Heal Boils Naturally: Effective Home Remedies

Sugar Soaked in Kerosene

Posted by Jack (Toledo, OH) on 07/23/2006
★★★★★

When I was about 5 or 6 yrs old, I acquired "VERY LARGE BOILS ON MY LEGS( NEARLY THE SIZE OF A SILVER DOLLAR), in the state of W.Va. they were referred to as "CARBUCKLES", they have not only a large scab, but they have long "CORES" as well which can leave a large cavitation in your skin, when pulled out ! It was usually done by"LANCING THE BOIL"removing the scab then pulling the core out,"HURTS LIKE HELL"! My Grandmother couldn't bring herself to causing me a lot of pain, so she called me into the kitchen one day, I remember having 5 or 6 on my legs, she took one of the old style tablespoons (to me it looked like a huge "coal shovel") heaping with sugar, soaked in in Kerosene from her kerosene lamp, grabbed my nose to make me open wide and made me swallow every bit of !! THEY FELL OFF IN A COUPLE OF DAYS, AND HAD "NO CORE". Every time I read the name or word "BOILS" I REMEMBER!! IT LEFT A LASTING IMPRESSION... LOLOLOLO

Drawing Salve

Posted by Tanya (New Mexico) on 07/21/2006
★★★★★

Baking soda, parsley and ichalomol cures boils. i was in such pain and desperate tried all three mixed together and it is almost completely gone within 24 hours. all i did was make a paste of the three ingredients and poof.

Drawing Salve

Posted by Gladyola (Toronto, On) on 05/31/2011

what is itchimol, another name that we can find it in canada?

The Bottle Method

Posted by Vanessa (Missoula, Montana, USA) on 12/01/2008
★★★★★

Hello - This method did not leave scars for me, but I was also left scar free after lancing! I might just have tough skin... Take Care - Vanessa

The Bottle Method

Posted by Kim C. (Los Angeles, Ca) on 06/17/2011
★★★★★

I performed the hot bottle method a few hours ago and I am screaming, "Yes!!! " It worked. I bought a a soda in a glass bottle, poured out the drink, rinsed and dried the bottle, put a small amount of H2O in a sauce pan, placed the bottle in the water, let it come to a boil, grabbed the bottle with a pot holder with the open end up, then I put the open end over the boil. I was a little suction but I let it stay until the bottle cooled. Massive Pus Was Drained! Now I'm at ease.

Drawing Salve

Posted by Ashley Rae (Kansas City, Missouri) on 01/09/2010

Did the ointment leave a scar? I have heard that drawing salves can cause scarring?

Tomato

Posted by Rick (Birmingham) on 03/30/2006
★★★★★

I had been suffering with a boil for about 3 days when I stumbled on this site. Well I tried the tomato paste last night and not only did it relieve the pain, it also brought it to a head. Today I'm feeling 1000% better.

Oatmeal

Posted by Joy (Lakeview, Michigan) on 06/10/2009

When I was a young child my mother did something similar, but she had her's in bag like she bought it at a store. Could you tell me the amount of the ingredients used in your remedy, because I forgot how much you use. Thank You.

Tomato

Posted by Kelli (Michigan) on 02/23/2006
★★★★★

A while back my boyfriend had a boil behind his ear. A friend of mine had sent me an email with natural remedies for all kinds of things. On the email was a cure for boils, and it was tomato paste. I went to the store and bought some. He rubbed it on his boil and left it overnight, the next morning the boil had decreased in size, he continued to do this for a couple of days and it was soon gone.

Dietary Recommendations

Posted by Lisa Marie (Morrisville, PA) on 02/15/2006
★★★★★

I tried a lot of 70% alcohol, neosporin, and hot water packs. I occasionally take a one a day. Out of all of this I usually resort to going to the doctors and getting the prescription drug SPECTRACEF cefditoren pivoxil 200mg tablets, and take them twice a day. After about a week it kinda clears it up. The only thing that really cleared up the boils were the SPECTRACEF. All the other items were just methods of keeping the infection down and helping with the pain. Without the prescription I usually just resort to popping them with my hands, alcohol, and alot of band aids. But one thing that I notice is that when I squeeze and the blood comes out, there's somewhat of an oily substance in my blood. Kind of like when you cook a pot of soup and you can see little oil drops floating on the surface. This made me think that maybe I was consuming too much oil in my diet, so I cut out a considerable amount of oil and fried products out of my daily meals. I did notice that the number of boils went down after trying that. Now at this point I'm leaning towards trying aloe vera juice daily along with the reduced oil/fat diet. I've heard that aloe vera juice is good for cleansing the blood. I'll be sure to keep you posted on the results.

Baking Soda

Posted by Morley (Flanders, Nj) on 01/06/2010

Do you think mixing salt water and baking soda would be even better? Just a thought because of the bacon post...

Baking Soda

Posted by Debbie (Melbourne, Australia) on 06/11/2011

Instead of using bleach to clean counter tops and toilets you would be better off to use something natural like white vinegar or even 100% eucalyptus oil (diluted in water).

Garlic

Posted by Britt (San Augustine, Texas) on 04/04/2012
★★★★★

Try putting about 5 or 6 cloves of garlic in a bathtub of warm water and soaking for an hour or two. Do this everynight for about a week, you will see a difference after the first night. IT IS AMAZING!!

Misdiagnosis Alert!

Posted by Susan (USA)

From the feedback we have been receiving at Earth Clinic, it seems that many people (including doctors) are misdiagnosing their boils/staph infections/MRSA for spider bites, so please be very careful! If you don't remember being bitten by a spider (a rare occurrence), it's probably a boil or possibly a staph infection.

Misdiagnosis Alert!

Posted by Busycagal (Los Angeles, CA, USA) on 04/25/2011

My daughter was "diagnosed" with multiple spider bites, then allergic reaction to the venom, then skin Staph infection all with many month long antibiotic treatment that cured nothing, but kept the amount of boils somewhat less. After greatly suffering for 1-1/2 years, insisted on an infectious disease doctor and got the nasal cream. Went away in two days! However, a year later she was "diagnosed" with Crohn's disease with an unidentified bacteria in the stool and results not typical for IBD. History of chronic ear itching and flaking since also. Could this all be MRSA colonizing in the intestines and ear canal? I think so.

MRSA Survey Results

Posted by Susan (USA)

View the Compiled Survey Results from 4,979 participants. This document was compiled on 6/3/2008.

View the text comments from our survey
These are the thousands of comments that people entered into the comments boxes on the survey. Only a few of them are included in the compiled survey results document above. Unfortunately, it takes more than 10 minutes (with DSL) for the Text Comments to load because of so much data compiling at once.

Multiple Remedies

Posted by Khadijahsfarmer (Pennsylvania ) on 06/12/2018
★★★☆☆

Boils to lance or not to lance

In the name of God. By God's will this finds you and your family in a way that is best in pleasing God. Good day earthclinic. Well after reading some shares here it made me think we'll I was told you should be happy when getting a boil cause it releases toxins from your body so I have went to emergency room and gotten them lanced or let them come to a head with a golden seal tea bag for heat so now I have read you should prevent them from coming to a head ok I will try turmeric I have been taking it for circulation, varicose veins and blood clots I had gotten side tracked. Thanks and I did put the Neosporin after reading it here. I have gotten boils 2 or 3 under both arms after putting on deodorant now I use Tom's natural I tried baking soda ended up back in emergency room someone made me some with baking soda diluted with Amber powder, it works for me. I have been told I have a low immune system, by God's will he grant a cure I have been reading here and will continue.

EC: For boils in the armpit area, please see our Hidradenitis Suppurativa page.

Tea Tree Oil

Posted by Pinac (Toronto, On) on 06/03/2016
★★★★★

For boils: I had Tea Tree oil on hand and I gave it a go and wow did it work. It pulled everything. So disgusting but I've been using it as a topical treatment now for 3 days twice a day and I can move without pain and the boil has decreased to a dime size. So happy I had this.

Glass Bottle Suction Technique

Posted by Katzie (Calgary) on 10/19/2015
★☆☆☆☆

The bottle / jar method leaves a scar.

Turmeric, Medicinal Mushrooms

Posted by Jay (Ak) on 04/18/2015
★★★★★

I have had boils since I was in my early 20's. I can honestly say that TUMRERIC has been the best defender for my condition. As years passed...my boils became more aggressive. I started to incorporate tumeric with a medicinal mushroom formula called "Fungi Perfecti Host Defense" found on Amazon. I have successfully gone through issues with boils using hot compresses, Itchammol Oinment directly on the location (find the head), along with the tumeric, and it opened within 24-28hrs and healed completely within 2-4 weeks. Combined with my doctor visits which prescribed me with an antibiotic called "Bactrim" when it gets really bad I can honestly say that my recurrent boils have ceased. I hope this continues for me and I hope this helps anyone else that has to deal with this horrible condition such as myself.

Apple Cider Vinegar and Baking Soda

Posted by Franco08 (Albuquerque, New Mexico) on 02/01/2015
★★★☆☆

BETTER BUT WITH SIDE EFFECTS

I got a boil on my elbow 4 days ago. I looked for remedies here and I found the ACV and baking soda paste treatment. I followed the procedure and applied the paste to the boil using a cotton swab and secure with a band-aid. When I removed the cotton at night I noticed that the boil started draining so I re-applied the paste before going to bed.

When I woke up the next morning, I checked the boil and was happy to see that it drained and started to dry out. I continued the application of the paste after taking a shower. However, that afternoon, I felt pain in my left knee and when I checked it, I saw 3 boils forming in a C pattern. I decided to apply the paste on them too. But the following day, a 4th boil formed on the same knee. So I have 4 boils now on my knee; 3 has pus in them and 1 is drying out. The one on my elbow did not fully dried out as I hoped and is now filled with pus on the edges. It grew even wider than before.

What am I to do now? Please help!

Turmeric, Garlic, Olive Leaf

Posted by Jsdell (San Deigo,ca) on 06/15/2014
★★★★★

I had a boil on the back of my neck last year and after reading on this site and a few others, many many posts, I realized that I also had MRSA. Originally I tried a few ideas like garlic and turmeric and olive leaf, separately, but none of them worked alone. After reading a good deal more, I put together the new treatment plan about 3 weeks after the boil surfaced, as what I had been doing was not working (I'd been doing each of the treatments below, but individually, not together. After reading a lot, I realized I needed something stronger. So I took 2 Turmeric Curcumin caps a day and 3xs a day opened a capsule and put it on a bandage damped with garlic water and put that on my boil (I crushed 1 1000mg tablet of garlic in a few drops of boiled water & used this water to dampen the bandage. I changed this water 2xs a day). I used 3 bandages to be sure the boil was completely covered as the turmeric would easily stain my clothing even if I was really careful and the stain would not come out now matter what I tried (I tried for weeks, but nothing worked, so wear old cloths) I also took 1000 mg of garlic 2xs a day. Also 2xs a day I took 500 mg Olive Leave Extract.

Within 2 weeks of starting this the boil was totally gone, but if I started this treatment plan sooner, it would have been gone sooner, I leaned when the boil came back in the same spot just a month ago, mind you it has been gone well over 6 moths and I'd not had any other reoccurrence). So last month I immediately did the combination treatment plan and the boil never surfaced and was gone within a few days. I leaned on this site, you have to take the garlic internally and put garlic water on the outside of the boil it's self, because just taking garlic will not work. I did not try Charcoal, but I have used Charcoal for other things and I believe that might have worked, had I known about it, but at the time, I was only trying things I was reading that had worked. So don't be afraid to mix treatments.

So be bold and if your boil is not going away fast, try mixing some treatments. Sometimes that's the only thing that will work.

Coconut Oil

Posted by Gavin (Northland, New Zealand) on 10/05/2013
★★★★★

I've been having a problem with boils this last year, they have lasted for months before they come to a head and finally drain. I had one nasty one on the right side of the groin, which finally went away, then last week I could feel one starting up on the left in the same place. From the moment I noticed the swelling I thought I'd try Extra Virgin coconut oil. So I kept it smothered, on the forth day it at the appearance of a pimple which I just popped. Nothing like the tedious month long problems with the other three. I'm sure this is the way to go, as the coconut oil must get into the core of the boil and aid the healing. I would like some feed back to acertain if this is a really valid method of dealing with the problem.

High Fructose Corn Syrup Related

Posted by Andrea (Texas, Usa) on 11/21/2012

I have been getting boils for about two years and I read on earthclinic that it might be related to eating high fructose corn syrup(hfcs). I decided to eliminate all hfcs from my diet and I haven't gotten a boil in a long time. I would usually get a boil about once a month. I am so glad that I found this site and I just wanted to let other people know that it could be your diet that is causing your boils. I also had to eliminate artificial sweetener, honey, maple syrup, and pretty much anything that has a lot of sugar. I can still eat sweets without hfcs but I just have to limit them to a reasonable amount each day. I recommend eating fruit if you are craving something sweet because fruit never causes any boils to pop up.

Also, be sure to check every label when you go grocery shopping because hfcs can be found in foods like soda, jam, bread, ketchup, bbq sauce, ice cream, candy bars, and cookies. I wish that I could have known this when I first started getting boils but at least there is a way to control them. I hope that my post helps someone out there.

High Fructose Corn Syrup Related

Posted by Nancy (Mission, Tx) on 11/22/2012

I am grateful for your info on boils as I didn't know what caused them - I thought it was stress! I've gotten them for years and didn't know what to do about them. Now that I know, I will change my diet. Thanks so much

General Feedback

Posted by Bob (San Diego, Ca, Usa) on 10/09/2012

With staph being so dangerous, and wih so many posts talking about boils, there should be a summary at the top of the page about the infectiousness of the wounds and fluid, and how all household surfaces need to be cleaned--since the staph is probably in various places. Basically, all infection control measures should be used. Lots of hand washing!

By the way, you said Wikipedia had a "position" on an additive. That is not in Wikipedia, and it does not take positions, all material is supplied by members of the public and there is no guarantee that the information is accurate.

This is the Staph page URL I'm referring to

https://www.earthclinic.com/cures/boils.html