Natural health: natural treatments for dealing with headlice

Could you recommend a natural and safe treatment for headlice? 

My son has a recurring problem with this and we have tried everything, from natural preparations through to the chemical treatments, to no avail.

Headlice are greyish/transparent in colour, and are only about the size of a sesame seed.

Contrary to popular belief, they don’t have the ability to hop from head to head, rather they crawl from heads, pillows, or furnishings onto the heads of unwitting hosts.

The nits/eggs are quite a bit smaller than the actual lice, and can be found attached to the hair shaft, usually right at the base near the scalp, though in severe cases they can be found at any point along the hair.

Once headlice have firmly established themselves in your household, even if it is only on the head of a single member, they can take a lot of work to eliminate completely.

Adult headlice can live for up to five weeks, and the females lay four to five eggs daily, which is why a headlice problem can quickly get out of hand.

Stronger solutions aren’t necessarily more effective, with the very best elimination method being the painstaking removal of all adults and eggs by hand.

Everyone in your family will need regular head-checks, and since the eggs hatch around seven to eight days after being laid, you will need to perform treatments weekly for at least two to three cycles.

Lice can crawl onto heads from bedding, soft furnishings, and headwear. Anything that can be put through a hot wash and dryer cycle should be.

You can often find essential-oil based sprays at health stores to use on furnishings and non-washable items.

Any hairbrushes and hair accessories should also be soaked in hot water with tea-tree or eucalyptus oil added.

Dementia disorders run in my family. To minimise my risk, I take daily supplements of fish oil, eat a healthy diet, and exercise regularly. 

I also do a daily crossword puzzle, jigsaw puzzles, and number problems to keep my brain active. Is there anything else I can do?

It sounds as if you already have your mental health and agility well in hand.

Dr Michael Valenzuela (from the University of New South Wales’ Regenerative Neuroscience Group) has written a book titled Maintain Your Brain, which is packed with you might enjoy reading for further information.

Through research, he has found that one of the most important factors in protecting against dementia is to keep your blood pressure in check.

With a healthy diet, regular exercise, and taking fish oils, you will no doubt already be looking after your blood pressure, whether that was your intention or not.

From the age of 40 years onward, we can reduce the chances of dementia by getting our blood pressure levels checked annually to prevent irreversible damage to the blood vessels in the brain.

Processed foods, sedentary lifestyles, and environmental toxicity (including pollution, household chemicals, and mercury amalgams) are implicated in neurological degeneration, so once again your healthy diet and lifestyle choices will be helping to protect against dementia.

There is a direct link between lack of minerals and oxygen to the brain and dementia-related illnesses, so if you did want to boost your defences, you could investigate oxygenating herbs such as gotu kola, black walnut, blessed thistle, damiana, and ginkgo biloba (not available over the counter in Ireland).

Gotu kola has been shown to attach itself to manufactured aluminium, assisting in the safe removal of this toxin from the body.

Aluminium is of particular concern when it comes to Alzheimer’s.

Any aluminium deposits that manage to make it into the bloodstream, and therefore the brain, will inhibit bloodflow and oxygen uptake, leading to mental deterioration.

Many people who are of the ‘baby boomer’ generation were exposed to much higher levels of aluminium as this metal hit peak popularity in everyday household items such as foil, pots, and utensils, bakeware, and pre-made dinner containers.