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Artemisia Argyi - (aka Wormwood Leaf) - great for ibs-d

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Irritable Bowel Syndrome
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Posted 2/15/2007 3:39 AM (GMT -8)
Hi all,

I thought i'd share my experience with a chinese remedy that was suggested to me by my father. I've postponed posting it until I had at least used it for a week, so being Friday over here in Australia I thought i'd post it up. The results are still out at the moment but I have definately found some form of relief from it.


Background
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As some of you already know, i've been diagnosed with IBS by two GI's and two GP's through stool tests, endoscopy, colonscopy, enema, bloodwork and a two hydrogen breath tests. The first hydro test cleared me of lactulose malabsorbtion, the second test confirmed a fructose malabsorbtion problem. Suggested treatment has until now been stay away from fructose - yet my bm's have still been loose/d and i still have abdominal discomfort. I've also lost about 6kg from 59kg weight.

So far i've had no relief results from anti-spasmotics, limited results from antibiotics (flagyl worked alright while i was on it, but symptoms returned as soon as i stopped), anti-d meds etc.

So my dad whose chinese btw, suggested I try an old remedy his sister used in hong kong when she had a rather bad bacterial infection. Similar symptoms, D+weightloss+loss of appetite. This was burning a plant called Artemisia Argyi (aka Wormwood leaf) via a method called moxibustion.


Artemisia Argyi
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AA is a plant grown in East Asia, more information here.
http://www.pfaf.org/database/plants.php?Artemisia+argyi

It is also the primary ingredient in many Chinese and Indian medicines used to treat e.coli infection, malaria and excessive bleeding during periods. Evaluation via scientific method has been limited so far, but there are studies that suggest that AA decreases the count of e.coli in both the air and in animal trials. It also has anti-inflammatory properties.


Moxibustion
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Used when acupuncture is ineffective in treating conditions. Moxi is the process whereby material is burned on top of a conduit (usually slices of ginger) on top of flesh. Moxi has yet to gain full acceptance in western medicine unlike it's more well known cousin Acupuncture. But is used almost as frequently as acupunture is in eastern medicine. With moxi, there are three main components .... you inhale the fumes from the plant, you absorb the material from your skin, and the heat generated from the burning causes what the chinese say "the blood to flow".


Application of AA and Moxibustion
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Lay a handkerchief over your stomach region, place a thin piece of ginger on top of the handkerchief, place a small amount of AA on top of the ginger and burn it. The embers will keep the AA alight until it is all burnt. The process takes about 10-20 minutes.



Results so far
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On the first few days.. my stools were hard for the very first time in a long time. Urgency to goto the washroom had gone, and when I do have to go I can hold it for a while longer. After three days, my stools softened up again, but I must say so far i'm feeling about 50% better. I'll post back in a weeks time to see if the results are repeated.

Both my partner, who also has IBS, and myself have been using AA for a week and we're both getting similar results. So i'm really hoping that this will help clear things up.

In the back of my mind, this suggests to me that my IBS was triggered by some sort of bacterial infection as AA is used to treat bacterial and gastro diseases, but i'll leave that to the experts. Still I think this plant warrants some serious looking into by researchers.

Next time you're in a herbal medicine store look it up.. it's about 8 dollars for a packet here which will last you a bloody long time... probably enough for about 3 months use everyday.



Anyhow, thought i'd share my results with everyone else.. if anyone wants me to take pictures/video or anything just let me know.
Posted 2/15/2007 6:15 AM (GMT -8)
What an amazing story! I have a few questions though, how do you burn the AA without it burning through through the ginger? Is the point to be sorta breathing in the vapors? Can you buy wormwood leaf anywhere i.e. health food stores? What does it look like?

Enough questions for you?!?!?

Thanks so much! :-)
Posted 2/15/2007 8:08 AM (GMT -8)
From a wiki entry about wormwood / artemesia:

Therapeutic uses:
The leaves and flowering tops are gathered when the plant is in full bloom, and dried naturally or with artificial heat. Its active substances include silica, two bitter elements (absinthine and anabsinthine), thujone, tannic and resinous substances, malic acid, and succinic acid. Its use has been claimed to remedy indigestion and gastric pain, it acts as an antiseptic, and as a febrifuge. For medicinal use, the herb is used to make a tea for helping pregnant women during pain of labor. A wine can also be made by macerating the herb. It is also available in powder form and as a tincture. The oil of the plant can be used as a cardiac stimulant to improve blood circulation. Pure wormwood oil is very poisonous, but with proper dosage poses little or no danger. Wormwood is mostly a stomach medicine. This list can be found in John Lust's, The Herb Book, released by Bantam Books.
Posted 2/15/2007 8:28 AM (GMT -8)
Hey, you can't argue with success. Some people may pooh-pooh this idea as being a placebo effect, but I saw one person who wrote an article on the placebo effect and said, "So? So what if it's a placebo effect? That doesn't changed the fact that I feel better, does it? That's all that matters, right?" That sounded like good sense to me! Also, a recent study found that when people were treated with sugar pills for something, some of them did get get the placebo effect improvement. Only the improvement wasn't in their head; they physically improved in measureable ways. So some people are starting to think that the placebo effect isn't some mental hallucination, but is the mind getting in such a positive frame of... mind... that it makes the body heal itself.

And yesterday there was a news story on exercise and the placebo effect. They got some 80+ maids from a number of different hotels and told half of them that their work met or exceeded their daily need for exercise, as recommended by the Surgeon General, and the other half they told nothing. The group that was told they were getting good exercise lowered their blood pressure, dropped a couple of pounds on average, lost inches from their waists and were just more fit, in general, after 4 weeks than they were to begin with. Improvements were not seen in the control group. The scientists looked too see if these fitter women started exercising more at home or eating better, but found nothing had changed. And obviously they were doing the exact same housework (which really is good exercise) before the study as during it. It seems if you think you're getting exercise, you get a lot more benefits from it.

So hope and faith--in anything--goes a long ways. This stuff seems to be making you better; no reason to think it won't continue to do so! And the fact that an antibiotic made you feel better does suggest a bacterial problem.
Posted 2/15/2007 3:39 PM (GMT -8)
Hi Annabelle,

From what I understand of moxibustion, it penetrates the ginger and is absorbed by the skin - and it enters through your lungs. In fact AA is used as a fumigant in chinese and indian cultures... it was also used in hong kong hospitals during the SARS outbreak. So it is quite possible most of it effects are through inhalation.

Additional ... you can buy it from chinese herbalist, it's apparently quite popular nowadays. I'm not sure if you'll find it in a health store, i've never seen it there.

Hope this answers your questions Annabelle.. if you have anymore i'll try to answer/find out for you. I recommend everyone try it.. you've got nothing to lose.

Cheers

Yowie

Yowie]
Posted 2/15/2007 3:51 PM (GMT -8)
Very true, it is quite possible the effect may be placebo... afterall the IBS group apparently is one of the top groups to respond positively to placebo, indicating the mind may have a large role in controlling the spasms in our gut.

But what's interesting is that AA was used in a study of pigs deliberately infected with e.coli - all pigs had diahorrea. Those treated with AA had their diahorrea almost completely eliminated whereas acupuncture was only helpful in pigs which had been recently infected with e.coli. The results from this study were that, AA via moxibustion was effective in chronic patients, and acupuncture was effective in early onset but ineffective in chronic patients. This ironically was reported many centuries ago by a famous chinese herbalist who suggested moxi for chronic and more persistant conditions.

More importantly, there has recently been many high profile studies around sweet wormwood (of the same family as AA).
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2004/07/17/sweet_wormwood_heals_malaria.htm
The ingredients of sweet wormwood have been extracted to create a very very potent and effective drug against malaria. Even the gates foundation - who are committed to helping those in africa - have pledged money for ongoing research into the sweet wormwood drug. It is so potent that the effects of malaria are going within 24 hours in most cases... malaria has been one of the biggest killers in africa by the way.

Considering most of our western drugs today come from plants anyhow, there definately is a possibility that there is something other than a placebo effect happening here. Researchers just need financial support and will to turn these plants into usable drugs.

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