ) for a few days and then repeated 10 days later - or on similar regimes for malaria - usually with another drug in combo to help prevent plasmodium for producing resistance.

i have a feeling that these kind of doses in the long term may not be a good idea for the liver - but since its rarely used that way - i guess there will be little data.
perhaps some from cancer treatment experiments - as people there have little to lose

one last detail - buhner advocated taking the whole herb artemisia annua (sweet Annie - the herb from which artemisinin is made) along with the artemisinin, as he had seen some evidence that when the whole herb is taken the speeding up of the liver pathway is mitigated to some degree by the other constituents in the plant.

Dr. A.C. has me on crypto plus and artemisinin pure from researched nutritionals. It's important to cycle the artemisinin so that the liver doesn't learn to process it better, not so much the babesia becoming resistant. I do 1 cap twice a day for two days a week. The first two months were rough not gonna lie but I'm starting to feel things shift inside.

Rx's concern me because some anti malarials have an immune modulation aspect. Which for malaria is great. Babesia not so much.. B. Duncani seems to not respond as well to Rx's either. Dr. A.C. says herbals are her go to in general for babesia.

It's interesting to me how Girlie and her Doc see things a bit in reverse from this.. Ultimately each infection/patient base is going to be a bit different.