Read Herbal Antibiotics: Natural Alternatives for Treating Drug-Resistant Bacteria Online
Authors: Stephen Harrod Buhner
Tags: #Medical, #Health & Fitness, #Infectious Diseases, #Herbal Medications, #Healing, #Alternative Medicine
OTHER BOOKS BY STEPHEN HARROD BUHNER
Ensouling Language: On the Art of Nonfiction and the Writer's Life
The Fasting Path: The Way to Spiritual, Physical, and Emotional Enlightenment
Healing Lyme: Natural Healing and Prevention of Lyme Borreliosis and Its Coinfections
Herbs for Hepatitis C and the Liver
The Lost Language of Plants: The Ecological Importance of Plant Medicines for Life on Earth
The Natural Testosterone Plan
One Spirit, Many Peoples: A Manifesto for Earth Spirituality
Pine Pollen: Ancient Medicine for a Modern World
Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers: The Secrets of Ancient Fermentation
Sacred Plant Medicine: The Wisdom in Native American Herbalism
The Secret Teachings of Plants: The Intelligence of the Heart in the Direct Perception of Nature
The Taste of Wild Water: Poems and Stories Found While Walking in Woods
Vital Man: Natural Health Care for Men at Midlife
NATURAL ALTERNATIVES
FOR TREATING DRUG-RESISTANT BACTERIA
STEPHEN HARROD BUHNER
For David Hoffmann,
who began it all
The mission of Storey Publishing is to serve our customers by
publishing practical information that encourages
personal independence in harmony with the environment.
Edited by Nancy Ringer and Lisa H. Hiley
Art direction and book design by Mary Winkelman Velgos
Text production by Vicky Vaughn Shea/Ponderosa Pine Design and Jennifer Jepson Smith
Cover photography by © Eric Delmar/iStockphoto.com: mortar and pestle, © Kryczka/iStockphoto.com: juniper berries, and © VMJones/iStockphoto.com: tincture bottle
Indexed by Nancy D. Wood
© 2012 by Stephen Buhner
This publication is intended to provide educational information for the reader on the covered subject. It is not intended to take the place of personalized medical counseling, diagnosis, and treatment from a trained health professional.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Buhner, Stephen Harrod.
Herbal antibiotics / by Stephen Harrod Buhner.â2nd ed.
   p.; cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-60342-987-0 (pbk.: alk. paper)
I. Title.
[DNLM: 1. Herbal Medicineâmethods. 2. Anti-Bacterial
Agentsâtherapeutic use. 3. Bacterial Infectionsâdrug therapy.
4. Plant Preparationsâtherapeutic use. WB 925]
616.9'201âdc23
2012004609
Julie McIntyre, Robert Chartier, Nikki Darrell, Rosemary Gladstar, James Duke, Kathleen Gilday, Don Babineau, Melanie and Jeff, William LaSassier, Michael Moore, Ryan Drum, James Green, Matthew Wood, Susun Weed, Naava, Candace Catin Packard, Jim McDonald, Redbird, Kevin, Eric, Erica, and of course, Buck and the boys.
Foreword to the First Edition by James A. Duke, PhD
Prologue: Rise of the Superbugs
2 The Resistant Organisms, the Diseases They Cause, and How to Treat Them
4 Herbal Antibiotics: The Systemics
Cryptolepis
â¢
Sida
â¢
Alchornea
â¢
Bidens
â¢
Artemisia
5 Herbal Antibiotics: The Localized Nonsystemics
The Berberines
â¢
Juniper
â¢
Honey
â¢
Usnea
6 Herbal Antibiotics: The Synergists
Licorice
â¢
Ginger
â¢
Black Pepper (piperine)
7 The First Line of Defense: Strengthening the Immune System
Ashwagandha
â¢
Astragalus
â¢
Boneset
â¢
Echinacea
â¢
Eleuthero
â¢
Red Root
â¢
Reishi
â¢
Rhodiola
8 A Handbook of Herbal Medicine Making
by James A. Duke, PhD
Stephen Buhner has arrived at (and shares with you, the reader) the frightening truth that you won't find in the
Journal of the American Medical Association:
We are running out of weapons in the war on germs. Since germs can go through a generation in 20 minutes or so, instead of the 20 years or so it takes us humans to reproduce ourselves, it's no small wonder that the germs are evolving resistance to our chemical weapons as rapidly as we develop them.
When the drug vancomycin falls completely by the wayside, as it will, we may, just as Stephen predicts here and I have predicted elsewhere, fall back on the bimillennial biblical medicinal herbs such as garlic and onion. These herbs each contain dozens of mild antibiotic compounds (some people object to using the term “antibiotic” to refer to higher plant phytochemicals, but I do not share their disdain for such terminology). It is easy for a rapidly reproducing bug or bacterial species to outwit (out-evolve) a single compound by learning to break it down or even to use it in its own metabolism, but not so easy for it to outwit the complex compounds found in herbs. Scientists are recognizing this fact and developing more complex compounds such as the AIDS cocktail and multiple chemotherapies for cancer. The same super-scientists who downplay the herbalists' claims of synergies that account for the effectiveness of particular herbs and herbal formulas are now resorting to synergies of three or four compounds in their pharmaceutical formulas.
It is certainly easier to demonstrate how two compounds can work synergistically than it is to figure out how 200 or 2,000 different compounds (and more, as are present in all herbs) can work synergistically. So the scientific community will be reluctant to consider the remarkable synergistic suites of compounds that have evolved naturally in plants. But we really cannot afford to ignore these. For nature favors synergies among beneficial, plant-protective compounds within
a plant species (with antibacterial, antifeedant, antifungal, antiviral, and insecticidal properties) and selects against antagonisms.
When we borrow the antibiotic compounds from plants, we do better to borrow them all, not just the single solitary most powerful among them. We lose the synergy when we take out the solitary compound. But most important, we facilitate the enemy, the germ, in its ability to outwit the monochemical medicine. The polychemical synergistic mix, concentrating the powers already evolved in medicinal plants, may be our best hope for confronting drug-resistant bacteria.
The Evolution of “Modern” Medicine
(as imagined and adapted by Jim Duke from Internet surf castings)
8,000,000 years ago:
One chimp to another: “I have a tummy ache ⦔ (
in chimpanzeze, rubbing tummy
). Response: “Here, chimp, eat these bitter herbs!” (
in chimpanzeze
).
5,000,000 years ago:
“Here, Hominid, eat these bitter herbs!” (
in hominidese
).
2,500,000 years ago:
“Here, Homo, eat these bitter herbs and leave some for the Leakeys to find!” (
in homonoid sign language
).
2500
BCE
:
“Here, man, eat these bitter herbs!” (
in Arabic, Coptic, Farsi, Hebrew, etc.
).
0
CE
:
“The Savior is born! Faith can heal. Eat these bitter herbs (
if faith should fail!
).”
1200
CE
:
“Those bitter herbs aren't Christian. Say a prayer when you take those bitters!”
1850
CE
:
“That prayer is superstition. Here, drink this bitter potion!”
1900
CE
:
“That bitter potion is snake oil. Here, swallow this bitter pill!”
1950
CE
:
“That bitter pill is ineffective. Here, take this bitter antibiotic!”
2000
CE
:
“That bitter antibiotic is artificial, ineffective, and toxic; besides, all the microbes are resistant, and some even feed on it (
even vancomycin
). Here, eat these bitter herbs. And pray they will help you (
95 percent of Americans, but only 33 percent of psychologists, are reported to pray
).”
If you've reached the point where you don't pay attention to anything that might disturb your orthodoxy, you're not doing science, you're not even pursuing a discipline. All you're doing is perpetuating a smug, closed-minded sect.
âPaul Krugman
In the years since I wrote the first edition of this book, my knowledge of plant medicines and their use in healing has increased tremendously. Thus this new edition of
Herbal Antibiotics
is a great deal more comprehensive than that first, more simplistic effort. There are many more herbs included, and some of the old ones are gone or have been moved into another category of actionâfrom an antibiotic to an immune herb, for instance (echinacea is an example). And much of the original material on bacteria and bacterial resistance has been expanded considerably.
Over the years I have received a great many questions as to why this or that herb was included in the book while such and so herb was not. It's a good question; here's why.
I've included the herbs you'll find here for either one of two reasons: 1) I, or practitioners I respect, have found them to be highly effective in practice in the treatment of antibiotic-resistant diseases, or 2) in-depth research and use in other countries has found them to be highly effective. I think when you read the expanded material on treatment strategies and the plants that I've included you will understand the reasoning more clearly; there are some fairly sophisticated understandings of resistant bacteria treatment that were not described in the first edition of the book, primarily because neither I nor the herbal community in the United States had developed enough understanding, sophistication, and experience in clinical work with them at that point.
I've excluded the plants that you won't find here for one of two reasons: either 1) I have not found them to be potently effective in clinical practice (though they might be mildly effective or effective in
some circumstances), or 2) there is just not enough clinical research showing they are effective. That is why olive leaf, for example, is not described in any depth in this book. It is not that olive leaf is not antibacterialâit is; all plants contain antibacterial compoundsâbut rather, both clinical practice and in-depth research have not convinced me that olive leaf is as good as the rather ecstatic reports that circulate on the Internet say it is. For some people and some circumstances, it is a valuable herb to use in the treatment of disease. However, in this book I am interested in herbs that are more potent and effective in the treatment of antibiotic-resistant microorganismsâand more reliable.