How a Bangkok Healer Saved My Life
As I’ve written here, I seriously contemplated taking my own life on being told I was beyond medical help. Then, when I learned that generalised demodicosis is also considered delusional by dermatologists because they believe that only furred mammals can get it, I thought, “Well, that’s it. Time to get your affairs in order, David.”
And then the miracle happened - a kind commenter on my Updates page suggested I take a look at the Earth Clinic website.
So I did. And found an amazingly knowledgeable man named Ted who lives in Bangkok. Ted now practises as a natural healer but has an extensive professional background as a research chemist. He has successfully treated thousands who suffer from this and many other serious conditions. And he has posted his remedies on the Earth Clinic website for all to use freely.
With his blessing, I’m putting his demodicosis remedies here as well.
The first, and easiest to do, uses the internal route.
Ted’s Internal Borax Remedy
1. Get some pharmacy-grade borax powder. If you can’t get it from a good pharmacy in North America, 20 Mule Team Borax, which you can find in your local supermarket, will also do the job, though it’s not made to the same high purity standards as pharmacy-grade. Nevertheless, it IS perfectly safe to ingest and effective when used as detailed below.
In the UK, things may be a little more difficult. The reason for this is that borax can also be used in bomb-making. But you should be able to find pharmacy-grade borax powder on eBay, or import some 20 Mule Team Borax from the US. Here, Google is your friend.
Note: borax substitute won’t work - and YOU MUST NOT USE BORIC ACID because it’s NOT the same thing as borax powder. BORIC ACID IS POISONOUS TO HUMANS.
2. Dissolve 1/4 of a measured teaspoon in one litre of water and stir it well (1/8 of a teaspoon for women because of the difference in body masses). Take small sips from this borax water throughout the day. When it’s all gone, DON’T TAKE ANY MORE for that day - just drink plain water instead. Drink this for no more than five days, then stop taking it for two days. The regimen is five days on, two days off.
3. Supplement this by dissolving 1/2 a measured teaspoon of sodium bicarbonate (plain baking soda without additives - NOT BAKING POWDER) in a half glass of water and drinking this twice a day. You can take this every day. It will help to alkalize your body quickly and make life uncomfortable for the mites.
Note: baking soda also acts as an antacid. So if you’re taking stomach medication, please seek the advice of your doctor. If you can’t take it, don’t worry - it’s the borax that’s most important for mite killing.
And that’s it - simple, straightforward, and effective.
The first day I took this, my mite tickle numbers dropped from 1,500-2,000 per day to less than 100.
Subsequent days saw those number rise to about 200. There are two reasons for this:
First, the borax in your system drives distressed mites out onto the surface of your skin. And second, a new clutch of eggs hatches every day.
On some days, you may feel more pronounced insect activity in your skin, with the distinct sensation of things writhing violently. This is very uncomfortable but it IS a good sign - because what you’re feeling is the death throes of these pests.
Ted doesn’t specify how long you should use it for, but since the longest figure I could find for female lifespans is 60 days, I believe 90 days to be more than adequate. But please note that I’m not a doctor (thank God). I just use something they don’t seem to possess - common sense and intuition.
In two weeks’ use, I reduced my tickle numbers down to less than 50 a day.
Ted’s External Borax Remedy
This one is trickier to make up and takes a good deal more effort, though it’s also very effective.
1. Make one litre of a 1% hydrogen peroxide solution using distilled water. Food-grade hydrogen peroxide is the best - pharmacy and store grade contains nasty shelf-life stabilisers and preservatives. You can buy food-grade hydrogen peroxide in the UK from Bobby’s Healthy Shop in 3% and 35% strengths. If you choose the 35% one, you should always use eye protection and gloves when making your dilutions because it can do damage to you if you’re not extremely careful. And NEVER make up a dilution with a child present. Bobby’s Healthy Shop will also ship to anywhere in the world. Food-grade hydrogen peroxide is also available from many online stores in the US. Again, Google is your friend.
To make up a 1% dilution from 3%, you use one part hydrogen peroxide to two equal parts of distilled water. With 35%, you use one part hydrogen peroxide to 33 equal parts of distilled water. Don’t use tap water, filtered water, or bottled mineral water because the hydrogen peroxide will react with the minerals and chemicals in these to become inert and useless.
Store your hydrogen peroxide and dilutions in a dark place where children can’t reach - a high cupboard, for instance. You don’t need to keep it in the freezer - it won’t freeze anyway since its freezing point is much lower than water. And DON’T KEEP IT IN YOUR REFRIGERATOR where it may easily be mistaken for water or soda and ingested by the unwary.
2. To your litre of 1% hydrogen peroxide mix you slowly add 2-4 tablespoons of borax powder. The exact amount of borax doesn’t matter - just keep adding it until no more will dissolve and you see some granules of borax at the bottom of your container (glass is best, but you can also use any plastic container that contained milk or other juices - but not metal. You can clean out this plastic container by half-filling it first with distilled water and adding two tablespoons of baking soda, then shaking it vigorously).
When you see that no more borax will dissolve, stop adding it. You’re going to put this into a spray bottle or spritzer and you don’t want undissolved borax particles to clog the nozzle.
Note: make sure your spray bottle nozzle is set to deliver a stream or jet - NOT A MIST. You mustn’t inhale this mixture.
IMPORTANT: you will also need a good rubber-bodied pair of swimming goggles to protect your eyes. Make sure they fit tightly - you can wet the inside of the rubber body, put them on, then press on them to achieve a suction effect around your eyes. Makes sure they’re watertight by testing them with plain water in the shower before you start using the mix.
If you cannot reach all areas of your back, you need to buy a strap loofah. Amazon sells these.
3. Take a shower and wash down from head to toe.
4. Turn off the water and apply your borax mix starting from the neck down all the way to the soles of your feet. If you need to use it on your anus IT WILL STING A BIT- but this will pass very quickly and is not harmful. Massage it into your skin well.
5. Now put on your goggles, ensuring a snug fit. This time, spray some borax mix into a cupped hand and apply it to your scalp, tilting your head back so ensure no liquid runoff towards your eyes. Do your scalp and the back of your neck a little at a time to minimise runoff.
6. Now the face: again, pour a little into your cupped hand and do your face BELOW THE LEVEL OF THE GOGGLES down to where you started on your neck. You can also dip a finger into the mix and do your ears, including ear canals, massaging it in well. If your nostrils are also infested, you can do the same, but don’t go any further up than about half an inch.
7. Your forehead: this time, just dampen your hand with the mix and massage it into the skin well. You may have to do this a few times to ensure complete coverage.
8. I’M NOT RECOMMENDING THIS TO ANYONE but I managed to do my eyebrows, bridge of nose, and upper eyelids. First, I removed the goggles when I was sure my scalp and forehead were dry enough. I then bent forward from the waist so any accidental drops would fall into the shower pan and not roll down into my eyes. I dampened a finger in the mix, shook off all excess drops, then very carefully massaged it in, keeping my eyes closed, and staying well clear of my eyelashes. I kept my eyes closed for a few minutes until I was sure these areas were now dry.
IMPORTANT: DON’T RINSE THIS OFF AND DON’T USE A TOWEL TO DRY - just air-dry for about 5-10 minutes. There will be excess borax powder granules left on your skin - these can be brushed off or left on as desired.
5. Now the bad news - you will need to do this whole routine several times a day for it to be fully effective. This can obviously be problematic for the disabled, the elderly, and the infirm. I’m one of those, so I chose to do the internal borax remedy outlined above.
6. If you still choose to go down the topical route, note that it will be severely drying to your skin. To counter this, you can use a good carrier oil like sweet almond oil or extra virgin olive oil, mixed with about 10-20 drops of lavender essential oil, and massage it into your skin each time you’ve air-dried after your borax treatment.
I chose not to do this oil treatment because I wanted to dry all oils out of my skin - in my experience, demodex mites seem to thrive on it. And your sebaceous oil is one of their main foodstuffs.
I was only able to do this topical remedy twice. Because I’m spinally disabled, it took me more than two hours to do a single application. Doing it several times a day was simply out of the question for me.
But it’s very effective. After my second application, many of my sebaceous plugs had dried out so much that they were just simply falling out of my skin.
CONCLUSION:
Both of these remedies work wonderfully well!
(And before you write to tell me that borax is dangerous, I would just point out Ted’s professional background, and the fact that you need to ingest several ounces of it in a day to do any damage - borax has about the same toxicity as table salt. Plus, before I tried it, it ran it by two doctors. Neither of them batted an eyelid).
I’ll continue using Ted’s internal borax remedy in combination with Toni’s topical mustard treatment.
IMPORTANT NEW INFORMATION YOU NEED TO KNOW:
Essentially, demodicosis is caused by an immune system disorder. Even people with healthy immune systems harbour demodex mites in their eye areas, particularly the eyelashes, eyelids, and eyebrows.
Consequently, you will also reacquire them in these areas when your treatment is finished and may be subject to eventual systemic reinfestation from them unless you fix your immune system or follow a maintenance program.
Both Toni and Ted have now delivered excellent responses to this problem - you’ll find them here.
Also please see the FAQ for further information as it becomes available.
LATEST INFORMATION (26 July 2012): Because of the discovery that bioengineered organisms are present in a demodex infestation (almost identical to those found in Morgellons), topical treatment users should augment by adding 16 drops of 35% FOOD-GRADE hydrogen peroxide to every gallon of DISTILLED drinking water. They should drink at least 4-5 pints of this through the day, preferably up to a gallon, and supplement it by taking MSM (used “off-label” for its very high sulphur content).
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