Tuberculosis

In late 1995, I addressed a group of more than 100 physicians at FlowerHospital in Toledo, Ohio. After my talk on herbal medicine, one older doctor drew me aside and told me this story: Decades earlier, when he was much younger, he met a man who had been admitted to a sanatorium for tuberculosis (TB). That was during the time when sanatoriums were in vogue and people with TB were usually sent away to them for their remaining days. Once consigned to a sanatorium, few people ever went home again.

The man the doctor described, however, had somehow been given a reprieve. And this was the curious thing. According to the doctor, the patient with tuberculosis happened to find a discarded load of onions on the grounds of the sanatorium. Tired and depleted from TB, he began eating the onions, enjoying several a day. Within a month he was well enough to leave the institution.

Now there's a story to delight and intrigue a plant medicine enthusiast. It turns out that onions really do have antibacterial properties, so it's just possible that this man's multi-onion diet really had something to do with his cure.

An Old Scourge Makes a Comeback

Tuberculosis is a chronic, usually contagious bacterial infection that can spread through the body in the bloodstream and lymph nodes, but it usually focuses on the lungs. To become infected, most people need to be repeatedly exposed--by living or working at close quarters with a carrier of the disease, for example.

If you spend 8 hours a day for six months or 24 hours a day for two months with anyone with active TB, there's a 50 percent chance that you will get it. It's no wonder that the disease centers in poverty-stricken areas where people live crowded together without adequate medical care.

Fortunately, my own family had lots of living space in Panama 30 years ago when we learned that our live-in maid had tested positive for TB. My whole family immediately was checked for the disease. Luckily, the test results showed that we were all TB-negative.

TB is the most common cause of death from infection in developing countries, causing 26 percent of avoidable adult deaths and 6.7 percent of all deaths. In the United States, those at highest risk include health-care workers, long-term hospital patients, prison inmates and guards and people with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

The bacteria generally remain dormant after entering the body, and only about 10 percent of infected individuals actually come down with overt TB. The remaining 90 percent produce TB antibodies, signifying exposure, but they show no signs of infection and cannot spread the disease.

In most cases, antibiotics eradicate TB. But in recent years, as AIDS has triggered an upsurge in cases, the bacteria have become resistant to one or more of the standard antibiotics. Currently, about 1 percent of new TB cases in New York City are caused by bacteria resistant to one antibiotic, while up to 7 percent of recurrent cases are resistant to two or more antibiotics. People who have TB that is resistant to multiple drugs have only about a 50 percent chance of survival, about the same chance as people had before antibiotics were developed.

TB is very serious. If you test positive, by all means get evaluated by a physician. If your doctor recommends medication, take it, and take all of it.

Green Pharmacy for Tuberculosis

In addition to your medical treatment, there are a number of herbs that might prove helpful.

Echinacea (Echinacea, various species). Confronted with any bacteria, including the type that causes TB, I'd take echinacea to boost my immune system even after I started on antibiotics. That's precisely what I did in 1996 when I may have contracted Lyme disease. I took two 450-milligram capsules of echinacea three times a day, hoping to spur my immune system to resist the bacteria. Alternatively, you might also consider trying up to 40 drops of tincture three times a day. (Although echinacea can cause your tongue to tingle or go numb temporarily, this effect is harmless.)

Forsythia (Forsythia suspensa). The Chinese use forsythia as an antibacterial antiseptic. Strong teas are very active against several bacteria. The plant has been used clinically against TB, often combined with honeysuckle. To fight a variety of infections, I use forsythia twigs in a 1:2 ratio with honeysuckle in a tea or hot lemonade. I think this approach would be good for treating TB.

Garlic (Allium sativum). If I suspected that I had TB, I'd take garlic until I could get to a physician, and maybe even afterward. The Chinese use garlic to treat TB, with decent results, I hear. If I feared that I'd been exposed to TB, I would take at least one garlic capsule a day, and I'd make sure the label said that each capsule was standardized to the equivalent of at least one gram of freshgarlic.

In their excellent new book, Garlic: The Science and Therapeutic Application of Allium Sativum and Related Species, Heinrich P. Koch, Ph.D., professor of pharmaceutical chemistry and biopharmaceutics at the University of Vienna, and Larry D. Lawson, Ph.D., a research scientist at Nature's Way, an herb company in Springville, Utah, suggest that garlic may help antibiotics do their job in fighting TB. Studies show that allicin, the antibacterial compound in garlic, enhances the action of such antibiotics as chloramphenicol (Chloromycetin) and streptomycin against TB bacteria.

Honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica). Honeysuckle has been used for centuries in China to treat a variety of respiratory problems, including TB, bronchitis, colds, flu and pneumonia. Honeysuckle flower extracts are strongly active against several bacteria, including those that cause TB.

I would not hesitate to use this herb if I had TB. In summer I'd make a tea with a handful of flowers per cup of boiling water and drink up to three cups a day. In winter I'd boil twigs and dried leaves to make a bitter tea, which I would mask with lemon and honey, turning it into hot honeysuckle lemonade.

Licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra). Since, according to my database, licorice has up to 33 percent antibacterial compounds on a dry-weight basis, it's small wonder that the Chinese use licorice to treat TB. I often use licorice roots, which are also antiviral, to sweeten my herbal teas when I have colds, and I drank licorice tea when I was flirting with Lyme disease. I'd probably add licorice to any herbal preparation I took for TB if I were battling this disease.

Eucalyptus (Eucalyptus globulus). This is another herb used in Asia to treat TB. Unless you live in tropical America or in the San Francisco Bay area, you may have trouble finding fresh eucalyptus leaves, but the essential oil is readily available at shops that sell aromatherapy supplies.

Try a drop or two added to water or tea. That's a rough equivalent of the Chinese dose. You cannot ingest many essential oils, but eucalyptus is an exception, as long as you don't get overly enthusiastic. Don't use more than a drop or two: This is powerful stuff.

Onion (Allium cepa). Onions have almost as much antibacterial action as their close relative,garlic, so I wasn't surprised to hear that story about the TB sanatorium resident who cured himself by eating onions. If I had TB, I'd eat lots of garlic and onions.