Review of Biocidin from Bio-Botanical Research

Rachel Fresco’s lecture would lead you to believe Biocidin is a cure all miracle product but having studied herbalism myself and more importantly having survived using herbs instead of antibiotics for over a decade with an extremely weak immune system prone to infection, I caution people on two fronts here:

1. Where is Biocidin on the ‘richter scale’ of Potency?

Fresco admits Biocidin will not knock down an established UTI which is a bit of a red flag for other strong established infections and which pans out in my own experience where garlic worked better. Leaving the situation to really be that Biocidin is known to be a quite good adjunct to other protocols including other herbs, and in some cases it may be fine on its own. I’ve heard practitioners say for example certain tests in mold cases were showing decreases in certain markers while using it. However would those same results have been got using garlic? Is anyone looking at that?

SO that tends to show where Biocidin sits on a ‘richter scale’ of potency imo. Notice, that is my opinion and experience. Will the million dollar double randomised placebo controlled clinical trial back me up – well that isn’t even on the table or in the planning, meanwhile life goes on and decades and lifetimes will pass before clinical trials can get round to asking all the questions. I tend to look at the history of medicine and healing and my own experience in a situation where I was told I’d be dead 16 years back and even today am being told by integrative functional medicine cardiologists who quote studies ‘there is no known therapy for what I have’ blah blah rubbish.

My experience fighting strong infections including bacteria and viruses:

• When I’m fighting a tooth infection and abscess [because the dentists are too afraid to operate and I can’t have another anaesthetic] I find huge amounts of organic garlic brings it down every time, but when I used liposomal Biocidin it did not, in fact I lost a few days and the infection ran away and got worse meaning I had to work even harder to bring it down. These infections are life threatening so I’m not going to be ‘polite’ about it, if someone pushes something as more powerful than it actually is. The implication yet unstated in clear terms fact that LSF Biocidin cannot take down an established UTI backs up my experience on this front.
• I’ve also used Biocidin throat for other infections and again garlic won when it didn’t touch them.
• I’ve heard the podcast between Kara Fitzgerald and Susan Blum where they discuss RA rhumatoid arthritis and they were fighting Klebsiella with botanicals, they added Biocidin to their protocol but suspected it was not strong enough by itself.
• Currently Tom O’Bryan and Rachel Fresco are recommending Biocidin as a preventive for flu – in my opinion that’s wrong on a couple of levels – as not only is it hugely expensive when less expensive herbs will work and one of the things she was recommending was spraying it on childrens clothes! But again I’m not so sure it’s going to boost the immune system as well as Echinacea either, at a fraction of the cost. My experience, when I lived at the nursing home in my 30s all the old folk got the winter vomitting bug and it passed in 3 days, with me I lost the ability to move my middle fingers and toes, the virus did a lot more damage, and it was 9 months before power returned to them. However I rang a master herbalist [Jill Davies] in the UK who suggested Echinacea, that’s all I used and I haven’t had a cold or flu since 2007 and I don’t take anything else even though I’ve been in contact with others who were infected.
• UPDATE: It’s now 2020, and I’ve tried using Dentalcidin, their new product in managing my lost filling that keeps getting infected [dentists still won’t take me on as a patient] and I find this product to be better for teeth and gums than the Biocidin itself and a gamechanger to my oral health though I still need other things from time to time, horses for courses. I’ve found it to be invaluable as a long term use product and it led to way less infections and overall improved gum health over time. It’s easier to take every day than high dose garlic [though expensive for some patients so clearly ‘alternatives’ and ‘competition’ must exist in health care models and is an issue for where tax dollars go in society]. On those occasions I do still get a big infection I still need to go up to garlic and salt rinses no matter how much Biocidin I throw at it, but those are few and far between now instead of all the time. It did not happen overnight, it’s better as a long term thing to take, has a different function for long term health in terms of biofilms judging by the excellent state of my gums after many months usage and easier to take than high dose garlic every day. Horses for courses, in an emergency you need more but for a chronic problem this Dentalcidin [and the toothpaste] is key.

2. Making Herbs Inaccessible and Unaffordable?

The other thing that worries me about the promotion of Biocidin is it is being marketed as a ‘superior’ herbal both in terms of composition and ‘quality’ and in particular being put out of the reach of consumers who must now go through a practitioner to get that herbal remedy [thankfully I’ve managed to find one shop prepared to sell it otc or I would not be able to access it at all]. And if doctors and practitioners limit their herbal knowledge to one product like that it passes an extra burden onto the rest of us.

There is another herbalist [Ronda Nelson] in another herbal tradition doing the exact same thing, promoting her line of herbs as superior and practitioner and exclusive, in fact she goes so far to say hers will work and all others won’t even those are based on and almost carbon copies of the Master Herbalist Dr. John R. Christoper! She actually has a series of lectures at FMU and enough students spoke up to get her to tone down that message by the end of the series because many of us have experience with herbs that work in well established other brands that are easily accessible.

However FMU has invited a herbalist from yet another tradition and he is pretty quick to state that yes while quality is an issue with herbs, there are good companies out there. He doesn’t like to name names. But I won’t hesitate to name some of the ones I’ve had fantastic results with in my personal life, and on whom those ‘superior’ brands have based their formulas today, ‘based’ being a polite word for plagiarized in this context. Good brands include Christopher Original Formulas, by Dr. John R. Christopher – they are fantastic, wild crafted herbs and when they can’t get wildcrafted they use organic! Some of the range is available at iherb but the full range can be got direct at places like Vitalerbs.com and DrChristopherShop.com. In the UK Jill Davies PhD has a very powerful set of tinctures based on her teacher Dr. Christopher but made with UK and European equivalents to American herbs – both of these are in the Master Herbalist tradition, and were around before that Australian company with the similar formulas came into existence. HerbPharm is another company, and some others available at iHerb have worked well for me too.

I’m the sort of person needs to see results with the herbs I use as I’m dealing with a health situation that needs those results. I have been given poor quality herbs by a Medical Herbalist once before, she copied Jill’s formula but bought non-organic cheap herbs and they didn’t work, and I nearly had a stroke. Quality is serious.

The big picture shows herbs have been the medicine of the people from the beginning of time, this ‘practitioner only’ direction where LSF Biocidin costs 100 euros excluding practitioner consultation costs presents a new direction and again in my experience of dealing successfully with an incurable extreme condition with inexpensive accessible-to-all herbs, it’s a worrying development in the history of healing and humanity for ‘doctors’ /  licensed practitioners to take over herbs and make them inaccessible and unaffordable. The Medical Herbalist who made the mistake with me was actually licensed.

Conclusion – Is Biocidin worthwhile?

• Well according to people using it for certain conditions and testing the markers, as in mold, it is useful. But like I said other less expensive things may work just as well for some things. Dentalcidin is useful long term for chronic oral conditions and oral health.
• Dr. Fresco gives a list of things they’ve had success with and are performing studies on and they are currently using it with Lyme disease with good results.
• Sometimes people can’t take huge therapeutic levels of garlic or some other herb, in that case Biocidin is an easer option.
• Bio-Botanicals Research have a GI cleanse protocol which as a Master Herbalist myself I can recognize as to some extent mirrored on the protocols of The School of Natural Healing, so I’d expect it to be effective for that reason alone as the SNH has a proven track record over many decades. It would be good however for people and practitioners to have the choice and informed consent that cheaper accessible options exist, yet it is also understandable that doctors nervous of and inexperienced with herbs may want a ‘clinical’ version of these things. My concern is they go on to acknowledge where these new protocols came from and don’t snuff out the original source or patient-access to other ‘non-doctor’ versions that work.

Diversity of Opinion and Choices at FMU

Notice FMU invites speakers from many different backgrounds. Here I’ve mentioned 3 different herbalists from different herbal traditions each with different products all guest lecturing at FMU. And Dr. Grisanti has invited them as part of a wider speaker audience who are not herbalists, so you will find herbal and non-herbal protocols presented side by side as options that you can choose according to your own persuasion, different modalities, tools in the toolbox. Dr. Grisanti also invites people to submit topics and speakers that they’d like to see present at FMU.

That is one of the things that sets FMU apart from the other functional medicine training centers, imo, because he’ll give the herbal solution to hormones as well as the opposite ‘bioidentical solution’ to hormones, and you can choose. Whereas if you paid $16k elsewhere to become a CFMP and were only taught ‘bioidenticals’ then what are you likely to use going forward lol?! Yes, I put ‘bioidentical’ in inverted commas because coming from the Master Herbalist tradition myself I know the natural herbs will work instead of them and it is controversial just how bio-identical they really are. I’ve heard Decker Weiss recently tell people at the men’s wellness summit they needed to be on hormones and in his 50s he need them, omg, sad that. Just not necessary and the lab tests exist to prove it. But I digress 🙂

The second thing that really sets FMU apart in my opinion is the focus on being a medical detective, finding the problems and solving them. The fees are much lower at this training course precisely because the focus is on the message and not on milking you as a cash cow. Bear in mind Spring Enrollment is coming up and I also am offering $250 cash back on the already low course fees, approx 10% off. See the payment plans here.

If you’d like to share your experience with herbs and brands drop me a line in the comments below.

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bonus free viewing of the lecture till april 23rd/ Spring enrollment

**For two weeks only i.e. till the end of the FMU Spring Enrollment period April 23rd, 2018, Rachel Fresco’s recent lecture on Biocidin was available to view for free. There will be a selection of different guest speaker lectures free to view during the enrollment period in each quarter.

Remember however if you are enrolling this term and would like the $250 voucher then check back here to collect it when enrollment goes live, it is the full CFMP certified functional medicine practitioner training fully online and at the best price – payment plans also available.

Next enrollment Oct 2020.

Mary