★★★★☆
I have been suffering from chigger bites the last 5 or so summers until fall temperatures come. They are in our yard as we water our garden frequently. No one else in my family is bothered, but I am miserable with them. I wear shorts and sandals most days and while it was effective to jump into the bathtub and wash thoroughly and scrub hard from the knees down every time I came in from outside, it was extremely inconvenient and wasted water. Somewhere I stumbled on the concept of olive leaf extract helping to heal bites because it supports skin health. I tend to have allergic reactions to insect bites, my chigger bites were taking 5-7 weeks to heal, and I was acquiring 1-2 new bites per day. I took it out of desperation. Over the last 3 years, I've discovered a couple things. Taking two 500 mg olive leaf extract capsules per day (1 at breakfast, 1 at lunch) doesn't seem to have any immediate effect. However, within 2 weeks, existing bites begin to heal and the rate at which I receive new bites declines. I cannot explain why the rate at which I receive new bites declines. I don't change my habits of going outdoors. I can only speculate that perhaps when my immune system is working better either I'm not noticing new bites and reacting to them at all, or I'm simply not attracting as many chiggers as when my immune system is low. I do not think it is related to the time of year as I've started taking the supplement earlier and later in the summer and either way I notice the same pattern. One note of caution, olive leaf extract can lower blood pressure. Unfortunately for me, after taking these faithfully for a little over a month, I began to feel very lightheaded. As I struggle with low iron, I realized these may be a little too much for me this year until my iron is higher. I stopped taking the olive leaf extract 5-7 days ago and today I have 3-4 new bites in one day. I was getting less than a bite a week when taking the olive leaf extract (after the initial 2 weeks). Noticing the uptick in bites after stopping the supplement is what led me to realize it was likely not only healing my skin, but also somehow preventing bites or reactions to the bites at least.
