Grape seed in Lyme?

[nord]

Some here have Lyme and take grape seed extract (as I understand for the antioxidant properties). Have you seen effect on lyme (e g herxing, even slight)?

Thank you.

Brorson O, Brorson SH: Grapefruit seed extract is a powerful in vitro agent against motile and cystic forms of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato. Infection. 2007 Jun;35(3):206-8.

Available at http://www.siv.no/webpro/dokument/564000_Citrosept.proof.pdf

Last paragraph:
“The highest GSE concentrations made the bacteria and
cysts disappear completely, leaving only small uncharac-
teristic fragments; at lower GSE-levels the membranes
showed herniation and disruption, and the contents had
leaked out. The MBC was strongly dependent on the length
of the incubation. GSE was very active even for very short
incubation times, in agreement with previous results [7].
The MBC obtained by DFM for the motile bacteria agreed
well with the TEM results. Presence of GSE reduced the
conversion from spirochetes to cysts when the susceptibil-
ity testing was performed in distilled water. This study was
performed in vitro and further studies are needed to dem-
onstrate eventual effects in vivo. From our results it will be
rational to test the hypothesis that a combination of GSE
and antibiotics will be efficient in the treatment of resistant
Lyme borreliosis.”

GSE concentrations of 0.165%?0.00032% were used (in vitro)

[Kim]

Hi nord,

There is a difference between grape seed extract and grapefruit seed extract.  I take grapefruit seed extract and find it beneficial.  It is very bitter and nasty tasting so I put the drops in an empty gel cap and chase it with lots of water.  You have to move fast because the gel cap dissolves quickly. Some mix with V-8 juice and find that acceptable. It's potent stuff so the same rule applies…….”low and slow” to prevent major herxing.

Take care…..kim

[nord]

Hello Kim,

thank you for pointing this out, and my apologies. I know that grapes and grapefruit  are two completely different kinds of fruit (it is a case of “false friends”; grapes are called something else in my language, while grapefruit is grapefruit, or just “grape”). :blush: Will try to edit the heading. Where is the “I'm brainfogged” smiley :)?

Interesting that you get a reaction strong enough to mention herxing, so it is really working. How much do you take? Do you have any feeling how it is working in different parts (joints, muscle, etc)?

It seems a very good addition to abx (and with sufficient bioavailability, it could perhaps even be an alternative). I've seen other natural substances being very effective and even synergetically acting with abx in terms of effect, while also lowering inflammation, which is probably at least part of the enhancing effect to abx (and preventing abx resistance to some degree if recalling correctly).

I can imagine that the grapefruit seed extract is bitter, chewing the seeds is!

Thank you for the input!

[Kim]

Hi Nord,

I take between 10-15 drops of the grapefruit seed extract in a gel cap, but I started out with 5 drops.  Some people will start with just a few drops depending on how hypersensitive they are.  The thing that I can tell almost immediately is how it seems to open my sinuses (that I didn't even know were blocked :?).  It also seems to relieve some pressure in my head that wasn't particularly bothering me, but it just feels better after I take the GSE.  I intend to take it more regularly than I do, I just forget.

Maybe others will chime in with their experiences.  You can also run a “search” on the board because it has been discussed in the past.

Take care……kim

[Author]

Posts