I cannot begin to imagine the pain this woman is in:
Has anyone vaginally applied bloodroot salve for cervical precancerous cells? If so please share your story. I applied it on Sunday and I am in a lot of pain.
Putting bloodroot salve in your vagina is like putting battery acid in your vagina.
[pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Bloodroot kills cancer cells, but so does battery acid.[/pullquote]
What is bloodroot?
Bloodroot is a plant containing the active ingredient sanguinairine, which is an escharotic. That means that it can produce an eschar. And escar is different from a scab. A scab is dried blood and serum located on top of the skin. An eschar, in contrast contains necrotic (dead) tissue. A cut will produce a scab. Ulcerated tissue will produce an eschar.
Why would anyone think that treating precancerous cells with bloodroot salve is a good idea?
Because bloodroot can kill cancer cells … but then so can battery acid.
According to Quackwatch [N.B. Do not scroll down unless you want to see some very unpleasant images]:
…Their use to treat cancer dates back hundreds of years, perhaps even to ancient times. Their use was fairly common during the 18th and 19th centuries. If a tumor is confined to the superficial layers of the skin, it would be possible to burn it off with a corrosive salve or paste. Unfortunately, products capable of accomplishing this can also burn the surrounding normal tissue and result in unnecessary scarring. For superficial cancers—for which the cure rate with standard treatment is nearly 100%—it makes much more sense to use standard methods that can destroy the cancer with little or no damage to the nearby tissues.
Yet naturopaths recommend it (despite the fact that it can destroy normal tissue) as the least invasive, most natural treatment for abnormal cells. Ironically, it is far more invasive and less natural than standard medical treatment, far less likely to be effective and far more likely to cause hideous side effects.
The active ingredient, sanguinairine, is a toxic quaternary ammonium salt. It’s natural in the same way that snake venom is natural … and snake venom is deadly.
Sanguinairine kills cells by destroying their ability to pump sodium and potassium in and out. It is equally deadly to normal cells as well as to abnormal cells.
The standard treatment for mild cases of abnormal cervical cells (cervical dysplasia) is cryotherapy: freezing the abnormal cells with a cold metal probe. Cryotherapy can be applied directly to a small portion of the cervix, killing the abnormal cells and sparing just about everything else.
How do gynecologists know precisely which tissue to freeze? It requires knowledge of the basic anatomy of the cervix.
The cervix is made of two types of cells. The inside of the cervix is lined with columnar cells and the outside of the cervix is covered with squamous cells. This illustration from Medscape shows the relationship. In the illustration we are looking at the cervix from the bottom up, as a gynecologist would see it during a speculum exam.
The two different types of cells meet at the squamous-columnar junction and the immediately surrounding area is known as the transformation zone (TZ). Cervical dysplasia always occurs in the transformation zone, so that’s the only area that needs to be treated.
The treatment of mild cervical dysplasia is simple. A cold metal probe sized to encompass the TZ is applied to the cervix. That’s it. The treatment is natural, focused and highly effective.
What about moderate or severe cervical dysplasia?
In those cases, it is important to determine whether the abnormal cells extend into deeper layers and actually represent cervical cancer. Therefore it is necessary to cut out the tissue of the TZ and send it to the pathologist for detailed examination. The area can be precisely cut out with electrocautery, laser or with a scalpel.
Where does a corrosive substance like bloodroot fit into these treatment options. It doesn’t.
There is no way to put bloodroot into the vagina without burning everything in the vagina. Even if it were painted on to the cervix so as to limit the damage to the affected area, it would need to be very carefully washed off to make sure it didn’t burn surrounding tissues.
If you want to know just how corrosive bloodroot salve can be, you can scroll down the QuackWatch article and see a hideous picture. An Idaho naturopath diagnosed a bump on Ruth Conrad’s nose as skin cancer and recommend bloodroot salve. It is so toxic that her entire nose sloughed off.
Now imagine putting something that could do that into your vagina. The scarring is bound to be horrific and the possibilities for further damage truly frightening extending to the possibility of a fistula between the vagina and the bladder or rectum or both.
The central problem in treating cancer is not how to kill cancer cells. Battery acid, bleach, lye and other corrosive substances kill cancer cells. The central problem in cancer treatment is killing cancerous cells WITHOUT killing too many normal cells as well.
The best way to kill mildly abornomal (precancerous) cervical cells is to carefully freeze them off or cut them out, sparing the normal tissue around them. Bloodroot salve is indiscriminately destructive, causes massive damage, and leaves tremendous scarring. That’s why you should never, ever put it in your vagina.
