Friday, September 30, 2011

Flesh Wound, Fungus Fighter

What a title, huh?
Well, happy Friday to you anyhow!
(WARNING: if you do not like to see small wounds
or barefeet,
you may wish to skip this post.)



If you knew you were going to be stranded on a deserted island
and were given one choice of medicine to take with you,
what would it be:
Aspiring, Tylenol, Ibuprofen, Tums?

(Wait a minute, does this mean I am getting old
if I'm thinking about what medicine I would take if stranded on
a deserted island?)

 My medicine of choice would be a plant:
my good friend garlic.
I have found garlic to be indispensable in my life.
Not only does it ad flavor to food,
it is a natural anti-biotic.

but it's also great for wounds.

When I recently had a tooth worked on,
it gave me a lot of pain for a couple of weeks.
I was afraid a root canal was going to be prescribed,
so a couple times a day, I cut a small piece of garlic and
rested it against the gum line.

After the initial shock of it's powerful, raw taste,
the garlic would penetrate through the skin
bringing relief from pain while I knew it was also healing.

I never needed a root canal on that tooth,
and it healed well.


 This little cut on my finger doesn't look like much,
but had something about it that concerned me.

It seemed to be getting worse rather than better.
Hand wounds are forced to deal with more abuse
especially when cooking raw meats,
scrubbing apples that have lied on the ground where wild animals have eaten
and defecated,
feeding and dealing with animals in the barn,
and caring for little people who don't seem to understand 
either the meaning of dirty or gross.

My finger became swollen,
the cut was oozing,
and the pain seemed to be going up my arm
even though I'd applied salves to it as well as peroxide and alcohol. 

My husband suggested garlic,
and I wondered why I hadn't thought of it myself.

Sometimes he's smarter than I am.
(Okay, well, often, but let's not get into that here.)

(This picture was taken after a full day of garlic treatment,
and it's already looking much better).

(Also, please excuse the paint on my nails. It just won't come of:
I'm afraid I'm a very bad hand model).



I applied the garlic like this:
 I cut a slice off like this.



 The garlic slice is then centered on the bandaid.




The bandaid is wrapped tightly so that the garlic is securely in place.

It looks a little strange,
but this held on for the day.

I can always tell when garlic is eating infection
because it does not hurt the skin at all.

When it starts to hurt, it should be removed
because it will burn the skin.  That's why care should be taken
when using garlic on children.

I have used it on my daughter,
but only for a minute or so
and I just reapply a few times a day.

I am not a doctor,
so this is just a discussion of what I find effective for myself.

I know that garlic can have altering affects if used with certain medications,
so you will need to look into using it for yourself.

It has altering affects because it is powerful.

As for my hand wound,
I have worn the garlic in bandaid for two days:
the first day, through the night.
The second, I took it off at night.
I will probably do one more treatment through today.


For my final word, I want to mention toenail fungus.
After I had babies and while nursing,
my body seemed to be low in it's resistance.

I felt like I had no idea what was going on.
Hormones are great that way.

I developed toenail fungus in two of my toes.
(Did I just admit this to the whole world?
What a pleasant confession).

When my baby was eating food so that my milk was not her primary source,
I applied garlic treatments to my toes.

An even more effective approach is to soak the foot in hot water
and then apply.  This softening seems to make the toe
absorb more of the garlic's power.
Be forewarned however:
when I tried this method, it killed the skin around the toe
as well as the fungus.
Also, I minced the garlic and applied for this treatment.

It takes several treatments to get rid of it,
possibly weeks depending on how bad it is,
but it worked for me.


How I manage to get spots of paint even on my toes, however,
is a difficulty I cannot explain.



There are countless articles about garlic on the web.

Just type in Garlic Health to find lots more.
Again, I am not a doctor and cannot be specific with your own needs;
this is all just one woman's discussion
of finding a natural way to health.
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10 comments:

  1. how interesting! and to think, some folks might be taking that prescription drug for toe fungus (the one with all the nasty side effects!) when garlic might have worked! thanks for the tips! i'll keep this in mind.

    when i was a kid, my mother had a plant we called 'healing onion'. it grew like an onion bulb but instead of having tubular leaves, it had flat ones. we'd mush up the flat leaves and use it as a poultice like you use garlic. it would draw out infection and even slivers. :)

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  2. Interesting! I am going to check this out. Thanks for the tip!

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  3. Thanks for the info and the warning of keeping it on the skin too long--I would have burnt myself to death thinking "No Pain No gain" Right? I was thinking your house almost looked like a desert Island during the hurricane!, so I don't blame you for thinking that way:)

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  4. This is a great thing to know about garlic. We do take it, but I never thought of applying it directly to wounds.

    I am still laughing about the paint on your nails.

    ;)

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  5. Great ideas! I kept a garlic clove between my teeth and gums once for a sore throat(it worked), but my husband kept telling me I smelled like an Italian restaurant! lol

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  6. Never heard of this, and my mother is always coming up with weird medical advice! LOL Maybe I'll give it a try next time I cut myself!

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  7. What great ideas! I had heard of taking garlic in capsule form, but never the direct application. Thanks for the info.

    Many blessings,
    Lisa

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  8. wow, I've never heard of this, but it sounds intriguing!~
    BTW, I have good news! You won my giveaway at Audrey Eclectic! Send me your mailing address and I'll get the framed sketch to you :)

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  9. Wow, how interesting! I never thought of doing this. My husband is going to be so excited when I tell him about it(joke - he hates the smell of garlic on a person). Thanks!

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  10. Garlic is a go-to in our house as well though I use it orally. I haven't thought to use it topically. Thanks for the tip.

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