Cats claw ( Gou Teng)

[docjleonard55]

I have recently been reading about cats claw (Chinese herb Gou Teng) as useful for PWP. Does anyone have experience with this herb, or with the Chinese herbal concoction called Tienma Gouteng Yin?

[park_bear]

In this systematic review of TCM: Herbal Medicine Formulas for Parkinson’s Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trials. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl... Gou Teng - Ramulus Uncariae Cum Uncis - appeared as an ingredient in 6 of 14 studies, 2 of which improved motor symptoms.

Corynoxine (from Ramulus Uncariae Cum Uncis) down regulated a-syn in PC12 cells by inducing autophagy: Chen, L. L., Song, J. X., Lu, J. H., Yuan, Z. W., Liu, L. F., Durairajan, S. S., et al.(2014). Corynoxine, a natural autophagy enhancer, promotes the clearanceof alpha-synuclein via Akt/mTOR pathway. J. Neuroimmune Pharmacol. 9, 380–387. doi: 10.1007/s11481-014-9528-2

Uncaria at 4 g in the evening caused me diarrhea in the morning, so it is off my list.

[Kvt40 in reply to park_bear]

Cat's claw is used to treat lyme disease. Parkinson's is on the differential diagnosis list of lyme disease. Perhaps that's why it helped with motor movement - it killed some pathogens (maybe even lyme).Cats claw would cause diarrhea if it kills pathogens so I wouldn't stop the cats claw but reduce the dose to a tiny amount and slowly increase it so that your body can manage the die-off.

[Farooqji in reply to Kvt40]

How much is the strength of the extract you are taking

[Kvt40 in reply to Farooqji]

The cats claw is a tincture 1:5 and herbalists recommend 1 drop in a glass of water twice a day building up by 1 drop each day till you can manage 30 drops twice a day. Herbs are best started very slowly and building up as you can tolerate them.

[lenamm]

That formula is used for a type of yin deficiency. It works well for tremors/seizures caused by yin deficiency. I would recommend going to a TCM practitioner. The formula in TCM treats the patient, not the disease. I am a veterinarian who does TCM. I would not use it as a single herb.

[Godourtruehealer in reply to lenamm]

It has been used a single herb with great results, just use it in low doses. And people shouldn't make a mistake between cats claw which is uncaria tomentosa, this is not the gou teng for parkinson. Uncaria rhynchophylla is the right one.

[Farooqji in reply to Godourtruehealer]

Have you used it or know someone using it?

[docjleonard55 in reply to Farooqji]

I have not used it. That is why I asked.

[lenamm in reply to Godourtruehealer]

I'm talking about gou teng