[sonjah13]

Tawa tawa (euphorbia hirta) to increase platelets?

by sonjah13 on Mon Apr 28, 2014 1:04 am

I just wanted to ask if anyone has ever tried this before? After doing some research online to try and find things that raise platelets, we came across the plant "tawa tawa" [euphorbia hirta] which grows in the Philippines. It's originally used to cure dengue fever, but its underlining medical use is to promote the development of platelets, and prevent the destruction of them. There's quite a few scientific articles about it, but none that mention cancer patients.

My mom's been using it for the last 5 days and her platelets haven't increased (since that's basically impossible in her condition at the moment) but they're falling a lot slower than usual (it was about 35 a day and now it's at 15-20 a day in loss).

It's very hard to get a hold of anywhere in North America, but we managed to order it online, and I'm getting friends from the Philippines to bring some back as well.

Anyway, long story short, I was just wondering if anyone else has had experience with it, and if not I would probably recommend giving it a try. It's got no known side effects and and I guess at the end of the day it can't hurt.

Some background info on recent events:

My mom is recently in the hospital with end stage myeloma, and after receiving an extremely high dose of chemo as a last resort she ended up in the emergency ward. She had liver failure, kidney failure, lung infection, undetectable neutrophils and a mouth infection. They didn't think she was going to live through the night but she's doing much better after a week of heavy antibiotics and IV fluids.

Luckily her liver and kidney are improving every day and her neutrophils are making a comeback! Her doctor has given her about 3 months to live max, after battling myeloma for 4 years. She was recently rejected for a clinical trial of a drug called daratumumab because her platelets were too low (hence looking online for solutions).

[sheba]

Re: Tawa tawa (euphorbia hirta) to increase platelets?

by sheba on Wed Apr 30, 2014 7:52 pm

I have some experience of this. My sister contracted dengue fever a few years ago. My memory is not so good but, from what I remember, she had been in the hospital for nearly a week and her platelet count was going down and the doctors were already discussing blood tranfusion as the next step. One of our trusted household help told us about this plant because, in their town, they would give this to their kids who contracted dengue fever.

We had the leaves shipped over, my sister drank the tea, and long story short, her platelet count went up and she eventually got well. Her doctors as medical professionals said they would not make a recommendation for it, but said they have patients who swore by its life-saving properties and "if the patient wants to take it, the doctor can't stop her from it."

With regards to multiple myeloma, I have no experience for it. We have not thought about giving it to my dad. Although he is taking tea from graviola / soursop leaves together with his medicines.

[surbhijain93]

Re: Tawa tawa (euphorbia hirta) to increase platelets?

by surbhijain93 on Tue Jun 09, 2015 5:06 am

Please tell how to use / how to give it to the patient. I have the plant with me.