Posted by D.l. (Dallas, Texas) on 02/28/2013
★★★★★
I have suffered with impetigo under my nose for several years. It always happens when I have a runny nose. The doctor prescribed Mupirocin which never seemed to help. It would take weeks for it to heal while it went through the red, crusty painful stages. I had an outbreak several days ago and decided if anyone could help it would be Earth Clinic. I have to admit I was skeptical about using the hair dryer but I certainly had nothing to lose. To my surprise and great pleasure, it works! I did use ACV a few times the first day as well as leaving my hair dryer on the counter so everytime I was near the bathroom I gave it a blast of hot air. Yesterday I bought GSE as an added boost. The sores have dried up, it is not red, there was no oozing or crusting. Thank you to everyone who contributes to this wonderful site. This has been a real blessing to me.
Posted by Review01 (Brighton, Sussex, United Kingdom) on 02/25/2013
★★★★★
I've been struggling with impetigo constantly for the last couple of months, I have now been able to reduce the outbreak to only 3 days. Simply soak a cotton bud in vodka and hold firmly on the infected area for a couple of minutes, do this throughout the day when you become aware of it. Immediately after doing so, hold your hairdryer over the infected area until the heat becomes too uncomfortable for you, this dries it up nicely and speeds up healing remarkably while also killing bacteria with the heat. Many reviews say to wash the area throughout the day but this will actually help spread the impetigo - be careful not to get it too wet in the shower also. The vodka will kill bacteria effectively but also help prevent spreading. For me, on day 3 only a small scab was visible and it was clearly healing and disappearing much quicker than with previous methods.
Posted by Jessicai (Springfield, Mo) on 11/29/2012
★★★★★
I got caught up in a vicious 9 week battle with impetigo and am just now getting over it. It has finally started to recede after 2 rounds of antibiotics (bactrim and bactroban included), as well as several different bacteria fighting herbs, probiotics and topicals. Everything helped but nothing worked until I started taking grapefruit seed extract internally and topically. For months I have been undergoing laser hair removal treatments. The last round, the technician suggested the heat may kill the bacteria. I was skeptical but she had to hit some of the infected areas anyway and BOOM, within a couple days the infected areas she hit started to finally heal. The one tiny area under my lip that she didn't hit lingered on for an additional 6 weeks until I went back again. I asked her to hit it too. She did, and also mentioned that a lot of younger doctors are starting to recommend lasers like the ones they use for laser hair removal because the heat knocks out the bacterial infections in the skin, several skin layers deep. Anyway, it's been two days and the stubborn bit of it is barely visable. I know GFS extract has been helping a lot too and I will continue to take it for 10 full days just like I would an antibiotic.
Posted by Kxcakes (Indianapolis, Indiana, Usa ) on 08/21/2012
★★★★★
My experience with Impetigo...
I'm a 44 year old woman. My first encounter with Impetigo was 8 or 9 years ago - it appeared on my legs and it seemed the epicenter of each patch was a tiny wound or injury. I didn't know what it was so I did some research and concluded incorrectly that it was a variety of Psoriasis. For some reason, my online searches didn't come up with Impetigo. Like everyone else, I tried everything I could think of to relieve the horrible itching and eventually noticed that flushing the patches with hot water with a hand-held showerhead offered a numbing effect lasted from several hours to a whole day. Also, it was obvious that the more I scratched, the larger the patches became so I learned to leave the areas alone and to bandage them so my clothes wouldn't aggravate the situation. After a week or two, with regular hot water flushing and just not spreading the patches, the skin healed.
Now for my second encounter with Impetigo. It started a week ago, again in response to a tiny injury. I researched it again and Impetigo jumped right out. Knew I had the right diagnosis this time. The various sites containing information clarified the sequence of events from a few years ago. I learned that the blister fluid is infectious, for example. I also learned that Impetigo is caused by bacteria and that I wasn't dealing with contact dermatitis or anything like that. The hot water flushing offered relief just like before but this time, I added a twist. I reasoned that if hot water helped, perhaps hot air would too. So after I shower, I use a hair dryer on the patches, as hot as I can stand it. Then, I bandage the areas as before.
I'm thrilled to report that the hair dryer has worked wonders. The patches are healing much more quickly. My theory as to why it works is that the heat kills the bacteria. After all, your body elevates its temperature to fight infection so it makes sense to me that topical heat might kill bacteria on or in the skin. The heat from the hair dryer has the same numbing effect so that the patches don't itch for at least half a day.
Tip: be very careful with the hot water and the hot hair. Hold it on the patches only until you just begin to feel a tiny bit burned. Any longer than that, and you will actually be burned. I flick the shower head and the hair dryer back and forth over the patches for a few moments to make sure they are fully heated.
Tip: be very careful as you dry off after a shower. Don't let the towel touch the infected areas. I dab those with a bit of toilet paper which I then flush. It might be easier to dry your body with a small towel which is more controllable than a large floppy bath towel.
As other posters have noted, it seems lotions and ointments only aggravate the skin and don't actually relieve any of the itching and pain. I just cover the areas securely and employ the heat treatment as necessary.
