I've had severe rheumatoid arthritis and diagnosed Lyme and Babesia for around 9 years now, and my search for herbal remedies has led me to, among other things, ayahuasca.

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If this seems weird to you, please view the following links:

Studies:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23116713
http://bjm.ui.ac.ir/arti...6f82d60214f87ce89e4e.pdf
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6629596
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21570953

People's experiences:

http://www.bluelight.org...p;viewfull=1#post8898966
https://www.dmt-nexus.me...&m=770490#post770490
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2iIXlKlRBk

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Ok, so onto my idea. Last week I dosed Red Ayahuasca (B. muricata) daily, easing into it from about 5g 2x/day to about 45g 2x/day, until I ran out. The whole process lasted about 7 days.

During this time, I felt a decrease in emotional eating, which is very much connected to my symptoms. Overeating, especially certain food groups, I have found has been directly triggering of my joint inflammation. The ayahuasca seemed to normalize my eating habits in many ways. It makes me feel like a normal person with normal food choices.

I felt a very noticeable increase in mobility, and a decrease in pain.

I felt a remission of that pesky arm of doubt in my mind that seems to paralyze me with indecision. The kind of doubt that is most definitely neurotic and makes you and others go, "WTF?"

I felt an increased mental clarity.

Any time I felt too spaced out and directionless from the harmalas, I added a teeny bit of DMT-containing brew, and this seemed to get things flowing. This experience has also made me crave GREEN things more, including minty things.

I felt so good that I stopped taking other inflammatory herbs. In retrospect, this was a pretty stupid idea. In the future I'll keep taking those. But, I believe that the Ayahuasca increases my body's sensitivity to them, sort of in the same way that Iboga resets tolerance to many substances.

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After running out of vine, I almost continued on to Syrian rue, but my intuition steered me away from it, ultimately. Although many studies have been done on the health benefits of Syrian rue, I believe most of those are shared by Ayahuasca--it's just that it hasn't been studied as much for its physical health benefits.

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So here's my plan. Since I've had joint inflammation for 9 years and considerable joint damage, I think this is going to take longer than normal to heal. So I want to dose Ayahuasca vine (without admixtures) twice daily for about 90 days in a row.

I will add small doses of tryptamines when I feel, continue taking other herbs for Lyme disease and Babesia, and in general, include ayahuasca vine as a part of my holistic healing protocol.

Is there any danger in doing this? I never drink, smoke, or drink coffee, and I am always free of pharmaceuticals. I mean, some people take daily MAOIs for depression, right?

What do you think about this plan?

Cat's claw is also said to help against lyme's dissease. Cat's claw is often being taken as an admixture in ayahuasca brews.

I believe experiments are being done, with harmala's as a cure for parkinsonism.
And as lyme can often cause parkinson type complaints, maybe harmala's can cure some of the neurological symptoms of lyme.

I didn't realize Cat's Claw was an admixture for ayahuasca. I use Cat's Claw for my Lyme disease as well as Knotweed. Both very powerful medicines. I know someone who claims to be in near full remission of RA with chaga as well.

Definitely going to try some Caapi now. When you say it made you more sensitive to the herbs, do you mean as in herxing? Or just feeling better? I definitely don't want to exacerbate the antibacterial potential on a whim.

Anyways i can't give you a confident answer on the safety but i don't perceive an issue. I thought the dangers were more along the lines of overdosing on normal doses of substances via increase in monoamines. I've repeatedly been told that food interactions are hardly a concern with reversible MAOI. However, i don't know if that applies to taking it 90 days straight. Definitely interested to see how it helps. I probably won't do it but odd occasion myself but not because of MAOI concerns.

I need to say right off the bat that there are THOUSANDS of herbs, supplements and techniques that have shown benefit for Lyme disease, and before we get an avalanche of suggestions I want to remind everybody that how Lyme affects someone is extremely individual and also dependent on when in the treatment it is used. As someone who has tried hundreds of things and spent hundreds if not thousands of hours of research into this subject, off-the-cuff suggestions tend to spark a murderous rage that I've been quite good at suppressing at this point.

I wish to prevent a spiraling into the *extremely* complex world that is Lyme disease and remind us to just focus on the safety of dosing Aya 2x/day for 90 days, and perhaps other valuable information that pertains directly to using harmalas for physical health. Thank you.



No, I just mean feeling better. I've only experienced a Herxheimer reaction with the herb Sida acuta. But of course, YMMV x3000.

Haha i get it. I've had people try to push CBD oil on me like some panacea. Worse yet i've actually tried CBD and find it utterly useless at best, counterproductive at worst for my condition. Super annoying. If it was my chaga mention that tipped you off, know that it was merely a passing mention not a suggestion. Of course, my biggest interest here is Ayahuasca as well and i don't care to divert any significant attention elsewhere

As far as Sida acuta... I swear i nearly put myself in the hospital from herxing on that. VERY powerful antibacterial. If i had an acute infection that'd probably be one of the first herbs i reach for. That is one im afraid to take with Harmalas because of the ephedrine however. Otherwise it's good to hear that the "exacerbation" was merely beneficial. I however do herx from Knotweed, so adhering to the good old rule of "low and slow" is probably just as appropriate in regards to Ayahuasca for me. And anyone with this condition for that matter. Since i represent the more sensitive end of the spectrum I'll be sure to report back here should i experiment with any of this in the near future.

Fascinating. I really want to follow your progress with this RhythmSpring. I went undiagnosed until I demanded an explaination from my surgeons as to why I needed new hips at 42.

till next time , ahskě:nę hę ( Peace) 

I have had Lyme for a long time now, close to 10 years. It was not caught early, and once caught I went through a simple antibiotic treatment for some weeks. It stopped the Lyme enough for it not to kill me, but continued to grow for many years, until a few years ago when I recognized its chronic form and started taking action.

I have used rue mostly instead of caapi, due to availability. I think caapi is gentler and more amicable in personality with my few encounters. Rue will often slam me, while caapi builds more slowly/steadily as well.
On the other hand caapi is less reliable with alkaloid profile. Also rue has the vasicine-like alks that I think are extra-helpful in killing the Lyme microbes.

When using rue alone, without combining with tryptamines, it definitely gives me a deep euphoria, a feeling of being well, a respite from the depression of Herxheimer reactions. It feels like it gives me a baseline of health.
After using it for daily for some time it tends to lose the immediate euphoria, and upon dosing is more or less invisible. I think this is where it's doing the dirty work of aiding in reducing bacteria. I will become somewhat irritable and confused, like a usual Herx but not so severe. It seems to keep my body from going into massive inflammation, but there's definitely some.

I have taken rue on top of other herbs to help Lyme, a la Andrographis and Cat's Claw, which will generally improve my inflammation and well-being/relaxation.

As far as tripping goes, I find my rue+acacia aya analog to be the best option when I'm in a sensitive Lyme state. It almost invariably makes me stronger, mentally sharper, and I don't get any Herx spikes mid-trip, which has been a very big deal with some other things. The rue works on a physical level to keep me safe. The tryptamines are very lovely, and I finally feel vivid life coursing through me.

For instance, some encounters with LSD in past months were absolutely ... death/pain trips. It seemed to be amplifying at least the feeling, if not physically, inflammation in my spinal cord/brain. This would go up and down for many hours, and did lead to a rather amazing state of acceptance for pain and death, and the power of consciousness being able to withstand all that will happen in life, but I would be careful before taking more acid in a sensitive state.
Afterwords I felt very mentally jumbled for a few weeks, but after that time I have felt much stronger, and as though my brain-mind system is more fortified.

Mushrooms have been more in the middle. They feel quite benign, but also don't seem to have the raw antiinflammatory potential of harmalas. I don't get any weird energy blockages/buildups, and they make my mind and nervous system work very effectively, which helps a lot with the stress of Lyme. I have gotten Herxs mid mushroom trip, and it feel a lot like wasted time, as well as unpleasant. I can't hear what the mushrooms are saying, everything gets blotted out.

I have been getting consistently better over time though. I used to hardly be able to get up for 30 minutes to do garden work without having to lay down for several hours. Can work for many hours at a time now, and I know how to manage better. Diet/exercise/sunshine. I can finally think like a normal human again these days, instead of a soul clawing at a broken mind.

By the way, one key ally with me these days is turmeric and black pepper. Spend the money to get the good organic turmeric. Eat a handful of black pepper. Mix turmeric in coconut milk, and drink it down. Your brain and body will feel a bucket of cooling water for that fire raging in the body.

Good luck to everyone with Lyme!

I needed new hips at 20 and 22. No joke.

kerelsk, thank you for all that great info. I can relate to a lot of it, but not all of it. For me, mushrooms are powerfully antiinflammatory. But that's besides the point.



I question whether those vasicine-like alks are anti-bacterial or really help Lyme. I guess it might be different for each person. I am curious about those compounds. But like I said, my intuition steers me away from rue, and toward ayahuasca and eventually iboga.

PS-I've also had the CBD oil pushed on me like it was a panacea and had the same experience: does not help.

Yeah I can't say I know for sure what the vasicine alks are doing.
Let's dig up some info here...
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2221169112604523https://www.hindawi.com/journals/bmri/2015/727304/abs/

It has some antibacterial ability apparently. Maybe not for Borrelia, not sure.

I agree with rhythm spring. LSD, mushrooms and the likes... all have helped me more than hurt. That's interesting that you're the opposite. Being that you seem more sensitive it's very encouraging that you had good experiences with the harmala. They were my main apprehension for ayahuasca after Lyme because i had no idea how i would react even though i knew the DMT was straight up medicine for me. I just ordered some Caapi so i'll give this a shot in the next week or two. Not with DMT admixture, just alone.

Iboga... now that's one i'm on the fence about. I'm not sure where the current evidence stands regarding Iboga deaths, but Lyme disease sounds like a recipe for predisposition. I'm terribly fascinated by it though.

there is a likelyhood I have lyme..my mom was told she does i still need the test..epstein bar or w/e is likely also for me ..I have terrible arthritis-ankylsing spondylitis and ulcerative colitis..was told osteo and fibromyalgia too but im sure you know how these lables are thrown out there.. and a bunch of coinfections im dealing with now with a bunch of specialists. My AS is for sure because I am HLA-b27+ with considerable joint damage, specifically in my spine with signs of fusing but its effected my entire body.

Be careful with lyme..as you probly know it is often a coinfection or comes with other coinfections..look into knotweed and all of stephen buhners work on lyme.

I wish I could tell you that yes, ayahuasca helped cure me...but I can't. I drank a lot of it...I wish I

Ayahuasca helped me get a spine, tell a bunch of people to get lost and really focus on myslef and trust myself more..BUT!!!..this was only 10 months ago..I drank it for years.

Want my advice? wanna know whats putting me into remission? I paid a dr a grand, got proper igg and ige blood tests done and worked with a really good holistic physician working in fIunctional medicine...im talking major food allergies..and Id bet everything I own that you have food allergies as well if you have rhumatict issues. I tried all the fad diets..none of them worked. I can say that I am confident I will hit full remission following my Dr's diet which is made for me only-my motherh has the same disease- I sent her there her blood work was diff..many diff food triggers from mine..my point here is to really drive home this message..GET HELP! save the cash if you dont have it..the blood work is worth everything for me. I do not flair if I avoid everything that I tested allergic to. Do this for yourself. Dont rely on just ayahuasca. I feel like you have tried thi already tbh.. how long have you suffered with this and posted about it here?

You gotta change your whole life man. I had neuropathy so bad I lost feeling in my right foot/part of my leg and it began in my hands too with tingling in my spine and pelvis. 8 months ago I was so inflammed i couldnt walk right some days. I was prescribed opiates and prednisone. Im not on either of those and I am not inflamed atm and happier than i have ever been. I know I was dying and I know now that I am def not ..never ever ever give up. Just be open to changing everything. I spent everything i had and it was worth it. I live differently now.



I dont care how many Dr's ppl tell me they have seen..go find more until one is helping. I sufffered for 10 years, almost had surgery and my spine began to fuse and my SI joint blew out so bad from the AS and I got a hernia I was told was not able to heal without cutting me up..

Well..WRONG!

sorry man I know..trust me I really do know how painful it is. Ive been through a lot in the past year with hospitals and all kinds of specialists...now I know that the data on aya is there and solid..it probly does help but wasnt enough for me..

Now..what did help me..like changed EVERYTHING..was Iboga.

LSD helps me more than ayahuasca, physically.That just is what it is. I think LSD is overlooked and people can focus too much on the plants. Acid has helped me with my AS far more than aya.

Well, I have! I've seen many many different people that even I thought could help me, and none of them have proved to understand what I'm going through. I won't go through the list, but it is extensive.

I'll consider it, thank you. By the way, I've restricted my diet in MANY MANY ways, both by my own intuition and at the recommendation of other doctors, and it all led to some kind of malnutrition. I really really don't trust doctors or naturopaths or really anyone to have insight into my sickness at this point. My body is so complexly effed up that someone would have to live with me for a week to really understand what's going on. Or, I would have to spend thousands of dollars a month which I don't have and hours and hours a week in the office, which I'm sure is time they don't have, especially if they are a good doctor, the kind that would be able to help me out. That is, if this person existed.

At the moment I am satisfied with using Stephen Harrod Buhner as my remote herbalist (via his books) and years of experience with and research into diet to take care of that part. I feel quite empowered to be my own healer. I feel that harmalas are like the bridge to tie everything else together and bring me to health, if that makes sense.

And I have to remind you that each case of Lyme is unique. Just because ayahuasca didn't heal you on the physical level doesn't mean that it won't for me. And also, this isn't exactly ayahuasca I'm talking about, this is constant daily dosing of harmalas with maybe some tryptamines sprinkled in on occasion.


I have found iboga to be extremely helpful but also scary to do when you are physically incapacitated with sickness, basically. Are you implying that if one were hell-bent on doing iboga (which I am), one should wait until after they are physically healed / fit to do so? Or, do you think iboga, as part of a larger protocol of herbs and diet and such, can be a way to help get the body back in gear?

I am grateful for your and everyone's input.

...have you had general IgG/IgE food pannels done? I highly suggest it. It will tell you so much.

I think Iboga is best as part of an entire life change and that includes diet, lifestyle and even things like what I was willing to do..like just forget saving and spent everything I have on my health and happiness and doing what I love most in life..which is dancing and art...I dunno man I found a Dr' who got it cus she was dying once..and she was like look you can do what I tell you, or end up in a wheelchair pretty much. I trusted her and I was right..found my flow in life and I dunno it's working..after 10 years of suffering. Thats all I can offer..just beleive that there is a way you just gotta figure yours out..

The way she explained it to me is that my genetics are like a combination lock and I can do 100 diff fad diets and if one thing is off I cant pick that lock..she also said other dr's and naturopaths might disagree and tbh she thinks most are quacks with little education(she is a real physican first) with what she told me and I can just trust her or not. I dunno man..it just is what it is and it has worked and thats basically a miracle for me. I beleive in miracles, and life is the first one. I hope you find your path.

PM me if you want to talk details. (And the answer is yes.)

Do you all think iboga might be dangerous with the cardiac manifestations of Lyme? It's been a long time since I researched the dangers and it was well before I contracted Lyme but I thought the current thinking was that certain cardiac predispositions might play a part in the deaths. Lyme can seriously f*** with the electrical signaling in the heart. I wish you best if you go that road but be careful. Unless you know some things that I don't then I apologize for my ignorance.

Anyways I think "taking a lot of ayahuasca" and daily dosing of harmalas is quite incomparable. It's like saying "I took a lot of antibiotics" vs "I took a very specific antibiotic as part of a holistic regimen for an extended period of time consistently". Give borrelia an inch and it takes a mile. Any approach that's going to be curative needs to be taken continuously until the fight is won. If I'm taking an antibacterial herb and I stop, my symptoms don't just return... I get new ones. Every time. It doesn't take but a few days for the damned thing to reclaim lost ground and some. If harmalas have any hope outside of addressing the psycho spiritual aspects of the ailment it is only going to come with daily use or at the very least as an adjunct to a more rigorous daily regimen

Good question. I know that my heart has definitely been effed up from Lyme and/or Babesia. For example, pericarditis-the inflammation of the connective tissue sac that holds the heart in place in the chest cavity. I flooded with iboga in the 3rd year of my arthritis. I got an image of my heart being fused to my ribcage with little cushioning around it. I felt some tension in and saw some interesting visions of my chest. I was okay. But... recently I was given the opportunity, nay like five opportunities to flood with iboga again, and despite all my psychospiritual reasons to do it, I could not bring myself to do it, even when the powder lay in front of me on my lap. Perhaps this was for the best. Perhaps I was avoiding catastrophe.

Exactly.


Good for you. Just remember that just because something worked for you doesn't mean that it's the right path for someone else.

Maybe, and maybe not. I certainly don't want to turn anyone off. I've always been a hypochondriac. But wow that sounds like a pretty wild ride. I can't even imagine what Iboga is like. The realism in that description seems in stark contrast to most psychedelics.

I'm surprised you guys have had such good experiences with lsd and lyme, even feeling it to be good for inflammation.

It's given me some pretty funky reactions. I tried dosing it the day after harmalas, and got some wicked tremor and body energy. Kind of violent. Maybe just a case of the nerves? not sure...
We all have unique reactions to substances, very interesting.

As for seeing a doctor, I've always been so fringey it's hard to think of being able to. We'll see as time moves on.
I don't have hardly any money, can't work hard labor because of getting exhausted more easily, never really had a stable living situation I felt comfortable with, which makes it out of my range to think about higher education or health care.

It's definitely a compounding set of stressors. But I've always had enough luck to pull through in the past. One of the hardest things is being alienated from society at large because I've had rough experiences... I'm not as willing to trust the establishment and there's less sympathy from them and from me to them. Can people bootstrap themselves in society? I think so, given the right circumstances, but communication is key.

Thanks for the perspective Jamie.
RhythmSpring, it's a lot of mystery all around isn't it? I don't think huasca will hurt, and Paul Stamets has said something like 'nature is a numbers game. The more variables on your side the better.'

Okay so I've got some B. caapi and my wifes out of town for the rest of the week. I'm tempted to give this a go but also incredibly nervous. I hadn't tripped in almost a year until smoking DMT this morning. With Lyme and the general change in life style there's a lot of hesitance that didn't used to be there. I've also never been one for solo trips. But something about B. caapi appears to be more meditative as opposed to the intense tryptamine type experience. Is this correct? Can B. caapi alone get dark the way psychedelics can? Or is it more like catching a buzz that's relatively predictable? Is it effective so keep sipping your way to a good level? Or is it one of those all or nothing get it down at once kind of deals?

Also interested in hearing any updates from RhythmSpring on his journeys with this.