Dr. Jeffrey Gladden explains how Cordyceps, Reishi, Japanese knotweed, and kava reduce inflammation in Lyme disease by calming cytokines and protecting cells. When cells recover, the immune system stops overproducing inflammatory signals. Many traditional herbs contain phytochemicals that work like drugs.
So there's good evidence that many of the herbs that we use in chronic Lyme disease, like Cordyceps and Reishi and Japanese knotweed and others, calm down inflammatory cytokines. How do they do that? They protect cells. And when cells are able to recover, then things start to normalize and it takes the load off the immune system. So the immune system isn't sending out inflammatory cytokines to drive the process and it's calming the microbes that are sometimes driving those cytokines. So it's really the effect that the herbs have on cells that have that normalizing properties. Now, all herbs have that, but some herbs, a lot of herbs that are used in traditional medicine, Japanese knotweed, kava, so many others contain phytochemicals that have a drug-like effect. And that's why they're predominantly used.
