Baking Soda and Borax for Lichen Planus

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Llp (Houston, Texas) on 08/30/2011:
5 out of 5 stars

I have to share my experience here because one year ago my 6 year old was diagnosed with lichen planus through a biopsy. We were thrilled to finally have a name to put with the horrible skin reaction that had covered our son's body (only his face and mouth were clear) and lost as to what to do next. The doctor prescribed three meds. The steroid cream I had to apply to his body using rubber gloves because I was going through steroid treatment for pneumonia (second time I had it). That was scary for me. Every time I would put it on him I would think, "I'm supposed to treat this child with this strong steroid indefinately?! ". The next drug was just supposed to put moisture back on his skin but it was new and I was nervous since I was the victim of a new drug that was later recalled for disasterous side effects. The third was to help him sleep and not scratch his skin at night. We gave that to him once or twice but it knocked him out cold and it was difficult to get him to wake up the next morning.

I know we could have lowered the dosage, etc. But something in me snapped. I was sick and tired of everyone in my family being sick and tired. I searched everywhere on the internet for a cure, including this site. Nothing worked. Then I stumbled across the website drmcdougall.com. I read it all night (I have chronic insomnia too). We had tried so many things that I decided we could try eating the ultra-healthy mcdougall way. It was hard, but it wasn't a pill that might be recalled in a few years. We eliminated all fats, dairy, processed foods (even the processed vegetarian stuff), meat, oils and sugar. We ate a ton of vegetables, fruits, potatoes, sweet potatoes, rice, barley, beans, quinoa... You get the picture.

Within a week, the swelling went down on the lichen planus sores. Within two weeks we noticed that he had less spots. Within a few months his hair in the places he had lost it actually started to grow back! Shortly after that, he was completely symptom free! The whole family followed the diet (my teenager bought junk at school for the first while and then even that little bit became unappetizing) and we are all finally healthy again. I got over my asthma, pneumonia, even my arthritis pain went away completely, other family members went through winter without getting sick... Not even a cold! My husband and I lost weight and the kids have continued to grow at the same rate they did before. Now we eat the mcdougall way about 90% of the time. When my son spent two weeks at grandma's this summer his lichen planus came back on his back, arms and legs. A few weeks of eating the mcdougall diet helped him to become symptom free again.

I really hope this helps someone. I hope you try it. Everything on mcdougall's site is free. So it really won't cost you anything. We bought one book of his after we were already seeing results because I wanted to be thourough. I also bought a mcdougall cookbook after a while. It isn't necessary though since he lists a lot of recipes for free anyway. I felt that I needed more recipes since this is our lifestyle now and not a diet per se.

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Rich (Boca Raton, Fl, USA) on 11/09/2008:
4 out of 5 stars

I'm 32, smoked 5-10 ciggarettes/day drank 5 beers/day for 15 years.

At 25 I was diagnosed with Lichen Planus... Doctors gave me cortisone cream, didn't help. Found this site a few months ago, and have done some independant research since. Ted is awesome, by the way.

This post is a little fast and loose, without sources.

Basically, ENT Doctors commonly use Baking Soda, Vinnegar, and Borax added to other stuff, and categorize these as anti-infectives.

It appears that DCA, which is currently being tested in Canada as an anti-cancer drug is a combination of Bleach, Vinnegar, and BakingSoda... which would seem to kill a bunch of infections.
*****
Back to my problems. 3 months ago: I've got a white tongue, with bumps on the side of my mouth. I usually wake up congested, but it clears before 10am. Often I feel congested, and that makes me want another cigarrette.

I played the watch the clock game, and cut my smoking to 1 ciggarettes/day (after 7 pm)(back up to 3). I cut my drinking to 1 day per week. I started running 2 miles per day. It didn't help with my problems, although I lost 20 pounds.

I THINK that I have this thing figured out... I will post a follow-up in a few months, if I'm cured.
******
Studying Ted's "anti-infectives", first I tried going alkaline (borax and baking soda). This cleared my lungs, but made the bumps in my mouth worse.

Now I've gone in reverse, with the Apple Cidar Vinnegar only, and the bumps in my mouth are disappearing.

So here's my theory. There is a mayo-clinic study from a few years ago that says that most chronic sinus problems are caused by a fungus. As I had a yeast-like taste in my mouth, it was probably Candida. I went to the doc, and got some fluconazole, since the baking soda seemed to be clearing my lungs. Success on clearing my lungs... at least temporarily.... however, the bumbs in my mouth seemed to be getting worse.

It appears that these bumps are a "secondary infection", probably bacterial or viral. Since one problem was cured, I switched to 2 TBSP or Apple Cider vinegar, 2x per day. I had an immediate outbreak of Lichen Planus on my fingers, which appears to be dissapearing completely after a week. Additionally, the bumps in my mouth are 50% reduced.

There was a new study that came out last week that said men have cleaner hands than women, and are less likely to get skin infections, due to their hands are more acidic.

This lichen planus stuff kind of looks like warts, with a dark(blue) center. Since I've been taking ACV... the center of this stuff is red, like it's healing.
******
So I think I had Candida with a secondary infection, and the secondary infection(Lichen Planus) is cured by ACV.

I need some time to completely cure this stuff... but I think I did this in reverse. First start with the ACV to cure the secondary infection(Lichen Planus), then clear the yeast infection (Baking Soda or Borax or Flucon-azole).
******
On the white tongue... listerine doesn't help, biotene mouthwash doesn't help. Flouride toothpaste doesn't help. Brushing my tongue with either Baking Soda or Borax or Both and/or combining Hydrogen Peroxide, will turn my tongue completely red.

It will turn white again within 2 days... I've got some kind of infection. This stuff seems to help, though. I've been very impressed with that 20-mule borax stuff, in spite of the fact that the white tongue comes back.

Borax is not to be feared, just follow Ted's small dosage. His dosage is well reasoned.

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