In our long journey, I have experimented with many things in the effort to heal my child. I tried things I never thought I would have considered, and for the most part, they worked out great. Many of those things are still in my cabinet to be used to this day.
*Before going further, please let me emphasize that herbalism is not the end all be all, and there is absolutely a need for modern medicine. My usage discussed here worked for my family and may not work for others, so please research heavily before trying anything new. Some of the links go to similar products as the ones I used may not be available or have rebranded/ reformulated since. Please do your research. I do not get paid for links.
In our case, constant antibiotic usage was not going well for our PANS child’s stomach. I looked towards herbs first, as they have always been a first step for me in many cases throughout my adulthood. I recommend the book Herbal Antibiotics by Stephen Harrod Buhner. I used this book at lot at the beginning and now use it for reference when needed.
Of the many herbals discussed in this book, we settled on using licorice root and ginger most often. These were gentler on the stomach and also aided in repairing some of the gut disruption that happened after several rounds of azithromycin. We had no issues with these herbs and took them all together once a day. I still often take the licorice root powder for myself because it helps my gut issues tremendously.
We also chose to use cryptolepis and cat’s claw. Taking this daily not only helped with our PANS child’s stomach, but it helped kill the infections that he was dealing with. This was not a savior; it did not lessen flares or make our lives easier right away, but it did work to get the numbers down, reduce the usage of high doses of antibiotics, and help keep inflammation at bay. These things were helpful on the underside of things, keeping him from getting worse, in my opinion.
I tried to keep up on supportive herbs for the immune system, even when he was feeling his best. I sincerely believe that keeping a clean and healthy liver while keeping the lymph moving is one of the most important aspects of immune health. When we need some help with that, we go to ashwagandha (short term), turmeric, milk thistle and elderberry, which are highly studied, readily available and pretty popular right now. Astragalus is one that I have always wanted to try based on some of the clinical studies I’ve read about its effectiveness for immune function. I never got around to it but would love to hear from anyone who has! While we have only experimented with the herbs mentioned personally, there are several recommended in the book: Boneset, Echinacea, Eleuthero, Red root, Reishi, and Rhodiola.
When looking for herbal products to try, I always opt for organic and small business and as unprocessed as possible (meaning avoid pressed pills if you can). Many big companies have mass produced products and washed away or cut down any benefits that could come from them. It’s definitely important to do your homework regarding herbal remedies in any form! Please note that herbalism is separate from homeopathy, which we also tried. I will be working on a post about our homeopathy trials as well.
More studies on cryptolepis here, and here.
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