Curing Chronic Canker Sores with a Necklace

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In my blog, I usually write about my eldest daughter, but today I would like to share our agonizing journey in healing my husband’s chronic canker sores. 

My husband has always suffered from canker sores, but in recent years they have progressively gotten worse.  Years back, we changed his toothpaste to one without SLS (Sodium Lauryl Sulfate) and that seemed to keep them at bay for a while.  He was pleased with the results until they started coming back….this time with a vengeance.  He would get more than one at a time (sometimes up to six at once), suffer through their painful two week cycle of healing only to have them re-emerge a week or two later.  It was making him miserable!  Living in pain is no fun and eating which once was enjoyable was no longer. 

I am the designated healer of the family and I took to my new job of healing these sores quickly.  (Nobody wants a grumpy man around!)   He was told by his dental hygienist that it is a Lysine deficiency.  L-Lysine is an amino acid that is not produced in the human body but can be obtained from protein, legumes, wheat germ and dairy products.  So off I went to get a high quality L-Lysine supplement which he took religiously.  NO RESULTS.  So I bought him a combination amino acid supplement which he took after working out to replenish his body.  NO RESULTS. 

Next, I read that it may be due to celiac disease, so he went off gluten for a month.  NO RESULTS.  So we had him tested for food sensitivities.  Turned out, he is extremely sensitive to dairy.  When you have a food sensitivity, it causes inflammation in the body.  I was sure I had it.  This had to be it!  But he has been off dairy for six months, and STILL NO RESULTS. 

Next, I read it could be a sign of candida overgrowth.  This sounded VERY familiar.  My eldest daughter suffers from this.  So I started my husband on probiotics and kept his sugar levels down and started him on 5000 mg of a quality garlic supplement per day.  STILL NO RESULTS. 

He also takes a quality Omega 3 supplement to make sure he has proper essential fatty acids and a zinc supplement to keep his immune system strong.  But neither has worked for his canker sores.  I feed the family, so I know he eats all natural, whole foods with no hydrogenated oils or additives.  I was stuck and he was still suffering.

Finally, I caved and sent him to an integrative medicine doctor.  She said his canker sores are simply due to the Herpes Virus and sent him home with a prescription for Valacyclovir which he was to take twice per day for the rest of his life.  What?  I asked him….”Did she even test you for Herpes?”  So at my insistence (and my husband’s…he didn’t want to take it either), she ordered the Herpes test, saying it was completely unnecessary.  As I suspected…..It was negative.  So the doctor called the house and talked to me about her surprise and shock that his test was negative.  I explained to her that most cases of canker sores are not Herpes related, but instead, related to a food sensitivity, an autoimmune disease like celiac, overgrowth of candida or simply pH levels in the body are off.  As I listened to her amazement of all my research on the subject, I was listening to myself speak too.  I am used to doctors being wrong and just writing a prescription without trying to find the real cause…but I was realizing that I had missed something.  I had treated all the above except his pH levels.  The doctor told me that she would continue to do some homework on canker sores (I have yet to hear back from her) and hung up.  And I got to work.

I started researching balancing pH levels.  I learned as much as I could.  Knowing his diet was already pretty darn good I finally came across Hazelwood.  Hazelwood is an alkaline wood and has the natural property of absorbing and neutralizing the body's acidity through contact with the skin.  I figured it was worth a try.  After all, we were now officially desperate.  I ordered him a Hazelwood necklace (with amber beads which can help the immune system and also relieve pain) from Canada where Hazelwood Trees are indigenous.  It was his Father’s Day present. 

Normally he scoffs at jewelry but he was game.  I think he thought the idea of a necklace helping his canker sores was bit silly, but he knows my passion for natural healing and put it on to show the kids.  Then he forgot about it.  Until about three hours later when he said, “I feel really tired and weak and I have this acidic taste in my mouth.  Do you feel okay?”  I told him I was and then he realized it could be the necklace he was wearing that was drawing out the acid.  He had one current canker sore that was on the mend and a new one emerging.  He asked me for clarification on how these necklaces work because he was officially freaked out that a necklace could be making him feel this way.  He rested and then took a shower and about 5-6 hours later was feeling better.  He wore the necklace all day and through the night. 

The next morning he awoke to say, “My mouth feels very dry this morning and it feels oddly tingly.  I also have several little bumps all over my mouth, like I am about to have an explosion of new canker sores.”  He was convinced enough to wear his new necklace to work and let it do it’s job.  Later that day, the dryness went away but the little bumps were still there.  The next day, the little bumps were gone.  And so was his emerging canker sore.  Hmmmm….Can we be on to something?  I think so. 

He is officially happy because he is not in constant pain.  I will be sure to post an update in a few weeks to tell you his progress with the hazelwood. 

Happy Healing!

UPDATE #1 - Still canker sore free at one week into wearing it.

UPDATE #2 - He is now 2 months into wearing the necklace.   Although it has not been perfect, it has certainly been a marked improvement.  He has gotten a few canker sores, but they have not been multiple ones at a time, and they have healed faster.  Until this past week, when suddenly, he got 3 at once and another one on the way.  He took off the necklace and inspected it.  Sure enough, the hazelwood was shrunken and darker on the inside.  We compared it to our son's who also wears his everyday for teething.  Our son's still looked almost new.

So, now we know that the necklace was indeed absorbing his acid and my husband needed a new one.  My husband changed out his worn necklace with mine which I rarely wear.  His 4th canker sore has not progressed any further in a few days and seems to be waning.  I will be ordering him another hazelwood necklace of his own and hopefully, he will not go through subsequent ones so quickly.

UPDATE #3 - He is now 3 months into wearing his necklace.  He is on his second one.  The new necklace is working well, but it has not eliminated the problem completely as there is another canker emerging now.  So today I sent my husband to a chiro & kinesiologist who found that my husband has an IgA food allergy to corn and removing corn will likely get rid of the canker sores completely.  We shall see.....we will start today.  I will keep you posted.

UPDATE #4 - He is about 8 months into wearing his necklace and yes, he still wears it.  Eliminating corn did seem to help, but not fully.  He still gets canker sores every so often.  We can usually trace it to eating out and ingesting some food that likely had HFCS.  Corn syrup is HARD to avoid when you eat out!  The necklace still seems to help.  And he has now been through several.  He averages one every 2 months or so.  After that, the hazelwood is shriveled up and very dark on the inside indicating it has absorbed lots of acid.