Dreadfulwitchdoctor (Texas, US) on 03/28/2015:

Right now I'm dealing with a particularly nasty one on my chin. I made the mistake of trying to squeeze it, and I could actually see the pus spreading out underneath the skin when I did that. I knew that meant the infection would be far worse, so I came here for remedies since Earthclinic is usually one of my first stops when I'm not sure what to do.

I have a large amount of high-quality organic turmeric powder on hand, because I already take it for inflammation, liver health, and cancer prevention. In fact, I was concerned it wouldn't work, because I am already taking it, so it seems like it should already have worked. But the reviews were so overwhelmingly positive, and I know that turmeric works better in larger doses, so I took it to a new level and it is definitely helping.

Here's what I'm doing: Starting yesterday, I increased my intake of turmeric substantially. I blend my turmeric with ground milk thistle seeds, ground schizandra berries and some ground black pepper, so I'm just taking half a teaspoon of that formula every couple of hours instead of three times a day. The milk thistle at that quantity isn't an issue, and I put a smaller proportion of schizandra than the other herbs in the formula, so I'm not worried about getting too much of that. I have less still of the black pepper, so again, I'm not concerned. I don't mess with capsules or mixing it with milk or water. Capsules are too time-consuming and expensive to make, and mixing it with water just prolongs the amount of time I'm tasting it. I just dump the powder into my mouth (under the tongue to avoid accidentally inhalation which is not fun! ), then take a large swig of warm water, swish it all around in my mouth, and swallow. No worse than taking a pill, really, and cheap and easy. I take a lot of different herbs this way, so I'm used to it and it doesn't bother me at all.

Milk thistle can cause diarrhea in some people so taking it with the turmeric could hypothetically help to prevent constipation (while simultaneously giving even more support to your liver than the turmeric already provides).

I also decided to apply turmeric externally. Before doing this, I held an ice cube on the boil for as long as I could stand it. Next, I soaked a large cotton ball in witch hazel, and added one drop each of tea tree, rosemary, and basil essential oils. I took these steps to try to eliminate some of the swelling and bruising.

Then I mixed up my turmeric paste. I didn't want it to dry to a crumbly powder, so I put about a teaspoon of turmeric in a small glass container with a sealable plastic lid and moistened it with raw honey. The honey makes it sticky enough to easily adhere to the boil and it doesn't dry out. The raw honey also has anti-bacterial benefits. I also added some black pepper, and about three drops of tea tree oil and one drop of oregano oil. I spread this mixture over the boil and covered it with a bandaid. I could tell within a couple of hours that it was getting smaller, but I left it on for about five or six hours. When I took the bandaid off, I could tell it had helped.

I cleaned it up, took a bath, held a warm, soaking wet washcloth on it (frequently re-warming the washcloth in the hot bath water). I also took a handful of epsom salts I moistened with bath water and spread this over the whole area. I let that sit a while, then rinsed it off.

After the bath, I covered the entire area in bentonite clay for about an hour or two. It was very soothing and cooling.

After rinsing the clay off, I re-applied the turmeric/honey paste, and covered it with another bandaid. This stayed on all night.

This morning, the large lump was less than half the size it was yesterday. It was still dark purple and angry looking, but I could see three white spots where pus had been draining out and continued to do so. The pad of the bandaid had three corresponding globs of pus on it. I did the bentonite clay application again for about an hour, then iced it again, then re-applied the turmeric paste and covered with a new bandaid.

This afternoon, the lump is almost gone. It's still purple, but seems to be getting better. I remembered that I have a bottle of turmeric essential oil, so I added a drop to that of my paste. I haven't re-applied since I added that, so I don't know if it will increase the effectiveness or not. I will try to update to let you know. I'm thinking of adding a couple of drops of Rescue Remedy as well and possibly some chamomile tincture for inflammation.

Once I feel like the infection has completely drained, I plan to start alternating two salves to help heal the skin. I made these salves myself. One of them is made from comfrey-infused oil and has added essential oils (basil, rosemary, marjoram, and eucalyptus) and the other is made from a mixture of chamomile-infused oil and calendula-infused oil, plus kukui nut oil, shea butter and essential oils (frankincense, spikenard, patchouli, copaiba balsam, ylang ylang, and myrrh).

Oh, I also started taking a daily dose of L-Lysine yesterday. I don't know if that's helping or not.

Overall, I'm very happy that things are moving along as quickly as they are. I don't expect this will be invisible by the time I have to go to work on Monday, but I think it's going to look a lot better than it would have if I hadn't done all of the above.