As it turns out, herbs can be a powerful weapon in the fight against disease. They are so effective that in a clinical trial they simply reversed the symptoms. Let’s take a look at this study:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30599916
Seventy-five patients with multiple sclerosis who met the criteria to participate in the study (including no signs of a flare-up in the past month, presence of flare-ups in the past 2 years) were randomly divided into three groups. One received a placebo, another 250 milligrams of the herbal extract, and the third 500 milligrams of the extract.
After a year, the patients’ health was compared. In both groups getting the herbs, there was not a single patient with more than one flare, in the placebo group there were patients having up to 3-4 flares. New T2-associated lesions appeared in the placebo group, but faded in both groups getting the herbs, more strongly in the group with the higher dose.
What’s most interesting, however, is that the placebo group had a worsening of the condition, on average having almost half a point more on the EDSS scale. The 250 mg group had a slight improvement, and the group receiving 500 mg lost an entire point!
It must be said plainly and clearly, these people were getting healthier.
The mystery herb the researchers used was… yarrow. Yes, the same yarrow that we pass every day walking past any meadow, one of the most common weeds. Whose dried can be bought for pennies. A mixture of dried stems and flowers was used, using an aqueous extract that corresponded to a dose of 2 and 4 grams of dry mass.
During the preparation of the infusion, the flavonoids present in yarrow are partially degraded by heat. About half of the luteolin disappears, but apigenin remains intact. However, it’s hard to say whether these substances were responsible for the medicinal effect, or perhaps something else that scientists have not yet discovered and that may disappear under the influence of temperature. Ideally, we should either consume the dried plant without any treatment, or copy the procedure used by the scientists, i.e. soaking the dried plant for 24 hours and evaporating. Soaking the dried for 24 hours and drinking it without evaporation would also have an identical effect. Alternatively, you can simply make an infusion.
If you buy ready-made preparations, you should pay attention to how they were prepared, here, unfortunately, I can’t help, as each manufacturer uses different technologies. The important thing is that for full effect, use the equivalent of 4 grams of dried and that it is an aqueous extract.
As in all such reports, it is important to remember that individual clinical trials are sometimes falsified. Unfortunately, we have the choice of either relying on such a single study or doing nothing. There will probably never be a study to answer the question of whether yarrow definitely works.
There are quite a few reports on the effectiveness of Chinese herbal mixtures, unfortunately, these are usually uncontrolled products and it is hard to replicate the procedure used in the study. Two preparations with the same name may have completely different compositions.
Olive leaf extract, as one of the few commercially available things, can destroy viruses. Perhaps its use will lower Epstein-Barr virus levels, which could have a very positive effect on the course of the disease.
Nigella seed extract had a very positive effect on the course of an experimental disease in rats, one can venture to say that it cured the animals:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26261504/
But it is important to remember that experimentally induced disease in animals can have quite a different course than in humans, and often the results obtained in this way are not reliable. Nevertheless, the herb is worth recommending, as it has helped very strongly in other similar conditions where studies have already been conducted with humans. Ground (or chewed) grains are sufficient, at a dose of 1 to 2 grams per day. You can risk bigger dose, or you can try drinking oil, which has a similar effect, in a dose of a few milliliters.