Some of the best tools for infection are the simplest. Two ingredients from your kitchen shelf, activated charcoal and flaxseed, cooked into a thick black paste and laid on warm, will pull infection, boils and toxins right out of the body. I have used this poultice for boils, earaches, tooth and gum infections, vertigo, swollen glands, and stings and bites.
You can watch me make it here:
And for more ways to work on an infection from the outside, here is my video on topical applications:
What You Need
- 1 cup of water, distilled if you have it.
- 3 to 4 tablespoons activated charcoal powder.
- 3 to 4 tablespoons flaxseed, freshly ground.
- A piece of old cotton sheet, about 12 inches square.
Making It
Grind the flaxseed, then whisk it with the charcoal into the water in a small pot. Bring it to a boil and stir until it thickens to a paste about like toothpaste. If it isn’t getting thick enough, add more flax, or more of both. Spread the hot paste in the middle of the cloth and fold it up like a burrito so the filling is completely contained. Let it cool just enough to be comfortable, then lay it on while it is still quite warm. The heat opens the pores so the infection can be drawn out. Plastic wrap and a washcloth over the top keep it warm longer.
Leave it on overnight, or at least 2 to 4 hours during the day. Then throw it away. Never reuse or reheat a poultice; it holds what it has pulled out.
Where It Goes
For earaches and vertigo, always put a poultice over both ears, even when only one is affected. I recently discovered that two wide sweatbands, angled low around the head and over the ears, hold them in place beautifully. A pair of pantyhose works too: wear the seat like a shower cap and tie the legs over the poultices. Nylon stretches rather than tightens, and children take well to it. For children, always use the pantyhose rather than sweatbands; the bands are too large for them and could slip down around the neck. And any small child wearing a pantyhose cap overnight should sleep with a parent, or be watched through the night in shifts.
For a tooth, gum or mouth infection, lay it on the cheek over the sore spot and hold it the same way, 4 to 6 hours or all night. For boils, sores, stings and bites, place it right over the area; you can make it as small as a Band-Aid or as big as a sheet. It is good over swollen lymph nodes in the neck or armpits, and over the liver, changed daily until the bad odor is gone for two days running.
Before you work on healing an ulcer or a deep wound, always use this poultice first to clear any infection; then move on to the healing poultice in Filling In Deep Wounds and Ulcers.
Why It Works
Activated charcoal adsorbs. Toxins cling to its surface by an electrical attraction, which is much stronger than simply soaking something up. The flaxseed holds the heat and moisture against the skin while the charcoal does its work.
A Tip from My Own Kitchen
When I needed this poultice recently for an infection in my mouth and the vertigo that came with it, I learned to grind a supply of flaxseed ahead of time. It saves a step when you need the poultice in a hurry, but keep the ground flax in the freezer. It loses its value quickly sitting out in a warm room.
The Key for My Own Gums
After a broken tooth was pulled, a pocket of infection in my gum would not clear with all my regular infection work, and I was fighting vertigo at the same time. When my left ear began to ache, I put a poultice over both ears, held with two wide sweatbands, and changed them every 4 hours over two days. The first few made my ears sore, as if the tissue itself was full of toxins; a little healing salve took care of that. The pocket on my gum began clearing with the very first poultice, and by the fourth it was completely gone, and my dentist’s x-rays later showed me infection-free. I was surprised that a poultice over the ears would pull infection from the gums, but it was the key. The whole story is in Herbal Aids for Clearing an Infection in the Teeth and Gums, and the vertigo side of it in Natural Support for Vertigo.
A Toe That Was Saved
Years ago I met a woman whose big toe was scheduled to be amputated the next morning. An infection had set in after an ingrown toenail was removed, and nothing the doctors gave her had touched it. I made her one of these poultices for her whole foot, and she wore it all night. The next morning she came by to show me: the redness and tenderness were gone, and so were the blue streaks that had been running up her leg.
Work from the Inside, Too
A poultice draws from the outside. Support the body from the inside at the same time; see Our Two Infection Fighters, Echinacea: Telling the Immune System to Gear Up and Getting the Herbs to Where the Infection Lives.
This is shared for educational purposes, from my own study and experience. It is not medical advice.
