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Herbal tolerance
April 11 2007 at 10:11 AM Moon (Login -Moon-)
SENIOR MEMBER

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This article was originaly found and posted by MFP, I thoguht it was very important info so I am posting it here.

To make a short summary - we should be careful of how long we take herbs, bcasue their effectiveness decreases. Individuals differ in how prone they are to develop herbal tolerance, some don't at all, but if you do, your chances of growing may be ruined. Many small brakes of different duration and intervals in the routine would probably solve this problem.


http://www.mindbodyspiritjournal.com/hol...ds#more-76


Don�t use herbs daily as though they are �maintenance meds�
Herbal supplement manufacturers don�t stress this. (A bottom-line issue for them?) Yet it was foundational in the herbal texts and trainings I went through in the �70s, �80s and even early �90s. I don�t hear it any more.

And I wonder why? It didn�t suddenly quit being true.

I was taught by traditional Chinese, English and American herbalists, that you should always take herbal remedies in cycles, or �rounds.� Such as, take the herb (or herbal combination) for two weeks, then abstain for a week, then resume for two weeks, and then abstain for a week. Or, take for two months and then take four months off. (Sort of a wash, rinse, repeat routine.)

This is because the body adjusts to the herbs, adapts to the herbs, and then develops tolerance or resistance, and the herbs lose their beneficial effect. Robert Gray called this �homeostatic resistance.� And he said, �Most herbs lose all effectiveness when taken over a period of eight to nine months.�

Once �homeostatic resistance� sets in, you have to abstain from using the herb for five to seven years before it again will have its full beneficial effect for you, Gray taught.

For this reason, most herbal remedies traditionally were prescribed in rounds � take it for three weeks. Or take it for two months. Then take a certain amount of time off. Then repeat, if needed. And, traditionally, an experienced healer � a naturopath or herbalist or curandero of some sort, would recommend which herbs to take and would monitor your progress and adjust your herbal intake as needed, swapping new herbs in and old herbs out for optimal, continued healing and restoration.

The general purpose of taking the herb was to restore the body to a state of natural balance (or �homeostasis� or �equilibrium� � to use natural healing terminology). And once that balance is restored, the herb is no longer needed. The body is functioning well again on its own � as it was built to do.

That said, during an acute illness or crisis, an experienced herbalist or naturopath is likely to throw some powerful herbal combinations at the condition, just as though they were medicines designed to beat it down. But generally, in natural health theory, herbs are used to gently help the body regain its strength in its weakened areas. And that is done in limited rounds.

Taking herbs for a limited period of time � or in a few carefully monitored cycles is not what you read about in the health-food store magazines (not in the freebies, which are thinly disguised catalogs and sales literature promoting the products of the advertisers; and it�s not what you read in the mainstream natural health magazines). It�s not what you read on the labels on most bottles of herbal capsules and tinctures.

In fact, in health and supermarket checkout magazine articles, herbal remedies often are discussed as though they are medicines you would take daily for life � just like �maintenance drugs� that doctors prescribe.

Now that herbal manufacturers are attempting to identify and extract and boost only the �active� substance in an herb, the products they sell are becoming much more pharmaceutical-medicine-like. Maybe, in that form, they can be taken for longer- term use. (Although I�ve heard the opposite argued by some respected herbalists.) And maybe the effect they deliver is quite different from the effect the raw or traditionally prepared herb delivered due to a synergy of its various natural components.

In my experience, not all herbs, nor all vitamins, nor all drugs for that matter, are subject to the resistance rule. But many certainly are.

And, there are circumstances under which you would want to use an herb daily on an on-going basis. For instance, if you found St. John�s Wort effective in treating life-threatening depression it probably would not be wise to take it one month on, two months off. St. John�s Wort seems to be one of those herbs, incidentally, that the body does not develop resistance to.

However, as an aside, the level of stabilized, standardized-potency St. John�s Wort herb shown to be highly effective in some studies is much higher than what is commonly recommended on bottle labels and in magazine articles. I�ve seen studies where doses in the range of 800 mg of standardized herb, taken three times daily (every eight hours, approximately, for a total of 2.400 mg daily), have delivered an impressive effect � with few of the side effects commonly found with maintstream anti-depressant drugs. Knowing that, I don�t question the sometimes poor outcomes of published studies that have used only 300 mg to 900 mg daily of St. John�s Wort.

My continuing belief? For the most part, herbs and herbal formulas are best used in short-term, carefully monitored sequences; short-term usually meaning periods ranging from three weeks to three months. And, they are best used for the ultimate purpose of helping the body return to a state of natural, healthy flow, or equilibrium, so that �medicines� are not needed. In most cases, they aren�t intended for daily, life-long support. View them as gentle helpers; not as magic bullets.

Robert Gray taught that no herb should be taken more than one-third of the time. I think that�s a good rule of thumb � though believe there are exceptions.

Even as I write this, I realize that ginger, for me, is an exception. I�ve been taking three to nine grams of ginger daily since early on in my initial bout with Reactive Arthritis six-some years ago. And, while I have laid off ginger for a couple months, a couple times, the painful inflammation I experienced after just a couple weeks off encouraged me to return quickly to my therapeutic dose. And it worked as expected when I restarted.

So, in my own experience, with a few of the many herbs I have used, I have not seemed to develop Gray�s �homeostatic resistance.�

I wish I knew a simple rule to share with you for which herbs do lose their effectiveness in long-term use and which do not.

I think I recall being taught that many of the �pepper�-like herbs, to which ginger is closely related, are �synergistic� herbs � meaning they are well-used in combinations with other herbs and assist in enhancing effect, enhancing absorption, enhancing adaptive ability of the herbal combination to help where and how most needed in the body. If that memory is correct, then that partially explains why I haven�t developed resistance to ginger. The body does not develop tolerance nearly so quickly with the synergistic herbs.

I welcome input, additional information and contrary opinions from any herbalist reading this. In fact, would love to hear any reader�s experiences with this. Use the �Comments� box below, please.

� ken winston caine,
the Spirit of Wellness research doc�
and Alchemystic Holistic�





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Moon
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SENIOR MEMBER Re: Herbal tolerance April 11 2007, 10:15 AM


Some sort of formating problem apparently, #65533 appears instead of apostrophes, just ignore it.