bex thanks for the reply : the web sights that both you and somedaysoon posted were very informative , my niece that lives in the central kansas has been battleing lyme disease for a while ,she was given the traditional lyme treatment through injection ,and now is dealing with joint problems , and now we find out that the treatment was pulled from the market due to possible link to arthritis / joint problems , some info that I found on line suggest that you can use regular cat claw ,and others say do not use regular cats claw ,what to do? I would like to help her out ,but need to find out the correct info to give her