Featured How to Cure a Staph Infection

[TBone]

I didn't read any of this. Go to the emergency room.

 

[barefootinbabylon]

~ If you actually end up getting MRSA (which I have), it is antibiotic resistant by its nature; most clinics, etc. will still do nothing more than throw some Bactrim (or Doxycycline) at it and call it a day. I was on DX for at least 3 weeks, and although the outbreak was more or less self-contained, it wasn't going away, and the medication was making me SUPER-susceptible to the sun... like... chemical burns, not sun burns, type-shit. Did some interwebz research, and found a couple (natural) remedies that work a HELL of a lot better:
~ tea tree oil. this stuff is majikal, it'll take care of pretty much anything.
~ LIMES!! Eat them, as well as put them directly on wounds. There was a reason the pirates of yore ate so much citrus, so as to prevent scurvy and other fungal infections. LIMES!! That helped me more than anything...
~ Turmeric. Don't have much experience with this one, but I know that there's both drink-concoctions you can make (generally comprised of a tbs. or so or turmeric, lime juice, black pepper, etc.), and you can also use it topically.
~ Basically, anything that is ACIDIC (hence, the vitamin C) will help your body fight infections and restore its natural balance. Fuck the anti-biotics for staph; the more you rely on them, the more often (and more severe) future infections will be.

 

[DisgustinDustin]

I watched this kid in Santa Barbara try to cut staph out of his friend with a scalpel from a snake bite kit.. It was a fail Im sure.. Then he laid laid his staphy bleeding leg next to my sleeping girlfriends head.. I was like.... Hey. Um, no.

 

[scum]

Echinacea/Goldenseal Tincture actually really helps a shit ton.

Tumeric is great too.

Theres a debate about if the probiotics (like acidophilus,bifidio,lactobaccilius etc etc) team up with the staph or kill and fight it..... It's "good" bacteria. Anyone have any opinions on that?

 

[Shakou]

I had a staph infection in my kidney one winter in Asheville.

 

[bryanpaul]

eating a SHITLOAD of fresh garlic will help to keep an infection under control........... but yeah the best way to deal with a staph infection in my opinion is to go to the ER and get a scrip for antibiotics......i've had staph a few times....once it went away with one dose of antibiotics and eating garlic, along with constantly disinfecting the sores with peroxide and alcohol...........but that shit can get real bad....real quick....

 

[Pheonix]

I don't know why everyone is saying to go to the ER, I did that before with an infection but cause I had no insurance I got the crappy cheap antibiotics that did nothing but cause me to waste money at the Pharmacy. After that didn't work I bought garlic extract pills in the vitamin section and that shit worked good then and again every time since. Point is don't waste your time with the ER if you don't have health care to get the pills that work.

I think probiotics would be a bad choice during the treatment phase but a good choice post treatment cause most anything you use to attack staph is going to attack all bacteria (good & bad) so probiotics after treatment helps the bodies good bacteria replenish and multiply. I'm not sure but I don't think probiotics are the actual good bacteria but an agent used to help the growth of all bacteria and that's not what you want when your trying to fight a bacteria.

 

[smellsea]

way more prone to catching it after you have had i once. i had staph in a fucking burn, it was terrible. more than one burn. so i cleaned it and cleaned it and did everything i could and at one point for about 3 weeks it got to the point where if i cleaned it and maintained it wouldnt get worst but it wouldnt get better ethir. my friend told me to bandage a piece of garlic to it, and it would go away. well i did that, andddddd it didn't work. he also told me when he did it it worked but it had burned is skin all around where the staph was. fuck that. so i just went to the hospital and got a script. i often get staph in hang nails, where my finger swells up way bigger then it is supposed to and i can't touch anything with it, it's so fucking painful. and i end up having to lance it, it's so gross i kinda like it though.

 

[AuraLicht]

Hello, I had staph infections myself sometimes and after trying to cure them with sinthetic substances and antiobiotics, I finally came up with a simple, cheap and hygienic way to treat them.

Just pour hot water over the wounds and wash until you thoroughly clean the pus.
Do this twice a day until you see improvements.

If you live by the ocean/sea, you just rinse it with marine water.
Works better than salt_water.

Prevention is the best way to go: as soon as you notice the start of an infection, do not wait to have it cleaned.
If you are careful with it, you won t need to take any antibiotics.

 

[Weston]

I think probiotics would be a bad choice during the treatment phase but a good choice post treatment cause most anything you use to attack staph is going to attack all bacteria (good & bad) so probiotics after treatment helps the bodies good bacteria replenish and multiply. I'm not sure but I don't think probiotics are the actual good bacteria but an agent used to help the growth of all bacteria and that's not what you want when your trying to fight a bacteria.

Probiotics are cultures of good bacteria and can be taken alongside antibiotics. It is true that the antibiotic will kill the probiotics, but taking the probiotics will still help your digestion and immune system. Many people who have symptoms when taking antibiotics use probiotics to negate them... I only know this because I have a health conscience mom & grandma.

 

[Kim Chee]

I didn't see anything on prevention.
Keep yourself clean, it's healthy, it feels good and being nasty is just nasty.

I hear some crusty fuckers can carry up to 50% of known pathogens including STDs.

 

[wokofshame]

Yup what I just saw in a friend, is, he got fed too many antibiotics and got thrush on his tongue (like a yeast infection of your mouth) ugh. Eat some probiotics definitely if you are on the antis.
And let me repeat myself: HOT COMPRESSES! Hot water draws out infections. If you have an infection on an extremity, just dip it in hot water. Otherwise, hot water-soaked cloth on the boil (infection).

 

[p0tt]

Yarrow is a very strong antimicrobial agent, analgesic, antiseptic, and hemostatic. It stops bleeding, lessens pain, prevents infections, and grows all over the place too. It's been used medically for 1000's of years.

For a staph infection I think you'd need to use a yarrow tincture. For less serious things like cuts and burns you can use a simple poultice of fresh yarrow. Plantain works great as a poultice for minor wounds too. They're both free and grow in a lot of different places.

 

[Tanto]

I just want to reinforce Thorne's initial point that unless you catch it really early on, you should absolutely see a doctor for staph infections (especially in a hot/humid climates). If you get medication for it, FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS, and keep taking it for the prescribed duration/dosage.
If you half-ass your treatment with any kind of anti-biotic, it increases the odds of a virus mutating and becoming resistant/immune to treatment. This is a huge and growing problem all over the world right now, and is largely due to people "feeling" okay, and stopping their treatment prematurely.

Staph infections themselves are nothing to fuck around with, and if you end up with a resistant/immune strain of one, you will very likely have limbs amputated, or die. Even your regular non-resistant strains can become untreatable if you ignore them for too long, and "too long" can be a lot sooner than you might think (especially in hot, humid climates).

I've personally nearly died from staph on one occasion, and came within 2 days of having a foot amputated on another.

Don't fuck with staph. /end rant.

 

[lry]

m^7ichael's post about prevention is really important. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure right? I've always relied on lots of Garlic and Vitamin C.

I did get Staph one time and I believe I could have prevented it. I was squatting in this old gas station/diner that was run down. I only had a sleeping bag and bivy but it was a bit too hot to sleep inside of them. So I just layed on top. Well sometime in the night I took my shirt off. I woke up and noticed I rolled into debris/trash. Long story short about a week later had Staph on my right side half way from waste to arm. It was quarter sized so I knew I had to do something about it.

For the next week every morning and at night I'd boil up some water and put my bandana in it. I'd make a small tight square out of the bandana and press it against the infection. I'd also open the wound and in between and try to get all the shit out of it. After that pour some spirits on it. I imagine my case was so new that Antibiotics were needed. But I've heard some gnarly shit about staph and mrsa. :/

 

[Wawa]

I had a really wicked staph infection spread from a lip-split all over my face, back of my head, around my navel and to scrapes on both my knees before realizing what it even was. I was really lucky in that while every scrape, scratch, big bite and pimple became disgustingly oozy and infected, I didn't have any deeper wounds for it to get into.

Once I figured out what it was, I was able to treat it pretty effectively without assistance. First step was to sleep in gloves so I'd not spread it by scratching in my sleep. Twice a day I'd soak the infected areas with warm vinegar water for up to 15 minutes. It helped me out that I was traveling by bicycle in Oregon at the time, and it was easy to find showers and keep clean, but otherwise I'd have just heated pots of water over stove/fire. I avoided sugars, ate simple mostly raw food, didn't drink, didn't even smoke pot because then I'd get obsessed with scratching my face. After a few days I could feel that it was slowing down, but it took about a month to heal.

Before I started the vinegar, I also tried to treat it with Yarrow and Comfrey... to the best of my knowledge, both of these heal wounds by boosting protein binding(Proper term?), but staph bacteria secretes a toxin that prevents protein binding, and neither seemed to do much. I heard that Calendula works, but by the time I found any, it felt like the vinegar had done the heavy work.

 

[finn]

Geez, so no one has tried the honey route, since that would be the first thing I'd do after cleaning it.

 

[finn]

I'd like to add that certain fungal infections can appear to be staph infections; you'll find that honey (provides more food) and antibiotics (kills competing bacteria) will actually make that sort of infection worse, and tea tree oil will do essentially nothing. This isn't common, but certain people will be more vulnerable to fungi for numerous reasons, such as simply having a strange immune system.

 

[Rolling Blackouts]

If you're on the road and real hard up, go hit a local Pet store and track down dog/cat or even fish antibiotics. in They're fundamentally the same thing, all penicillin based, and in combination with ALL the aforementioned herbal care and routine draining of a staph infection with epsom salt packs, should clean you right up. But you've gotta put down the liquor! IT will only weaken your system. I learned this the hard way at 17, as a severe staph infection in my armpit encroached on my bloodstream and lungs. Took nearly a year to recover because I wouldn't let up on the drugs / alcohol. Lancing the infections can be severely crippling pain depending where its located, and left untreated, it will only spread. So take care of yourselves out there!