Greetings, health nuts!
I have had some random health notes swimming in my brain, and my outlets are rather limited these days. Let's dive in!
**this information is NOT intended to treat, prevent, cure or otherwise help you in any way. Is it, FDA? ha!
Toe Fungus...
So, years ago, back in my college days, I bought a "Calcium Building" nail polish at Sally Beauty. My big toe's nails were really bad about splitting layers and looking atrocious. For $5.99, I was willing to try it. I put it on religiously for 4 or 6 weeks and definitely saw some nail thickening. I put on a pretty coat of color and forgot about it for the winter. In the spring, when I finally took the color back off, I was horrified to see my nails had yellowed. I stopped wearing any polish and dealt with warping and waves for YEARS. It never got worse, it never got better. I just dealt with people asking me over and over if I had nail fungus. No other symptoms. At the onset of winter this year (over a decade since the "Calcium Building") I noticed that two toes on both feet had some whitening in the nail bed that was starting to show. I figured I must have damaged my nail beds and did not think more of it. Around this same time, I was trying to use up a bunch of leftover ingredients from my Apothecary days. Clays and Hydrosols galore. I was taking VERY luxurious baths several days a week. My primary ingredients in rotation were:
-Lime Hydrosol (1/2-1 c per bath, did several of these)
-Frankincense Hydrosol (1/2-1 c per bath, did several of these)
-Eucalyptus Hydrosol (1/2-1 c per bath, did several of these)
-Bentonite Clay (2 cups per bath, only did a few times)
-Fuller's Earth (1-2 cups per bath, only did this one a few times)
-Borax (1 cup per bath)
Other hydrosols used in small squeezes: Geranium, Linden, German Chamomile, Lavender)
A few weeks into my bathing routine, I saw that the white part had grown out, showing major warping and thinning where the fungus had been. I looked up the pattern and, according to Doctor Google, the fungus presented as one that normally requires surgery for standard treatment, and often comes back. The name has escaped me.
Now, a few months later, the nails are almost completely grown out, and look perfectly healthy and pink--better than they've ever looked really.
Now, of course, since I did not receive a formal diagnosis, this is all just hearsay. If anecdotal evidence is your favorite drug, let's go a little further.
Borax has been indicated for helping restore fungal balance in folk medicine for ages. Personally, I have never seen it work on its own--it just doesn't seem to be strong enough.
I think the Hydrosols provided the necessary cofactors.
There is a REALLY amazing book by Suzanne Catty that more people need to read. Hydrosols: The Next Aromatherapy. Suzanne goes into great detail about hydrosols (plant distillates) and their many gentle healing powers, but also into the chemistry of their shelf-stability--specifically, their ACIDITY.
Your skin has an acid barrier. This barrier helps you maintain healthy bacterial and fungal populations. It stands to reason, that making the water of your bath more acidic (and working the magic of osmosis with the various minerals in the bath water) would help improve that acid barrier of the skin.
There is also the anti-fungal nature of several of the herbs that I listed--Frankincense, Lavender, Eucalyptus--these are all prized for this characteristic.
One final thought. Hydrosols are structured water. The waters inside us are structured as well--so are the waters in fruits and vegetables. Our disconnection from the earth's frequency can lead to much disregulation in our cellular function as our cells frequencies start to fizzle. It is possible that, even heavily diluted in a bath, the FREQUENCY of these hydrosols were able to conduct very easily with the other minerals in my baths and restore the infected cells.
(Further reading on these subjects: The Fourth Phase of Water, Gerald Pollack; The Body Electric, Robert Becker)
Is your mind exploding yet?
Homework: get at least one of the three mentioned titles. Take time to assimilate the information you take in, and then start living it. That is how we make change in this world.
Until next time,
Elyssa