The Herb Stevia as a Lyme Disease Treatment? Friday Fun: Homegrown Homemade Stevia Tincture

I first encountered a study that about the potential use of stevia as a lyme disease treatment awhile back, and used to have some stevia plants that died this past winter. I had been intending on replacing them but put it out of mind until a more recent and timely reminder by an acquaintance about stevia for lyme treatment.

Effectiveness of Stevia Rebaudiana Whole Leaf Extract Against the Various Morphological Forms of Borrellia Burgdorferi in Vitro
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4681354/

Stevia Kills Lyme Disease (in a Test Tube) Better Than Standard Antibiotics, Study Says
https://draxe.com/stevia-kills-lyme-disease/

Late stage lyme disease (lyme disease that went undiagnosed and untreated and has become systematic) presently has no known cure. Until about a year or so ago, the government and CDC refused to admit ‘late stage lyme disease’ even existed, insisting that 100% cases of lyme disease were automatically and definitely cured after a two week course of antibiotics and that remaining symptoms were ‘post lyme disease syndrome’ – this was basically a cop out to allow insurance companies to refuse treatment.

I can’t say that I entirely blame them though, because it seems like in some cases the long term antibiotic treatment involved in attempting to cure or largely reverse late stage lyme disease can have damaging affects on people and still may not be a cure. I spent a year and a half on hardcore antibiotic +++ treatments and was super fucked up during that time despite heavy detox attempts, and have had to abandon that route and try to take a more middle of the road natural route that has mostly focused on damage control in a bid to maintain some reasonable level of functioning.

I am not a medical professional, this post contains no health/medical advice, this is just some info/thoughts about what I am exploring for my own health.

If you read the above study and article, you will see mention of the lyme disease microbe's pleomorphic (ability to change forms) ability and it’s ability to ‘shroud’ itself in biofilms to hide away from antibiotic treatments (ever get a 'filmy' feeling on the front of your teeth or plaque? Those are two manifestations of bacterial biofilms. Late stage lyme will have spread to the joints, organs and bones making it very difficult to treat especially when hiding inside of a 'biofortress' in these areas that medication can have a more difficult time getting to). This is why many people who have suffered from debilitating late stage lyme resolve to continue some level of treatment for the rest of their lives even after major improvements – likely sometime in their past they thought they had it ‘beat’ or ‘tamed’ only to have it come roaring back to unexpectedly slam their face into the fucking pavement again.

I think this is part of why the search for effective herbals is so important – an ongoing treatment needs to be one that won’t damage your body and require 3x more pills to correct the problem it creates, like antibiotics, which destroy your gut microbiome (where a large portion of your immune system resides) and risk creating a more comfortable home for a serious yeast/candida infection. The antibiotics also drive the microbe into a protective biofilm, which is much harder to treat. The studies are finding that whole leaf stevia in an alcohol tincture is more effective at treating all of the different forms of lyme (including biofilm) in vitro (test tube) than some standard pharmaceutical antibiotics.

Home Depot finally had some stevia plants available about a month ago, so I picked up two. They are still in their original containers growing on the windowsill over water/gravel containers. I had just been consuming it fresh regularly but today while I was chomping on some it occured to me that there must be a better possibly more effective way of self-medicating with stevia, and so I decided to revisit the study. And voila, I realized I needed to make an alcohol tincture. I do believe that the alcohol extracts certain constituents of the plant material that our body does not adequately access simply through digestion. There may be studies on this, but I am too lazy to look for one right now and am basing this comment primarily on my personal experience on the sometimes crazy effectiveness of even just drops of the herbal Byron White Formulas.

And so I decided to hit the store for a bottle of vodka. But not just any vodka, I wanted some of the good stuff from Hangar 1 distilled just a handful of miles away from me. Those extra dirty Chopin martinis will just have to wait until the trade deficit has been closed, ya know?

If you are ever in the East Bay, I would highly recommend checking out the glorious Monarch Street Three in Alameda: Faction Brewing, Hangar 1 Distillery, and St. George Spirits. These guys make some fabulous alcohol.
So anyways, I picked up this booze on a quick run to the store, and I just couldn’t help but go for the Mandarin Blossom because, why not? Stevia is a very sweet herb, I wonder if I can turn this stevia mandarin tincture into some sort of cocktail?! Maybe with a splash of San Pellegrino and a calamondin fruit off my little indoor tree. I think the next tincture will definitely have to be made with a St. George Botanivore Gin. It will be pure gloriousness.

Before I started I navigated to this site to make sure I didn’t mess things up too bad: https://blog.mountainroseherbs.com/guide-tinctures-extracts
I opted to use the two smaller jars (half and one pint), as I think I will maybe not wait the full length of time (6-8 weeks) before I open the smaller one and start using it. If you decide to try making tinctures, remember not to drink all of your extra booze, as you may need it to top up your jars as some of the alcohol evaporates. So I guess now I just need to shake these suckers every so often and then see how it works out. I regret that I will not be doing any sort of pre / post blood workups, but I am hopeful that the in vivo clinical study results using stevia will be released in the nearish future.
Cheers!