Chanca Piedra FAQ (Questions About Phyllanthus niruri)

Chanca Piedra FAQ: Chanca Piedra can support kidney stone treatment. I drank it when I had Lyme disease.

Chanca Piedra FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

We get a lot of questions about Phyllanthus niruri, also called Chanca Piedra. Chanca Piedra is a plant commonly used to treat kidney stones. I personally used it to help get rid of Lyme disease. Here, I’ll answer some common Chanca Piedra FAQs.

What’s So Great About Chanca Piedra?

This is our favorite Chanca Piedra FAQ. Chanca Piedra (also called Phyllanthus niruri and Stone Breaker) herbal tea and herbal extract offer tremendous health benefits. Native to the Amazon region of Peru, Chanca Piedra is a nootropic, an adaptogen, and an antioxidant. With 100+ identified bioactive compounds, no other plant in the world offers as many health benefits.

Being phytochemically rich, Chanca Piedra has the potential to help many body systems. It has been traditionally used to support the renal system, help the immune and lymphatic systems combat viruses and bacteria, support the digestive system, and reduce stress on the pancreatic system. In fact, Phyllanthus provides such powerful immune support that we have included it, along with 5 other super-botanicals, in our proprietary ShieldsUp! Immune Support Kit.

Did Chanca Piedra Really Help You When You Had Lyme?

This is our second favorite Chanca Piedra FAQ. I had Lyme Disease for almost 4 years, and I drank Chanca Piedra (Phyllanthus niruri) tea to help clear Lyme Disease from my body. You can learn more about how Chanca Piedra works to inhibit Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) here. You can read more about how Chanca Piedra helped me rid my body of Lyme Disease here.

Looseleaf Tea or Concentrate?

When you order Phyllanthus niruri, you have a choice of looseleaf or concentrate. Many people want to know why they might choose one over another — it’s a common Chanca Piedra FAQ. Many people also want to know which is best for making tea.

Why choose one over the other? Generally it comes down to lifestyle and how you want to ingest the nutrients. All three choices are potentially good ones depending on your needs and lifestyle.

Phyllanthus niruri looseleaf is the whole plant cut to a loose “tea” cut. Looseleaf is my personal choice for brewing tea. The looseleaf is the most traditional form, and it’s a great way to enjoy a full tea experience. Some ancient healing traditions (Ayurveda, for example) believe strongly in the whole experiential process of smelling and tasting the decoction as part of the healing. Science agrees with the concept that the nose can prime the immune system. You can read more on this subject here.

Phyllanthus niruri concentrate is an extract. Ours uses a dual-process extraction that gets the most nutritional value out of the plant. (Imagine a combination of a tincture and a tea that has been both professionally prepared and dried to a powder in a sealed system that doesn’t lose any beneficial components.) The concentrate is great if you’re adding Phyllanthus niruri to a smoothie or if you’re traveling and want to be able to make “instant” batches easily.

Instructions for making Phyllanthus niruri tea from looseleaf and concentrate can be found here.

How Much Should I Drink? And How Often?

This Chanca Piedra FAQ is especially important.

I like Phyllanthus as a tea. Technically, it’s a decoction, which for simplicity’s sake is a long-brewed tea. Normally, I suggest drinking three cups a day as a support and then drinking less when you reach the maintenance stage, which occurs when your symptoms are gone for a month or so. The rule of thumb in herbalism is that it will take one month of herbal support for every year your system has been imbalanced, stressed, or dealing with a chronic issue.

To make the brewing process easier, I like to make all three cups in the morning and then drink the tea throughout the day. I measure 13 grams (about 2/3 of a cup) of plant to 30 ounces of water. For a single cup, the measure would be a heaping tablespoon of the loose-cut dried plant to 8 ounces of water.

If you have a decoction pot, set the temperature to 90c and the timer for 30 minutes. If you’re going low tech, simply bring the water to boil and then let it cool one minute before pouring over the plant material. You can also use a regular teapot or a French press. I like to use a French press because I can keep an eye on the tea color. I find that watching for when all the plant matter has hydrated and sunk to the base of the press works as a great rough timer for when the decoction is ready. If you use a teapot, let the mixture steep for about 35 minutes. If you brew it longer, you may find the taste more bitter. However, a longer brew won’t subtract anything from its beneficial value.

Does Phyllanthus Have Any Adverse Effects?

Phyllanthus is not stimulative. It has no caffeine and no cardiac glycosides. There are no reported adverse side effects of drinking the tea regularly. That said, everybody’s body chemistry is different. Trust what your body tells you.

Does Chanca Piedra Have to Come from Peru?

Yes. 100%. Terroir matters — and it affects the plant’s efficacy. You can read more here.

Can You Advise Me on My Medical Condition?

This Chanca Piedra FAQ is an important one. Every day, we hear personal stories about the unfortunate health struggles people face when dealing with Lyme disease and other chronic diseases and chronic illnesses. Every day, we hear about how people have spent thousands of dollars chasing this cure or that and how they’ve received little help from doctors. Every day, these stories inspire us to want to do everything we can to help people optimize their health.

I myself used Phyllanthus niruri to treat both kidney stones and the Lyme disease I had for 4 years. I found Phyllanthus niruri to be highly effective, and science helps to explain why my success wasn’t a fluke. (To familiarize yourself with medical research, visit the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) website and search on “Phyllanthus niruri” or “Chanca Piedra.”)

However, to be clear, my team and I are not medical doctors and cannot offer medical advice or recommendations on treatment for any specific health issue. If you haven’t already done so, I highly recommend that you see an integrative health professional.

Chanca Piedra FAQ: More Questions

That’s what I like to hear! Education is key. To help you get started, here are some Phyllanthus niruri and Chanca Piedra FAQ materials you might find useful (we have hundreds of resources on our blog):

• Phyllanthus niruri Therapeutic Uses
• How Phyllanthus niruri Helps Inhibit Helicobacter pylori
• How to Find a Trusted Source for Phyllanthus niruri
• How Phyllanthus niruri may Help Those with Chronic Lyme Disease
• Balanced Immune Support with Phyllanthus

To learn more, a good place to start is with our very detailed Chanca Piedra FAQ page.

Read the FAQ Buy Phyllanthus