I am in charge of the largest phytotherapy clinic in Scotland and give lectures in the United States on weight control, nutrition and diabetes prevention. The aim of my visit here is not to share with you my clinical experience with Cat’s Claw but to help you understand how it works.

A tick-borne, multisystemic disease, Lyme borreliosis caused by the spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi has grown into a major public health problem during the last 10 years. The primary treatment for chronic Lyme disease is administration of various antibiotics. However, relapse often occurs when antibiotic treatment is discontinued. One possible explanation for this is that B. burgdorferi become resistant to antibiotic treatment, by converting from their vegetative spirochete form into different round bodies and/or into biofilmlike colonies.

Lyme disease was first recognized around 1975, when a mysterious outbreak of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis occurred around Lyme, Connecticut. In 1982, the causative agent of Lyme disease was discovered by Willy Burgdorfer. It turned out to be a spirochete (spiral-shaped bacterium) from the genus Borrelia, subsequently named Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb).

Despite the widespread belief that no remedy can treat more than a couple of diseases, the truth is entirely different. Even in conventional medicamental medicine, there are drugs -for instance corticosteroids or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs - that do treat or positively influence a large number of "diseases" or clinical symptoms. Additionally many antibiotics, in spite of their apparent or relative specificity, successfully treat quite a large number of different bacterial infections.

From an early age, I had a great interest in medicine. When I was young, I thought I wanted to be a brain surgeon. Later, in medical school at the University of Turku, Finland, everything interested me. I was also lucky enough to study a course on acupuncture, something that is not normally taught in Finnish medical schools.