Athletes Foot
Using Tea Tree Oil to Treat Athletes Foot
Dr. Andrew Weil, M.D. Recommends using tea tree oil for many different applications including athletes foot. Dr. Weil is a leader in the integration of Western medicine and the exploding field of alternative medicine.
A graduate of Harvard Medical School, he teaches at the University of Arizona in Tucson, specializing in alternative medicine, mind/body interactions and medical botany.
He is the founder of the Program in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona Health Sciences Center in Tucson, where he is training a new generation of physicians.
An open letter from Dr. Herbst, MD
Dear Everybody,
I just had to send this out to everyone. I want to pass on this incredible athletes foot story sent to me from a terrific nurse. I have been using Tea Tree Oil Gel and the Tea Tree Oil for 2 years on bedsores and surgical areas, as well as bones, but this is phenomenal. I had always suspected that this rare type of infection would respond to Melaleuca Alternifolia Oil (Tea Tree Oil), but have not had the clinical opportunity to try it yet. If you do not have this for first aid in your home, and keep a tube in the car, you are really missing out!
Jonathan Herbst, MD
Hi Jonathan!
Wanted to pass on some good news… I had a patient with MRSA, a resistant staphylococcus, a very tough infection resistant to almost all-intravenous antibiotics and strictly quarantined in the hospital because of the high risk of contagion) and gangrene who had 3rd, 4th, and 5th toes and the lateral side of his foot amputated. The wound was not healing; almost ¾ of it was black with dead tissue.
He uses alternative medicine at home and requested that we treat the wound with nutrition supplement and anything topically that would work. A friend of his started him on our specialty vitamin Pack, our proprietary antioxidants , and our heart health vitamins, and recommended Tea Tree Oil.
He purchased the tea tree oil and we started the Tea Tree Oil treatment on athletes foot. Within 5 days, we had viable pink tissue, with some granulation present.
He went to his PCP (Primary Care Doctor), who didn’t like him using the Melaleuca Alternifolia Oil, prescribed a pharmaceutical topical ointment. Within 3 days, the black decay on the edges of his althetes foot had increased from 2mm to 5 mm, the base of the wound also had new black decay developing;
He refused the previous prescription and requested that we re-start the Melaleuca Alternifolia Oil which we did. As before the wound began to improve within 3 days. The black decaying border is now 1 mm, there is no longer any black decay in the base of the wound, we have pink healthy tissue granulation tissue is present (meaning it is healing in with new healthy tissue, and with athletes foot infections).
He went to a wound specialist in Portland last Friday, with pictures of the wound before Melaleuca Alternifolia Oil, before and after the previous prescription. Although he admitted that he didn’t know anything about Melaleuca Alternifolia Oil, he was markedly impressed with the results and wrote orders to continue the current treatment-Melaleuca Alternifolia Oil.
Its also interesting to note that on admission to the Nursing Home, he had no pulse in that foot, he now has a faint pulse. Initially, when I cleaned and debrided the wound, he had no sensation. Now he has sensation and I almost have to chase him down to clean the wound!
We got the results back from his C & S (culture and sensitivity test) of the wound…no organisms seen after 10 days of topical treatment with Tea Tree Oil!
Joyce A. Meador, ARNP
Gerontological Nurse Practitioner
“Nurse Practitioners Caring for Our Elders”
Here is a copy of the original content of the letters as they were found on a WayBack Machine screenshot http://www.team-wellness.com/oilnews.htm