Infection: Skin & Wounds

Cuts, Boils & Abscesses, Bites & Stings, Cellulitis, Ulcers, Feet and Fungus

Part of the Infection series. This sheet adds what is special to the skin. The core program (the two infection formulas, Echinacea, liver flushing and the five levels) is on the General Infection sheet. Start there, and use this sheet alongside it.

Understanding the Condition

The Skin: The Body’s Largest Outlet

The skin is a wall that keeps germs out, and also one of the body’s great outlets for waste. When the liver becomes overloaded, the body will begin to detox through the skin, which is why itching, rashes, boils and slow-healing sores so often point back to the liver and bowel. A break in the skin (a cut, a bite, a scratch) opens the door; whether infection takes hold depends on how clean the blood and tissue are behind it.

What Goes Wrong

A cut or scrape lets germs in. Cleaned and closed quickly, it heals without trouble.
A boil or abscess is a pocket of pus where the body is pushing waste out through the skin. Dr. Christopher called an abscess “nature’s way of purifying the body.”
Cellulitis is an infection spreading through the deeper layers of the skin, most often on the lower legs: red, hot, swollen and tender, with the redness growing. It can spread to the lymph and blood. Don’t mess with this one.
Bites and stings bring venom or germs in under the skin. Most settle in a day; some, like the brown recluse, can kill the tissue around the bite.
Ulcers and bedsores form where circulation is poor or pressure has cut off the blood supply. An infected or bacteria-laden wound will not heal until it is clean.
Fungus (athlete’s foot, nail fungus, ringworm) lives on the skin and nails, and hides in shoes and socks to reinfect you.

Diagram: the order of wound care: purify it, draw it out, fill it in. — The order of wound care. Diagram drawn for H.E.A.L.

Get to the ER

Bright red blood that spurts means an artery. Apply firm pressure, and a tourniquet above the wound if needed. Always write the time the tourniquet went on, on the bandage itself; it matters. Cayenne can control the bleeding on the way, but herbs can’t repair an artery.

A cut that is deep, gaping, or into a joint or tendon, or that won’t stop bleeding
A red streak climbing from a wound, or a hot, painful lump in the armpit or groin
Redness spreading fast, with fever, chills or confusion
Skin turning dark, blue-black or numb around a bite or wound
After a sting: swelling of the face or throat, trouble breathing, or hives all over
Any bite from a venomous snake

See also the When Minutes Matter box on the General Infection sheet.

The Emotional Side: the Energy Work

Healing the whole person. We are body, mind and spirit, and all three must heal together.

Louise Hay, in her book Heal Your Body, describes these patterns:

Skin problems: anxiety, fear; old, buried guck; feeling threatened. Turn it around: I lovingly protect myself with thoughts of joy and peace. The past is forgiven and forgotten. I am free in this moment.
Cuts: punishment for not following your own rules. Turn it around: I create a life filled with rewards.
Injuries: anger at the self; feeling guilty. Turn it around: I now release anger in positive ways. I love and appreciate myself.
Scratches: feeling that life tears at you. Turn it around: I am grateful for life’s generosity to me. I am blessed.
Sores: unexpressed anger that settles in. Turn it around: I express my emotions in joyous, positive ways.
Boils: anger boiling over; seething. Turn it around: I express love and joy, and I am at peace.
Itching: desires that go against the grain; unsatisfied; itching to get out or get away. Turn it around: I am at peace just where I am.
Ingrown toenail: worry and guilt about your right to move forward. Turn it around: It is my Divine right to take my own direction in life. I am safe. I am free.

Emotional patterns paraphrased from Louise Hay, Heal Your Body (Hay House). These are not faults to blame anyone for; they are places to look and let go.

Areas Affected & Opening the Way to Healing

Start the core program from the General Infection sheet at the level that fits, and keep the bowels moving and the liver flushed: what is drawn out through the skin must also have a way out of the body. Then work on the area.

Fresh Cuts: Purify and Close

Cayenne first. I prefer the cayenne extract, as it is not so messy; for serious bleeding, some prefer the powder, which also helps plug the wound. Irrigate the whole wound with the extract (a turkey baster works well). The bleeding stops in seconds, and the cayenne purifies the wound so no infection tries to form.
Close it. Cinch the edges together as tightly as you can with a bandage. If it starts to bleed again, add more cayenne and redress it tight.

Cayenne Needs to Breathe

Any time you use cayenne on an open wound, cover it with a breathable cloth bandage. If it cannot breathe, the cayenne will heat up on the outside of the body. With a cloth bandage there is no worry.

Paper cuts. They can hurt for days while they think about healing. A drop of cayenne on a paper cut not only disinfects it but numbs it, so it stops stinging and hurting, and it speeds the healing. Often you never think of the cut again.
Deep wounds and gouges that can’t be pulled together: once clean, pack with the Healing Poultice (below).

Drawing It Out: Salve and Poultice

Infection Salve: the Herbal Aid 2 herbs triple-infused in olive oil. Apply it to any hot, red or inflamed sore and cover with cotton flannel. A handy trick: lay flannel on a sheet of Press’n Seal wrap, spread the salve on the flannel, and press it over the area. Members have reported doctor-diagnosed MRSA clearing with Infection Salve, on a baby’s bottom and on an adult’s shoulder.
Charcoal & Flaxseed Poultice: activated charcoal and fresh-ground flaxseed cooked into a paste and laid on warm, the heat opening the pores so the infection can be drawn out. Leave on 4 to 6 hours or overnight. For a stubborn infection, alternate it with Infection Salve packs, each on 4 hours or more. Never reuse a poultice.
Hot Epsom salt bath: helps a stubborn bite or boil come to a head, drain and release, followed by a salve pack.

Boils and Abscesses

Draw it: the Charcoal & Flaxseed Poultice over the boil. Normally the boil will open and drain overnight.
Clean the blood: burdock root tea daily, 1 rounded teaspoon of dried root in 8 to 12 oz of boiling water, steeped 15 minutes (add ½ teaspoon of burdock extract for a stronger tea). Continue 3 to 4 weeks after the boils clear.
Run the program: the Basic or Moderate level for about 10 days. Keep the bowels open, cut processed food and sugar, drink carrot juice and plenty of fluids. Repeated boils say the blood and liver need cleaning.

Bites and Stings

As soon as you notice the bite, apply a generous amount of Infection Salve over it, spread out in all directions for several inches if possible, and cover with cotton flannel. A common spider bite usually clears in about 24 hours with the salve alone; ant bites often in minutes.
A bad bite (like the brown recluse): the full program. Charcoal & Flaxseed Poultice overnight, alternating with Infection Salve packs by day; the infection formulas every 2 hours with Echinacea; a hot Epsom salt bath to draw it out; and an ELF. A brown recluse bite will usually need lancing at some point. A recluse bite is often painless at first; symptoms come 2 to 8 hours later. The spot turns pale with a red ring around it (a bull’s-eye), may blister, and over 12 to 48 hours the center can sink and turn bluish, then black, as the tissue dies.

Cellulitis

Infection Salve and ELF-ing: the full infection program. Don’t mess with this one. Run the Moderate or Intense level with its liver flushing, keep Infection Salve packs over the area, and use the Charcoal & Flaxseed Poultice over it overnight. And clean up your diet: in my opinion, this is a junk food thing. Watch the edge of the redness; if it keeps spreading, or fever and chills come, get medical care now.

Ulcers and Bedsores

Clean it first. An infected wound will not heal. Use the Charcoal & Flaxseed Poultice until all signs of infection are gone, with Infection Salve around the edges.
Fill it in. Pack the wound with the Healing Poultice (slippery elm, plantain, goldenseal, comfrey and a pinch of cayenne, mixed with distilled water or aloe to a stiff paste). It forms a protective herbal scab while new flesh grows in from the bottom.
Bring the blood. Before each dressing, soak the area in hot cayenne water (½ teaspoon cayenne tincture per gallon of hot water), or alternate 7 hot and 7 cold. See the Healing Poultice sheet for the full routine.

A Note on Comfrey

Comfrey knits flesh quickly, which is why the Charcoal & Flaxseed Poultice always goes first, so the wound is clean before it starts to close. Some herbalists advise caution with comfrey during pregnancy, while nursing, or with liver disease; if that’s you, check in before using it.

The Feet

Hot and cold foot soaks: 1 teaspoon cayenne per gallon of hot water in one bucket, ice water in the other; 7 changes, at least 60 seconds in the cold. The ice plunge is where the power to break up the blockage happens.
Then M&L Salve massaged over the foot to open the lymph, and an Infection Salve pack over any infected area. Do at least one ELF any time the body is having a hard time healing.

Fungus: Athlete’s Foot, Nail Fungus and Ringworm

Black Walnut is the most powerful antifungal; there is nothing better.

Freeze everything that touches your feet. Put all your shoes and everything that touches your feet into the freezer for at least 24 to 48 hours, to kill the fungus so you don’t reinfect yourself. The washer will not kill it all. Freeze them again at the end of the healing.
Athlete’s foot: do the hot cayenne and ice-water soaks to speed the circulation, then cover the area with Black Walnut Salve and pull on clean socks.
Nail fungus, mild: Black Walnut Salve. Easy, and no staining.
Nail fungus, serious: Black Walnut extract on a cotton ball taped over the nail, for several weeks to a couple of months. The nail will stain completely black. When the fungus is gone, the nail has to grow out, which can take most of a year.
Ringworm: Black Walnut extract or salve as a pack over the patch, bandaged 4 to 6 hours at a time. The extract is stronger but stains the skin; the body sloughs off the stain in a few days. How long it takes depends on the size and how long it has been there.

Itching, Hives and Rashes

When the liver becomes overloaded, it will begin to detox through the skin. Healing Salve (Dr. Christopher’s Healing Ointment) calms the itch on the outside; an ELF, or a week of liver flushing, clears it from the inside. If nausea comes during the ELF, the L/P and Digestive Tonic drink on the General Infection sheet settles it.

Use distilled water for all teas, and when taking your extracts in hot water.

Level of Commitment

Gentle support. A cut, a sting, a single boil, athlete’s foot: the area work above, with the Basic level for a few days if needed.
Focused cleansing. Repeated boils, a bad bite, a stubborn ulcer, itching that won’t quit: the Moderate level with its ELFs, the poultice nightly, burdock for the blood, and the bowels kept moving. Fungus takes patience: weeks for the skin, months for a nail.
The full program. Cellulitis, a brown recluse bite, spreading infection, or a wound threatening a limb: the Intense or Intensive level from the General sheet, alongside medical care when the ER signs appear.

A Loose Healing Plan

Right away: cayenne for a bleeding cut; Infection Salve, spread wide and covered, for a bite, sting or hot sore.
That night: the Charcoal & Flaxseed Poultice over anything infected, boiling or swelling.
Start the core program at the level that fits; add burdock for boils; keep the bowels moving.
Alternate poultice and salve packs; use the hot Epsom bath or hot and cold soaks to draw and circulate.
Fill in deep wounds and ulcers with the Healing Poultice once they are clean.
Watch for the ER signs every day, and continue 3 to 5 days after the skin is clear.

Stories from the Work

Dara’s Story: Michael’s Thumb

In 2008 my husband was laying tile in our upstairs bathroom. Cutting the backer board on a Friday night, the knife slipped; it split his thumbnail in half and laid his thumb muscle open the long way down. I took him to the office, got a bottle of cayenne extract and a turkey baster, and irrigated the whole wound. The bleeding stopped in seconds. I cinched it together as tight as I could with a bandage. The next morning it tried to bleed a little, so I did more cayenne and redressed it. By Monday it was sealed over and he was using the hand. Because the cayenne purified the wound, no infection ever tried to form; it healed with only the smallest scar. About six months later he let out a holler at his desk: a jolt like an electric shock through his thumb. That was the nerve rejoining. He has never had a problem with it since. The body knows how to heal if we give it the tools and get out of the way.

Dara’s Story: The Toe She Almost Lost

Visiting a friend in California, I met a woman who was scheduled to have her big toe amputated the next day. An infection had set in after an ingrown toenail was removed, no antibiotic had touched it, and blue veins were running up her leg. I cooked up a Charcoal & Flaxseed poultice in my friend’s kitchen and packed it over her whole foot to leave on overnight. By morning the redness and the blue veins were gone. She canceled the operation, and she still has her toe.

A Member’s Story: Three Days for a Brown Recluse

Years ago, one of our employees was bitten by a brown recluse; his bite was lanced at the doctor’s, and it was weeks before he was clear of the mess. So I was thrilled in 2021 when a member did the full program on his bite. Infection Salve under flannel right away; the bite was lanced; the Charcoal & Flaxseed poultice that night; poultice and salve packs alternating the next day, with the infection formulas every two hours and Echinacea. A hot Epsom salt bath drew out a discharge like cottage cheese; then a salve pack, an ELF, and a poultice overnight. The second day needed less, and the bite was clear in three days.

The member’s brown recluse bite. Member’s photo, shared with permission.

The bite after the hot Epsom salt bath drew out the discharge. Member’s photo, shared with permission.

A Member’s Story: Flesh That Grew Back

A member with dark skin fell from a stool past a large nail sticking out the side, and it gouged out her flesh, too deep and open to be sewn. She packed it with the Healing Poultice. Week by week the hole grew shallower as the muscle and flesh regrew, until it came off like an old scab. The new skin matched her color perfectly, with no scar.

Dara’s Story: Weeds, Ants and a Spider

Pulling weeds from our raised bed without a glove, I upset a spider and a whole mound of ants, and was bitten by all of them. I react strongly to ant bites. I spread a thick layer of Infection Salve over my burning, swelling hand and sat at my desk while it worked. The ant bites cleared in about 15 minutes; the spider bite stopped throbbing in a couple of hours and was clear by morning.

A Member’s Story: Teenage Feet Again

A woman in New York called asking how to clear her toenail fungus, and then I didn’t hear from her for nearly a year. When she called back, it was to celebrate. She had used the Black Walnut extract, and her toenails had turned completely black; she wore socks and shoes until they grew out, which took nearly a year. When they came in, they were perfect. She said she felt like she had teenage feet again.

Watch

Using an Herbal Salve on the Skin.

A Simple Drawing Infection Poultice.

Wound Care: Bed Sores.

Handouts

More on Skin & Wounds

This information is for education only. It is not meant to diagnose, treat or replace care from a qualified health professional.