Natural Remedies for MRSA: Effective Solutions for Infection Control

Manuka Honey helped my MRSA infection heal. It did NOT prevent an existing boil from needing to be drained in the ER.

I am pregnant, in my first trimester, and was desperate to avoid taking antibiotics. I had one MRSA boil on one butt cheek and another developing on the other. I went to an ID doctor (infectious disease) who first said to wait and see what happened. (I have had 2 other infections in the past, and an allergic reaction to Bactrim). Then, when that boil got worse, he first said, "Oh, really? Because it was just a small pimple the other day?" Then he called me back two hours later and advised me to go to the ER where they would probably have to put me on IV drugs. Next doctor! Clearly this guy didn't know what he was talking about.

I had a very smart and well-informed dr in the ER. She gave me a prescription for antibiotic (pregnancy safe) but said she would be soaking like her life depending on it and looking up natural cures.

At this point, I'd been taking turmeric for days. I was eating it first 3 tsps a day in water. Then mixed into yogurt. Then into kefir. Finally mixed in with coconut oil, which I'd mixed with freshly ground black pepper (which is supposed to activate the active compound/s). I was applying tea tree oil and soaking the boils in sometimes Epsom salt and sometimes tea tree and sometimes a mix. Nothing seemed to be happening.

The first boil, which had been drained, was healing. At this point I received my Manuka Honey ointment in the mail. I applied to the drained boil and the second, extremely tender and painful but not drained boil. I was also applying castor oil, black pepper, turmeric (and taking internally) and--finally, for the last couple days--raw garlic.

I also at some points applied Milk of Magnesia.

Many of the active oils that have been proven to kill MRSA (oregano, grapefruit seed, geranium) are not safe in pregnancy so I could not use them.

At the end, the natural remedies did not do very much for me at all. I ended up having to go to the ER to have the second boil lanced. (Why, dear God, do I need to go to the ER to have something done that a first-week med student could do with a clean knife and some clean gauze? Ridiculous.)

Then, still hoping the boils would heal on their own and I could avoid taking antibiotics, I was applying the manuka, following the directions, soaking and cleaning with Hibiclens--which I had been doing all the while, along with one-use towels, laundry separation, insanely frequent hand-washing, etc etc etc).

I developed a fever and had to take the antibiotics so that my 5-week old developing baby would not be hurt by the fever.

All in all, the honey appears to be helping the wounds heal. But I can't say I had particular success with anything else. I will continue to change my diet, take Magnesium liquid, and hit up the probiotics and start making my own kefir as soon as I'm done with the antibiotics.

Last year I had MRSA from a spiderbite.

I found out very shortly after my diagnosis that I was allergic to antibiotics. I had a horrible reaction where ALL of my skin swelled up and peeled off. I had to find another way to treat it. I had spent more time in the hospital for drug reactions than for the MRSA wound itself.

I treated the weeping, disgusting wound with: eating 3 cloves of raw garlic a day (cut up with a glass of warm water), I made a paste of tumeric powder, tea tree oil, lemongrass oil, and manuka honey and applied it to the wound very often (whenever the last application of paste dried up I'd apply a new one and cover it with a bandana that had the paste applied to the side closest to my skin as well). I washed it 3x a day with Hibicleanse as well.

2 weeks after I started this regimen, the wound began to heal up.

I have had 2 cases of a MRSA infection where the doctors didnt know anything, gave me antiobiotics, and then cut and drained them. I haven't had one in 1.5 years after cutting out the majority of sugar from my diet. I take acidophilus in the morning, try to eat limited processed foods and as little as preservatives and sugars as possible. No soda, candy, chips, ect. I havent another infection and feel alot healthier.

Do you drink acidophilus as a probiotic capsule or drink as milk?

Honey and tumeric mixed in equal volume applied to my big toe nail under a bandaid relieved the throbbing pain. MRSA-CA had been going around in our community. After subteaching at our school I apparently got it in the base of my toenail. When the pain started, accompanied by inflamation I used H2O2 and an antibiotic ointment to be able to sleep. Next evening it had returned, so I repeated using another ointment after the H202 relieved the pain. On the third day, worse, I came to EarthClinic and discovered tumeric and also raw honey seemed to help others, so mixed equal amount and applied it after the H2O2. A bandaid kept the paste around the base of the nail where it had first inflamed. I kept this up a week, applying nightly and also taking about 1/4 teaspoon of the mix daily. The infection died, and so did the toenail. The nail has grown back--but no more MRSA, after a year, thank God!

A friend who got MRSA on her foot at the same time took a month for the medical treatment to relieve it. The MD warned it would take a month to heal the wound but she applied some of the honey-turmeric and amazed herself and the MD that it healed in days. We have lots of problems in this fallen world, but the good Lord gave us herbs and things to solve them!

I want to say that the info on the site is extremely helpful. Turmeric definitely works for MRSA, as does the grapefruit seed extract, and if you have heard of curcumin, it is amazing with three capsules a day. But it wasn't until I cut the bread and sugar out of my diet that I really saw the difference. I started to add banannas to my diet thinking it would be ok(too many- 3 a day) and it gave me a breakout within 30 hours, so apparently fruit raises the sugar in the body? I would love to hear some feedback.

Yes, usually fruits contain lots of sugar. I'm not sure about banannas, but from what I've read on other websites you should avoid fruit. On the other side of the barricade we have dark green vegetables that seem help.

Thank you Bill from San Fernando, Luzon, Philippines! I've been searching since last August for a way to heal what's wrong with me. What I thought was adult acne started exactly one year ago. Finally saw a dermatologist at the end of October. He only said I had a very severe case of eczema. I had to figure out on my own that it was seborrheic eczema, but it did explain why none of the acne images online looked like what I had. He cultured it and I saw him 6 weeks later. HE NEVER TOLD ME IT WAS MRSA until, in frustration, I went to an urgent care clinic and they informed me in the middle of January. That doc told me to use bacitracin and just plain water to cleanse my face.

Long story short, even after seeing an infectious disease doc in January, nothing I tried worked -- not tea tree oil, honey propolis, drawing salve, Bactroban, the appropriate oral antibiotics, the corticosteroid from the dermatologist, Betatine or even the Hibiclens. All of these helped a bit, but nothing HEALED. I searched and searched online for another example similar to what I had as I do not have boils (though have been wishing I had because there is info all over about treating them). YOU finally had something similar -- a fungal based red problem -- that responded to plain of Milk of Magnesia. I read your explanation of why and it made complete sense. I tried it in the middle of the day after going to the store to buy it and then showering. Within 24 hours I saw significant improvement. I am on day 3 and it continues working just as you described. The high pH is killing the exposed MRSA on the skin and is even reaching down below closed up lesions to destroy the MRSA that still lies there in the form of hard bumps that show as white through the skin.

THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART!!!! I ONCE AGAIN HAVE HOPE!!!

After trying a variety of remedies, there is still a very stubborn staph infection near my right eye. I have whittled it down to two small bumps the size of bug bites with garlic, turmeric and medicated creme from the doctor's office. However, these last two marks are deep under the skin. I was reading about helping to heal my stomach cramps (from all of the medicines over the past few months) and I read licorice tea was highly beneficial for my blood type (B) and so I went searching for licorice tea and found it to be extremely good. Up at school I needed to reapply the turmeric to my eye because it was beginning to itch and burn, but I didn't have any water, only the licorice tea. Not caring at this point, I slathered it on the staph infection and instantly it was cooled and began to ease. Ever since I have been cleaning the staph with the tea instead of water and the marks have scabbed over and are clearly healing. This tea is not pure licorice, so it may not be the licorice that is helping it. In the tea there is licorice root, cinnamon bark, orange peel, ginger root, cardamom seed, black pepper and clove bud. I don't know which one of these is helping, but I am very thankful it is! I found the tea in an organic herbal shop since the general grocery store didn't carry any licorice at all.

Manuka Honey is an absolute quick cure for MRSA. Just put it on at the first sign of a breakout. I use turmeric as well but Manuka Honey is the only thing that cures the mrsa within a few days. It can be purchased online or at your local health food store. Please try this. A friend of mine and I both have frequent mrsa breakouts and antibiotics is only a temporary fix for us. The honey is a bit expensive but it only takes a small amount of honey. You apply it like an ointment and it lasts a very long time. The higher the UMF the better. Again, do yourself a favor if you have mrsa, and try this. I gaurantee you will notice a significant change within 12 hours!

A combination of remedies has really helped our whole family, both supplements and topical treatments. Many of these are already listed at this website. The supplements we have been taking include daily doses of turmeric, garlic, and extra vitamin C. Our topical treatments have been colloidal silver, silver hydrosol gel, silver gel in a petroleum base and oil of oregano.

These remedies did not make the outbreaks less frequent, but as our immune systems recovered from antibiotic therapy the outbreaks themselves became smaller and smaller, more like ordinary pimples than big boils. For about two months, we have been taking supplements and treating all MRSA skin outbreaks in the family with topical treatments only.

Then one day almost by accident we discovered that homeopathic ointment for hives and insect bites helped reduce the discomfort of a developing outbreak and also seemed to make our other topical treatments work much faster. In some cases, the antihistamine treatment actually stopped the development of an outbreak. (Probably commercial products such as Benadryl or Calamine lotion will work, too). It seems as though reducing the inflammation aspect of a MRSA outbreak allows the immune system to work better.

Our final breakthrough has been the addition of really high quality probiotics to our supplements. The immune system relies on good bacteria for optimal functioning, and although our regimen above was working, it felt as though we needed one last boost to our health.

There are hundreds of brands of probiotics to choose from, so do your research as thoroughly as you can. We checked product reviews, and also forums for other ailments such as Crohn's disease or IBD. If you read carefully, you will find that there are a small number of brands that seem to get consistently great reviews by people across the spectrum. We chose one that specifically mentioned MRSA in its literature, as well as getting many positive reviews.

It seems to have been the last puzzle piece for our recovery. Each family member has seen a small potential outbreak begin and fade away all in the same day. That is real progress, the sign that our immune systems are doing what they are supposed to. We are still very diligent in our cleaning and prevention routines, but it is nice to feel more confident in our bodies' ability to recover.

We hope this is helpful to other MRSA victims.

I have tried antibiotics and it definitely made things worse. I've been using baking soda/seasalt/aloe pastes and that seems to be working, but still 3 small boils I'm dealing with. I've recently added ground flaxseed to the paste and hope that helps. I'm going to do the crushed garlic both internal and external with manuka honey starting today. Hopefully I'll repost and let you know I'm cured! Its been 3 years (I was misdiagnosed with hormonal acne until 4 months ago when I got extremely ill from the mrsa).

Honey kills staph infections

I developed Staph infection in my leg from a spider bite. It was lanced, bandaged and I took prescription antibiotics. A little while later another sore appeared. It seems the Staph had gone systemic. I took every type of antibiotic and even double doses to try and get rid of it. For a yr and a half I kept breaking out in these horribly painful sores. Finally I got on the net and looked up natural remedys. I tried honey in place of antibiotic topical ointments and immediately my sores improved over night. I put a 1/4 -1/2 tsp of honey on a 4x4 bandage after I showered and dried my skin well, then left it undisturbed for 24 hours and repeated until the sores were gone. It's been yrs since I've had an out break. When I did get an occassional sore, I'd wrap it up in honey just to be safe. I've read they are using honey in some burn units because it helps decrease scaring as well as being a good antibiotic.

Great stuff: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/02/20/the-natural-way-to-speed-wound-healing.aspx?e_cid=20120220_DNL_art_1

One thing I found is the occurrence of mrsa boils decreased quickly after I started sanitizing laundry - mainly undergarments, towels, and wash clothes. Use 1/2 cup of borax per load. I also spray toilet seats and chairs with disinfectant as have noticed boil out-breaks where my bare skin touches the edge of seats (buttocks and back of legs). Also wash cloth belts and sanitize pocket wallets. I swear this bug is able to survive in material for a few days! Daily sups of tumeric and silver has almost stopped the outbreaks completely. When I do find a sore bump I hit it head on with deluted hibicleanse (50% water in a seperate bottle). Im now down to 1 small boil every couple of months!

It doesnt just stay around for days, it stays around your bed, furniture, car for months after intial infection. This is why all of you keep getting these reinfections after a cure has worked for you. I am using a UV-C wand now to see how it works on my bed and furniture. If this doesnt work I just going to have to get all new Things! Will keep posted but the stuff can live for months!!

Please do another survey on MRSA. Been fighting it for 2 months and have been told by numerous medical personel that it is almost a epidemic here in West TN. I also have Lupus that seems to make it harder to get it cleared up. Thank you for you advice I am goiing to try the Natural way because the other is NOT working.

Is there a link between MRSA and Lupus?

I picked up a Staph infection from a friend who had slept on my sofa. After, 7 days-I got 3 skin eruptions on my inner thigh and starting feeling sick. After seeing a doctor-he wanted to put me on a string of antibiotics. Antiobiotics usualy leaves me with a yeast infection or thrush. After having such bad experiences with antibiotics, I went and got oil of Oregano for about 20.00 I used 4 drops in water and 1 drop under my tongue, Within 2 hours-my energy came back and I started to feel better. After 5 days-I can no longer tell that there was anything wrong with me, in the first place. I used oil of Oregano before when eating out because most restaurants are very dirty and full of workers that carry bacteria, so it has always worked for food poisioning but it also worked for staph and the boils that appear as a sympton of this infection.

That is exactly correct. Cornstarch fosters not only the proliferation of certain bacteria, but also fungi. Talcum-containing products should be substituted.

I was in the hospital for gallbladder surgery, And I got staff infection, that was about seven yr. ago. Since then my hair has lost it's shine and looks dry and brittle I had a very full head of hair, now it's very thin . could this have any thing to do w/ the staff infection? some one told me staff never leaves your system ? Thank you

Hey there! I think because of you are under stress with MRSA it is the problem.... STRESS.... I am having MRSA for 6 months now and lost a lot of hair...1/2 its... The best is to think positive by telling yourself that "tomorrow will definitely be better" and "don't trust today or yesterday" you always live for tomorrow ^_* try to use Nioxin conditioner for hair loss 2... I'm using it... It help to grow hair again ^_* hope you and me and everyone will feel better and win win win against the MRSA... Things happen to teach us lessons, so remember to learn... By eating healthier and think positive (means don't stress out), and exercise for better health and gain back confident ^_* by the way, I am drinking phenomenal alkaline water for ten days now, I am fighting the battle as well, antibiotic same time the amoxicillin one.. I hope they will help me, I also ask God for help too ^_^ Okie dokie... Good Day!

Jerrifer from concord with your 2 yr old. As it boils she had in her diaper area. I have suffered with these boils on my inner thighs and pubic area for 30 yrs I am going to give this turmeric a try. Please post how your daughter is making out.

thank you, Misty

Skin Lesions: My sweetheart had a black, odd shaped, itchy lesion on his right nostril. He mentioned it to his doctor whenever he went for a check-up and was given a steroid cream that seemed to help but whenever he'd stop using it the lesion came back. We thought it was a fungus when it spread to his cheek, but when he went back to his doctor they took a sampling of it and said it was 'due to the cold'. Minnesota is infamous for it's frigid winters!. He was prescribed another steroid cream, told to use it sparingly and everyday.. but the same thing happened again..as soon as he stopped using it the thing would come back!

In our attempt to eat healthier we'd started having a pink grapefruit for breakfast. After a few days of the grapefruit, the itchy patch stopped itching and was gone completely within a week. Pink Grapefruit, no sugar, no salt...just peel it and eat it.

Try Manuka honey. Research has found it to be more effective in treating MRSA and Staph than clinical antibiotics.

Okay. I truly believe in h2o2 35% food grade. So, what's the best way to treat mrsa with nose ulceration?

Originally, my twin sons and I contracted this when hospitalized at Phoenix's Good Samaritan/Banner Health and Phoenix Children's Neonatal Hospital. I was told, after about a week hospitalized, that: "How do you feel that you entered the hospital completely healthy except with risk of carrying multiples to now have staph?". Clueless, I said I felt okay at the time, I was just exhausted-who wouldn't be-3 months bed rest was a pain!

Well, all the rounds of antibiotics I was aware I had was one thing, to learn my babies had rounds as well (I found out by re-reading discharge papers) shocking. Yet, a year with challenging health issues with them as well as keeping up with our 8 year old...well, left me overwrought-flat out TKO'D (totally knocked out). To this day, from at least my nostril, I have ulceration. I had no I idea that it's eating at my brain-maybe explaining my brain fogs-I get seizures but don't use meds bc they seem to increase for some reason.

I noticed one son doesn't like crusty nose and picks @ his nose and I spray it with my nasal wash (2 1/2oz good water, 2T mineral salts 1 1/2 oz h2o2 food grade). I've stopped redness & bleeding in mine. Though he doesn't like me to, I squirt his as well as our ears.

What should I do?

Desert Mom

Hi,

I also have trouble with nasal ulcerations, though it has not been diagnosed as staph or anything else.... When these pop up (about twice per year), they are very stubborn.

What works for me----in the shower, I wash my face (and hence nose) with pure local raw honey (if you mix with water it is kind of lather-y and easy to wash off); twice a day, once after shower and once before bed, I use a saline rinse. A Neti pot is good but for convenience I use the one that comes prepackaged (the same brand makes a saline wound wash); lastly, take a cotton swab covered in antibiotic gel and swab it liberally in the nasal passage---coat the area really well.

The scabby nose clears up within a few days.

I just had a bout with MRSA in my nose and armpit. Doxycycline took about three days to take care of it and I will be on it for twenty more days. This is the third round in my armpits and I will be trying the milk of magnesia for this in the future.

How much is the max per day of 10ppm?

I was diagnosed with MRSA a few months back, and, since then, have been plagued with the most painful boils under both of my armpits. The initial treatment was to have the ER doctor lance and pack the boil (which was NOT very pleasant, and more painful than I ever planned on experiencing again), and administer antibiotics (which did not make any sense to me, given the fact that MRSA is caused by antibiotic resistence). Since the doctor offered no hope, no cure, and no alternative treatment, I have taken to treating my own boils (successfully, I might add). When I get a new boil, I use (1) Silver Sol (which is an extremely effective, nontoxic silver solution that is available in a couple of brands that I know of) topically, as well as internally; (2) a tumeric paste - made with tumeric (yes, the grocery store spice), honey, and extra virgin olive oil, or (3) a combination of the two. The applications have helped to immediately alleviate the pain, as well as allowed a quick healing time from the boils. The one drawback is that, since my boils are sometimes extremely large, they rarely ever burst and drain, and when they do, it's only been a small amount. This last time around, I set out to find a method of bursting them, so that they could drain, and (perhaps! ) not return. Since I can take the Silver Sol internally to kill bacteria, I have it in my mind that, if I can get this darn puss out of my body, I can perhaps kill these germs once and for all (I'll let you know how that goes! ). My friend told me about an old-wives'-tale method of using the membrane from the inside of an egg. She had used the method on her daughter's boil just the previous week, and it had worked well. Well, being the adventerous soul that I am, I immediately went downstairs, and began cracking eggs. As I was instructed, I cracked the egg, pulled the membrane out of the shells, applied the membrane to my armpits, and covered the areas with a well-sealed bandage. I went to bed that night, and I didn't feel much happening, except a little twinge here and there during the night. The next day I got up, and promptly removed the bandages - and nothing. So I called my friend, and I complained that it had not worked. She laughed at me and said, "You have to leave it on longer than just one night, DoDo! " Ok; so back to the drawing board. That night, I reapplied the concoction to my armpits, and resolved myself to smelling like a rotten, dried-up egg for the rest of the week. My friend said that it had taken about 5 days for it to work on her daughter, and, it being 108 degrees here WITHOUT the heat index, I pretty much expected to have to stay by myself during the work week. So I allowed this thing to stay for an entire week, Saturday to Saturday, without changing the bandages, and without taking a shower (I wasn't exactly sure what the proper protocol was, and I just wanted this thing to work! ). At the end of the week, I took the thing off, and. . . Nothing. Ok, so I, by nature, am a pretty tenacious person. I decided that, if this thing could work for my friend's daughter, then there was just NO way it was NOT going to work for me! It's not really ENTIRELY true the NOTHING happened; the only thing I noticed was that my boils had gotten larger (maybe this was because the puss was being drawn up towards the egg???). So this time, I waited a week (so that I wouldn't be banned from work for smelling like I had rolled around in some rotting food products) and I went back to showering every day (I'm sure my co-workers appreciated me for this). The following weekend, I went back to applying the egg membrane to my underarms. As luck would have it, the weather turned a bit milder this week. It had rained a couple of times, and the temperature during the times when I was outside (very early in the morning, while heading to work; and in the evenings, after work) was only in the lower hundreds (YOU might not appreciate the difference there, but I have learned to adapt). This time, I was able to keep the thing on for the majority of the week without a huge amount of odor (though I must admit that there was a couple of times when I felt the need to apply my natural deordorant to the areas around the bandage! ). I think somewhere around Monday-Tuesday, I began to realize that something had happened at some point, but I didn't really have the time to investigate. Wednesday, I got to the point where I would at least look at the bandage, and I noticed that the bandage had some dried blood (or something) on it that I could see from the outside. On Thursday (last night), things had calmed down a little in my household, and I was actually able to attend to my wounds. What I discovered was that the large boil under my right arm HAD actually popped, and there was a large hole in its place. My friend had told me to expect this, so I didn't feel the need to freak out. I was actually pretty pleased to see the large gaping hole in my skin, which is a testament to Darwin's theory of evolution and survival of the fittest. The area was flat, and there was no pain. The smaller boil under my left arm had also, apparently, popped, but I had difficulty identifying the hole there. No matter; I was still pleased. So, that night, of course, I walked around my house telling everyone that I came in contact with that my boil had popped, and waiting for them to cheer enthusiastically for me over my victory (only my 13-yr-old son managed to pull that one off, but I have no illusions over the placation there). Today (literally) I am boil-free, and there were no scalpels involed! Take THAT, modern medicine!

I FIRMLY belive in the ACV for MRSA 1 teaspoon in a bottle of water 2 times a day has kept it at bay ACV applied directly to affected area also is very helpful.

DO YOU DRINK THE APPLE CIDER MIXED WITH WATER?

I tried this before, even the good kind with the "mother" of vinegar in the bottle, and it didn't do a thing for my staph infection. I had MRSA on my scalp and lost about half of my hair in big clumps because of it. It could have been because I had it so badly. I was put on antibiotics for three months of doxycycline as well as clindamycin phosphate solution to put on the areas. It took a year for all of the lesions to disappear.

One thing that the ACV did do was to help with the incredible itching that I had.... it did soothe that.

Today I find myself two years later with this crap again, only this time it is on my skin and not my scalp. Taking notes here from what I am reading and going to try a few things. I already have lavender and neem oils to use on it and have ordered some activated oxygen, tissue salts, and some acai berry capsules. Wish me luck... And good luck to you with your ACV... I am glad that it works for you! Speaking of this, I will try some for the itching I have as it really does help with this.

I was wondering about non-MRSA staph infections and allicin - does it take a lower dosage or the same? I see predominantly MRSA cures, however I was wondering if the same can be applied across the board to any staph infection.

Currently I am taking a clove of garlic a day, 2 spoonfuls of manuka honey, 1,000mg of turmeric plus whatever I drink or eat with it in it mixed with cayenne pepper. The cephalexin I tried scared me, 500mg 4x a day for 10 days - I made it one day before my head felt as though it was going to explode and I couldn't breathe. I was just curious to know if I should be tested for the MRSA or what or if I should give the allicin a whirl. I am tired of feeling crummy.