Dr. Mercola February 21 2008 26,646 views
Morton Grove Pharmaceuticals, the makers of an insecticide-based treatment for head lice, have stopped promoting their product after a sharply worded warning from the FDA. The FDA’s warning follows years of controversy regarding shampoo and lotion treatments that contain the insecticide lindane. Lindane-based live treatments have been banned in California.
The FDA expressed concern advertising by the company which stated that treating head lice effectively requires two applications, several days apart. The FDA found that "extremely alarming given that retreatment with Lindane Shampoo can lead to increased exposure and possibly death."
More than 166,000 prescriptions for lindane treatments -- almost 10 percent of all prescriptions for head lice and scabies -- were written from January to November 2007.
It’s unfortunate that so many people are convinced, through advertising, that the best answer to a commonplace problem is a radical and toxic solution as the first course of action. According to the Harvard School of Public Health, chemical lice treatments have resulted in accidental poisonings and even death, by well-intentioned parents who simply didn’t know any better.
Head lice, or pediculosis, affect an estimated 10 to 12 million children in the United States every year. The condition is characterized by an itchy scalp, and they spread easily from person to person, making them hard to eliminate. Allergic reactions to the lice, and bacterial infections brought on by excessive scratching can also occur.
Commonly, head lice is treated with lotions and shampoos made from malathion, pyrethrins, permethrins, lindane and other insecticides. Not only do some of these insecticides cause minor rashes and skin irritations in some, but many are also known to be toxic to your nervous system and immune system, such as lindane, which has already been banned in California.
Repeated use increases their toxicity, and head lice can also develop a resistance to the insecticides, rendering them useless to solve your problem, yet exposing you or your children to potent toxins. There are far better, non-chemical options you can consider before resorting to the drastic measures of putting an insecticide directly on your scalp!
Natural, Non-Toxic Treatment Options for Head Lice
One of your best treatment options is to use an old-fashioned “nit comb.” Lice attach their eggs (nits) to hair shafts near the scalp and lay five to six eggs a day. A careful combing for these eggs and live adults, once every three to four days, has been found to be just as effective as more dangerous chemical treatments, which also may need to be reapplied for full effectiveness, making them even more hazardous to your health.
Here are some other non-chemical alternatives you can consider:
Essential Oils: The oils of anise and ylang ylang, combined with coconut oil into a natural spray has been found to be highly effective, eliminating about 92 percent of head lice. Anise and ylang ylang contain essential oils, which are generally antibacterial, antifungal, and insecticidal. These oils have long been known to have such effects; one related study found that the essential oil of an African plant, Lippia multiflora, was more effective against head and body lice than the conventional treatment. Olive Oil: Applying olive oil to the entire scalp for a minimum of two hours may be useful. You can also sleep with a shower cap on and use the olive oil over night. I would not advise any other oil as olive oil is the safest food oil to use. The oil coats the lice and may serve to suffocate them. Heat: The hot dry air produced by standard hand-held hair dryers may suffice to kill lice and their eggs on your hair. Use great care if you try this method, as the heated air from these devices can also easily scald the hair and the scalp. Similarly, a clothes dryer set a high heat or a hot pressing iron will kill any lice or their eggs on pillowcases, sheets, nightclothes, towels and similar items that might spread them to others. Combs, brushes, hats and other hair accessories in contact with an infested person should be washed in hot water each day to dislodge any lice or nits. Freezing: Lice and their eggs on inanimate objects such as toys may be killed by freezing temperatures. Objects that cannot be heated in your clothes dryer can be placed in your freezer instead. This treatment may require several days to be effective, depending on the temperature and humidity. Haircuts: Lice will find little to grasp on a bald or shaved head. Although competitive swimmers who shave their heads generally need not be concerned about head lice, many parents may find this old-fashioned method to be aesthetically unappealing. Short hair is more readily searched for lice and eggs, but does not make the child invulnerable to infestation. Lice may also occasionally be found on eyelashes or other facial hair. These lice should be removed by hand with great care so as not to injure the eye; insecticides should NEVER be used on or around the eye.
Essential Oils: The oils of anise and ylang ylang, combined with coconut oil into a natural spray has been found to be highly effective, eliminating about 92 percent of head lice. Anise and ylang ylang contain essential oils, which are generally antibacterial, antifungal, and insecticidal. These oils have long been known to have such effects; one related study found that the essential oil of an African plant, Lippia multiflora, was more effective against head and body lice than the conventional treatment.
Olive Oil: Applying olive oil to the entire scalp for a minimum of two hours may be useful. You can also sleep with a shower cap on and use the olive oil over night. I would not advise any other oil as olive oil is the safest food oil to use. The oil coats the lice and may serve to suffocate them.
Heat: The hot dry air produced by standard hand-held hair dryers may suffice to kill lice and their eggs on your hair. Use great care if you try this method, as the heated air from these devices can also easily scald the hair and the scalp.
Similarly, a clothes dryer set a high heat or a hot pressing iron will kill any lice or their eggs on pillowcases, sheets, nightclothes, towels and similar items that might spread them to others. Combs, brushes, hats and other hair accessories in contact with an infested person should be washed in hot water each day to dislodge any lice or nits.
Freezing: Lice and their eggs on inanimate objects such as toys may be killed by freezing temperatures. Objects that cannot be heated in your clothes dryer can be placed in your freezer instead. This treatment may require several days to be effective, depending on the temperature and humidity.
Haircuts: Lice will find little to grasp on a bald or shaved head. Although competitive swimmers who shave their heads generally need not be concerned about head lice, many parents may find this old-fashioned method to be aesthetically unappealing. Short hair is more readily searched for lice and eggs, but does not make the child invulnerable to infestation.
Lice may also occasionally be found on eyelashes or other facial hair. These lice should be removed by hand with great care so as not to injure the eye; insecticides should NEVER be used on or around the eye.
For more in-depth information on the biology and management options of head lice, I recommend visiting The Harvard School of Public Health's Head Lice Information Web Site. They even have photos of the little critters in various stages of development, so you know what to look for.
Shaneperrone,
I can attest to the effectiveness of a no-sugar diet against mosquito bites. I had been a favorite mosquito snack all my life. My nutritional type dictates a higher protein, lower carb diet, on which I feel incredibly better. When I began eating this way (including no sugar, no grains) I noticed that I was not getting bitten, even though everyone around me was. When I lapsed back into my old dietary ways, the mosquito bites resumed. I am again eating a lower carb diet, and the mosquitos have again backed off.
I was nursing my third chld when my oldest came home from kindergarten with lice. It spread to me as well. It was my first lice encounter and not knowing any better, I just bought the poisons that they sell in the pharmacy. The label said that pregnant and nursing women should consult their doctors before using, so I called my doctor who said it was no problem to use on myself and my daughter. The next afternoon when I picked my baby up from daycare they told me that she refused to drink the bottle of milk that I expressed for her that morning. They thought it might be spoiled and they gave her formula instead. When I tried nursing her at home she took one "taste" and then turned away and refused more even though she was clearly hungry. By the next morning my milk was OK again, but I am sure the chemicals in the lice shampoo made their way in and made my milk taste bad enough that my baby didn't want it. If it could do that who know what else it's affecting. I've been using tea tree oil ever since....
Did there have to be a HUGE louse at the top of the page????? Gives me the heebie-jeebies!
My daughter brought lice home from school when she wa sin 6th grade. The schools now allow kids to remain in school if they "Only have a few nits, but no adults"!!!! They lose federal funds when kids are out of school, so they have adopted this looser approach which means more kids get lice! About 5 weeks after I treated all the kids (they all got it from shared hair things), the local paper reported on the front page (with a huge louse on the front page!!!), that 60% of the kids in the local schools had lice!!!!!!!!! To me, this is criminal. The schools caused this "epidemic" because they 1.) never sent home notes from school stating there was a problem, and 2.) allowed students who were infected to continue to attend school. Morons!!!
We used a nit comb (I washed kids hair, covered in conditioner to soften criiters and hair, then combed through hair) and mayonnaise and Saran Wrap. Works.
We homeschool, but we had 2 kids still in public school (theirs and dad's choice), but the kids who are homeschooled have never had lice except for the one time when their sister brought it home from school.
I was so angry that I could have chewed the proverbial nails. I never had lice when I was a kid. If a kid was found with lice or nits, they couldn't return to school until completely bug-free. We also never had epidemics of 60% of kids with head lice!
I had tea tree oil at the time, but I wanted them DEAD NOW, so I used the mayo.
As President of our local school board, I have to clarify some mis-information here.
First of all, the schools do not receive money for each day that students are in school. The yearly money is based on attendance on one specific day each September.
With that said, it is important to keep the students in school as much as possible, our government has given us standardized tests that they must pass, cant learn if you aren't as school.
As far as allowing students as school with nits, believe it or not, when they were not allowed back until they were nit-free, some students would miss entire semesters of school at a time. There are children who have had lice literally for years. I cannot imagine the damage their poor brains have suffered due to the pesticides.
Because lice is not a disease or dangerous in and of themselves, they are considered a nuisance. The Board of Health has no regulations where they are concerned.
Knowing all this information, it doesn't matter if we agree or not, just that we understand the rules that we have to play by.
BTW, olive oil and nit-picking got my family through 5 years of lice on the step-children.
OK TOBIKAY, here it comes....I don't know about Indiana or Ohio, but in PA as far as I understand in my district, the attendance has to be above a certain percentage EVERYDAY or on the days that it falls below, we don't get reimbursed/credited/funds for that day.....so it pays to keep a lot of the kids in school...as seen by our TB scare a year ago...please, don't get me started....that's how it was explained to me by a certain principal.....
tobikay,
I live in Ohio and I had a principal tell me that the kids need to be in school for federal funds.
As for "not learning" this is bologna. I was often truant when I went to school (70's)and missed between 80-100 days in most of my freshman classes (I have report cards to prove this absence) and I passed ALL my classes as I passed ALL my exams and tests. I did not need to show up in order to be able to do this.
Of course, we did not have to take standardized tests as the schools/gov't were not looking for standardized kids (population) back then, though they did have an agenda, just like now.
I agree that many kids would not be able to pass the standardized tests if they didn't show up all the time, but everyone learns all the time, just maybe not what you may want them to learn.
Back in my very truant days, I used to drive some of my teachers mad because I would pass their tests/exams and I didn't show up for their classes. I was a clasic example that showing up doesn't necessarily mean you can't/won't learn or that you will not know the information. I rarely studied for any tests either. This was also back in the day when grades were not tied to attendance but based on what one actually knew, which is how I was able to pass.
Our school district now has a strict policy that if you miss 15 days in ANY school year, for ANY reason, you automatically fail, period. You could have the brain of Einstein and you will fail. Don't tell me that the federal funds are not tied into this! I know better! Like I said, I have had kids in the public school and I know the stupid and ridiculous rules.
In 3rd grade, my daughter got an ear infection first week of school and missed the entire week. She ended up missing 9 days total that year (all real sick days) and we got this ridiculous form letter about how "concerned" the school was about her attendance and grades. The kid was on the honor roll. What were they really concerned about? She was on honor roll all year.
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Head Lice Removal.