The Oil That Heals. William A. McGarey M.D.
The experience paid off in our caring for our patients and friends, and—as I mentioned earlier—it led to my writing a monograph about the use of castor oil packs in the practice of medicine. It developed into a book and acquired its name because someone in the Middle Ages called the castor bean plant the Palma Christi, the palm of Christ.8
A patient of ours, Sherri, was traveling about forty-five miles per hour on her motorbike when she lost control and crashed. Sherri had skin abrasions on her elbows, abdomen, and left breast, and the palms of both hands were scraped raw down to the dermal layer. Her therapy was castor oil, used liberally on all the affected areas. Her response was excellent. The wounds healed completely without scars.
Injuries at birth sometimes come in the form of bleeding under the skin of the scalp, which is called a hematoma (a tumor filled with blood). This is what happened when Patti’s third son was born. The tumor was relatively small right after birth, but continued to grow in size until the baby was two months old. At that point, it was the size of a baseball, and it was then that the mother started using a castor oil pack on his head, keeping it in place with the ingenuity born of motherhood.
It rapidly decreased in size and, within the next ten days, the hematoma was no longer present.
We have treated fingernails that had been “smashed,” using a little pack kept in place with a Band-Aid®. If treated early enough, the blackened nail gradually gains back its normal color and the blood is reabsorbed.
ELIMINATIONS USING CASTOR OIL
I gradually became aware of another healing concept after seeing the efficiency of castor oil in resolving bleeding in the tissues and exciting the rebuilding of tissues after serious injury to the skin. The concept: that elimination internally and regeneration of the tissue are primary effects when castor oil is applied to the body. If this principle is exercised in therapy, much can be accomplished in the body’s healing process.
Too little attention is given to the importance of eliminations in the medical world today. It is physiologically true that there are four channels of elimination in the body: the skin, the lungs, the kidneys, and the liver/intestinal tract. When one channel is obstructed, damaged, or ill and unable to do its job, the other three suffer. And the body is much the worse for wear.
When an eliminatory organ or system can be returned to a more normal state, the body benefits. Thus, any method designed to improve and coordinate the eliminations of the body is bound to be helpful to its recovery.
It must be kept in mind that the lymphatics and capillaries are important in transferring substances that need to be removed from where they might be found in the body.
Proper eliminations provide a greater degree of cleanliness to the cells within the body. Being clean internally, the cells function more efficiently and lend themselves to the healing or maintenance of health in the body as a whole. It’s probably wise to remember that in the Bible we are told that cleanliness is next to godliness.
TUMOR IN THE NECK
Catherine, a young eighty-two, had been thriving under the various therapies suggested in the Edgar Cayce readings. She paid me a visit at the Clinic some time ago because she had developed a lump in the right side of her neck near the angle of her mandible (jaw bone) very close to the attachment of the earlobe.
There was no evidence of any difficulty that would cause a lymph node in that area to be enlarged, so x-rays and laboratory tests were ordered. Still, no basic cause was uncovered.
When she discovered the lump prior to the office call, Catherine began applying castor oil packs to that area. When we first saw the lump, it was the size of a hazelnut and quite firm. In two weeks’ time, the size was down to that of a small pea, and one month later the lump was gone.
Looking back at the event, I suspect it was a lymph node. Had it not rapidly decreased in size, I would have advised a biopsy, a procedure she may have rejected. But no cause was demonstrated and the patient exited from the event in excellent health. In this instance, we did not know what was going on, but we opted to take steps to return the body back to normal. And the castor oil did it.
“HORNY” TOE NAIL
This is a rather common problem in the practice of family medicine, but it is very difficult to correct. Removal does not often provide a cure. It is felt that a fungus may be the etiology, the cause. It is most common in the elderly. In 1977 a woman presented her big toe as a problem for us to solve. It was the site of a “horny” toe nail, large, angled, and very difficult to trim or keep under control.
She was instructed to use foot soaks of Epsom salt for fifteen minutes every night at bedtime. Then she was to wrap the toe in a small castor oil pack, which was to be kept on all night long. This procedure was to be continued for two months. She was seen just six months later. Upon examination, we found her nail to be completely normal.
What happened? Increased circulation? Better lymphatic flow? Fungicidal activity? Faith? Patience and persistence? How her toe nail responded remains—like many other physiological responses—an enigma. But, with patience, persistence, consistency, and castor oil she fixed it!
SKIN CANCER/KERATOSIS
In the early stages, it is probably impossible to tell whether an actinic keratosis is going to develop into what is called a keratotic horn or a squamous cell carcinoma, which is malignant. Commonly, these excessive growths of epidermal cells, keratinocytes, are usually called keratoses. Often, even without a biopsy to prove the point, they are called early or advanced skin cancers. Non-physicians often make the diagnoses themselves.
A woman from Boulder, Colorado, wrote me about her experience: “I had a skin cancer on my nose, near my right eye, which has disappeared after three days of applying castor oil first, then sprinkling baking soda over the spot! I had had the cancer for two years, trying every natural method I had read or heard about. I had previously tried castor oil and a small amount of baking soda in a mixture with no success.”
One of my favorite patients is ninety-three years old (his wife is ninety-five). Both have a tremendous sense of humor. George had a large growth on his right earlobe—a keratosis—which was disfiguring, although not malignant. He had been treated by several other doctors before I saw him, but the keratosis persisted. I instructed him to rub castor oil thoroughly on the earlobe twice daily, and clean it off with a soft cloth. After he returned a year and a half later, the ear was completely normal—no keratosis. He was still using the castor oil, he reported, because it made his ear feel so soft.
An out-of-town friend wrote us about her experience with a similar difficulty. “For about ten years I had a large keratosis (diagnosed by a dermatologist) on each side of my face just in front of the ears. They were removed by the doctor—the one on the right was treated surgically three times—yet both enlarged again each time after treatment. So I just lived with them until finally I realized they were both spreading.
“I began saturating them with castor oil on cotton, covered with a Band-Aid®. I did this every night and noticed that they were changing in color and size. The center parts began erupting, scabbing over, then peeling off—until finally, after about a five-month period, they were both completely gone! The skin is now smooth with no scars that can be seen.”
We have routinely advised our patients to use castor oil on the skin for keratoses, for acne, stretch marks in pregnancy, and general care of the skin. One of our patients rubbed castor oil on her abdomen to prevent stretch marks, and then, noticing that she was developing acne, added treatment to those lesions to her skin-care routine. The acne cleared up and her face was so smooth that she told us that people took her for being twenty-three or twenty-four instead of thirty-five—her real age.
INFECTION AFTER INJURY
Jeff Asher, the son of a longtime friend, lived