★★★★★
Chanca Piedra lowers blood sugar and my guess it that it creates a more alkaline PH so the mineral balance of the body remains intact. I had a rash of ringworm on my neck which didn't budge for weeks with the topical... Well I started drinking chanca piedra tea for my painful kidneys and guess what? The ringworm died! Rash totally cleared up!!
Once again, something to do with the blood sugar levels? Also, my TMJ doesn't bother me when I drink it. My blood pressure dropped to very low 96/69 or something like that.... SUPER low. Obviously...this makes one very drowsy so I don't drink it as often as I should.
Broad Benefits
★★★★★
My daughter was having an extremely painful gallbladder attack and I gave her the herb Chanca Piedra and it quickly subsided. I always have it on hand as I use it for myself for general detoxing of the gallbladder, liver, and kidneys of sludge and stones. I presumed this was the cause of her pain based on the location.
I continued to give her 1 pill a day for another week (after the first day of 2 pills) and she has had no signs of gallbladder issues like she used to get. Now I give her just 1-2 pills a week for safe measure. She would occasionally also get twinges and sharp pains in the past that were temporary...but those have completely stopped as well. It's an amazing herb that aids in all digestion issues, softens stones and sludge in your gallbladder and kidneys so your body and excrete them, detoxes and cleanses the liver/kidney/gallbladder, and is also anti-parasitic. The first time I took it my urine became cloudy one time, for the first time in my life. I became concerned and looked it up and discovered that it's actually a sign that your kidneys are cleansing/detoxing. It made sense and I was pretty amazed.
It does lower blood sugar slightly so if you're hypoglycemic I don't recommend it. I take 1 pill a day for occasional detoxing...one time I went to 2 pills and started feeling symptoms of low blood sugar so had eat. One pill I'm fine though. Incidentally I do give it to my dad and my son who have high blood sugar issues and it helps them. It's also known as an herb for diabetics.
Broad Benefits
★★★★★
I've been living in the Philippines for over five years now. As an uprooted Englishman, my own adjustment to the tropical climate was necessarily swift. For some years I've had a fascination for and have used herbs, but I was astounded at the proliferation and variety of fresh tropical herbs that I am now able to grow in my garden so easily. These range from simple well known herbs like Thyme and Oregano to more oblique herbs like Chanca Piedra, Heart Vine, Aloe Vera, Tumeric root and Neem. So, over a period of time, I experimented and used many of these herbs very successfully for my own systemic candida and other problems, which are now all gone. I have also used both Heart Vine and Chanca Piedra over the years to successfully help people with diabetes, gout, high blood pressure, arthritis and candida problems.
There was one old Filipino who was quite badly constipated -- in a serious condition -- he hadn't been able to go to the toilet for over a month!! His family had tried all the usual laxatives with no success at all. I figured it must have been a blockage caused by a lack of liver bile, so I gave him the Chanca Piedra and Heart Vine remedy. He had a rather large evacuation after about 3 days of taking this decoction and he is now fine.
But I have had more recent success with my old and favourite Chanca Piedra and Heart Vine decoction remedy. I live behind a large but poor Filipino shanty where I have a friendly relationship with the community. They are lovely, happy people. Recently, an uncle of a Filipino friend said he went to the doctor complaining of abdominal shooting pains and bloating. The doctors diagnosed gallstones and insisted that they would have to operate to remove the gallbladder (gallbladder removal rarely, if ever, cures gallstones in the long run).
But the uncle was far too poor and couldn't afford the operation anyway. So a family member mentioned this problem to me and I taught him how to recognize and find the herbs, which all grow in the area, and I showed him how to make the standard decoction -- which consists of just two herbs -- Heart Vine (Tinospora cordifolia) and Chanca Piedra (Phyllanthus niruri) with daily dosages. In the Philippines, both these plants are regarded as useless weeds believe it or not. But in Indian Ayurvedic medicine these two herbs are revered for their rejuvenating and tonic properties.
Anyway, two months went by and word was eventually passed to me that the uncle with the gallbladder problem had successfully passed out all his gallstones naturally while taking the decoction and he was healthy once again. I really love it when I get feedback like this. To me it is simply the best sort of confirmation whether a remedy works or not.
EC: Bill's above feedback on Chanca Piedra and Heart Vine was originally published in our recent 02/28/2011 newsletter. Read the newsletter in entirety here.