Author: Dara Dietz

Dara D Dietz is co-founder with her Husband of H.E.A.L. Marketplace, a private Natural Healing Association. As a teacher and counselor she has been supporting the members of H.E.A.L. with Natural Healing information and herbal supports since 1998. She continues to maintain strong ties to the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Since healing her own kidney ailments she has assisted thousands of people in discovering and using natural herbal remedies. Dara has written and compiled numerous articles on a wide variety of natural healing topics. Drawing from her own healing experiences and borrowing from the vast wisdom of natural healers long departed, she continues to provide H.E.A.L.’s international membership with down to earth natural healing wisdom in H.E.A.L.’s bi-weekly newsletters. Dara and her husband currently reside in Rutherfordton, North Carolina.

Infection: Skin & Wounds

October 18, 2026October 29, 2026 Dara Dietz

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.

Herbal Healing, Infection, Colds & Flu

Infection: Ears, Sinuses & Eyes

October 18, 2026 Dara Dietz

Earaches, Ear Infections, Sinus Infections, Pink Eye and Styes

Part of the Infection series. This sheet adds what is special to the head. 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

It Is All Connected

The ears, sinuses and eyes all drain into the same place: the back of the nose and the throat. Tears drain through the tear duct into the nose. The sinuses, hollow spaces in the bones of the face, drain into the nose. The eustachian tube runs from the middle ear to the back of the nose. When that common drain is blocked with mucus and waste, everything above it backs up, and the backed-up waste is where infection takes hold.

That is why a head cold so often turns into an earache, a sinus infection or pink eye, and why the work for any of them is the same: open the drain, draw the infection out, and support the body with the core program.

Diagram: the eyes, sinuses and ears all drain into the nose and throat. — The eyes, sinuses and ears all drain into the nose and throat. Diagram drawn for H.E.A.L.

The Ears

An outer-ear infection often starts from a scratch or from water left standing in the ear (swimmer’s ear). A middle-ear infection comes from a blocked eustachian tube, and can linger a long time; little ones who rub and pull at their ears are telling us something is wrong. An inner-ear infection can disturb the balance, bringing dizziness, vertigo and nausea.

The Sinuses

When mucus and waste pack into the sinuses and harden, the sinuses can no longer drain. Pressure builds behind the cheeks, eyes and forehead, the nose stops up, and infection settles in the stagnant waste. Impacted sinuses need that hard-packed waste softened and drained before they can clear.

The Eyes

Pink eye usually comes from a clogged tear duct, or an infected one. When the tears cannot flow, the eye cannot wash itself. A sty is an infected oil gland at the edge of the eyelid, a painful little boil that is the body pushing waste out through the delicate tissue of the lid. Pink eye is very contagious.

Get Yourself to the ER

If you have any of these signs, get emergency care now, and keep your herbal work going alongside it:

Sudden eye pain with blurred or lost vision
Red, hot swelling spreading around the eye
An earache with a stiff neck, high fever or confusion
A red, swollen, tender bump behind the ear
Severe sinus pain with swelling of the forehead or around the eyes

See the When Minutes Matter box on the General Infection sheet for the signs that apply to any infection.

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:

Sty: looking at life through angry eyes; angry at someone. Turn it around: I choose to see everyone and everything with joy and love.
Keratitis (inflamed eye): extreme anger; a desire to strike out at what you see. Turn it around: I let the love from my own heart heal all that I see. I choose peace.
Eye problems: not liking what you see in your own life. Turn it around: I now create a life I love to look at.
Pink eye (conjunctivitis): anger and frustration at what you are looking at in life. Turn it around: I see with eyes of love. There is a harmonious solution, and I accept it now.
Eye problems in children: not wanting to see what is going on in the family. Turn it around: Harmony, joy, beauty and safety now surround this child.
Earache (outer, middle or inner ear): anger; not wanting to hear; too much turmoil; parents arguing. Turn it around: Harmony surrounds me. I listen with love to the pleasant and the good. I am a center for love.
Sinus problems: irritation with one person, someone close. Turn it around: I declare that peace and harmony dwell in me and surround me at all times. All is well.

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: Herbal Aid 1 is especially good for the sinuses and the head. Keep the bowels moving with LBF, so what drains from the head has a way out of the body. Then work on the area itself.

The Ears

Treat both ears, always, even if only one is infected.
The Charcoal & Flaxseed Poultice over both ears, applied as hot as can be tolerated, and left on overnight. Two wide sweatbands hold it in place for an adult. For a child, use an old pair of pantyhose worn like a cap, with the legs tied to hold a poultice over each ear. Make it a game; children don’t mind it at all. Most of the time one overnight application clears the infection. See the Charcoal & Flaxseed Poultice sheet for how to make it.
Ear oil. If you have it, add 4 to 6 drops of Garlic & Mullein oil in each ear, with a cotton plug. If you don’t have it, the poultice works on its own.

Never Put Anything in a Broken Eardrum

Do not ever put anything in an ear with a ruptured or broken eardrum. It can cause horrid pain.

If fluid or pus is draining from the ear, or the pain stopped suddenly after a pop, the eardrum may be broken. Use the poultice over the outside of the ears only, and nothing inside the ear.

The Sinuses: Snuff

Snuff is a fine herbal powder of bayberry, goldenseal, garlic and a little cayenne. It liquefies the hard-packed mucus in the sinuses so it can drain out in all directions: out the nose when you blow it, and down the throat.

Use: place a small pinch on the back of your hand. Hold one nostril closed and snort it up into the sinus through the other. Keep snorting it up until you taste the bitter goldenseal running down your throat. Then do the other side. Your nose will begin to drain; blow it as often as needed.
How often: I have used it repeatedly in a day when my nose was clogged, with no ill effects. Let common sense tell you when to stop: once the nose is clear and open, you are pretty much done.
Children: if a child can understand enough to copy an adult showing them how, and they need the sinuses cleared, they are old enough to use it.
Too blocked to draw air? Open the way first. Cut up several onions and let the vapors get the eyes watering and the nose running. Or blend fresh horseradish with apple cider vinegar to the consistency of applesauce, and hold ¼ to ½ teaspoon between your tongue and the roof of your mouth. Then begin the snuff.

Snuff in a Neti Pot

For a gentler rinse, snuff can be used in a neti pot to flush the sinuses.

Water: one cup of warm, tepid water. It must be distilled water, or water boiled and cooled. Never use water straight from the tap in a neti pot.

Add: about ¼ teaspoon of plain non-iodized salt, so the water doesn’t sting, and ¼ teaspoon of snuff to start. Work up to what is needed.

How often: it depends on the issue; some do it twice a day. Let common sense guide you.

The Eyes: Eyebright and Infection Salve

Flush both eyes with the Eyebright wash, even if only one is affected: 1 to 3 drops of Eyebright in an eyecup, topped with room-temperature distilled water. Fit the cup over the eye, tip your head back and open the eye into the wash. Expect a minute or two of sensation as the circulation floods in and recedes, carrying waste out with it. See the Eyebright sheet for full directions.
Pink eye is often cleared in one application. The Eyebright opens the clogged tear duct and lets the tears flow again. It works very quickly.
Styes: flush the eye with Eyebright first, to clear out any debris and speed healing. Then close the eye and apply Infection Salve over the lid. Place a gauze pad over the closed lid and cover it with an eye patch.

Pink Eye Spreads Easily

If another flush is needed, soak the eye cups in a bowl of hot soapy water with a little bleach.

When children have pink eye, keep bleach water handy and wipe anywhere little hands have touched.

As an adult, don’t touch your eyes. If you do, wash your hands before you touch anything else.

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

Level of Commitment

Gentle support. A simple earache, a stuffy head or pink eye: the area work above, with the Basic level of the core program for a few days.
Focused cleansing. A stubborn or recurring ear or sinus infection: the Moderate level with its liver flushing, the poultice nightly, snuff daily, and the bowels kept moving. Continue 3 to 5 days after all symptoms are gone.
Long-standing trouble. Ear or sinus infections suppressed with antibiotics for years can surface again as the body cleans house. Don’t be discouraged; do the work again. One application isn’t always enough to pull an old infection all the way out.

A Loose Healing Plan

At the first sign: Herbal Aid 1 in hot water with honey, Echinacea, and the core program at the level that fits.
Ears: the poultice over both ears overnight; ear oil in both ears if you have it and the eardrum is whole.
Sinuses: onion or horseradish if the nose is fully blocked, then snuff as often as needed, or the neti pot rinse.
Eyes: Eyebright flush in both eyes; Infection Salve under a pad for a sty. Clean the eye cups and wipe down surfaces.
All along: keep the bowels moving, drink plenty of fluids, and watch for the ER signs.

Stories from the Work

Dara’s Story: The Poultice and the Pantyhose

My daughter was forever getting ear infections, until another homeschooling mother taught me a trick back in 1996: a Charcoal & Flaxseed poultice, as hot as can be tolerated, over both ears, always both, even when only one is bothering the child. The trick is keeping it in place, so we used an old pair of pantyhose worn over the head like a cap, with the legs fastening a poultice over each ear. My children loved playing “boogie man” in their poultice caps. Most of the time, one overnight application is all it takes.

A Story From the Work: “My Brains Are Coming Out My Ears!”

In the early 2000s, a little girl who spent her mornings with us was facing yet another round of ear tubes. Her mother put a Charcoal & Flaxseed poultice over both of her ears while she did her schoolwork. Before long she came running in tears: “Mommy, Mommy, my brains are coming out my ears!” Her shoulder was soaked with fluid being drawn out of her inner ear. She never needed the tubes, and her days of ear infections were over for good.

Dara’s Story: The Bottle She Wouldn’t Let Go Of

Around 2003 my book editor came to our editing meeting with a burning case of pink eye she had caught from her little girl. I took her upstairs and flushed her eye with the Eyebright wash; the discomfort eased almost immediately. When I offered to send her home with a fresh bottle, she wouldn’t hear of it. She paid me right there for the half-used bottle, and held onto it through the whole rest of the meeting.

Dara’s Story: Cutting an Onion

When I can’t breathe through my nose, my own fix is simple: I cut an onion until my eyes water and my nose runs. That opens my sinuses enough to snort up the snuff. Once it hits, it melts the blocked-up mucus loose, and it runs right out my nose and down my throat.

More on the Ears, Sinuses & Eyes

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

Herbal Healing, Infection, Colds & Flu

Infection: Throat, Chest & Lungs

October 18, 2026October 18, 2026 Dara Dietz

Colds & Flu, Sore Throat & Strep, Laryngitis, Croup, Coughs, Bronchitis, Whooping Cough and Pneumonia

Part of the Infection series. This sheet adds what is special to the throat, chest and lungs. 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

One Airway, Top to Bottom

Air comes in through the nose and mouth, passes the throat and tonsils, goes through the voice box and down the windpipe, then into the bronchial tubes, which branch like an upside-down tree into the lungs. The whole way down, the airway is lined with a thin layer of mucus that traps dust, germs and irritants before they reach the delicate lung tissue. In a healthy body that mucus stays thin and is cleared without our noticing.

When the body is congested, the mucus thickens into old, hard debris that cannot be coughed out. That is where infection settles. A cold that is not cleared works its way down: a scratchy throat becomes a cough, a cough becomes bronchitis, and bronchitis can settle in the lungs as pneumonia. The lower it settles, the more serious it is and the harder the work, which is why the time to act is at the first scratch in the throat.

Diagram: the airway from the throat to the voice box and windpipe, the bronchial tubes and the lungs, with the infections that settle in each. — Each part of the airway, and the infections that settle there. Diagram drawn for H.E.A.L.

What Goes Wrong

Colds and flu take hold in mucus-rich tissue of the nose and throat. Caught at the first sign, they can usually be cleared quickly.
A sore throat or strep throat is inflammation of the throat and tonsils. The tonsils may swell from a clogged lymph system; strep forms pockets of pus on the tonsils and the back of the throat.
Laryngitis is inflammation of the voice box. The vocal cords swell, and the voice goes hoarse or quits altogether.
Croup is swelling and spasm in the voice box and windpipe of a young child, with a harsh, barking, crowing cough, usually at night. It is the spasm on top of the swelling that makes the breathing so frightening.
Coughs and bronchitis come from inflamed bronchial tubes. Left there, the thickened mucus keeps irritating the tubes, and an occasional cough becomes a chronic one.
Whooping cough is a bacterial infection with coughing fits that go on, cough after cough, until there is no air left; the breath sucked back in makes the “whoop.” Babies under 6 months may not whoop. Once called the 100-day cough, it commonly takes six to ten weeks to clear.
Pneumonia is a swelling and infection of the lungs in which parts of the lung become plugged with a thick fluid. Breathing becomes labored and the fever climbs.
Pleurisy is inflammation of the lining around the lungs, making every breath painful. Dr. Christopher saw it settle where mucus collects in a weak area of the lungs, often from never breathing deeply.

Why the Bowels Matter

Dr. Christopher taught that constipation is one of the chief causes of bronchial trouble: “the bowels must be cleared and kept open.” Mucus has to leave the body, and the bowel is its main way out. When the bowel is not moving everything out, the body cannot send more mucus there, so it sits and thickens wherever it is, and it can fill the lungs. Keep the bowels moving two or three times a day with LBF all through this work.

Get Yourself to the ER

If you have any of these signs, get emergency care now, and keep your herbal work going alongside it:

Struggling to breathe, or lips or fingernails turning blue or gray
A child who can’t swallow, is drooling, or sits leaning forward to breathe
Croup with a high, harsh sound on every breath, even at rest, that steam and cool air don’t ease
A baby who stops breathing or goes limp after a coughing fit
High fever with fast breathing, chest pain or confusion
Coughing up blood
A throat so swollen on one side that the voice is muffled and the mouth won’t open
A cough that lasts for weeks, with night sweats and weight loss. Tuberculosis needs medical testing and treatment; it is contagious.

See the When Minutes Matter box on the General Infection sheet for the signs that apply to any infection.

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:

Throat problems: the inability to speak up for one’s self; swallowed anger; stifled creativity; refusal to change. Turn it around: It’s okay to make noise. I express myself freely and joyously. I speak up for myself with ease. I express my creativity. I am willing to change.
Sore throat: holding in angry words; feeling unable to express the self. Turn it around: I release all restrictions, and I am free to be me.
Tonsillitis: fear; repressed emotions; stifled creativity. Turn it around: My good now flows freely. Divine ideas express through me. I am at peace.
Laryngitis: so mad you can’t speak; fear of speaking up; resentment of authority. Turn it around: I am free to ask for what I want. It is safe to express myself. I am at peace.
Coughs: a desire to bark at the world: “See me! Listen to me!” Turn it around: I am noticed and appreciated in the most positive ways. I am loved.
Bronchitis (and croup): an inflamed family environment; arguments and yelling; sometimes silent. Turn it around: I declare peace and harmony within me and around me. All is well.
Lung problems: depression; grief; fear of taking in life; not feeling worthy of living life fully. Turn it around: I have the capacity to take in the fullness of life. I lovingly live life to the fullest.
Pneumonia: desperate; tired of life; emotional wounds that are not allowed to heal. Turn it around: I freely take in Divine ideas that are filled with the breath and the intelligence of life. This is a new moment.
Influenza: a response to mass negativity and beliefs; fear; belief in statistics. Turn it around: I am beyond group beliefs or the calendar. I am free from all congestion and influence.

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. Herbal Aid 1 is the formula for the throat and chest: warming, it moves the blood and cuts through the mucus. Keep the bowels moving with LBF so what is loosened has a way out. Then work on the area.

Colds and Flu: Catch It at the First Sign

Herbal Aid 1 tea. At the first sign, I make a hot cup of Herbal Aid 1 with honey and sip it all through the day. I am usually on top of my symptoms in about 24 hours. Start Echinacea the same day.
The Flu Buster. 2 ounces of Echinacea and 2 ounces of Supertonic in 64 ounces of distilled water, sipped through the day. Do it for 2 to 3 days.
When illness is going around, take Lobelia, 1 to 2 dropperfuls 2 to 3 times a day, through the exposure window. My stories here are all the same: everyone else got sick, and the person on Lobelia didn’t.
Fever: help the fever do its work with the Epsom salt sweat bath; never sweat a small child. Both are on the General Infection sheet.

The Throat: Sore Throat, Strep and Laryngitis

Sip Herbal Aid 1. A hot cup of Herbal Aid 1 with honey, sipped slowly so it rolls over the sore spot.
The Ice Poultice. Wet a washcloth, fold it to fit around the neck, and freeze it until it is hard, about 20 to 30 minutes. Wrap it snugly around the throat, cover it with a hand towel, and fasten it with a safety pin. Keep the mouth shut: no talking, eating or drinking for about 45 minutes, until the body has warmed the cloth through. Then sip a second hot cup of Herbal Aid 1 with honey.
Swollen tonsils and glands: alternate two packs over the neck. An M&L pack: M&L Salve spread on a piece of flannel, wrapped around the neck and covered. And the Charcoal & Flaxseed Poultice over the swollen area. Do one one night and the other the next night, or one at night and one during the day. Either way is helpful. Keep going until the swelling is gone.
A tired or failing voice responds to the same Ice Poultice, done before you need to speak.

Why the Ice Poultice Works

The body senses that very cold spot and rushes warm, fresh blood, loaded with fresh antibodies, to the throat to warm it. That blood does the real work, clearing the inflammation and infection in the time it takes to warm the cloth. I have seen it take the pus pockets off strep throat in 45 minutes.

Croup

Antispasmodic first. Antispasmodic is my go-to for croup. It is made with lobelia seed and is much stronger than plain Lobelia, so only a few drops are needed: 1 or 2 drops for a newborn or young infant, and a bit more for older children. It relaxes the spasm that is closing the airway.
Steam. Run the hot shower and sink to fill the bathroom with steam, and hold the child upright in it.
Cool night air. Bundle the child up with a hat, blanket and slippers, and sit outside in the cool air for 5 or 10 minutes, breathing calmly. It cools the irritated bronchial tubes and calms the spasm.
M&L Salve rubbed over the chest and back.

Babies Need a Different Approach

Older children: Lobelia as needed for coughing spasms, dosed for size; propped up on pillows at night; steam, cool air, and plenty to drink.

Babies: a nursing baby gets the formulas through mother’s milk. In a serious case, 1 or 2 drops of Antispasmodic can be slipped into the baby’s mouth during a feeding, followed by milk. Hold the baby upright, pat the back firmly with a cupped hand, and use the steam. Gently suction the nose if it is needed.

Your calm voice matters more than anything. Talk the child through every fit.

Coughs and Bronchitis

Bronchial Support (formerly the Bronchitis Formula) is built to clear a cough that hangs on: it loosens the old, hard mucus in the bronchial tubes so it can be coughed out. ½ to 1 teaspoon every 3 to 5 hours.
Lobelia for coughing spasms: 1 full dropperful. It relaxes the spasm and also helps loosen the mucus, so it does not stop the body from clearing it.
M&L Salve massaged over the chest and back. This is my preference for the chest.
Onion and honey syrup. Dr. Christopher’s simple cough syrup: dice onions into a stainless steel, glass or unchipped enamel pan (never aluminum), pour honey over them until they are covered, and add nothing else. The honey draws the onion’s power out into a syrup. Take it by the spoonful. Keep it cool, or it will sour.
Lung Support strengthens the whole respiratory tract when it has been weak for a long time, or after pneumonia: 2 to 4 droppersful, 3 to 5 times a day. It works best used steadily over time, not just in an emergency.

A Note on Coltsfoot and Comfrey

Bronchial Support contains coltsfoot and comfrey, two traditional cough herbs. Use it while the cough is active rather than month after month. If you are pregnant or nursing, or have liver trouble, check in with me before using it.

Whooping Cough

A member who nursed her children through whooping cough wrote down what she did, and she put it together perfectly. Her three goals: keep the child rested, build the immune system, and get the mucus out regularly.

Stay calm. Your calm voice keeps the child from panicking. Remind them to open their mouth and breathe; children will try to suck in air through closed lips.
Lobelia at night. Every 2 hours, or whenever a child wakes coughing. It lasts about 2 hours, and it helps them sleep. During the day, give it only if they are miserable; let them cough some to loosen what is in the lungs. Give Echinacea and the infection formulas consistently.
Keep the mucus moving. Encourage them to spit out what they cough up. Plenty of water and herbal tea keeps the mucus thin. Superfood in juice or a frozen banana shake for extra nutrition. No white flour, dairy or fried food. And make sure the bowels move very well every day.
Garlic. Rub the juice of a cut garlic clove on the soles of the feet several times a day and put socks on. At night, rub it on the chest and behind the ears too.
Prop them up on pillows at night. Use steam and a cool-steam humidifier, with a little eucalyptus sprayed into the air, and the cool night air for a bad spell.
And pray. In the busyness of remedies and cleaning, don’t forget the greatest help for calming fear.
Everyone else in the house: the Preventive level, with Lobelia through the exposure window.

A Mother’s Garlic Goo: a Garlic Rub

Warm 3 tablespoons of coconut oil until melted, then add 3 tablespoons of olive oil. Take it off the heat and add 3 tablespoons of fresh minced garlic. Blend on low, then on high for 2 minutes. Strain it well; chunks of garlic left in will burn the feet. Store it in a glass jar in the fridge; it turns into a soft paste in about an hour.

Rub it on the feet and ankles, and cover with socks. It is oily and messy, and the house will smell of garlic, but your body will be thankful.

Pneumonia: Garlic Paste to the Feet

Garlic paste to the feet is natural healing first aid for pneumonia. I have seen lungs clear overnight. The full directions are on the General Infection sheet, along with Reading the Paste, which tells you each morning how the body is doing. In short:

Press 6 to 12 cloves of garlic and mix 50/50 with Vaseline or a non-petroleum jelly. Oil the feet, then put on a layer of plain jelly.
Spread the paste ½ inch thick on the soles only, cover with gauze and a white cotton or wool sock, and stay off the feet 6 to 8 hours or overnight. The bowels must be open.
Adults: no more than two nights in a row if at all possible. Children: one night, unless it is extremely important. An infant does not have the body heat to pull the garlic in: dress the baby in a footed sleeper with a hot water bottle by the feet.
It can be done even in a hospital, if family can get in to put it on.

Run the program at the Intense or Intensive level with its ELFs, Bronchial Support for the cough, and Lobelia for spasms. Pleurisy is worked the same way. Afterward, Lung Support helps rebuild the lungs.

The Sick Room

A cut onion. Cut an onion in half and set it in a bowl by the head of the bed. I am not sure exactly what it does, but it absorbs something and makes a difference in a sick room. It is smelly, but helpful.
Clear the air. Herbal Air (eucalyptus and citrus oils; the recipe is on the Herbal Air sheet) sprayed into the room clears the air during colds and flu. Keep it away from cats.
Fresh air and sunshine, fluids, rest, and light, mucus-free food: juices, fruit, vegetables and Superfood.

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

Level of Commitment

Gentle support. A cold, a sore throat, a simple cough: Herbal Aid 1 tea at the first sign, the Ice Poultice, onion syrup, and the Basic level for a few days.
Focused cleansing. Bronchitis, a cough that hangs on, croup, or whooping cough in older children: the Moderate level with its ELFs, Bronchial Support, Lobelia for spasms, and the bowels kept moving. Whooping cough takes six to ten weeks; be patient and keep the child rested.
The full program. Pneumonia, whooping cough in a baby, or anyone struggling to breathe: the Intense or Intensive level from the General sheet, with garlic paste to the feet, alongside medical care when the ER signs appear. A chest that has been weak for years: Lung Support steadily for months.

A Loose Healing Plan

At the first tickle: Herbal Aid 1 in hot water with honey all day, Echinacea, and Lobelia on hand. The Flu Buster for flu.
Sore throat: the Ice Poultice between two hot cups of Herbal Aid 1.
A cough: Bronchial Support, onion syrup, M&L Salve on the chest and back, and Lobelia for spasms. Antispasmodic, steam and cool air for croup.
Settled in the chest: step up the level, garlic paste to the feet, ELFs, and keep the bowels moving.
In the sick room: a cut onion by the bed, steam, cool air, pillows to prop up, plenty of fluids, light food.
All along: watch for the ER signs. Continue 3 to 5 days after every symptom is gone, then Lung Support to strengthen.

Stories from the Work

Dara’s Story: Razor Blades in My Throat

I woke up one morning with what felt like razor blades in my throat; swallowing nearly brought me to tears. I made a hot cup of Herbal Aid 1 with honey and sipped it slowly, letting it roll over the sore spot. While I drank, I froze a folded wet washcloth until it was hard, then forced it around my neck, covered it with a hand towel and pinned it. Mouth shut, no eating or drinking, for the 45 minutes it took my body to warm it through. When it came off, I drank a second cup of Herbal Aid 1. The pain was completely gone: about 90 minutes start to finish, though it was a long 90 minutes to live through.

Dara’s Story: The Minister’s Voice

A very sweet older minister could not get through a sermon; his voice would give out. When he did an Ice Poultice before he was to speak, he could talk freely.

Dara’s Story: The Cough That Wouldn’t Leave

One summer, in a vegan cooking class I was teaching, a woman couldn’t stop coughing. She had lived for years overseas and had had the cough for over five years; the climate had played havoc with her bronchial tubes. I gave her a bottle of Bronchial Support. By the next week the cough was gone, and it never returned.

A Member’s Story: A Mother’s Nights with Whooping Cough

“My children seemed perfectly normal during the day, but nighttime was always more intense. I brought them all into our bedroom to sleep around us on the floor, so I could hear everyone and get to them easily. I gave them Lobelia every 2 hours, or whenever the first one woke up coughing, and rubbed garlic on their feet, chests and behind their ears. During the baby’s worst week I slept sitting up with him in a chair. When he had a fit I patted his back all the way to the bathroom, filled it with steam, and gave him a few drops of Antispasmodic in breast milk; then he would nurse and fall back to sleep, until the next fit. His lips turned blue a few times, but he always took that breath. I was always so happy to see the sun come up in the morning!”

That baby is sixteen now.

A Story From the Work: The Baby Who Coughed Once

In 2010 there was a whooping cough epidemic in our area. One mother was working hard to keep it from her 3-month-old. He would have none of the Lobelia; it is made with apple cider vinegar, and to an infant that is too much of a change from mother’s milk. So we used the Antispasmodic instead. She slipped 1 or 2 drops into his mouth while he was nursing and squirted milk in after it. He looked at her as if to say “What did you just do?” but kept on feeding. She also rubbed garlic oil on his chest and back. He woke coughing only once, one night. The germs never got a foothold in him.

Dara’s Story: Sixteen Days Old

The youngest person I know of to have garlic paste on the feet was a baby just 16 days old, with pneumonia. I coached the family by phone. The baby was dressed in a bunny suit with a hot water bottle by the feet, because an infant does not have the body heat to pull the garlic in. The lungs cleared. The baby peeled a layer of skin from the feet, but there were no blisters, no tears and no upset.

Dara’s Story: The Death Watch

An elderly woman was in the hospital, and it was a death watch. The doctors would not let them do anything to help, except that they didn’t care if the family put garlic paste on her feet. They didn’t expect anything to come of it. The adult family pushed their way in, and I coached them on what to do. The next morning she was greatly improved. The doctors said they were glad the drugs had finally kicked in.

Dara’s Story: Reading the Paste

Some years ago my husband got the flu just as he started to give birth to a kidney stone. The pain made him throw up easily, and I could not get any herbs into him, so I just did the garlic paste to his feet, three nights in a row. The first morning the paste had turned a bright fluorescent green: we had pulled out live virus. The second morning it was partly bright green and partly brownish; his immune system was getting on top of it. The third day we soaked his feet in aloe vera gel to clear the burn, and that night we applied the paste for the last time. In the morning it was brownish to black. Each day around lunchtime his symptoms had improved greatly, and by noon on the third day he was nearly symptom-free.

From Dr. Christopher: Garlic for a Two-Year-Old

Dr. Christopher was called out in the small hours to a little boy, not yet two, with double pneumonia. The doctor had told the parents nothing more could be done and that he would be back in the morning to sign the death certificate. It was far below zero, fifty miles from an ambulance, and the plumbing was frozen, so Dr. Christopher could only oil the boy’s feet and put on the garlic paste. The next morning the doctor came back to find the boy sitting in his high chair, drinking juice and breathing normally. Nearly twenty years later, a young man came up to Dr. Christopher after a lecture to shake his hand and thank him for that night.

From Dr. Christopher: An Onion by the Bed

Dr. Christopher told of a medical doctor whose patient had strep throat that nothing would touch. The doctor tried an old remedy his grandfather had told him about: he diced a big onion, put it on a saucer, and set it on a table by the bed, where the man could only breathe it in. The next morning the strep throat was gone.

Watch

Natural Support for Laryngitis & Sore Throat.

Garlic Paste to the Feet.

Garlic Paste to the Feet (first video).

Classes & Further Reading

Lung Health Class
Lungs & Respiratory System Class
Colds, Flu, and Related Nuisances (Dr. Christopher)

More on the Throat, Chest & Lungs

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

Herbal Healing, Infection, Colds & Flu

Infection

October 18, 2026October 19, 2026 Dara Dietz

The Core Program for Clearing Any Infection, and the Signs That Call for Help Now

Before the Crisis Comes

Fear makes for very poor decisions. Learn what to do before the crisis comes, and it may never become life-threatening.

Sometimes people don’t know what to do, so out of fear they do nothing until it is almost too late. Read this sheet now, while all is well, and keep the basic supports on hand.

Understanding the Condition

What an Infection Is

An infection is the invasion and multiplication of germs (bacteria, viruses, fungi such as yeast, or parasites) that do not belong in the body. It may stay in one place, such as a boil, a tooth or an ear, or it may spread through the blood and lymph to the whole body. An infection is a serious condition. Left to run out of control, it can become fatal, so any infection should be taken very seriously and cleared as quickly as possible.

The program for clearing an infection is the same wherever it lives and whatever kind it is. That is why this sheet comes first. The other sheets in this series (head, teeth and mouth, chest and lungs, bladder and kidneys, female, and skin and wounds) add only what is special to that area, and point back here for the program itself.

Why Germs Take Hold

Dr. Christopher taught that “germs cannot live on healthy tissue, because germs are scavengers and can only live on filth and waste materials.” An infection from a small cut, he wrote, means the bloodstream and body as a whole are loaded with mucus and waste: “this is the open door.”

Between the time a germ is caught and the time symptoms show is the incubation period. During that time the germ is blocking up the system so it can take over. Lobelia works to keep the body open, so the blockage an infection needs never gets established. That is why Lobelia is part of the Preventive level below.

The Way Out

Clearing an infection can only be done by supporting the body’s own defenses, not by suppressing symptoms. As the herbs go to work, the infection and its waste (the die-off) are carried by the blood and lymph to the liver, and out through the bowels. The liver is the vacuum cleaner of the body; doing an ELF (Emergency Liver Flush) is like changing the vacuum cleaner bag.

If the liver or bowel is backed up while that waste is moving out, the immune system becomes overtaxed and the body begins reabsorbing it. Symptoms return, and it is back to the doctor for more drugs. This is what I call the Infection Merry-Go-Round. Infection work creates a load of die-off every day, which is why liver flushing is built into every level of this program, and why the bowels must be kept moving.

Diagram: an infection leaves through the blood and lymph, the liver and the bowel, and comes back when the way out is blocked. — How an infection leaves the body, and how it comes back when the way out is blocked. Diagram drawn for H.E.A.L.

Suppression: Why Some Infections Keep Coming Back

It is becoming apparent that the antibiotics we have used for years are no longer working as they once did. In my experience, their main work is to suppress the symptoms. The symptoms go away because the infection is pushed deep into the tissues and organs, where it can lie dormant until the immune system begins the process of healing. Prolonged antibiotics can also bring on yeast overgrowth.

That is not the whole story, though. If the antibiotics don’t kill them, they will suppress an infection enough to save a life, and then the herbal program can go in and clean it all out of the body. The longer an issue goes unchecked, the longer it takes to clear. The body begins to protect the badness as normal, so you have the work of clearing the issue while you redirect the body to accept that it needs to be cleared.

Fever

Dr. Christopher wrote that “fever is not a disease but a condition in the body wherein the balance of circulation has become disturbed. This is nature’s way of trying to burn out the toxic poisons.” When the body is chilled, the pores close and hold the heat in; the fever then raises the heat until the thick waste congesting the system is made liquid enough to pass out. (School of Natural Healing, p. 23)

So the aim is to help the fever do its work, by opening the pores and bringing on a sweat, not to stop it. The directions for adults and for small children are below, under Opening the Way.

When Minutes Matter

Most infections can be worked on at home with a faithful program. A few move faster than any home program can safely keep up with. If you see any of these signs, get emergency medical care now, and keep your herbal work going alongside it:

A red streak climbing from a wound or up a swollen limb
A hot, painful, growing lump in the armpit or groin, with fever
Swelling spreading across the face or down the neck from a tooth, or trouble swallowing or breathing
High fever with confusion, a stiff neck, or a rash that doesn’t fade when pressed
Any fever in a baby under 3 months old
Jaw stiffness or muscle spasms after a puncture wound (signs of tetanus)
Fast breathing, a racing heart, cold clammy skin, or very little urine (signs the infection is in the blood)

Antibiotics may suppress the infection enough to save a life. Once the crisis has passed, the herbal program can go in and clean it all out of the body. The choice of care is always yours. Make it with your eyes open.

The Emotional Side: the Energy Work

Healing the whole person. We are body, mind and spirit, and all three must heal together. When one part is neglected, the others struggle to heal.

An infection is often called a “hot” condition: red, swollen, burning. Very often the heart is running hot too, with irritation and old anger that has never been let go.

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

Infection: irritation, anger, annoyance. Turn it around: I choose to be peaceful and harmonious.
Fever: anger; burning up. Turn it around: I am the cool, calm expression of peace and love.
Inflammation: fear; seeing red; inflamed thinking. Turn it around: My thinking is peaceful, calm and centered.
Viral infections: a lack of joy flowing through life; bitterness. Turn it around: I lovingly let joy flow freely in my life. I love me.
Thymus (the master gland of the immune system): feeling attacked by life; “they are out to get me.” Turn it around: My loving thoughts keep my immune system strong. I am safe inside and out.
Tetanus (lockjaw): a need to release angry, festering thoughts. Turn it around: I let the love from my own heart wash through me, cleansing and healing every part of my body and my emotions.

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

An infection may sit in one place, but it is the whole body that clears it. The work is to get the infection fighters to where the infection is living, and to keep the way out open: blood and lymph moving, liver flushed, bowels open, skin breathing.

Opening the Way to Healing

1. Clear the blockage.

2. Get the healing nutrients into the area.

3. Sunshine and fresh air.

4. Bathe.

5. Move.

6. Know the part truly causing it.

The Two Infection Formulas

These two formulas are the heart of the program. One dose is always 1 teaspoon for a 150-lb adult; only how often you take it changes.

Herbal Aid 1 (formerly Herbal Antibiotic): fresh garlic, dandelion root, goldenseal root, fresh ginger, fresh horseradish and cayenne. Warming; moves the blood. Best for the throat, sinuses and chest, and at the first sign of a cold or flu. Take it in a cup of hot water with honey, or in V-8 or tomato juice. Not for the teeth and gums, and not for pets.
Herbal Aid 2 (formerly Infection Formula): plantain, black walnut, goldenseal root, bugleweed, marshmallow root and lobelia. Works on the blood and lymph. Best for the skin, teeth and gums, a stubborn or local infection, and long-term blood cleansing. Take it in a little almond milk. This is the formula for pets.
Echinacea (or Echinacea Plus, which has a little garlic and cayenne added; both dose the same). Supports the immune system on every day of infection work. Amounts are in the levels table below.
Lobelia keeps the body open. 1 to 2 dropperfuls 2 to 3 times a day during an exposure, and for coughing spasms.

Liver Flushing and the Bowels

Infection work creates die-off every day, and it must leave the body, not be recycled back into the tissues. Keep the bowels moving with LBF (Lower Bowel Formula) so they move two or three times a day, and do the ELF as often as your level calls for. After several weeks of infection work, it is always a good idea to flush the liver.

Settling the Stomach During an ELF

For nausea or bloating, or when the stomach rebels during an ELF: take 1 to 2 teaspoons each of L/P and Digestive Tonic in a few swallows of water, then lie down on your right side if possible. This displaces the pressure so the trapped air can move easily. In about five minutes the bloat is much better.

Garlic

Fresh garlic, 5 to 10 cloves a day, adds to the program; for serious cases, much more. For a daily dose, Supertonic (an ounce a day, or as a salad dressing with olive oil) or Herbal Aid 1 in tomato or V-8 juice is the easiest way. To eat a large amount of garlic without pain:

Blend garlic cloves with olive oil until smooth and creamy. Spread it on toast, drizzle it over a salad, or use it to start your sautéed onions and peppers.
Remove the pimento from green olives and put a slice of garlic in its place.
Sprinkle a large amount of fresh diced garlic over an avocado, tomato and lettuce salad or sandwich. The avocado absorbs the heat.
Press the garlic and scoop it into gelatin capsules. Swallow them quickly; the wet garlic dissolves the capsules fast.

Garlic Paste to the Feet

Garlic paste to the feet is natural healing first aid for the lungs, and a strong support at the Intense and Intensive levels. I have seen lungs clear overnight.

Press 6 to 12 cloves of garlic and mix 50/50 with Vaseline or a non-petroleum jelly. Nothing else is dense enough to keep the garlic off the skin and still let it pass into the body.
Massage the feet with olive oil, then put on a layer of plain Vaseline or jelly.
Spread the paste ½ inch thick on the soles only, cover with gauze, then a white cotton or wool sock.
Stay off the feet for 6 to 8 hours or overnight. The bowels must be open.
Adults: no more than two nights in a row if at all possible. Children, who have tender feet: one night, unless it is extremely important to do it again.
Past two nights it will leave a chemical burn that feels like a sunburn on the feet: not so bad, and no lasting harm. Soak the feet in aloe vera gel; BF&C Salve also heals the burn quickly. A child will likely peel a layer of skin from the feet.
An infant does not have the body heat to pull the garlic in. Dress the baby in a footed sleeper and put a hot water bottle by the feet.

Reading the Paste

The paste will tell you how to proceed. It goes on clear and white; in the morning it may be any number of colors.

Dark fluorescent green: the infection is still live and the body is not yet on top of it. Handle it only with gloves and throw it away outside in a tied-off bag. You will likely need to do the paste again that night.

Pale green: still live, but not bad enough to warrant a sunburn on the feet. Continue the program a few days, then do the paste again.

Brown to black: dead and dying. The colors in between show how well the body is getting on top of the infection.

I have seen all of these colors at different times.

Drawing It Out: Salves and Poultices

Infection Salve: the Herbal Aid 2 herbs, triple-infused in olive oil, with frankincense and oregano oils. Gentle enough for a baby’s bottom, strong enough for any hot or inflamed sore, sting or bite. Apply it and cover with a flannel pack.
Charcoal & Flaxseed Poultice: activated charcoal and freshly ground flaxseed, cooked into a paste and laid on warm. It draws infection out through the skin: over a boil or sore, over both ears for an earache, over the cheek for a tooth, over swollen glands. Leave it on overnight or at least 2 to 4 hours. See the Charcoal & Flaxseed Poultice sheet for directions.
Healing Poultice: slippery elm, plantain, goldenseal, comfrey root and a pinch of cayenne, mixed to a paste and packed into a deep wound, gouge or ulcer. It forms a protective herbal scab while new flesh grows in from the bottom. Always use the Charcoal & Flaxseed Poultice first, so the wound is clean.
Healing Salve (Dr. Christopher’s Healing Ointment) for itching, hives and inflamed skin.

A Note on Comfrey

Hydrotherapy

Hydrotherapy unblocks the affected area so fresh blood can cycle through it. Hot and cold foot soaks: 1 teaspoon cayenne per gallon of hot water, and ice water for the cold. Do 7 changes, at least 60 seconds in the cold. The ice plunge is where the power to break up the blockage happens.

Fever: The Epsom Salt Sweat Bath

For an adult: 2 cups of Epsom salt in a hot bath, for about 30 to 45 minutes. Keep it hot enough to be comfortable, but not so hot it makes you dizzy.

Keep drinking while in the tub: any good herbal tea, and a glass or two of hot yarrow tea, made from the fresh herb or from an extract (½ to 1 teaspoon per large cup of hot water).

When you stand up, rinse off with a quick cool-to-cold shower, just to rinse off the salt. Then put yourself to bed and sweat.

Older children can do the same bath, usually with the full 2 cups unless the child is very slight. Some hearty, healthy children are fine at 5 or 6; others can’t tolerate it until 10 or older. It really depends on the child. Know your children and use good judgment.

Fever in Small Children

You never sweat a small child. They don’t have the fluid to give up, and they cannot understand that they need to keep drinking.

Instead, put them in a tub of cool water only a few inches deep and let them play. Splash water on their upper body and let it evaporate; the cool water carries the heat off. Never leave a little one alone in the tub, even in a few inches of water.

Put a liner on their bed and a wrung-out hand towel under them, and a wet washcloth across the head; change it for a cool one as needed. Wipe down the front of them with a cool damp cloth. This will usually bring a fever down.

Keep them well hydrated. Don’t force food; the system needs to rest and heal, and missing a meal will not harm the child. Keep them calm and happy; your presence is a real aid to their healing.

Keep a close eye on the fever. If it continues to climb, call your doctor for advice on what to give to bring it down.

Feeding the Body

When clearing an infection, the body will not have the resources to heal if proper nutrition is lacking. Take Superfood daily, add 16 to 32 ounces of carrot juice a day, and drink about a gallon of water or herbal tea. Cut out processed foods, sugar and white flour.

Use distilled water for all teas, and when taking your extracts in hot water. If you use a hot water dispenser, distilled water greatly adds to the unit’s life.

Level of Commitment

How hard to work depends on how serious the infection is. Choose the level that fits, and be aggressive: most people do not dose often enough or in large enough doses. One dose is always 1 teaspoon for a 150-lb adult; children and pets are dosed by weight (a 75-lb child takes ½ teaspoon).

Level	Formulas	Echinacea	Liver (ELF)
Preventive	1 tsp Herbal Aid 1 (or 2), 2–3 times a day when illness is going around or after an exposure. Plus Lobelia, 1–2 dropperfuls 2–3 times a day during the exposure.	1 oz a day, 4 days a week, in fall and winter	—
Basic	1 tsp every 3 waking hours	1 oz once a day	Once a week
Moderate	1 tsp every 2 waking hours, alternating Herbal Aid 1 and 2	1 oz once a day	Every 3 days until cleared
Intense	1 tsp every waking hour, alternating Herbal Aid 1 and 2	1 oz every 12 hours	Nightly, 5 nights in a row
Intensive	Both formulas, 1 tsp each, 10 minutes apart, every hour. Usually only a couple of days, then step down.	1 oz every 12 hours	As the person is able, at least every other day

Stepping down. The Moderate, Intense and Intensive levels can be stepped down as the condition improves, without stopping the program. Just increase the time between doses as the body and symptoms improve. Then continue for 3 to 5 days after all symptoms are gone, at the Basic or Preventive level, to be sure the issue is completely cleared.
Every day while it is active. Common sense says to keep going every day when you are dealing with an active infection. Only for long-term work on a deep, suppressed infection do I take the Lord’s Day off.
Night doses. Don’t wake to dose at night except in extremely serious cases; a good night’s sleep is also very healing.
Babies. As a rule, a nursing baby gets the formulas through mother’s milk, with the mother taking the full adult dose. In a serious case, 1 to 2 drops of Antispasmodic can be slipped into the baby’s mouth during a feeding, followed by milk. Infection Salve may be used directly on a baby.
How long. Most infections clear in 2 weeks to 3 months. An infection that has been suppressed with antibiotics for years can take as long as 3 months or more.

More Is Not Faster

These doses are set to what the body can clear. If the body falls into a healing crisis with more die-off than it can process, drop the dose back and increase the Echinacea. Open the bowels, do an ELF and reapply your topicals. Don’t panic, but use common sense and let the body catch up.

People are different, and now and then someone reacts poorly to a particular herb. If something doesn’t sit right, stop it and let me know.

A Loose Healing Plan

At the first sign: sip Herbal Aid 1 in hot water with honey through the day, start Echinacea, and keep Lobelia on hand. Many colds and flus are handled in about 24 hours this way.
Choose your level from the table and start at once: formulas, Echinacea and the ELF schedule. Check the When Minutes Matter signs.
Open the way out: LBF to keep the bowels moving, a gallon of fluids, carrot juice and Superfood, no sugar or processed food.
Work on the area: Infection Salve, the Charcoal & Flaxseed Poultice, garlic paste to the feet for the lungs, hot and cold soaks, the sweat bath for fever. See the area sheet for the part of the body involved.
Step down as the symptoms improve, spacing the doses further apart.
Finish the job: continue 3 to 5 days after every symptom is gone. After several weeks of infection work, do a week of liver flushing.

Stories from the Work

Dara’s Story: Where It Began

For years I fought kidney and bladder infections, until I was on antibiotics more often than not. In 1996, after I had lost my insurance, a friend suggested dry herbs. In 1998 I discovered liquid herbal extracts, and that same year I created my Herbal Antibiotic, now called Herbal Aid 1. With each infection cleared, I have become more convinced there is no infection that cannot be cleared from the body when the healing herbs are aggressively applied.

Dara’s Story: My Brother’s Rusty Nail

My brother, a contractor in California, drove a rusty nail through his boot and into his foot. He hadn’t had a tetanus booster in over twenty years. I overnighted him five ELFs, the infection formulas to take every hour, an ounce of Echinacea every twelve hours, Antispasmodic, and M&L Salve for the spasms. Eight days later it hit him hard. I was on the phone with him through his first flush, when the spasms were bad enough that he spread the salve down his whole body just to get through it. He took his formulas every hour and an ELF every night, and went to work each day anyway. By the fourth day he was symptom-free and called to ask if he really needed the fifth flush. I told him yes; we needed to be sure it was all cleared out. He drank it, and he was fine.

A Member’s Story: Tetanus at Nine

A member’s nine-year-old daughter fell into tall grass tangled with barbed wire and came out scratched all over. The whole family was on board to treat it naturally, and we set up the infection program before she showed a single symptom. A week later the infection slammed into her little body hard. We gave her the Antispasmodic for the worst of the spasms and put her on the Intense program, dosed for her size, while her mother and grandmothers ran liver flushes alongside it. This was before the Emergency Liver Flush, and it took two weeks to fully clear. That little girl is grown now, and still stops by for herbs for her own family.

A Member’s Story: Do It Again

A longtime member, deep into detox work for a serious illness, mentioned she had been on many antibiotics for ear infections as a child. About six months into her program she emailed: a horrible ear infection. I told her to apply the Charcoal & Flaxseed Poultice. A few days later, after the poultice, the whole side of her face had swollen up and gone hot. I wrote back one line: “Do it again.” She did, and it was over. Her body was finishing a job the antibiotics had only postponed; one application isn’t always enough to pull an old infection all the way out.

A Guest’s Story: Settling the ELF

An older woman, brought here by her daughter, had been covered with hives and itching for nearly two years. She stayed with us and did her ELF. At bedtime her mouth began to water and she was on the verge of vomiting. I handed her the cup of L/P and Digestive Tonic I had ready; she knocked it back, and a few minutes later she was fine and took herself off to bed. By noon the next day she was about 70% clear. It took several more flushes to clear it completely, because it had been allowed to stay in her body so long.

A Member’s Story: Sent Home

An older gentleman member was sent home to die with an abdominal infection. He took both infection formulas for several months, and years later was still alive and doing very well.

Watch

Infection: An Herbal Overview.

The Infection Program, Light to Intense.

How to Do an E.L.F. (Emergency Liver Flush).

ELF Party.

Garlic Paste to the Feet.

Natural Support for Infectious Diseases.

The Bowel Cleansing Program.

Handouts & Classes

More on Infection

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

1 Corinthians, Bible Studies, Spiritual Healing

Nailed in Place by Love

October 18, 2026 Dara Dietz

Reflections on 1 Corinthians 11:6–7

“For if a woman does not cover her head, she might as well have her hair cut off; but if it is a disgrace for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, then she should cover her head. A man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man.” (1 Corinthians 11:6–7, NIV)

A hard verse, and a harder morning

I will be honest. When I sat down with verse 6, the paraphrases stirred something hard in me. One of them says such a woman should “advertise the fact that she is selfish and not on God’s team.” My first pages that morning came out the same way: selfish, shameful, a disgrace. I was judging “that woman” as harshly as anyone could.

Then it dawned on me. I was that woman.

I came into my adult life carrying a great deal of hurt. So many times I shamed myself and realized I had acted like a fool. A young woman just starting out, confused, with every possible outcome in front of her: at any point I could have started choosing very badly and wrecked my whole life. The harsh words on my page were not God’s words. They were the old voice of shame I had once used on myself.

What God does with “that woman”

Look at what Paul does not say. He does not say cast her out, or even discipline her. The consequences of refusing God’s design are self-evident; they play out on their own, because that is how a natural law works. You cannot step around it, because you do it to yourself. And yet this is not a lukewarm soul the Lord gives up on. This is someone He allows to remain in full standing among His people while she plays out her choices, and while He keeps working.

He does not leave you, but He does allow you your consequences. That is how we learn and grow. I know, because that is what He did with me.

The nails

The Lord kept me with a man who could walk this walk with me. And what held me there was not that I understood headship or submission. I didn’t. What kept my feet nailed to the floor was the compassion in my heart for another human being. He loved me so freely that I could not bear to hurt him by leaving when he didn’t want me to go. So I stayed.

I think of the other nails. It was not the nails that held Christ on the cross. He already knew what love was, and love kept Him there. The little I knew of love at that time was the man beside me, who had never done anything to deserve to be dumped. That was all I had to give. But the Lord was able to work with that much, and He kept me in place long enough for me to learn what love truly was.

The glory of God is His character

Verse 7 says man is “the image and glory of God,” and woman “the glory of man.” Some read that as a rule about hats. That is concrete thinking, and it misses the whole point.

When Moses asked to see God’s glory, God hid him in the rock and let His goodness pass by, describing Himself: merciful, gracious, longsuffering, abundant in goodness and truth (Exodus 33:18–19; 34:6–7). God’s glory is His character. He is Love. And He came and showed us how Love acts: He kept stepping down, down from heaven, down to this sin-infected earth, down to the death on a cross, until He had saturated this world with His Love and there was no way He could give more of Himself.

Man was made to stand uncovered before God, open to that flow of truth and love, and to reflect it. We are either reflectors of His glory or we are repulsed by it. There is no middle ground.

I was still stumbling

Then came “woman is the glory of man,” and I got tangled. Was Eve only a moon, with no light of her own, reflecting what Adam received? That didn’t fit the God I know. I wrote at the bottom of my page, “I’m still stumbling around with this.” I share that because this is how Bible study really goes. When you’re confused, read on, and keep following the truth wherever it goes.

The answer was already in my own life.

In our early marriage, Michael showed me what love truly was. I had never been loved; I didn’t even know what it would feel like. At first it felt strange and uncomfortable. I wanted it, but I wasn’t used to it. It was probably ten years before I was sitting comfortably in his love, able to accept it freely without feeling strange about it. When I finally could, and was able to give back more, it was a very freeing experience, to be able to accept love and to give love.

That is what it means for a woman to be the glory of man. A husband’s character shows up in his wife. How he loves her becomes visible in who she becomes. And I was never cut off from God, receiving my light secondhand. The Lord was working directly in my heart the whole time; Michael was the one He loved me through.

Love has to be done to you before you can know it or give it. “We love because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). That is why Christ did not just announce that God is love. He came and did it, and it killed Him, because the people could not tolerate that much love. Some of us take a long time to receive it. I did.

By beholding

I read all of this to my husband at morning worship, and as we talked, the last piece settled. The head is the personality of the one who is your head. Christ shares His glory with man; man shares his character with his wife. There is a natural law that makes this happen, and Paul names it with the same two words, glory and mirror: “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

By beholding we become changed. We become like the one we look up to. And it goes both ways, as Paul says a few verses later: neither is independent of the other, and all things come from God (1 Corinthians 11:11–12).

A woman’s true beauty is her character. It shows in her eyes, her expression, where her attention is focused. What we hold close to our heart will show in every move we make. I pray that what shows in me now is the love I was finally able to receive: first from God, and through a patient man who let me learn it.

So now I finally understand what my head is. It is not being dominated, or some rule about wearing a hat. It is the transfer of personality: character shared with the one in this world who means the most to you.

Michael and me on our 30th anniversary cruise, October 2019

1 Corinthians, Bible Studies, Spiritual Healing

A Covering of Light

October 16, 2026 Dara Dietz

Reflections on 1 Corinthians 11:5

A white calla lily glowing against dark green leaves

“But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head—it is the same as having her head shaved.” (1 Corinthians 11:5, NIV)

In my last post I wrote about the man’s covering in verse 4. I came to see it as a veil over the mind, the lies about God that keep a man from knowing the One who is his head. Remove that veil, and he can speak of Christ without bringing Him shame.

Today Paul turns to the woman, and the picture flips. The man is to be uncovered; the woman is to be covered. If the man’s covering is a veil of lies between his mind and Christ, the woman’s covering cannot mean the same thing. So what is it?

I’ll be honest: I came away from this verse with more questions than answers. But I think the questions are worth sharing, and a few things did come clear.

What the Translations Say

Nearly every translation ties the uncovered woman to a shaved head. Knox and Moffatt say she is “no better than” a shaven woman. The TCNT says she makes herself “like one of the shameless women who shave their heads.” The Remedy explains it as breaking the circle of God’s Love, making it appear that she is selfishly seeking to sever herself from her husband and take his place in God’s plan.

The Living Bible, as with verse 4, gives the most concrete reading: her covering is “a sign of her subjection to him.” But I keep coming back to what I said about verse 4. Christ is not petty. There is no merit in a piece of cloth. The covering is a symbol, and the question is what it symbolizes.

What Is She Veiling Her Mind Against?

The man was to remove the veil so he could see truth. Is the woman then to veil her mind against something, against lies? Why would a woman with an unveiled mind be such a disgrace to herself and to her husband? What exactly is the veil, and what is she to cover herself with?

So I looked at how the Bible clothes its pure women. In Revelation the woman is “clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet” (Revelation 12:1). The bride of the Lamb is arrayed in fine linen, “the righteousness of saints” (Revelation 19:8). The pure woman’s covering in Scripture is light and righteousness, never cloth.

Eve’s Covering of Light

In the garden before the fall, Eve was covered with the light of God’s presence shining through her. It was her clothing. Ellen White describes the sinless pair as clothed “with a covering of light and glory.”

Here is what caught my attention. There is no mention that Eve lost that light when she ate. When she brought Adam the fruit, he did not see that she was naked. It was only after Adam ate that “the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked” (Genesis 3:7).

What does that say about Eve’s deception? Being deceived is not the same as choosing, with full knowledge, to distrust God. Paul himself says that “Adam was not deceived” (1 Timothy 2:14). It was not until Adam deliberately chose to break the trust and agreement he had with his Creator that the connection was severed for both of them.

She Does Not Need a “Head” to Be Saved

This much I am sure of. A woman’s head is her husband, but a woman can have a close relationship with Christ on her own. The verse itself takes for granted that she will pray and prophesy in public, just as the men do. Her covering in no way shields her from Christ or keeps her connection with her Saviour from forming and growing strong on its own.

Her husband does not take the place of Christ in her life. If he did, an unmarried woman could not be saved. Peter calls husband and wife “heirs together of the grace of life” (1 Peter 3:7). A woman does not need a “head” to be saved.

Then What Is the Head For?

So what is the husband’s purpose in Christ’s plan for a married couple? How does he cover her? We are told the two shall become one. He is to share in her life, support her plans and goals, and be her protector and wise best friend.

Paul gives the pattern in Ephesians 5: the husband is head “even as Christ is the head of the church,” and he is to love his wife “as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it” (Ephesians 5:23, 25). Christ’s headship is self-giving, not ruling. A husband who would be his wife’s head must be someone she can respect and whose counsel she can trust. If they do not grow together, there will be strife and upset at home.

It seems the covering lets a woman say without words that she welcomes her husband’s counsel. A woman who will not allow herself to be reasoned with by her husband shames him. But I am still not sure what it fully means that he is her head.

Does It Go Back to the Fall?

I suspect it does. After the fall God told Eve, “thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee” (Genesis 3:16). Ellen White puts it this way: “In the creation God had made her the equal of Adam. Had they remained obedient to God… they would ever have been in harmony with each other; but sin had brought discord, and now their union could be maintained and their harmony preserved only by submission on the part of the one or the other.”

If that is right, then the headship Paul describes isn’t God’s original design. It is God’s provision for keeping a home happy in a fallen world.

Only in Public?

One more thing troubles me. Paul speaks only of the woman’s public spiritual life, how she is seen when she prays or prophesies. Is the covering only for appearances? That is not the Christ I know. He would not have us put on airs, pretending to be something we are not for others to see.

In Corinth, a married woman uncovered in public sent a message about her marriage, so the covering said something true to everyone watching. But the same rule holds for the woman as for the man: the outward sign honors no one unless it is true in the heart.

Questions I’m Still Carrying

This is a first look, and I have more questions than answers:

What exactly does the woman’s covering symbolize, if it is not a barrier between her and Christ?
Paul says man is “the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man” (1 Corinthians 11:7). Is her covering meant to hide the glory of man in worship, so that only God’s Glory is seen?
What does Paul mean when he says she ought to have “power” on her head “because of the angels” (verse 10)?
Is the husband’s headship a part of creation, or God’s remedy for what sin did to the home?

As Graham Maxwell used to say, when confused, read on. Paul doesn’t finish this thought in verse 5; he keeps building it through verse 15. I’ll keep going one verse at a time and trust that the picture will clear. What I can say today is this: whatever the woman’s covering means, it does not stand between her and her Saviour. Like Eve before the fall, she was made to be clothed in His light.

1 Corinthians, Bible Studies, Spiritual Healing

The Veil Between Us

October 16, 2026 Dara Dietz

Reflections on 1 Corinthians 11:4

A full moon glowing through dark tree branches

“Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head.” (1 Corinthians 11:4, NIV)

I had never really looked at this verse before this morning. Lining the translations up side by side, most say much the same thing: a man who prays or speaks for God with his head covered brings shame, disgrace, or dishonor on his head. Then I came to the Living Bible, which turns it into a rule about hats: if a man refuses to remove his hat while praying or preaching, he dishonors Christ.

That is a very concrete reading, and I believe it misses what Paul is saying. Christ is not petty. There is no merit in the outward action of removing a hat. The covering of the head is a symbol of something, and the question is, of what?

Two Heads

Paul has just told us in verse 3 that the head of every man is Christ. So when he says a covered man dishonors “his head,” he is speaking of two heads at once: the one on his shoulders and the One he answers to. The Remedy catches this, describing the covered head as a man symbolically hiding himself from God, as though he were going his own way instead of following the loving leadership of Christ.

What Truly Dishonors Someone?

The translators reach for strong words: dishonor, shame, disgrace, disrespect. So I asked myself, what act truly meets those descriptions? What can we do that shames and disgraces another person?

We refuse to tell the truth about them. We publicly lie about them, saying they have done something horrible, something despicable that they would never even think of doing. That is what dishonors a person.

Christ is our head. When we pray, or talk about Him to others, with a veil between ourselves and the knowledge of Him, a barrier between our mind and Christ, and we choose to keep that barrier in place, we are acting dishonorably toward Him. He has done everything possible to make Himself known to us. Yet we can refuse to know Him personally while publicly telling others that we do know Him and this is who He is.

The Lie Behind the Veil

By calling ourselves Christians we accept the Christ who came to earth and lived a life to overcome and heal the damage caused by Adam’s breach of trust with God. Adam broke faith with his Creator and chose to believe the lies told by a talking snake over the truth spoken by the loving Creator who came daily to spend time with them.

A man keeps his head covered when he refuses to know the One who is his head by creation and redemption, when he believes the lies about Christ and God that Satan has been spewing since before the world was created: that God does not have your best interest at heart, that He would withhold something good from you, that He is vindictive. It is the picture the devil has painted of God all along, a god who needs the appeasement of a blood sacrifice to turn his anger away from the fallen, sinful humans he created.

This is Satan’s lie. If we believe that God requires the torture and brutal murder of His sinless, faithful Son to appease His anger, we are holding a veil between ourselves and the truth Christ came to reveal about Himself and the Father. That veil, that head covering, must be removed before we can speak of Christ publicly, pray, or preach about Him without bringing Him dishonor or shame.

Paul’s Own Veil

I was encouraged to find that Paul himself uses the veil this way. In 2 Corinthians 3:13–18 he writes of a veil that lies over the minds of those who read Moses, a veil that is taken away when a person turns to the Lord. Then, he says, “we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image” (2 Corinthians 3:18, KJV). And just a few verses on in our chapter, Paul says a man ought not to cover his head because he is the image and glory of God (1 Corinthians 11:7). A covering hides glory. A false picture of God hides His Glory.

In Paul’s day the covered head was a real practice. Roman men drew their togas up over their heads when offering sacrifices to their gods, so a covered head in Christian worship could look like pagan worship. Paul was speaking to that. But behind the outward custom is the symbol, and the symbol is what speaks to us today.

Adam’s Choice

Thinking about the veil took me back to Eden. Scripture tells us Adam was not deceived; it was the woman who was deceived (1 Timothy 2:14). I believe Adam knew Eve had fallen. He did not eat because he believed the serpent. He ate so he would not lose her. He broke faith with Christ by not trusting Him with his own life and the life of his wife, not trusting that Christ could and would fix the damage done to Eve. His fear was focused on himself and on losing her, so he chose to let what had happened to her happen to him too.

Then look at what sin did to him by that same evening. When God came to speak with them in the garden, Adam threw Eve under the bus: the woman You gave me, she gave me the fruit (Genesis 3:12). Before he fell, he was nobly willing to share her ruin. After he broke faith, he was willing to let her take all the blame to save himself, and he blamed God for giving her to him besides. That is what believing the lie does to us. Once we believe God is not for us, we start protecting ourselves at everyone else’s expense. And Adam hid from God among the trees. The veil was already in place.

Questions I’m Still Working Through

This is a first look. I have not yet worked through the translations of verses 5 and 6, where Paul says the woman should be covered. If the man’s covering is the veil of lies between his mind and Christ, the symbol must mean something different for the woman, and I don’t want to force an answer before I’ve lived with the text. Here are the questions I’m carrying forward:

Is the woman’s relationship to man different from her relationship to Christ, and how does that shape what her covering means?
Does the man’s place over the woman come from the fall, “he shall rule over thee” (Genesis 3:16), describing what sin does to the relationship rather than God’s design? If so, how does that fit with Paul’s appeal to creation in verses 8 and 9?
If a woman’s life gives her husband a false picture of Christ, as Eve’s choice did for Adam, does she in some way dishonor her head? And is the other side of that her power to win him by the life she lives (1 Peter 3:1)?
Why does Paul so quickly add, in verses 11 and 12, that neither man nor woman is independent of the other?

When confused, read on, as Graham Maxwell used to say. But I stand behind what I have seen so far: what dishonors Christ is not a hat. It is the lie we keep between ourselves and Him. Remove that veil, and we can speak of Him with honor.

Herbal Healing, Skin, Wounds & First Aid

Tumors & Lumps

October 15, 2026October 28, 2026 Dara Dietz

What a Tumor Really Is, Benign and Malignant, and the Lumps That Are Not Tumors at All

Understanding the Condition

Finding a Lump

There are few things that bring us to attention quicker than finding a lump or bump under the skin. The first thought for most people is cancer, and fear takes over. But most lumps are not cancer, and many are not even tumors. Understanding what a lump is, and why the body made it, takes away much of the fear and shows the way to clearing it.

What a Tumor Is

A tumor is a mass of cells growing out of order. Healthy cells grow, do their work, wear out and are replaced in an orderly way. In a tumor, a group of cells keeps building past what the body needs, and the extra tissue forms a lump. Tumors can be slow-growing or fast, small or large, and they can form almost anywhere: in the glands and lymph nodes, the breast, the uterus and other reproductive organs, the urinary tract, the abdomen, or just under the skin.

Dr. Christopher described a tumor as “a swelling, an abnormal formation” of tissue “arising from the cells of the host,” and named its cause as “the inability to eliminate unhealthy material.” His aim was to “rebuild tissue so the body can slough off the tumor accumulation.”

Benign or Malignant?

Tumors fall into two very different groups, and knowing the difference removes a great deal of fear:

Benign tumors are not cancer. They grow slowly, are usually wrapped in a smooth wall (a capsule), and stay where they are. They push neighboring tissue aside rather than growing into it, and they do not spread to other parts of the body. Most tumors people find are benign. They can still cause trouble by their size or by pressing on an organ or nerve, so they deserve attention, but they are not a death sentence.
Malignant tumors are cancer. They have no smooth wall. They reach into the tissue around them like roots, and cells can break away into the blood or lymph and start new growths elsewhere. This is why a malignant tumor calls for serious, full-time work.

Diagram comparing a benign tumor, a malignant tumor and a cyst. — Three kinds of lumps: a benign tumor, a malignant tumor and a cyst. Simplified diagram drawn for H.E.A.L.

Have Every New Lump Checked

A doctor needs to look at any new or changing lump. Ultrasound, mammogram, CT or MRI can show where a tumor is and how big it is without opening it. Only a biopsy can tell for certain whether it is cancer.

My caution about biopsy: A tumor is a bag of waste the body has wisely stashed away in a dark corner. A biopsy pokes a hole in that bag, and allowing the waste to spill into the bloodstream is not the wisest choice. Each person must decide for themselves. Talk it over with your doctor and weigh what you will gain from knowing.

Why the Body Builds a Tumor

The body is designed to carry waste out every day through the bowel, liver, kidneys, lungs, skin and lymph. When these channels are blocked or worn down, waste builds up faster than it can be cleared. The body then does the wise thing: it locks the toxic material away in a sack, out of the main stream of the blood, where it can do less harm. That sack is the lump.

In the 1950s, Dr. Ernest Wynder and his colleagues produced cancers on rabbits’ ears and necks by painting them with tar from cigarette smoke over the animals’ life spans. The cancers came only after years of steady exposure. The study looked at the skin, not the inner organs, but what I take from it, and from what I have seen in my own work, is that before a tumor or cancer can form, the eliminative organs (the liver, kidneys and bowel) have already been worn down until they can no longer clear the waste. The tumor is not the real issue. It is a symptom of a degraded internal system. That is why we cleanse and feed: clear out the waste while rebuilding the organs that should have been carrying it away.

Study: E. L. Wynder (Sloan-Kettering Institute), E. A. Graham and A. B. Croninger (Washington University, St. Louis); rabbits painted with cigarette-smoke tar over their life spans (reported December 1957). The conclusion about the eliminative organs is my own teaching, not a finding of the study.

This is also why cutting a lump out, by itself, so often fails. Dr. Christopher warned that you can cut cysts out and tumors off, “but unless you go to the cause, they will grow back again.” The body still lacks the ability to eliminate the unhealthy material it was storing. The liver is the vacuum cleaner of the body; when it is free, it can draw the waste out of the lump and send it out through the bowel.

Potassium and the Lumps of the Body

Dr. Christopher taught that many cysts, tumors, warts and moles grow where the body lacks potassium. Potassium chloride keeps fibrin, the material the body uses to build muscle and connective tissue, dissolved and moving. Without enough of it, fibrin is “thrown out as a stringy, insoluble mess” that can form fibroid tumors, cysts and adhesions. He likened cysts and tumors to leeches that “stay in places where there is a body deficiency. As soon as the body is balanced and well, the cysts and tumors have to go.” Potassium-rich whole foods, not pills, are his answer: fresh vegetables and their juices, and the Potassium Broth below.

The Lumps That Are Not Tumors

Many lumps people fear are something else entirely. Most of these are harmless, but any new or changing lump should still be checked.

Cysts. A cyst is a closed sac filled with fluid or soft material, with its own thin wall. It is not a tumor. Cysts form in the skin, breast, ovaries, kidneys and elsewhere, and are a sign the body has walled off what it could not process. Dr. Christopher tied them to potassium deficiency; the castor oil pack and the potassium foods on this sheet support clearing them.
Fibroids. Firm, benign growths of muscle tissue in the wall of the uterus. Very common, and almost never cancer. See the Uterus sheet for the female program.
Lipomas. Soft, rubbery lumps of fat just under the skin that move when pushed. They grow slowly, are almost always harmless, and are usually painless.
Swollen glands (lymph nodes). The lymph nodes are the body’s filters. When they are fighting an infection or backed up with waste, they swell into tender lumps, often in the neck, under the arms or in the groin. They usually go down when the infection clears and the lymph is moving again. Dr. Christopher told of his seven-year-old granddaughter whose glands swelled until she could hardly swallow; he pinned a mullein and lobelia fomentation around her throat, and the next morning she came downstairs “all smiles and no pain.” A swollen gland that is hard, does not move, is not tender, or stays for more than a few weeks should be checked.
Moles. A mole is a small cluster of pigment cells. Almost all are harmless. In my practice, the BBB Mole Salve with Cellfood has been an excellent support for dissolving moles (see below). Any mole that changes shape, color or size, bleeds or itches should be checked by a doctor first.
Nodules. Small, firm lumps, often near joints (rheumatic nodules) or in glands like the thyroid. Most are harmless. Lobelia has long been used on the skin over rheumatic nodules (Pedersen, Nutritional Herbology, p. 122). Have any new nodule checked, especially in the neck.
Polyps. Small growths on a stalk that form on a moist lining, most often in the nose, sinuses or colon. Most are harmless, but colon polyps should be checked during a colonoscopy, since some can turn cancerous over time. In my experience, snuff works really well on sinus polyps. See the Head Infections sheet for how to use it.
Boils. A boil is an infected hair root or oil gland filled with pus, red, hot and painful. It is an infection, not a tumor. A few years ago I had a breakout of boils on the back of my leg (I’m very sensitive to pork, and a hint of pork grease will do it). For weeks I played around with blood-purifying options without success. Then I read in Dr. Christopher’s writing that burdock root will “quickly” clear boils. I took one teaspoon of the dried root in a cup of boiling water each day. I began on Tuesday, and by Friday the boils were gone, completely gone.

The Emotional Side: the Energy Work

Healing the whole person. We are body, mind and spirit, and all three must heal together. When one part is neglected, the other two cannot find complete healing. A person can follow a perfect herbal program, but if she stays in a life that keeps wearing her down, or never makes time to care for herself, the body will keep losing ground. Healing the body often means facing what is happening in the heart and spirit as well.

A tumor is the body holding on to what it could not release. Very often the heart is doing the same: holding old hurts, old shocks and regrets that were never let go.

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

Tumors: nursing old hurts and shocks; building remorse. Turn it around: I lovingly release the past and turn my attention to this new day. All is well.
Cysts: running the old painful movie over and over; nursing hurts. Turn it around: The movies of my mind are beautiful because I choose to make them so. I love me.
Breast lumps and cysts: refusing to nourish the self; always putting everyone else first. Turn it around: I am important. I count. I now care for and nourish myself with love and joy.
Boils: anger boiling over; seething. Turn it around: I express love and joy, and I am at peace.

Emotional patterns paraphrased from Louise Hay, Heal Your Body (Hay House). These are not faults to blame anyone for; they are a reminder of how much the heart is carrying.

Areas Affected & Opening the Way to Healing

A tumor sits in one place, but it was built by the whole body. The work starts with the bowel that must carry the waste out, the liver that draws it from the blood and lymph, the kidneys, and the lymph system that drains the area around the lump. Open those channels first. Then work directly on the lump to loosen it and draw the waste out, and feed the body so it can rebuild the tissue.

Opening the Way to Healing

1. Clear the blockage.

2. Get the healing nutrients into the area.

3. Let sunshine and fresh air cycle over and through the affected part.

4. Bathe regularly.

5. Move the area as much as you can.

6. Know which area is truly affected. Not where the symptoms show up, but the part causing the issue. That is the area that needs to be cleared. With a tumor the lump is where you see it, but the bowel and liver are where it comes from. Clear them, and the lump has nothing left to feed on.

Castor Oil Packs: Two Uses

Over the liver and bowel. Soak a flannel in castor oil, lay it over the whole front of the body (neck to groin), and put a hot water bottle over the liver (right side, just above the waist) for about 1½ hours. This is the opening step for anyone on the Incurables Program, to get the bowels open and working well. Usually there are years of backup to clear. The castor oil pack works to turn cement into soft mud that can be easily evacuated from the body. It also softens the waste in the liver, so when you flush it the ELF (Emergency Liver Flush) is more effective.
Over the tumor itself. First spread a layer of M&L Salve over the lump. The salve opens the area so the waste can move out better through the lymph. Then lay a castor-oil-soaked flannel over it, cover, and leave it on all night, every night.

Charcoal & Flaxseed Poultice

The hot charcoal and flaxseed poultice draws waste out and keeps the lymph from backing up. Use it over a lump, over swollen lymph nodes, and over the liver during the day. Apply it as hot as can be comfortably tolerated, cover with plastic and a cloth, and leave it on overnight or at least 2 to 4 hours. Never reuse a poultice; it holds what it has drawn out. See the Charcoal & Flaxseed Poultice sheet for how to make it.

Blood Purifying Formula (Chaparral)

Dr. Christopher wrote that chaparral is “especially known for specific action in cancer,” calling it “a potent healer… to lymphatics” that “tones up the system and rebuilds the tissue” (The School of Natural Healing, p. 70). It is the backbone of the Blood Purifying Formula, along with red clover, burdock and poke root. Early laboratory studies found that chaparral’s main compound, NDGA, slowed some tumor cells in rats. Human studies have not yet confirmed this, and researchers call for more study (Pedersen, Nutritional Herbology, p. 70). In my practice, many members have used the Blood Purifying Formula over the years to clear tumors. Take it as directed on its formula sheet, traditionally two dropperfuls 4 to 6 times a day during a cleanse week, in a few ounces of grape juice.

Watch the lump. As the herbs loosen a tumor, it becomes less tightly packed so the waste can move out, and it can look bigger for a time before it shrinks. Don’t guess. If a lump keeps growing, have your doctor measure it so you know what is really happening.

Using Chaparral and Comfrey With Care

Chaparral is one of the herbs in the Blood Purifying Formula. It has long been regarded as one of the strongest blood purifiers in herbal use and has had years of bad press, but used wisely it supports the body in clearing what has built up. Stay at the dose on the formula sheet. Avoid it with existing liver disease. If the skin or the whites of the eyes turn yellow, the urine turns dark, or there is pain under the right ribs, stop and have the liver checked.

Comfrey root is one of the nine herbs in BF&C, where it feeds and rebuilds tissue as part of a traditional blend. Take the extract at 1 teaspoon three times a day. Use the salve as an overnight pack, and leave the area open and clear of salves for at least 6 hours each day. More is not faster.

Working Directly on the Lump: The Poultices

For a tumor that needs more than packs, two strong poultices draw the waste out through the skin. Both are powerful tools and belong with the Incurables Program, never on their own. Read the directions carefully and follow them exactly.

The Black Cancer Poultice. A dry mix of red clover blossoms, powdered poke root, slippery elm, bentonite clay, goldenseal and activated charcoal, blended into a paste with a liquid of apple cider vinegar, bloodroot, tea tree oil and garlic. It is an excellent support for skin cancer and has been a huge aid with breast tumors.

Make the 50/50 solution: 4 oz raw apple cider vinegar and 4 oz distilled water. Add 1 oz bloodroot extract for every 8 oz of 50/50 solution.
Blend: In a Magic Bullet, pour in 2 oz of the solution first, so the liquid is on the bottom. Add ¼ tsp tea tree oil for every 8 oz of liquid used. Add 1 to 2 Tbsp of the herbal powder mix on top (more for a larger poultice; start small), then more solution on top of the powder. Add 3 large garlic cloves for every 16 oz of liquid. Garlic is the big killer in this poultice and one to respect; adjust it to your preference. Blend until smooth, adding solution until it is a paste.
Store in a lidded glass jar in the refrigerator for up to one week.
For skin cancer: apply a thick layer over the spot twice a day and hold it in place with a bandage. It often dries to a hard crust, which can be soaked off in the shower or bath.
For a tumor: smear a generous amount onto flannel, lay it over the tumor and bandage it in place. Leave it on overnight or 6 to 8 hours. It is best to alternate it with the castor oil pack.
When the bleeders begin, add cayenne. As a tumor starts to break down, small bleeds can start. Dr. Christopher and Dr. Schulze both taught adding cayenne powder right into the poultice mix to help prevent them. Start with a nice rounded teaspoon in a regular batch, and a little more for a larger batch. If the bleeding is heavy, use a couple of teaspoons, up to a tablespoon. It all depends on what is going on with the tumor and the bleeders. If a bleed breaks through, pack it with cayenne powder.
Don’t stop when it looks better. The poultice works all the way down if you stay with it long enough. Spots come back when people stop as soon as the surface looks healed. Keep going past that point.

In My Experience: The Black Cancer Poultice

This poultice cleared spots on my own arm that I recognized as skin cancer in about two weeks. It also cleared the smaller, VA-diagnosed spots on my father in 2008, without harming the healthy skin around them. It has also been a great aid with breast tumors. Bloodroot is a strong herb, so stop if the skin becomes raw, blistered or very painful. If a breast tumor bleeds, packing it with cayenne will usually stop it quickly, but call your doctor that same day.

The Poke Root Poultice. Used for tumors of the breast, during the second liver flush week of the Incurables Program. Grind fresh poke root fine, enough for one use, and roll it ¼ to ½ inch deep onto a piece of muslin or cheesecloth cut to cover the breast, with a hole for the nipple. Moisten once a day with poke root extract diluted to 1/16 strength (only if the root is dry), cover with plastic to hold the moisture, and change it every 2 to 3 days. Within about two weeks the skin breaks out in pustular sores as the waste comes out; continue one to two weeks after the breakout begins. When the drainage stops, wash with diluted apple cider vinegar and dust with bayberry powder; the skin heals in 7 to 10 days. The full procedure, with a member’s pictures of each stage, is on the Poke Root Poultice direction sheet.

Support the lymph while you use it. Increase Echinacea to two ounces a day, six days a week. Keep M&L Salve over the tumor and any swollen lymph nodes, rebound 10 to 15 minutes a couple of times a day, and use the hot charcoal and flaxseed poultice over swollen nodes and the liver. Do an ELF each night for up to five nights. If the lymph nodes become painful and swollen, take a break and let the body catch up.

Use With Care: Poke Root

Poke root is a powerful lymph detoxifier. Used too freely, it will cause uncontrolled vomiting. Wear gloves when handling the fresh root, and never use the extract full strength. Dilute it as directed. Poke root is too detoxifying to be taken by itself. Internally, it is best used in a mix with other herbs, never alone.

For Moles: BBB Mole Salve and Cellfood

A member in Florida introduced me to Cellfood and taught me how to use it. The BBB Mole Salve needs the Cellfood to do the good work:

Twice a day, dab full-strength Cellfood on the mole with a Q-tip. Let it dry a few minutes, then cover it with the BBB Mole Salve to hold the moisture in. Cellfood alone dries the skin and slows healing, so use the two together. Expect several months.
Drink Cellfood in water as well, following the directions on the bottle.

Scullcap, one of the five herbs in the BBB Salve, is very high in potassium, 2,180 mg per 100 grams (Pedersen, Nutritional Herbology, p. 155), and lobelia, blue cohosh and blue vervain all add more. That fits Dr. Christopher’s teaching that moles, like cysts and warts, form where the body lacks potassium. Blue vervain is also a powerful liver herb, and black cohosh stirs the liver, kidneys and lymph to carry the waste away (Dr. Christopher, The School of Natural Healing, pp. 291, 398).

BF&C: Rebuilding the Tissue

As the waste leaves, the tissue left behind needs rebuilding. BF&C (Bone, Flesh & Cartilage) feeds and knits tissue back together. Take the extract at 1 teaspoon three times a day, and use the BF&C Salve as an overnight pack over the area once the lump has softened, leaving the skin open and clear of salves for at least 6 hours each day.

Feeding the Body: Potassium Broth

Cleanse and feed: clear the waste out while flooding the body with the nutrients it needs to rebuild. Fresh vegetable juices (at least 32 ounces of carrot juice a day on the full program), Superfood, and this broth give the body the potassium it is missing.

Potassium Broth

Fill a large pot with organic vegetables, roughly equal parts:

• Thick potato peelings (at least ½ inch) or whole chopped potatoes

• Carrots and beets, chopped, with their tops

• Onions, chopped, and up to 50 cloves of garlic

• Celery stalks and leaves, plus dark greens (spinach, beet greens, chickweed)

• A few black peppercorns, or hot pepper to taste

Cover with distilled water. Then choose:

Quick (my way): simmer on very low heat 1 to 2 hours.

Stronger (Dr. Christopher’s way): keep it around 130°F for 6 to 10 hours. Never let it boil. A slow cooker on its lowest setting works well.

Strain and drink only the broth, 1 to 3 cups a day between meals. Make enough for two days and refrigerate the rest.

Use distilled water for all teas, and when taking your extracts in hot water. If you use a hot water dispenser for your teas, using only distilled water greatly adds to the life of the unit.

Sun, Air, Movement and Bathing

Move the lymph. The lymph has no heart to pump it; it depends heavily on movement and breathing. Rebound or walk every day.
Hots and colds in the shower open the pores and drain the area. Finish with cold.
Sun and air bath for 10 to 15 minutes a day.
Bathe regularly to keep the skin open, so waste can leave through it.

When to Get Medical Care

Herbs are support alongside medical care, not a replacement for it. Have a doctor check any new lump, and any lump that grows quickly, is hard and does not move, is attached to the skin or deeper tissue, or comes with unexplained weight loss, night sweats or fever. A mole that changes shape, color or size, bleeds or itches; a breast lump or nipple discharge; a swollen gland that stays more than a few weeks; blood in the stool; or a lump that keeps growing while on the program all need to be seen. If a tumor bleeds and the bleeding does not stop quickly, get help right away. Don’t stop a prescribed medication without the doctor.

Level of Commitment

How much is needed depends on what the lump is and how long the body has been building it:

Gentle support. For moles, boils, small cysts and swollen glands. Clear the bowel, add potassium foods and broth, and work on the spot itself: the charcoal and flaxseed poultice, burdock tea, or the BBB Mole Salve with Cellfood.
Focused cleansing. For benign tumors, fibroids, lipomas and stubborn cysts. Bowel cleansing, a week of liver flushing followed by a week of kidney flushing, castor oil packs over the lump with M&L Salve, the Blood Purifying Formula, and BF&C to rebuild.
Incurables Program. For malignant tumors and large or long-standing growths. The full program, full time: bowel cleansing, Echinacea, juicing and Superfood, liver and kidney flushing, castor oil packs, and the poultices. The poultices are only one part; without the liver free to carry the waste away, they cannot finish the job.

More Is Not Faster

These doses are set to what the body can clear. Taking more stirs up more than the bowels, liver and kidneys can carry out, and that is when cleansing starts to feel like poisoning. Healing the body requires steady, consistent nutrition and action, not a bigger dose.

People are different, and now and then someone reacts poorly to a particular herb. If that happens, stop it. What I offer here is a guideline. You are the one living in your body, so work with the Holy Spirit and the wisdom the Lord has given you to apply these supports in the best way for your life.

A Loose Healing Plan

First: have it checked. Know what you are working with: its location and size.
Week 1: open the bowel. LBF, building up until the bowels move two or three times a day. Castor oil packs over the liver and bowel. Juices, Superfood and Potassium Broth every day.
Week 1 onward: work on the lump. M&L Salve and a castor oil pack over it every night; the charcoal and flaxseed poultice over it and any swollen nodes during the day.
Weeks 2 and 3: clear the liver and kidneys. A week of liver flushing, then a week of kidney flushing. Add the Blood Purifying Formula during the cleanse week. Repeat the flushing cycle as the program calls for.
When the program is established: the poultices, if the lump calls for them, alongside the full Incurables Program.
All along: rebuild. BF&C, potassium foods, movement, sun, air, bathing, and the heart work. Let go of what you have been holding.
Every few weeks: take stock. Small lumps and boils can clear in days or weeks; tumors take months. If a lump keeps growing, have it measured.

Stories from the Work

Dara’s Story: A Lump Under My Arm

Back in 2000 a lump came up under my arm about the size of a golf ball. I used the charcoal and flaxseed poultice to get rid of it. It went away and never came back. I have no idea what that was all about. But as soon as it came up, I got rid of it, so nothing had a real chance to back up behind it.

Dara’s Story: My Father’s Skin Cancer

My father came to live with us in 2008 with three spots of skin cancer, diagnosed at the VA, where he had already had others cut out. The Black Cancer Poultice cleared the smaller spots in short order, with no harm to the skin around them, even though he wasn’t careful to keep it only on the spots. But he would not do a liver flush. The largest spot, right beside his nose, would not clear. His liver was full and could no longer draw the cancer out, so he went in for surgery to have the rest removed. The poultice draws the waste out, but the liver has to be free to carry it away.

Dara’s Story: The Spot Beside My Husband’s Nose

For years my husband had a small pale bump right beside his nose, just under his eye. Then it began to grow. At first he thought it was a pimple, but it didn’t act like one, and it grew so large that his eye doctor, who was seeing him for cataracts, told him he should have it looked at. He never did see a doctor for it. He put the cancer poultice on it himself and stayed with it for quite a while before the lump opened, and the opening was something he had to endure. On October 17, 2025, it broke open and a solid mass came out of the middle. He kept up the poultice as it crusted over, even using a batch that was over a month old, and it kept working. It sealed up and healed over, and today you cannot see where it was. It was never diagnosed, so we will never know for sure what it was. Stay with it until the job is done.

A small pale bump beside the nose, April 2025 — 1. April 2025: before

The spot open beside the nose, October 17, 2025 — 1. April 2025: before

Family photos, used with permission.

A Member’s Story: Learning the Poke Root Poultice

A member in Michigan sent in her pictures and her story so other women would know how to do this poultice. Her first attempt went badly because she misread the directions: she added undiluted extract to fresh root that was already moist, and it burned and blistered her skin and left her weak and dizzy. She healed within about a week. “Let me urge you to read and re-read these instructions carefully before doing this.”

Her second attempt, with no extract added, “produced amazing results.” Within a day the breast was covered in pustular sores: “It was amazing to see how much garbage was being pulled right out through my skin!” When her lymph nodes became painful and swollen, she took a break, did lymph cleansing, rebounding and liver flushing, and used warm charcoal and flaxseed poultices, and the pain quickly went away. Her advice: “Know that it isn’t pleasant, it isn’t comfortable, but it is powerful! Don’t be afraid of the sores and swelling.”

Her pictures of each stage, from the first breakout to the used poultice, are on the Poke Root Poultice direction sheet, along with the full step-by-step procedure.

A Member’s Story: A Mole Above His Ear

A member in Florida cleared a sizable mole above his ear in about six months with the BBB Mole Salve and Cellfood, painless and without surgery. All that remained was barely some scar tissue.

More on Tumors & Lumps

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

Brain, Nerves & Sleep, Herbal Healing

Headache & Migraine

October 13, 2026 Dara Dietz

Clearing the Bowel, Relaxing the Muscles, Driving Out Congestion

Understanding the Condition

A headache is a messenger. It is rarely a problem of the head itself; it is the body signaling a disturbance somewhere else. Dr. Christopher listed the usual sources: the stomach, liver or bowel, problems in the abdomen, menstrual irregularities, pinched or misaligned vertebrae in the neck, concussion, eye strain, nervous excitement and fatigue. Taking a pill quiets the messenger, but the cause is still there, and the headache comes back. Clearing the blood and the bowels is what really gets rid of headaches; numbing the pain only masks it.

Like all pain, a headache means the circulation has been disturbed. Too much blood held in the head, toxic blood, or blood choked off by tight muscles all press on the nerves, and the head pounds. Clear what is driving it and the pain lets go.

Diagram of a body showing the bowel, liver and neck muscles that drive a headache. — The common drivers behind a headache. Simplified diagram drawn for H.E.A.L.

The Toxic Headache: the Bowel

The most common headache is the toxic headache. When the bowel is backed up, the waste sitting in it is reabsorbed, and the blood carries that toxic load to the brain. Dr. Christopher taught that compressed fecal matter can also press on the nerves that affect the head, and that many migraines come from an impacted, sagging transverse colon (the part of the colon that runs across the upper belly). He saw severe migraines cleared by a catnip enema. Many people have no idea how sluggish their bowels really are. A healthy bowel moves shortly after rising and again after each main meal.

The Tension Headache: the Muscles

Tight muscles in the neck, shoulders and scalp choke off the blood flow to the head. Stress, long hours at a desk or a screen, sleeping in a chill, or an old injury such as whiplash can keep these muscles locked. Many migraines are fed by a spasm of the muscles in the neck and head. Relax the muscle and the circulation, and the pain, return to normal, often within minutes.

Congestion in the Head

Sometimes too much blood is held in the head, and the pressure builds. Pulling the blood down to the legs and driving the congestion out of the head, as the Ice Towel does, relieves it quickly.

Other Common Triggers

Not enough water. Most people walk around somewhat dehydrated. Thick blood moves slowly, and the head is often the first to complain.
Sugar and artificial sweeteners. Dr. Christopher described sugar headaches as a kind of withdrawal: the head pounds while the body works to get rid of it. Aspartame (the little blue packet) has been a migraine trigger for some people, often with a delay of up to a day, which makes it hard to pin down (see Dara’s story below).
Cheese, other dairy, meat and eggs. Common triggers. Dr. Christopher taught that no wholesome food should cause a reaction; when one does, there are usually toxins in the system reacting with it, or the food is not being chewed well. The answer is cleansing, not a lifetime of avoiding foods.
The liver. The old “sick headache,” with nausea or a bilious stomach, often points to a congested liver that can’t keep the blood clean.
Eye strain, fatigue and the menstrual cycle.

Migraine

A migraine is a severe, often one-sided, throbbing headache, sometimes with nausea, sensitivity to light and sound, or flashing lights or blind spots before it starts. The same drivers are behind it, only stronger: a toxic bowel, a liver under strain, tight neck muscles, and a trigger that tips it over. Keeping a food diary is one of the best ways to find the trigger.

The Emotional Side: the Energy Work

Healing the whole person. We are body, mind and spirit, and all three must heal together. Stress brings on many headaches. When we can’t deal with what we are feeling, our heads can pound. Worry, panic and fear are the hardest headaches of all to relieve with herbs alone.

Dr. Christopher’s advice was to combine prayer with action: take time to pray, to meditate and to talk with the people involved to work out what is causing the stress. With a clear body and mind, the conflicts become something we can handle.

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

Headaches: invalidating the self, self-criticism and fear. Turn it around: I love and approve of myself. I see myself and what I do with eyes of love. I am safe.
Migraine: dislike of being driven, and resisting the flow of life. Turn it around: I relax into the flow of life and let life provide all that I need, easily and comfortably. Life is for me.

Emotional patterns paraphrased from Louise Hay, Heal Your Body (Hay House).

Areas Affected & Opening the Way to Healing

The areas involved are the bowel, the liver, the muscles of the neck and shoulders, the nerves, and the circulation to the head. Find what is driving the headache and clear it: waste out, fresh blood and nutrients in.

Clear the Bowels

This is the first step for any headache that keeps coming back. Use LBF (Lower Bowel Formula #1), starting with one capsule at dinner and adding one capsule a day until the bowels move two or three times a day. The average person uses three to five a day; some need many more. A castor oil pack over the bowel the first few evenings softens hardened waste so it can move. If the bowels become loose or crampy, a rounded teaspoon of LBF #2 in 6 oz of water or juice firms them within minutes.

For a headache right now, empty the bowel first. A catnip enema clears the lower bowel quickly and has ended severe migraines. Then use the Ice Towel.

Drive Out the Congestion: the Ice Towel

This is hydrotherapy at its best, and it has never failed to clear a toxic headache for Dara. Empty the bowels first if you can.

Prepare the towel. Wet a hand towel, wring it out, fold it in thirds lengthwise and freeze it until icy, about 45 minutes. Keep one in the freezer so it is ready.
Hot water for the legs. Fill a bucket with water as hot as can be borne, deep enough to come up to the knees.
Put it together. Sit with the legs in the hot water and wrap the icy towel around the head. The cold drives the congestion out of the head while the heat pulls the excess blood down to the legs. Add hot water to keep the bucket hot.
10 to 15 minutes. Most people begin to feel real relief within this time.
A hot bath works too. Instead of the bucket, sit in a hot bath with the icy towel wrapped around the head like a turban. The hot water draws the blood to the lower body just the same.

For a really severe migraine, Dr. Christopher used the same idea on a larger scale: cold packs on the head and neck while soaking in a very hot tub, drinking plenty of water.

Relax the Muscles

M&L Salve (mullein & lobelia). Massage it into the back of the neck, the shoulders and the base of the skull. Lobelia is the best antispasmodic we have, and the mullein helps move excess lymph fluid out of an injured area. It relaxes even the worst spastic muscles, often within minutes, and works on tension headaches even when whiplash is involved. Applied at bedtime, it helps prevent the night pain that comes when sore neck muscles get chilled.
Keep the neck warm. A chill on sore neck muscles at night can throw them into spasm. Keep a natural-fiber scarf on the bedpost or headboard; if you wake with a headache starting, pull it around your neck, and it often eases within minutes. While the neck is healing, wear the scarf over the M&L Salve at night. It holds the salve in place, keeps it out of your hair and off the sheets and pillow.
Antispasmodic Extract or Lobelia by mouth. For a severe spasm, take a dropperful along with the salve. Take it in a few ounces of hot water to drive off the alcohol; a swallow of juice or a nice tea afterward helps the taste.
Hot and cold over the neck and shoulders, and a good massage, bring fresh blood back into tight muscles.
BF&C for an old injury. When a neck injury such as whiplash keeps feeding the headaches, a BF&C pack over the neck overnight helps repair the muscle and cartilage.

Calm the Nerves

G-Nervine Salve and the General Nervine. The nervine herbs calm throbbing nerve pain. Rub the salve on the temples, forehead, the back of the neck and behind the ears; it works well together with the M&L Salve. The General Nervine tincture can be taken by mouth in hot water. The valerian in it is sedating, so expect to feel sleepy and plan to rest.
Peppermint. Drink a cup of hot peppermint tea, then lie down and relax. A cloth wrung out in water with peppermint added, laid over the forehead and temples, gives quick relief for many; wet it again as it dries.
Rosemary. At the first sign of a headache, breathe in the scent of rosemary and rub a little rosemary oil, diluted in a carrier oil, on the temples and the back of the neck. Rosemary stimulates the circulation in the small vessels, bringing more blood and oxygen in and carrying waste out.

Feed and Support the Body

Water. Drink plenty of pure water every day, sipping through the day rather than all at once.
Live food and juices. Celery juice, or celery and apple, is an old remedy for a sick headache. Cut sugar, artificial sweeteners, and heavy dairy and meat while cleansing.
Superfood for steady nutrition, and rest. A depleted body is quick to get headaches.
Fresh air and movement. People who exercise and then stop let the toxins build up again. Just getting outdoors and moving strongly can clear a headache.
The liver. For the sick headache, or headaches that keep coming back, a week of liver flushing helps clear the blood.

When to Get Medical Care

Herbs are support alongside medical care, not a replacement for it. Get emergency care right away for a sudden, explosive headache, the worst of your life; a headache with a stiff neck and fever; a headache after a blow to the head; or a headache with confusion, slurred speech, weakness or numbness on one side, loss of vision, or a seizure. These can be signs of a stroke, bleeding in the brain or meningitis.

See a doctor for headaches that are new after age 50, that grow steadily worse, that wake you from sleep, or that change pattern. Don’t stop a prescribed medication without the doctor.

Level of Commitment

How much is needed depends on how often the headaches come:

Gentle support. For the occasional headache with a plain cause. The Ice Towel, M&L and G-Nervine Salves, peppermint tea, plenty of water and a bowel that moves well. Most clear within the hour.
Focused cleansing. For headaches that come every week, or migraines. Bowel cleansing with LBF until the bowels move after every meal, a week of liver flushing, then an ELF (Emergency Liver Flush) once a week, with weeks of kidney flushing alternated in. Find and remove food triggers, drink plenty of water, and keep the neck muscles relaxed. Give it about three months.
Incurables Program. For headaches that come from a serious or long-standing disease. Get a medical diagnosis first, then follow the sheet for that condition; the headaches will ease as the blockage behind them clears.

A Loose Healing Plan

In the moment: rule out an emergency. Then find what kind of headache it is: toxic, tension, or both.
First hour: clear it. Empty the bowel (a catnip enema if needed), then the Ice Towel for 10 to 15 minutes. M&L and G-Nervine Salves on the neck and temples for a tension headache. Rest.
Same day onward: get the bowels moving. LBF, building up one capsule a day, and plenty of water.
First weeks: find the trigger. Keep a food diary. Cut sugar and artificial sweeteners; watch cheese, other dairy, meat and eggs.
Week 2: clear the source. A week of liver flushing, then an ELF once a week, with weeks of kidney flushing alternated in.
All along: relax the neck and the heart. M&L Salve at bedtime, fresh air, movement, and time to pray and let go of what you’ve been holding.
About 3 months: take stock. Most people find the headaches have become rare. When one comes, check the bowels first.

Stories from the Work

Dara’s Story: The 24-Hour Migraine

Shortly after the birth of my daughter in 1982, while Michael and I were dating and living in California, I began experiencing excruciatingly painful migraines. I lived with these horrid headaches for years. The pain forced me to lie in a dark room with a cold washcloth over my eyes. My doctor ruled out anything serious and gave me a strong pain medication. It got me back on my feet, but this was not my idea of living.

There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to it. Weeks would go by and then out of the blue I’d be laid out with horrible pain. I began keeping a record of everything I put in my mouth. My normal lunch was a sandwich and a glass of unsweetened tea. One day I ran out of my tea and accepted a glass of my friend’s diet tea. Exactly 24 hours later, almost to the minute, I was laid out with a ghastly migraine. It had been a few months since my last one, and the only change was the aspartame sweetener, the little blue packet, in that tea. My father explained that it made my brain swell. It took about 24 hours from the time I took it in until my brain was pounding and I was about ready to pass out, and that delay was why it had taken so long to find.

Removing all artificial sweeteners from my food program in 1985 stopped these painful migraines.

Dara’s Story: Bowel Cleansing Away My Headaches

As far back as I can remember I had headaches. Often the discomfort was just enough to send me looking for a bottle of aspirin. No one ever asked, and I assumed everyone got headaches for no reason. My bowels moved once in the morning and maybe a bit later in the day, and I thought that was about right.

Clearing the sweetener stopped the migraines, but it did not get my bowels working well, so the headaches kept coming until I found the bowel connection. In 1998 I did my first bowel cleanse. Wow, what an experience! The immense amount of waste eliminated from my body flattened my pouchy stomach and brought an end to thirty-eight years of headaches. These days it is only when I fail to keep my bowels clear that I have to deal with head pain or a stiff neck.

The cesspool I had been holding in my bowels had been putrefying my entire body, creating a toxic condition in my brain. Over the next nine months I continued the bowel cleansing routines. My inflamed bowel healed, along with a case of irritable bowel syndrome I had developed years before. My bowels had been speaking loudly to me for years: one day too loose, the next not moving at all, and horrid cramps if I ate the wrong foods. Bowel cleansing became the beginning of my healing journey. Cleansing and healing my bowels was better than discovering the fountain of youth.

Dara’s Story: My Husband’s Ice Towel

My husband still gets a headache from time to time. He wraps an ice towel around his head like a turban and sits in a hot bath. The ice towel drives the toxic blood out of the brain, and the hot water draws it down to the lower body. It was supposed to be a bucket of hot water for his legs, but he is too grumpy when his head hurts, so I let him have the bathtub.

Dara’s Story: Whiplash from an Office Chair

My office chair rolled out from under me and I landed hard on the tile floor. I felt fine at first and slept well that first night. Around 2 a.m. the second night I woke to a searing pain in my head; it felt like someone was sticking a knife into my brain. Struggling into the bathroom, I found my jar of M&L Salve and smeared it liberally around my neck. Relief came in less than two minutes. The salve began working on contact, and the pain stopped before I had crossed the room back to my bed.

Over the next few months I used the M&L Salve nightly along with BF&C packs. The M&L Salve stops the spasm, while the BF&C works to knit the damaged area back together.

For a while after that, if my neck and shoulders got chilled at night, I would wake in pain. M&L Salve at bedtime let me sleep through. One night I forgot, woke about 3 a.m., and used both the G-Nervine Salve and the M&L Salve. In less than five minutes the pain was completely gone and I went back to sleep.

That neck will likely be a weak spot for the rest of my life. Summer is no problem, but I like sleeping in a cool room, and the winter chill in the bedroom causes the neck muscles to spasm. I keep a natural-fiber scarf on the headboard. When I wake with a headache trying to form, I just pull the scarf around my neck, and in minutes it all goes away. While it was healing, I wore the scarf over the M&L Salve I smeared around my neck. It kept the salve in place, out of my hair and off the sheets and pillow.

Whiplash is no small thing. In 1976 my mother received whiplash in a car accident. I was in my late teens and remember vividly the horrid headaches she endured. She never fully recovered from that neck injury, and struggled through periods of debilitating neck and back pain for the rest of her life.

Watch

Headache Support

Bowel Cleansing

More on Headaches

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

Herbal Healing, My Opinion, Pain, Joints & Injuries

Back, Knee and Sciatic Pain: My Stories

October 13, 2026 Dara Dietz

My own stories and what I have learned about back, knee and sciatic pain. For the full teaching, start with the Pain and Arthritis information sheets.

A backache can be caused by any one of several issues. The first to look at is a structural or spinal issue. Has there been a recent injury, a fall or a sharp twisting of the spine, or overuse of the back, lifting a heavy object incorrectly, that has caused the back to rebel? An arthritic condition in the spine can seriously limit the freedom of movement, causing the back to ache, and when the affected joints become inflamed it can cause severe pain.

Kidney issues, stones or infection, should be ruled in or out when working to clear a backache. The kidneys sit toward the back on each side of the body. Kidney stones travel through the kidney, causing the pain to move from the back to the front as they wind their way through. An infected or inflamed kidney will be enlarged, creating pressure and muscle spasms around the organ and causing the back to ache. For women, menstrual cramps are another cause of a backache.

Is It My Back, My Kidneys or Cramps?

The first issue to address when working to clear a backache is why the back is affected. Being female, menstrual cramps were an issue for me. I had also cracked my spine in a car accident in the 1980s, and I had serious kidney issues since childhood. When my back would act up, I had to determine why. Over the years I found a fail-proof way, for me, to tell which of these was causing the discomfort.

Cramps. If menstrual cramps were possible, I used Lobelia, cramp bark, or the stronger combination for spasms that Dr. Christopher called the Antispasmodic. If the cause was cramps, it would take about 15 minutes for the uterus to relax and the spasms to stop.
Kidneys. When cramps were not an option, I would start with my three kidney support drinks: (1) 1 oz of Echinacea in 12 ounces of water; (2) hot lemonade (1 tsp cayenne, 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar, lemon juice and maple syrup to taste, in 16 ounces of water); (3) 1 tablespoon of Herbal Aid 1 in 16 ounces of hot water. It would normally take about 45 minutes for the teas to filter through the kidneys enough to calm the spasms. That would also tell me my kidneys had become inflamed and it was time to do the Infection Program.
The spine. If neither of those calmed it, I knew it was the structural issue in my back.

When my kidneys are inflamed, the muscles over them become spastic, making it hard to take a step without pain. I would have to hold onto furniture as I moved around the house. See the Kidney Disease sheet for more.

When It Is the Spine

My Story: Years of Back Spasms

Following a car accident in 1985, I endured years of debilitating back spasms. Out of the blue my back would go into a spasm, sending me to the floor in a world of hurt. All of this came to a blessed end when I discovered the BF&C (Bone, Flesh & Cartilage) formula in the late 1990s. Three months after I began using the body-repairing herbs in the BF&C formula, the devastating back spasms ended.

When my back acts up from the old injury, I have found a hot and cold shower will calm or end the spasm. After my shower I apply the M&L Salve, followed by a BF&C pack over the lower back where the injury occurred. I also take the BF&C extract, 1 teaspoon in hot water every three hours, for a week or so until the crisis is over, then go back to my normal dose of once or twice a day.

When an arthritic condition of the back becomes inflamed (hot and painful is the way I’ve heard it described), packing the area with an herbal support that dissolves the uric acid crystals causing the inflammation can be very helpful. Dr. Christopher’s A&R Salve packed over the inflamed joint has proved an effective support to stop the discomfort and cool the inflammation. Once the area is comfortable again, switch back to the BF&C Salve, which has the nutrients to repair the damaged joint. The same formula as the A&R Salve is also made as a liquid extract, Joint Support, for additional support.

Michael and the Rain-Soaked Lumber

My husband, who is 6’4”, fairly thin with a long back, had an up-close and personal opportunity to witness the power of the M&L Salve. While moving a pile of rain-soaked lumber to a sheltered area, he sprained his lower back. When will the over-forty masculine half of society realize they are no longer nineteen? Yes, I’ll get off that subject; you all pay dearly for your misconceptions.

His lower back grabbed as he went to straighten up with a load of lumber. When he found me in my office, he said he felt something rip in his back. We immediately massaged the M&L Salve into the affected muscles, and a BF&C Salve pack went on a few minutes later. Throughout the day he kept applying the M&L Salve. Later that day he took an Epsom salt soak, three cups of salt in a tub of hot water, which he felt was extremely beneficial, and went to bed shortly after his bath. Saturday he rested and kept applying the M&L and BF&C salves. Sunday morning he woke up feeling 90% better and was able to finish the job he had abandoned on Friday.

Knowing what to do when an emergency occurs can cut the recovery time down from weeks to days. Since the spastic muscle was not allowed to stay in spasm, there was no swelling or blockage to contend with, and the recovery shortened to only a few days.

BF&C: A Gift from the Father

Since my own back healed, I’ve been privileged to share in many healings brought about by the BF&C formula. Several years ago one of our members asked us to make the BF&C into a salve. It took some doing, but we mastered salve making, and since combining the BF&C Salve with the extract we are never short of dramatic healing stories.

A sprained ankle, swollen and sore, mended overnight. The BF&C Salve was applied right after the accident, supporting the soft tissue immediately.
An arthritic spine. A woman in her 80s, in bed and in pain, had a BF&C pack put over her spine at bedtime by her son. The next morning she bounced out of bed feeling “right as rain.” (Her story is on the Arthritis sheet.)
Scales cleared from a teen’s face. A young teenage girl with a scaly growth on her face was given the BF&C Salve and tincture by her loving uncle. Her condition cleared quickly.
Old injuries. These herbs correctly knit the body back together. Old injuries are cleared of adhesions and the mineral deposits that contribute to arthritic conditions.

My Knee

My Story: A “Fire Ball” in My Knee

What you might call a “fire ball” of pain had developed in my knee. None of the regular herbal remedies were bringing any level of relief. Searching in Dr. Christopher’s writings, I found a reference to the use of nervine herbs for nerve pain. I applied the General Nervine Tonic directly from the bottle to the painful area on my knee. It was as if I’d taken a fire hose to the pain. It just wiped it out. The relief lasted about three hours; when it began to wear off I applied more, and it continued to work. We quickly made a salve from the formula, now our G-Nervine Salve.

Once the pain and inflammation were under control, I began building up my injured knee with the BF&C Salve and extract. It takes time, but I could see positive progress every day.

Hydrotherapy is also important to healing an injured knee. Anytime you have injury or illness you have blockage, and hydrotherapy is all about clearing blockage. The hot water brings fresh blood to the injured area, and the cold slams all that fresh blood through the blockage. It is like shooting a blood bullet into the area: the hot water loads it and the cold fires it. The more dramatic the change between hot and cold, the deeper the blood with all its healing nutrients will penetrate.

M&L Salve: releases a locked-up knee and helps remove excess lymph fluid from the area.
G-Nervine Salve: for the fiery, throbbing pain of an overused or injured knee; no numbing, just an end to the throbbing, and a good night’s sleep.
BF&C Salve and extract: with consistent use, supports the body to restore and repair bone, flesh and cartilage.

Sciatica: Thirty Minutes to Relief

A Member’s Story: Sciatica in Both Legs

I had the opportunity to assist a woman dealing with sciatica in both legs. She had only had the discomfort for about a week when she began the herbal supports. To make a long story short, she cleared the worst of it overnight.

The sciatic nerve runs right behind the bowel, so an important part of clearing this issue is cleaning out the bowel. Our member had been using LBF #1 regularly, but while doing an intense program she had not increased her dose when her bowels tightened up, and she had become backed up. When the pain is this bad you don’t want to wait several days for the bowel to clear; we cleared it quickly that day.

Then we did Dr. Christopher’s foot soak. I added 3 cups of apple cider vinegar to about half a gallon of hot water. She soaked both feet for the first ten minutes while the chopped garlic was prepared; even before her foot went on the garlic she said she was more comfortable sitting in the chair. We added hot water several times, along with more vinegar, until we had used the whole 32-ounce bottle, and she drank two tablespoons of the vinegar in a large glass of water. She rested her right foot on the garlic for about 15 minutes of the half-hour soak.

At the end she said the pain and tightness were nearly gone. The next morning she told me she had slept through the night without pain. She did another soak the next day when some of the tightness tried to return.

For the full sciatica program, see the Arthritis sheet.

Watch

Back Pain Class. Structural issues, the kidneys and menstrual cramps: how to tell them apart and the herbal supports for each.

More on Back and Joint Pain

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