Weeds vs BXO
I have a love/hate relationship with weeds. I think just about everyone does. But mine is probably different from a lot of people's. I love using them for practical purposes, and I hate paying money for products made from them. I'd far sooner find a wild source than pay money for a product made from them.
In my previous post, I talked about a mystery product. That product is Comfrey. Comfrey is reported very good at remodeling damaged tissue. I thought I'd try some on my BXO and see how it went. I picked some leaves and let them dry, then made a tea from them. I then boiled off most the water, leaving a green/brown coloured liquid that felt slightly oily, and applied that to my BXO. Within a couple of days, the peeling was immediately apparent. No part of my skin was spared either. The whole area peeled at one time or another.
However, it was all going well until I read quite a few reports from people advising not to apply Comfrey for more than 10 days at a time, and for no more than 4-6 weeks in a year. Apparently, Comfrey leaves contain a chemical that was administered to Rats in highly concentrated doses (far higher than anything in Comfrey) and they developed tumors. Typically, after seeing good progress then reading this comment on numerous sites, I realised I was at around the 10 day mark. So I decided to stop. The peeling slowed, but was still happening.
It's summer here, and with the extra daylight in the evenings, I generally go for a walk most evenings. I like to walk around some of the more wild areas, where plants grow generally as they please. In my travels, I stumbled across another weed - Red Clover. Red Clover is one thing I've been wanting to try for my BXO for some time, but can't bring myself to pay money for what's really a weed. Lots and lots of sites with forums have people (women and men) who report good results taking it internally. Internal treatment isn't really something I've done much of
You make a tea from the flowers and drink it. Others take capsules made from extracts. I suspect they are stronger than tea. But tea is probably the more practical one to make at home. Last week, I got better at working out where Red Clover grows, and found a large amount of it. I've been picking enough every evening to fill all three pockets in my shorts. I should really bring a bigger container next time. So I've probably got about 500 grams of flowers to far. I intend to keep picking them. Once they dry, as far as I can tell, they should keep for several months. Once dry, I'll start making and drinking it daily and see what I notice.
The place where I pick my Red Clover from also, coincidentally, has a Comfrey plant. The whole place is like a BXO-sufferer's paradise, if such a thing exists.
Yesterday I made some decisions about Comfrey and tried it again. Within a few hours, the peeling was once again evident. I wore it again overnight, and more peeling the following morning. I came to the decision that anything that heals skin as well as Comfrey appears to can't possibly be so lethal that I can only treat for 10 days at a time. Also, BXO skin is different from other skin. This is evident in the fact that doctors prescribe Clobetasol, an extremely powerful steroid that can thin healthy skin, for BXO. Plenty of people drink tea made from Comfrey leaves, and suffer no ill effects. I figure the faster progress I see outweighs the possible risks of using Comfrey, so I'll be continuing with it. I have spent the past 7 months attempting to find something that makes my BXO heal faster, and I may well have found it. I'm not about to voluntarily avoid using it. Tonight, I'll go for a walk to my favourite spot and will pick some Comfrey leaves so I'll have loads. I might even dig up some root as well. Who knows, I may treat myself in bursts, rather than continuously. But right now, it's just too good not to use.
In my previous post, I talked about a mystery product. That product is Comfrey. Comfrey is reported very good at remodeling damaged tissue. I thought I'd try some on my BXO and see how it went. I picked some leaves and let them dry, then made a tea from them. I then boiled off most the water, leaving a green/brown coloured liquid that felt slightly oily, and applied that to my BXO. Within a couple of days, the peeling was immediately apparent. No part of my skin was spared either. The whole area peeled at one time or another.
However, it was all going well until I read quite a few reports from people advising not to apply Comfrey for more than 10 days at a time, and for no more than 4-6 weeks in a year. Apparently, Comfrey leaves contain a chemical that was administered to Rats in highly concentrated doses (far higher than anything in Comfrey) and they developed tumors. Typically, after seeing good progress then reading this comment on numerous sites, I realised I was at around the 10 day mark. So I decided to stop. The peeling slowed, but was still happening.
It's summer here, and with the extra daylight in the evenings, I generally go for a walk most evenings. I like to walk around some of the more wild areas, where plants grow generally as they please. In my travels, I stumbled across another weed - Red Clover. Red Clover is one thing I've been wanting to try for my BXO for some time, but can't bring myself to pay money for what's really a weed. Lots and lots of sites with forums have people (women and men) who report good results taking it internally. Internal treatment isn't really something I've done much of
You make a tea from the flowers and drink it. Others take capsules made from extracts. I suspect they are stronger than tea. But tea is probably the more practical one to make at home. Last week, I got better at working out where Red Clover grows, and found a large amount of it. I've been picking enough every evening to fill all three pockets in my shorts. I should really bring a bigger container next time. So I've probably got about 500 grams of flowers to far. I intend to keep picking them. Once they dry, as far as I can tell, they should keep for several months. Once dry, I'll start making and drinking it daily and see what I notice.
The place where I pick my Red Clover from also, coincidentally, has a Comfrey plant. The whole place is like a BXO-sufferer's paradise, if such a thing exists.
Yesterday I made some decisions about Comfrey and tried it again. Within a few hours, the peeling was once again evident. I wore it again overnight, and more peeling the following morning. I came to the decision that anything that heals skin as well as Comfrey appears to can't possibly be so lethal that I can only treat for 10 days at a time. Also, BXO skin is different from other skin. This is evident in the fact that doctors prescribe Clobetasol, an extremely powerful steroid that can thin healthy skin, for BXO. Plenty of people drink tea made from Comfrey leaves, and suffer no ill effects. I figure the faster progress I see outweighs the possible risks of using Comfrey, so I'll be continuing with it. I have spent the past 7 months attempting to find something that makes my BXO heal faster, and I may well have found it. I'm not about to voluntarily avoid using it. Tonight, I'll go for a walk to my favourite spot and will pick some Comfrey leaves so I'll have loads. I might even dig up some root as well. Who knows, I may treat myself in bursts, rather than continuously. But right now, it's just too good not to use.
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