General characteristics

Blood poisoning (or septicaemia) occurs when infectious elements such as bacteria (and their inevitable metabolic toxins) or other pathogens are freely circulating in the bloodstream. It often stems from an initial infection somewhere in the body that over-runs the bodys immune response and spreads out into the surrounding blood and/or tissues. Sometimes it occurs when an abscess or boil bursts, perhaps unnoticed and floods the bloodstream with pus and toxins. It is also relatively common to develop blood poisoning in hospital after invasive operations.

It is confirmed medically through blood tests.

Symptoms can include fever and chills, rapid pulse, shallow breathing, paleness, sweating, tiredness, weakness and lethargy, red or blue streaks radiating from an initial infection point visible on the skin, headaches, nausea and diarrhoea, a blood pressure drop and if left untreated shock, collapse and death.

Conventional medicine treats the condition with massive doses of antibiotics.

Herbal and natural therapies aim to kill off the offending organisms, assist the body's natural immune response, support the body's elimination of the toxins by keeping the blood and lymph flowing freely and alleviate any accompanying symptoms.

Diet and lifestyle

Drink plenty of fruit and vegetable juices such as carrot, apple, beetroot and celery to help cleanse the bloodstream and avoid burdening the digestive system with bulky foods.

Avoid all processed sugary foods and alcohol.

Include a spoonful of manuka honey in herbal teas for its anti-infectious properties.

Garlic is famed as natures antibiotic and has anti-bacterial, anti-viral and anti-fungal properties. Make a 'soup' using a large clove of garlic and simmer in half a pint of water for an hour or so. Drink the soup each day.

Useful herbs

Echinacea root tea or tincture is a powerful blood cleanser, immune stimulator and purifies the system of decaying and putrefying waste and toxins. Take a teaspoon of tincture in water 4-5 times a day.

Use a combination of red clover, echinacea, wild indigo root, dandelion root, blue flag, yellow dock and golden seal for their detoxifying and strong blood purifying effects. Mix equal parts of the tinctures (except the goldenseal and blue flag) and take a teaspoon of it in water 3 times daily. Add a few drops each of goldenseal and blue flag tinctures to each dose.

Ribwort plantain is anti-venomous and has a stimulating and cleansing effect on the blood and lymph vessels. It is an excellent first aid herb for all cases of poison within the body or on the skin. Apply freshly crushed leaves to the area of initial infection (replacing every 2 hours with fresh ones) and drink a tea made from a heaped teaspoon of dried herb 4 times daily or hourly if needed.

Add equal parts of dried chickweed to the above to help cleanse the system of impurities.

Natural healing