treating infections without antibiotics

marjory wildcraft once again is trying to put out another great video. she's done many amazing productions before like grow your own groceries, alternative dentistry techniques, and home medicine 101.

The video has been made!

You can check it out HERE!

This statement jumped out at from their campaign page:

Superbugs, stronger than any antibiotic we can throw at them, are spreading faster than we have the capacity to fight back. 2 million people will be infected in the United States this year alone. 23,000 will die.

23,000 people.. whoa...

here's the video from the campaign:



basically, the video will be Doug Simons (super smart herbalist master) teaching tons of different ways to treat burns, infections, bites, all sorts of stuff, all without the antibiotics.


You can check it out HERE!

the story of how she got kicked off kickstarter:

from her:

Hi Cassie,

OMG it has been so crazy lately. Check this out. I am working to create a video to teach "how to treat infections without using pharmaceutical antibiotics"...

A good thing, right? With all those super bugs and stuff.

Ha, ha, - or you know in those apocalypse movies how the hero lives through the hordes, the famines, the pestilence, etc.. Only to die in the end from an infected cut on his finger?

Even the World Health Organization is saying "hello Houston, we've got a problem".

Anyway, there are really effective techniques that have been used by humans forever... We sort of dropped these methods because antibiotics are so much faster (and cheap).

But I know you've been watching the news and you know this is antibiotic resistance a serious thing, right?

So I've got a great master herbalist with decades of experience and excellent presentation skills, and we shoot the video all about these ancient techniques.

But the real cost in producing a film is in all the editing.

So I am trying to use crowd funding to raise the extra money that is needed.

We read all the rules, and go through all the hoops with Kickstarter, and then in the last moment before going live, Kickstarter review team tells us they won't allow our project.

Why?

Because we claim to "treat" ailments. They came back to us saying "could you re-word your campaign, and we will consider your amended request?"

Imagine that! A real solution to a very big problem and they want me to say it... how?

I tell them "No! we can't re-word... - this is a serious problem and this is what we are about".

So we jumped over to Indiegogo and re-did all the work. Indiegogo didn't even blink.

So we are live!

Check it out at https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/treating-infections-without-antibiotics/x/4374126#/story

Hi everyone, this is my first post on permies but I've been following for a while.

I'm a paediatric oncologist so I am extremely concerned about antibiotic resistance. We regularly treat children with life threatening infections where, once the antibiotics don't work any more, children will die. I absolutely agree that antibiotics are overprescribed in so many situations
- viral upper respiratory tract infections (ie cold and flu)
- woulds/burns with only minor surrounding infection
- as artificial growth promotants in animals
- ear infections in children (look at the evidence!)

And even where antibiotics are required to save life or reduce suffering doctors often prescribe far broader spectrum than is necessary.

The key for me is reducing inappropriate prescibing and reducing spectrum if feasible where prescibing is necessary. Now I'm sure Marjory will be sensible in this video in explaining that natural remedies are not always appropriate. If you have necrotising fasciitis, you cannot use natural remedies and expect to live. In the pre-antibiotic era millions of people died of infections that natural remedies would be insufficient to treat. Provided she doesn't advocate for using these remedies in all cases and never visiting your doctor, then I have no issue.

Here's a non-infectious example of when such a recommendation was followed: https://www.nzma.org.nz/journal/read-the-journal/all-issues/2010-2019/2010/vol-123-no-1312/cc-mistry

The body is remarkable at healing itself in most situations. If natural remedies might support that process then all power to you. I would just caution that it has limits!

My favorite approach to wound and burn healing is... raw honey and/or raw steak. Here are some photos of a dog bite that we treated with raw steak and raw honey and it healed in 2 weeks with no infection. 1/8-1/4" of raw steak, not previously frozen, large enough to cover the area. We used about 1/4 tsp of raw honey and then covered it with steak and bandaged the hand to keep the steak in place. We changed the steak, rinsed the area with a damp washcloth and then reapplied fresh honey and steak only once every 24 hours. The steak and honey kept the wound moist. The tooth made a jagged wound that angled under the skin to the fat layer, but not through the muscle, as far as I could see. It healed up so nicely!

I've also applied steak to an existing infected paper cut and a broken blood blister. The infected paper cut was about the size of a pencil eraser and under the pad of my friend's thumb. It healed in 24 hours. The puss was gone and there was no more soreness. The blood blister had ruptured (with a bit of flesh sticking out of the hole) and was about 1/2" in diameter. The steak cleaned out all the old blood out of the wound in 24 hours and it never got infected.

Has anyone else used steak on a wound? I should probably move this post to a non-herbal medicine centric thread. I'm enthusiastic about treating infections naturally, when at all possible. I got inspired by all the horrible photos of infections on Marjorie's video, haha!

What sort of steak was it? What are the chances of residual antibiotics and steroids in the meat, and antibiotics used in a huge proportion of commercial honey, being significant contributors to your observations?

Nick Kitchener wrote:What sort of steak was it? What are the chances of residual antibiotics and steroids in the meat, and antibiotics used in a huge proportion of commercial honey, being significant contributors to your observations?

I use a good quality raw honey. I don't eat commercial honey or commercially raised meat, at least at home, where I make the decisions about each ingredient that I purchase. The steak was what I normally eat: a lean top round or bottom round, beef or bison, pasture raised and no antibiotics. As far as I know, fat is where the toxins are stored so even conventionally raised lean steak should work well, as long as it hasn't been previously frozen, ground or cooked. Just make a fresh cut so that you aren't using an edge that has already been exposed to the air or packaging. Nothing is perfect, but if it's good enough to eat, it's likely to be healing if applied to your skin, as well. In the case of a wound, we're applying food (herbs, steak or honey) to help our cells and our native bacteria to handle the damage and grow good quality new skin. We need our bacteria for digesting dead cells (cooked/dead food we eat and our own dead cells). Bacteria keeps us "clean" and is necessary for the well functioning of our skin, eyes, mouth, intestines, etc. When there is too much damage and/or the introduction of a particularly nasty foreign bacteria, then we can have serious problems and a dangerous infection. That's my limited understanding, anyway. It's all quite amazing!

@Andrew Dodgshun - Thanks for the link! For me, it highlights the need to be an "informed consumer" of services. I quote from that paper in the New Zealand Medical Journal:

"While it may have been reasonable for an alternative medicine practitioner to manage the lesion initially, when it was noted the lesion was not responding to therapy but rather progressing, appropriate referral should have been sought. Also, from the time of the initial consultation and throughout the duration of alternative therapy the patient was allegedly repeatedly reassured that the lesion was 'not cancer' and advised against seeking a second opinion."

An obvious rule that the "patient" violated is: If it's getting worse instead of getting better, try something else.

Further, I react negatively to anyone who says, "Trust me! Don't seek other sources of information."

I think it would have been clearer if it said natural anti biotics because an antibiotic is something that kills the virus /bacteria . Thats what an antibiotic is .Tears , garlic juice and honey all contain antibiotics . In fact mouldy bread is a natural source of pennicilin .
I worry as there is a lot of hype out there peddled by big pharm and by those who have there own personal axes to grind. I am not suggesting Maddy is such a person but I worry when I see spin . I would say Yes make / grow your own but there comes a time when you may need the professional touch .

Cassie Langstraat wrote:
23,000 people.. whoa...

Most of those are from infections contracted in hospitals. http://www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/protecting_patients.html

Stay healthy! Stay out of the hospital!

How to get healthy, go to a place where there's a bunch of sick people!

Thank you for making this video, you almost have reached your goal of $15,000!

I am a naturopath and although I can use any drugs, supplements/herbs etc. that I wish to in the state of Oregon where I am licensed, I rarely use an antibiotic. Almost never. I have treated lymphangitis with herbs/nutrients and hydrotherapy, cat bites with epson salt hydrotherapy and calendula succus,  cuts down to the bone with calendula succus and epson salts, as well as healing salve. The list goes on and on. The fact is that sometimes you do use antibiotics for various reasons. It can even be because the person you are working with is not physically able, not mentally able or simply not willing to follow directions and you know the treatment will not work. When I do decide to use antibiotics I have noticed they don't well on their own and I add herbs/nutrients into the mix to get a better response. Now the poor antibiotics are usually up against something hard to treat but still I learned in the old days that using them without the herbs was a mistake.

I just wrote a recent blog on the use of herbs as antimicrobials hoping to give people a differenet perspective on herbs and antibiotics. You can find it here: http://dreamingabeautifulworld.blogspot.com/2016/07/antimicrobials-in-food-and-herbs-super.html

It's available to order now. Yay!

Oops. Forgot the link.


http://try.thegrownetwork.com/tiwa/

Yarrow for deep cuts with metal. Best chewed up because spit helps too but you can chop it up with a knife as well. Most things heal themselves anyway.

That is the beauty of the nature, there are so many herbal antivirals and antibacterials, I just think that most of the time people do not take enough and often enough, and then say they do not work. With serious infection, one has to take 3 droppers of Echinacea tincture every hour, then every two, etc. I think intuition is important as well, when choosing the right herb and dosage. Oregon grape and olive leaf tinctures are great antibacterials as well. I would also make sure to take liver nourishing herbs and nutritive herbs as well as a part of any treatment.

I personally cured doctor-diagnosed MRSA with grapefruit seed extract and raw honey.

Heather Davis wrote:My favorite approach to wound and burn healing is... raw honey and/or raw steak.  Here are some photos of a dog bite that we treated with raw steak and raw honey and it healed in 2 weeks with no infection.  1/8-1/4" of raw steak, not previously frozen, large enough to cover the area.  We used about 1/4 tsp of raw honey and then covered it with steak and bandaged the hand to keep the steak in place.  We changed the steak, rinsed the area with a damp washcloth and then reapplied fresh honey and steak only once every 24 hours.  The steak and honey kept the wound moist.  The tooth made a jagged wound that angled under the skin to the fat layer, but not through the muscle, as far as I could see.  It healed up so nicely!

I've also applied steak to an existing infected paper cut and a broken blood blister.  The infected paper cut was about the size of a pencil eraser and under the pad of my friend's thumb.  It healed in 24 hours.  The puss was gone and there was no more soreness.  The blood blister had ruptured (with a bit of flesh sticking out of the hole) and was about 1/2" in diameter.  The steak cleaned out all the old blood out of the wound in 24 hours and it never got infected.

Has anyone else used steak on a wound?  I should probably move this post to a non-herbal medicine centric thread.  I'm enthusiastic about treating infections naturally, when at all possible.  I got inspired by all the horrible photos of infections on Marjorie's video, haha!

I used local raw honey for a full-on, four-fang cat bite hope to stave off infection.  Unfortunately, after two days I had to throw in the towel and visit the local Urgent Care for antibiotics to treat the very swollen, very painful infection.  I was very disappointed.

However, I had great success using a lavender essential oil / tea tree essential oil / grapeseed carrier oil pack on a nasty outbreak of shingles that worked very, very well.  It kept the shingles from spreading and healed it within a week or so.  I slathered on the oil mixture and kept it wrapped with a bandage - changing it every 4 hours or so.  I would also 'rinse' it periodically with organic ACV.  That, too, was quite painful, so I was thankful that I was able to avoid standard medical (pharmaceutical) intervention there.