Swimming Against the Current ~ Conquering Breast Cancer Naturally: Natural Skin Cancer Cure

For four summers during my high school/college years, I worked as a lifeguard at an outdoor pool. Being fair-skinned, I had a lot of sunburns even though I used sunscreen. As a result of repeated sunburns, I developed many actinic keratoses or AK's (pink, scaly areas on the skin that don't go away and are considered precursors to skin cancer) and several basal cell skin cancers. Over the years I have made trips to the dermatologist to have the areas frozen with liquid nitrogen or surgically removed in the office. Most of the time, the liquid nitrogen was not very effective, so I have had some of these spots for years.

After treating my breast cancer naturally, I really wanted to find a natural cure for my skin issues as well. I tried using several different essential oils topically and only achieved minimal success with frankincense on a few of my smaller AK's. I was a bit frustrated until recently when I came across Black Salve. It's an herbal remedy with the main active herb being bloodroot. I had heard of bloodroot before--Dr. Veronique Desaulnier used bloodroot to draw out a cancerous tumor from her breast instead of having surgery (she is a great resource for treating breast cancer naturally!)--but I had never seen it referenced for skin cancers. Black Salve came highly recommended from a trusted source, so after reading lots of testimonials and reviews from people who used it for everything from skin cancers to moles to warts, I decided to try it for myself. I want to pause here and make it clear that anyone who has suspicious moles or freckles, areas on the skin that don't heal or that go away for a while but keep returning, or warts that won't go away would be wise to get them checked by a doctor. Skin cancer, especially melanoma, isn't to be taken lightly!

Another word of caution is in order regarding the Black Salve itself. Herbs are very powerful medicine, and the directions that come with the salve need to be followed carefully. I purchased the exact product shown in the photo in this article on Amazon.com. There are other brands available as well as online recipes for making your own salve.

Let me share how the process worked. First of all, it is not recommended to use the salve on your face until you're familiar with how it works. Most of my spots are around my neck and shoulders. Using a toothpick or cotton swab, apply a bit of the salve (a very little bit goes a long way) to the spot only, being careful not to spread it on the surrounding skin. Put some coconut oil or petroleum jelly on the pad of a band-aid to keep it from sticking to the skin, and cover the spot with the band-aid. Leave the salve on the spot for 24-48 hours. Then gently wipe off the salve with a cotton ball soaked in hydrogen peroxide. The spot will sting and burn, but it's very tolerable, and I found it to be equivalent to the stinging/burning of the liquid nitrogen treatment used by my dermatologist.

After the salve is wiped off, keep the spot covered with a clean bandaid; it will take 1-6 weeks for the process to complete, depending upon how large or deep the spot is. The area around the spot will redden, swell, and feel warm to the touch. The spot itself will develop a whitish ring around the edge and may ooze fluid. All of these things may cause nervousness that it is infected, but it isn't--it's just the salve working its magic. After a few days a scab will form--a nasty, ugly, thick scab that is whitish/greenish at first then black. The "scab" is all of the cancerous cells (or cells of the root of a wart) that are being drawn out of the skin by the salve. You must keep the spot covered by a clean band-aid until the scab falls off by itself--do NOT pick the scab off! It will fall off when it's ready--when the salve has finished drawing out the abnormal cells. (I have included photos at the bottom of this post...if you're squeamish, you may not want to look.)

When the scab falls off, there will be an indentation-type wound. There should be no bleeding unless the scab came off too early. It heals from the inside out. I found that the wound looked almost exactly like the wound left after a dermatologist cuts out a skin cancer or surgically removes a mole.

Apparently the salve only "works" on abnormal cells, so if it doesn't remove a freckle or mole, it may be because that freckle/mole is harmless. Additionally, it may take more than one application to completely remove a large or very deep spot.

I have used the salve on six different spots so far. I'm quite happy with how it has worked, and I feel like I have finally found a natural remedy that is a true cure.

A note about sun exposure and skin cancer: Avoiding sun exposure is not a healthy idea; it actually increases the risk of cancer! Absorbing Vitamin D from its natural source, sunlight, is vital for a healthy immune system. Likewise, slathering on sunscreens to prevent burning also increases the risk of cancer, since most sunscreens are full of toxic and carcinogenic chemicals that are readily absorbed into the largest organ of the body--the skin. Also, sunscreens prevent the body's absorption of Vitamin D, which we need. The key is to get healthy amounts of daily exposure to sunlight without getting overexposure, or sunburn. If you're going to be out in the sun all day, allow free sun exposure for some of that time and then use a natural healthy sunscreen or cover up with a hat and lightweight clothing to avoid sunburn.