★★★★☆
Hi everyone, first time posting here. I hope this group is still active, as it seems to be the only one I can find!
Just looking for some clarification on the next steps I should take.
I've suffered from oral herpes as long as I can remember.
I've been taking BHT for 3 years (750mg/day), and for the past 2 years now have been taking St. John's Wort (900mg/day) for the Hypericin.
While I can certainly say there has been an improvement in my frequency of outbreaks, it still isn't what I've hoped for. And they seem to be increasing in frequency this past year (although still much better than before all of this).
I used to get an outbreak every 3 months, now it seems to fluctuate between 2 to 3 per year.
My questions:
1) About supplements:
Oscar has mentioned to take BHT on an empty stomach without any supplements whatsoever, yet has mentioned supplements that may help.
Does this mean to take BHT in the morning and your supplements at night? For the past 3 years I've been taking BHT and supplements together, at night.
I take:
750mg BHT
1000mg L-Lysine (recently increased to 1500mg)
1000mg Vitamin C (just started dividing my dose morning, and night)
900mg of St John's Wort
3000mg of Omega3 Fish Oil (throughout the day -just started this one recently)
1.5 mg of Melatonin (for sleep)
A spoonful of Virgin Coconut Oil
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2) Question about Hypericin.
I've heard that when BHT doesn't work as well on it's own, that taking it with Hypericin can work wonders. I can't find this to purchase ANYWHERE. Other than in St John's Wort at 0.3%, which is why I take three 300mg pills of SJW a day. I've seen improvement over the past two years on St John's Wort, but nothing magical.
I've read the recommended dose for Hypericin is to work your way up to 10mg/ day. I don't think I should do that by taking 3000mg of St John's Wort.
Any idea where to find Hypericin on its own? I'm not sure how safe it is to greatly increase my St John Wort dosage.
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3) Vitamin B12.
Just looking for clarification on this, as I've read conflicting information that this can either work great in combo with BHT, or should be avoided altogether.
I know that what I've been trying for the past few years isn't exactly working for me and I'm determined to find the next step toward beating this, or at least beat it into submission. Any and all help would be immensely appreciated!
Thank you for taking the time to read this!
BHT Overview
★★★★☆
I have been taking BHT since 22-Oct-15, so just eight or nine days so far. During the first day or two of taking BHT powder with olive oil, at 360mg, it really felt like I was recovering from seven years' nerve pain. I don't think it would be an exaggeration to say that my numbness and burning feeling, was finally resolved.
By way of background, I suffer constant PHN (Post-herpetic neuralgia), from all these years of constant viral activity. I normally need to take three daily doses of 400mg acyclovir. Without this therapeutic dose of acyclovir, every day, pain gradually worsens - it's a burning, stinging, pressing, knawing and stabbing, right in the end of the male anatomy. Numbness then follows and that is always the worst thing, together with an unusual and very noticeable flaccidity (lack of blood flow to that area). There is also a nerve pain in my hip, related to herpes too. That pain began some years ago when a few weeks of particularly strong viral activity caused widespread pelvic pain. The hip pain never left me after that, although it is resolved briefly with anti-virals, like all the other symptoms. There is also severe itching to the skin around the area, resolves after taking acyclovir.
So, more importantly, to provide an update on the past week's treatment, BHT roughly provides the same therapeutic benefit to me, as acyclovir, but it works in a supportive way for me - not as a replacement for the anti-viral. Initially, when I began BHT, the improvement on my nerve (thought to be the pudendal nerve) was amazing and I had a return of function again, no numbness and no pain. After two days or so, however, the benefit lessened and the symptoms returned. I then began to increase my dose, from 360mg x 2 per day, to three times per day. That helped a little. At times during the past week, if pain has been very severe, rather than take more acyclovir, I have instead increased my BHT, to 540mg per dose, therefore taking the opportunity of experimenting a little and testing the efficacy of BHT. From this, I found that by my third dose of BHT (a total for the day of 1,260mg), pain then eventually subsided for a while, about 30 - 60 minutes after dosage. Pain then eventually returns after an hour or so.
So, I find myself really quite stuck, not knowing how to make the most of BHT at this moment. Do I increase my dosage further? Do I simply allow more time for BHT to take effect? Do I try the rectal insufflation? In Steven Fowkes' book, he mentions rectal insufflation but he does not elaborate on what exactly must be done. I am familiar with ozone rectal insufflation - but by contrast that is quite easy when one is familiar with ozone therapy. How does one carry out insufflation with a powder?
I hope someone can help me out here, please. Perhaps if Steven is able to comment, within a reasonably short period of time, that would be excellent. I don't mean to sound negative, but I note that one of the posters above, Jnanasutra, posted a request for help on 9/24/2014, and was replied to one year later, on 9/23/2015. I hope therefore that as a group, we may make better progress than that. Many thanks.
