Petasites is butterbur
May. 23rd, 2012 11:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jinianBut I don't know the right way to pronounce the Latinate either. However, I can enlighten my neurologist on some other points.
1. Although he said Whole Foods was the place to get this herb (since I am now disqualified for all drugs approved by the FDA or by him to treat migraine effectively, we're trying some herbs), when I went to Whole Foods the only butterbur I found was a tincture from The Herbalist, which had an obviously post-manufacture label reading "FOR EXTERNAL USE ONLY." I chose not to buy that stuff.
2. Internet research reveals that whole butterbur extract contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids, which can damage your liver. Bad plan! I called The Herbalist, since they're local, to ask whether they had a non-PA butterbur option. It seemed reasonable to me, considering that the PA issue had evidently been enough of a surprise that they kludged the labeling. Nope, they don't standardize any of their extracts. Okay, bye. No, wait, they said, you can get butterbur in this other tincture mix. But I don't want to consume the poisons.
3. Turns out it's hard to get any one migraine-related herb, because herbalists take a kitchen-sink approach to formulation. Ironically, while butterbur, magnesium, and riboflavin have all been found effective individually, the triple combo (Migrelief) was not better than placebo, so their approach sucks. (That's not logical, claimed the neurologist. As a molecular biologist, though, I suggested maybe they act through different mechanisms that conflict somehow. He didn't seem to understand; just a doctor, after all.)
4. After a GREAT DEAL of calling around, I found that the only way to get safe butterbur-only extracts in Seattle is in 50mg pills (statistically significant improvement was from 75mg twice a day, but the only way to get those is from the manufacturer at 3x the price; internet people take 3/day of this to good effect) from Super Supplements by Seattle Center. When I called there, though, they quoted me a price 1.5x their online price. Said online price was carefully honed so that two bottles fell underneath the free-shipping threshold, but I probably need to try this for a while before seeing an effect. I ordered three.
5. Shipment arrived in good time. Got a nasty tension headache, probably unrelated, immediately after taking the first one, but I've been ramping up since then and doing fine. It's not helping so far, but I'm not having dire side effects either.
In conclusion, sheesh. And if you want to read the clinical study that convinced me to try this stuff, let me know.
1. Although he said Whole Foods was the place to get this herb (since I am now disqualified for all drugs approved by the FDA or by him to treat migraine effectively, we're trying some herbs), when I went to Whole Foods the only butterbur I found was a tincture from The Herbalist, which had an obviously post-manufacture label reading "FOR EXTERNAL USE ONLY." I chose not to buy that stuff.
2. Internet research reveals that whole butterbur extract contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids, which can damage your liver. Bad plan! I called The Herbalist, since they're local, to ask whether they had a non-PA butterbur option. It seemed reasonable to me, considering that the PA issue had evidently been enough of a surprise that they kludged the labeling. Nope, they don't standardize any of their extracts. Okay, bye. No, wait, they said, you can get butterbur in this other tincture mix. But I don't want to consume the poisons.
3. Turns out it's hard to get any one migraine-related herb, because herbalists take a kitchen-sink approach to formulation. Ironically, while butterbur, magnesium, and riboflavin have all been found effective individually, the triple combo (Migrelief) was not better than placebo, so their approach sucks. (That's not logical, claimed the neurologist. As a molecular biologist, though, I suggested maybe they act through different mechanisms that conflict somehow. He didn't seem to understand; just a doctor, after all.)
4. After a GREAT DEAL of calling around, I found that the only way to get safe butterbur-only extracts in Seattle is in 50mg pills (statistically significant improvement was from 75mg twice a day, but the only way to get those is from the manufacturer at 3x the price; internet people take 3/day of this to good effect) from Super Supplements by Seattle Center. When I called there, though, they quoted me a price 1.5x their online price. Said online price was carefully honed so that two bottles fell underneath the free-shipping threshold, but I probably need to try this for a while before seeing an effect. I ordered three.
5. Shipment arrived in good time. Got a nasty tension headache, probably unrelated, immediately after taking the first one, but I've been ramping up since then and doing fine. It's not helping so far, but I'm not having dire side effects either.
In conclusion, sheesh. And if you want to read the clinical study that convinced me to try this stuff, let me know.
