The Clinical Use of Dipsacus Radix in the Treatment of Various Joint Diseases Including Lyme Disease

Abstract

Recently, the clinical uses of Dipsaci radix in the treatments of arthritis like symptoms have been noticed a lot amongst natural and integrative medicine practitioners in US. Dipsacus spp has been mainly used as teasers for combing wools in western world 5, 6, 36, wherein the eastern world, the effects of the herb have been appreciated for hundreds of years as a potent muscle and joint healer and effective blood circulator 3, 18, 39. The purpose of this research is to investigate whether the radix of Dipsacus spp (commonly known as Teasel root) has beneficial medicinal properties, and to identify what properties have been studied and what have not. As many valuable botanicals have been known to be very effective clinically, but also been lacking in actual scientific studies to prove the efficacy, the clarification in the current status of the studies may be helpful in implementing the treatment protocols with more controlled approaches. Knowing what is anecdotal, clinically proven or scientifically proven, may always be a important step for any practitioners. There are many different species of Dipsacus; however, for the purpose of the research, only the common species used for Dipsaci radix will be discussed here to stay in focus for the proper clinical use.