My guess, and it is only a guess, is that many types of morbid conditions are highly reactive to bloodroot, this whether bloodroot is used internally or externally. My suspicion is that infection is just as reactive to bloodroot as cancer. When bloodroot is applied externally to a morbid area, the treatment site often becomes very inflamed and immunologically active almost immediately. When taken internally, many people begin to experience eruptions on the skin within hours or days, suggesting that bloodroot is a powerful mobilizer of diseased matter.

Bloodroot Treatment

When there is no real definition of the treatment site, i.e., when no one really knows how extensive the malignancy or infection is, it is virtually impossible to anticipate the size or nature of the reaction to bloodroot. When bloodroot is mixed with zinc chloride—as it usually is—reactions can be violent and unpredictable. Elsewhere on this site, I speculate about how and why this happens. I suspect it is because the morbidity is extensive, i.e., not as localized as the tumorous mass itself.

Where there is infection, toxicity, acidity, and various other conditions in the vicinity of the tumor, responses to bloodroot applications can take place in minutes and affect much more tissue than the actual site where the paste is applied. Then, depending on the product used and the skill of the person using the product, inflammation, pain, and ultimately scarring can be more than some people expect. It is for such reasons that I feel that most people should be treated by experts, people with experience in this particular treatment modality.

Since reactions to bloodroot can be painful and highly inflammatory, it seems to me that those opting for this treatment need to be well-informed, prepared, resolute, and decisive. To me, it has never seemed like an option to start this treatment and quit though I know people who have started and then turned to surgery as well as those who interrupted the treatment for some weeks or months and later resumed it. The fact that they lived suggests that the treatment is not as dangerous as it looks, but it is also not for the faint of heart. I personally believe that those using bloodroot preparations are well-advised to destroy the entire tumor as quickly as possible since I feel that inflammation and irritation of the tumor can conceivably aggravate tumor growth.

Over the years, quite a number of people have asked me to help them after starting with a product without adequate prior preparation. Once in a while, someone was so persuasive that I tried to troubleshoot the issues that arose. However, what I want to say unequivocally is that this is a classic situation of, "if I were you, I wouldn't start here." By the time people learn this, it is too late to start differently.

Janis (not her real name) was one of the people who contacted me after misusing a popular escharotic. You can read her letter on the bulletin board page. Her issue was scarring. I believe that the amount of post-escharotic scarring is directly related to infection and toxicity, some of which is probably systemic. After several months on various anti-scarring products, Janis made only nominal improvement.

Another person who asked quite a few questions but was determined to follow the instructions that came with the product rather than listening to my suggestions was an MD who wound up with surgery. I recounted her story also. I saw her once after more than four months of determined effort that involved an unfamiliar process.

Two others who also discovered my work after applying a bloodroot paste also ended up with surgery. I want to report these incidents because the reality is that most people who use the products are doing so not only for the first time in their lives but also at the most critical time. The fact that the process is not advisable in certain situations and apt to fail is not really a basis for not trying, merely for setting some objective standards by which to measure whether or not sufficient progress is being made to warrant putting off surgery. . . which is, in fact the usual alternative to escharotics.

In Sum

Whether further perseverance or greater skill in the use of the products would have served any of those whose efforts failed is really not for me to say. I respect the possibilities of this treatment and would, in fact, choose it for myself if I were the one with cancer, but the difference between my making such a decision and someone else making it is the depth of my understanding of the method and its potential versus that of a lay person buying a product from a web site that provides little or no information or guidance on the correct use of its products.

Ironically, the one concern that doctors express, risk of infection, is the smallest worry of those experienced with this product. The treatment sites are sometimes infected prior to use of the escharotic. We know this because of the discoloration, odor, ulceration, exudations, and so forth that are often visible. However, I know of no situations in which someone became infected because of the use of escharotics. An immunologist explained this to me:

Now that the book is out, I no longer troubleshoot complications that occur as a result of misadventures with escharotics . . . except to the extent that I sometimes feel to comment on the bulletin board, a relatively recent addition to this site.

I have gone on record with adequate warnings, explained my personal preferences in my book, provided instructions and formulae in the book, and urged people to think through what they are doing before taking steps that might be regretted. I believe in the treatment, but not probably for the same reasons as patients. I do not have a need to believe in it because my life depends on the choices I make. I have a need to be true to myself, my philosophy of healing, and my faith in the goodness of Nature.

This said, I cannot even begin to emphasize the importance of the supportive measures. For me, external use of bloodroot pastes is a last resort, not the first line of assault in cancer treatment. Were I in the position of needing to treat a lump in my body, I would use the internal tonics for some months and then perhaps a goldenseal salve on the lump. I feel I know enough to make such a decision for myself; and many who have read my book also feel well enough informed to understand the ramifications of their choices. It is definitely possible to use bloodroot or some other escharotic or enucleating product successfully, but my sense is that those who succeeded without proper understanding.

Bloodroot || Goldenseal || Graviola || Mistletoe || Wormwood

 Hydrastis canadensis || Sanguinaria canadensis - Tis Mal Crow

Artemisia annua  --  News Release || Iscador

Poulsbo, Washington
Copyright by Ingrid Naiman 2003, 2006

Photo credits, Sanguinaria canadensis: Kurt Lerner