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Dr. Mercola
October 06 2005
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How to Treat Scabies

Head LiceA clinical review in the British Medical Journal looks at an embarrassing problem some of your children may be facing: Head lice.

Although the study reviews scabies, it is very similar to lice and likely to work for it both.

Head lice -- also going by the moniker scabies -- is highly contagious and spreads through direct skin-to-skin contact. A patient with an "ordinary case" of head lice has an average of 12 mites on their bodies, but those suffering from crusted scabies may have millions of them. Outbreaks of head lice rise and fall cyclically, according to the report, peaking for unknown reasons every 15-25 years.



Dr. Mercola Dr. Mercola's Comments:

Scabies is an infection of your skin with the microscopic mite Sarcoptes scabei. This infection is relatively common, found all over the world, and affects people of all races and social classes. Scabies spreads rapidly under crowded conditions where there is frequent skin-to-skin contact between people, such as in hospitals, institutions, child-care facilities, and nursing homes.

You can suspect you have scabies when you have intense itching, especially at night. You might also see pimple-like irritations, which are the burrows these parasites build. They are typically on the webbing between your fingers but can be on other areas.

The conventional treatments as described in this recent British Medical Journal article review aren't safe solutions, as those creams, lotions, and shampoos, which may not even work, contain toxic insecticides like permethrin and malathion, and combing them out isn't an option at all. You are better off avoiding them.

It would seem far wiser, and certainly safer, to consider an alternative strategy. Lice are another common parasite infection of your skin that is also typically treated with the above toxic chemicals. However, essential oils like anise and ylang ylang applied on the infected areas seem to work quite well for this infection and should be as effective for scabies.

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