Lyme Disease Support Group

Does anyone know if water retention is a symptom of herxing? And have you had this?

How do I know if this is doing harm to the kidneys, or a normal herx thing?

I am drinking ten glasses of water a day, and still retaining it, since being on the Spiro.

Have not noticed Artemisinin to do this.

came up with this..???

The side effects are mild (although they are also dosis related) and are expected to disappear with time as your body gets accustomed to spiro: increased peeing frequency (I have that); blood losses between period (none); weight loss (none, but wouldn't be too bad); lower sex drive (maybe, but haven't noticed yet); tender/larger breasts (just a bit, but actually quite nice), fatigue, lethargy low energy (yes, and is now upsetting me a bit).

After having researched for weeks I asked my derm to prescribe it and she said very simply no, that she has prescribed once and there were no improvements!!! Can you believe it! And had no problems presribing me the heavy stuff before!! (not going to her anymore).

Anyway, I manage to get spiro somewhere else and started taking 50 mg per day. Took it for a month and started breaking out terribly like I hadn't in years, big bumps all over. After one month I increased it to 100 mg a day and then I noticed my skin getting much less oily, and much lesser bumps, so I guess next i will see the skin getting smother overall and eventualy ( I hope) as smoth as when I was on accutane!

I'm not taking birth control pill with it and haven't had blood losses between periods. I'm taking spiro because i don't want to take the pill, so it wouldn't make sense to take it together.

I do have to report that I am feeling extremely tired, no energy whatsover, and I sleep a lot too. I have been going to work quite late and going home early to vegetate in the sofa as couch potato...Some sites say that it is a side effect of the increased potassium in the body (Spiro is a diuretic pill that makes you loose excess water in the body while keeping the potassium in (which normally would be expelled by the urine), so i have been looking at food tables to see which foods are rich in potassium to try to reduce them from my diet (banana, orange juice, potato with skin, nuts are the most obvious ones, but there are others).

But I must say so far my experience is positive, and if it continues cleaning up my skin and hair the way it has been doing so far without the side effects of accutane or diane 35, androcur or other BC pills, then great!!

So share your spiro experiences here:

1 - did you have an initial breakout?

2- do you have decreased sex drive?

3- or extreme fatigue?

4- do you take spiro with BC pill?

Curiosa Read more at http://www.healthboards.com/boards/showthread.php?t=466304&ktrack=kcplink

Thanks for posting this- I had NO idea that Spiro could be used for acne! Great to know - with all of the pre-teens and younger that I have in my house!

I have to say that I also didn't know that fatigue was a side effect of this...I've been taking 2 capsules twice per day - because 1 didn't seem to be equal to the 40 drops I was doing of the tincture...and I was out this afternoon and felt unusually sleepy!

Thanks for this info...I wouldn't have associated my sleepiness with the Spiro- but maybe I should!

Jackie

The chanca piedra in the spiro is a known diuretic

Vic go to the Raintree website and it gives all the contraindications and drug interactions

I will post the one for chanca pierdra

Drug Interactions:

May potentiate insulin and antidiabetic drugs.

This plant contains a naturally-occurring phytochemical called geraniin. This chemical has been documented with negative chronotropic, negative inotropic, hypotensive and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor effects in animal studies with frogs, mice and rats. As such, this plant may potentiate antihypertensive drugs, beta-blocker drugs and other heart medications (including chronotropic and inotropic drugs)

Vic read up on this product and if you have questions call Raintree, although i found some of them dont know much,

I ask the one rep a question posted about spiro and she could not answer me. She ask where i got this information from and i told her Raintrees webpage

Vic keep me posted, One thing i noticed is i am real dizzy and i dont know if this has something to do with the spiro

Before i took spiro i did not have this symptom

Vic keep me posted,, And one thing to remember is you cant judge your symptoms by what others post because we can all have different reactions in our bodies to the chemicals in these plants

John

I would not consider that a herx, more like organs not working properly...

Be careful, we love you.

peace

I did talk to a lady at Raintree who claims Spiro is supposed to be kidney toning. But that is only one ingredient.

What about the others? She didnt know about that.

I also read something somewhere that water retention can be a herx reaction because the kidneys get backed up with too much die off.

I really feel lousy on this stuff. Feels like it is shutting my kidneys down. I dont usually get water retention like this.

Am going off immediately and then am going to need to get back on higher dose of the Artemisinin like I used to be on before.

And I hope to heaven that my kidneys straighten back out. This really has me worried.

Especially, because I NEED to be on something, and the more the better! But right now I have to do less and I feel trapped!

Please pray for me! I hope this straightens itself out!

And does anyone know if drinking more water can actually make you retain it more? I have been drinking more than I ever have in my life to try and help my kidneys.

Maybe that is not good? If I dont though, my urine is too dark and cloudy.

Oh, I should also say, like the article, I am feeling much more tired. But also very irritable.

Oh how I hate this mess.

Post edited by: VicMac, at: 02/21/2011 06:43 PM

This is not to say that it is a bad herb combo. It may have been a herx reaction ( stong one ) that I was experiencing. I know lots of people have been using this with success.

I do have a suspicion though ( for anyone who comes up against this water retention issue ) - some herbs contain constituents that can have a stimulating affect on the endocrine system, and this can include, or target specifically the pituitary gland.

There is a hormone that the pituitary gland puts out that actually works as an ANTI diuretic on the body. I have run up against this before with occasional herbs and supps. And even using a rife machine caused me extreme water retention.

So I suspect there may be something in Spiro that can have this affect on the pituitary. But I am not sure. And it may not affect everybody this way. Again, I would have to research it. Just wanted to put this out there.

Post edited by: VicMac, at: 02/24/2011 09:24 AM

Do you pulse your Artemesia? I take 2 in am and pm, same with my black walnut supplement, but both of those are taken one week on and one week off to kill the eggs...gross!!

Glad you're giving the spiro a break..let those kidneys heal!!

peace and love to you

I do want to thank you and others for any and all posts added to this...

I also learned a few things along with my post..

Can't stress enough how important it is for all of us to SHARE...

May we all take care and get better each day...

wlk--

I have not pulsed, only because it seems like I just get worse when I come off. So I am going back up to full treatment. But then maybe I will try pulsing after doing that awhile. Good suggestion.

I agree with you WTL, I appreciate anything anyone can add to this. Whatever we all have to share is so important.

I wish all you guys the best outcome with whatever herbs you are doing. And Fab and WTL both, I want updates on the ABart and how you are doing on it!