I teasingly tell my family and friends that I’m stocking up on pau d’arco for the bird flu. It’s not my cure for the bird flu, its only one part of my arsenal against this impending doom. Laugh, but I’m serious. Pau d’arco has become my miracle cure for just about everything.
I found this herbal product while searching desperately for something to get rid of a thrush infection that was due to the strength of the antibiotics I had been taking. Amazingly, I got this infection in spite of eating yogurt everyday. I was not in the mood to sit at the doctor’s office, so I went to the health food store. I found several herbal remedies for thrush, which all included pau d’arco. I became intrigued and asked if they carried it in a stand-alone product. They did. It came in pill and liquid form. Having used herbal remedies for over fifteen years, I knew that whenever you could get something in a liquid form, take that option.
Before I take anything new, whether it is a prescription from the doctor or an herbal remedy, I always research it online. I want to know something about what I am about to put into my body. For an herbal remedy, I read information that is both for and against its use. Balancing this with my experience level, I get a good handle on how much to believe from each side.
I was amazed at what I learned about this little bottle of liquid. Not only would pau d’arco help my body balance itself to get rid of the thrush infection, but it would help with my arthritis and fibromyalgia. And this is only the beginning of the story.
Using pau d’arco and coconut oil (something else I learned about online), I was able to get rid of my thrush infection in four days.
The first thing I noticed when I used pau d’arco was that I felt a sudden rush over my muscles where they were loosening up. With fibromyalgia, your muscles are always achy and tense. This product made enough of a difference in my fibromyalgia that I could literally feel the difference. I was not pain free, but when you live with chronic pain you learn to appreciate the little things.
After using pau d’arco for a week, I could tell that the level of inflammation and pain in my joints had reduced. I used it for two weeks, stopped for two weeks then repeated the process. I still had bad days, but the days in-between were better. It is important to remember that natural products have toxicity levels and can be dangerous if not used properly. After my background research on pau d’arco, I came to the conclusion that the dosage I would be taking should be taken a maximum of two weeks at a time.
It was helping the inflammation in my back, but not in my knees because my doctor became concerned and decided to try a low dose of chemotherapy for six months. During that time, I discontinued using pau d’arco. That chemo helped my knees but my back got worse. After I began having nosebleeds, I discontinued the chemotherapy and waited two months to allow time for that poison to leave my body before using my pau d’arco again.
I am still searching for alternative answers to my chronic pain, and currently only use pau d’arco when I really need it. My doctor is wonderful and supports his patients in finding the right combination of drugs and natural remedies to deal with their chronic pain. It is important to find a physician who understands herbal remedies and supports their use.
During the last year, I discovered various other uses for this natural remedy. I use it to lessen the effects of colds, sore throats and other viruses. My youngest daughter gets strep throat infections repeatedly. I have tried antibiotics and natural remedies. It was only natural that I try pau d’arco on her throat. Using the antibiotics and pau d’arco, her recovery time sped up considerably. It was beginning to take two doses of antibiotics to cure her infections, but this time it worked right away. Now, when she starts getting a sore throat, I give it to her, send her to bed, and she is feeling better by the next day.
I also use pau d’arco externally. I remembered reading that people use it to heal wounds, so when I had a cut on my foot that did not want to heal on its own, I used pau d’arco on it. This cut healed in three days, and I had been fussing with it for a couple of months.
In this country, you have freedom of speech, unless you’re claiming an all-natural product cures anything. So I did the best I could to describe how wonderful this product works for me without making any claims that would have the FDA knocking on my door tomorrow.
What is it?
Pau d’arco is an extract of the inner bark of the taheebo tree, also called the lapacho or trumpet tree. The taheebo tree grows in the rainforests in Central and South America. In Central and South America, where pau d’arco is used in hospitals, a tea is generally made using the inner bark of this tree.
In the United States, you can find it in liquid and pill form. In some places, you can find bark shavings which can be used to make tea. The liquid form is what I use and you mix it with water to drink it. It tastes like what it is – bark.
What are its uses?
In South America, it is used in hospitals as a cancer treatment, pain reliever, anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, anti-psoriatic and anti-fungal.
Herbalists worldwide recommend its use to combat a wide range of ailments. Some of these include: yeast infections, influenza, inflammation, arthritis, fever, infections, colds, syphilis, cancer, lupus, diabetes and psoriasis.
What makes it work?
Scientists have found several key components within the inner bark of the taheebo tree which account for its healing abilities. These components are called quinoids, which are used in cancer treatments. Research has been ongoing in countries around the globe since the 1960s. Several United States Universities and governmental agencies have completed or are completing research on the healing abilities of the components found in pau d’arco. Most of this research has found that isolating the components creates too many dangerous side effects. Several research projects around the world have shown that only when keeping the combination of components as they are naturally found prevents these side effects. At this point, unless a way is found to take the active ingredients safely out of their natural state, the United States is not going to approve its use for the treatment of cancer or anything else.
