If you guessed garlic, you’re correct! This herb has these properties, but the one additional herb you should add to your sinus arsenal and especially for candida overgrowth is…

The Healing Benefits of Oregano Oil

Oregano oil is an excellent choice for immunity, respiratory health, clear skin, and digestive health. There have also been numerous studies showing its benefit for cancer patients. But did you know it’s an effective natural antibiotic and antifungal agent?

Use as an Antibiotic Agent Over Antibiotics

Oregano oil has been used for centuries for its natural antibiotic properties. Now studies presented in PubMed and NIH confirm what those from Greece have known for generations – it’s effective for bacterial infections. The word oregano in Greek meaning “joy of the mountain.”

One specific study concluded, “The obtained outcomes will enable further investigations using oregano essential oil obtained from Origanum heracleoticum L. as alternative antibacterial remedies enhancing healing process in bacterial infections and as an effective means for the prevention of antibiotic-resistant strain development.” [i]

Fungal Infections and Other Benefits of Oregano

Studies show that medicinal oregano oil is also an antifungal, antiviral, antibacterial and an anti-inflammatory. Origanum oil possesses a broad spectrum of in vitro antimicrobial activities attributed to the high content of phenolic derivatives such as carvacrol and thymol.[ii]

These two natural phenols showed great antifungal activity in the lab against candida. In one study using 111 fluconazole-sensitive and resistant candida isolates (Fluconazole is a leading medication for yeast infections in women and fungal infections. Fluconazole has many negative side-effects and with repeated use candida and fungal strains mutate and become resistant to it, which means that many fungal strains become immune to this drug). Oregano oil, on the other hand, was proven effective. Their conclusion was that carvacrol and thymol show strong fungicidal effects against all the candida isolates.[iii]

In addition to the conclusions above, numerous other studies, over 700 of them in Pubmed alone, have shown that carvacrol and thymol have been shown to reduce or eliminate:

Fungal Infections
Candida Albicans (the cause of chronic sinusitis)
Allergies
Bacterial Infections
Viruses
Inflammation
Tumors
Parasites

The top 6 areas highlighted above are great news to those with a sinus condition, chronic sinusitis, respiratory challenges, a sinus infection, allergies, and daily sinus congestion and pain.

Oregano oil isn’t the only answer to these challenges, but will be an effective addition to my protocol for each of these. Why? Many of these studies are performed in a lab where there are controlled conditions in a Petri dish or with mice. I just haven’t seen strong enough conclusions with people to say that oregano oil is the only answer. It is certainly a beneficial element, but when you have one of these conditions, you want to address it quickly and effectively and my past protocol already does that.

Fully Stabilized Allicin, the sulfuric reaction when garlic is crushed, captured, and stabilized, still remains my top choice over antibiotics. The physician’s strength Allimed at 450mg or AlliUltra at 360mg has proven the most effective with both controlled human studies and with my many patients over the last 8 years or so. This Allicin has proven to be an antibacterial, antiviral, and antifungal agent that minimizes the severity and the duration of sinusitis, colds, and has even been proven to be effective against MRSA, the flesh-eating bacteria.

Oregano oil is the perfect complement to the current Quick Fix program. See my recommendations further below for adding oregano oil to my protocol.

What’s Wrong with the Practice of Medicine (When it Comes to Sinusitis)?

Quite often those with chronic sinusitis or sinus infections have multiple contributors to their inflamed mucous membrane (sinuses). Most doctors couldn’t tell you the cause of the routine sinus infection, so they prescribe an antibiotic “in case the cause is bacterial,” and know that if it’s viral it will run its course. It’s not their fault, because there’s no quick way of to assess what’s the underlying cause of the infection.

The problem is that antibiotics just aren’t the answer for the sinus infection:

The majority of sinus infections aren’t bacterial (which is what antibiotics address).
The overuse of antibiotics is problematic, causing less effective results when you really need them. Essentially, “superbugs” grow resistant to antibiotics.
Antibiotics kill off “healthy bacteria,” which protect your G.I. system and immunity.

I talk frequently about the studies that prove antibiotics are an ineffective treatment for the majority of respiratory conditions, including a sinus infection. One study showed that a placebo was more effective.

The CDC (Center for Disease Control), continues to warn doctors and the public of the dangers of over-prescribed antibiotics. Since the 1940s, these drugs have greatly reduced illness and death from infectious diseases. However, these drugs have been used so widely and for so long that the infectious organisms the antibiotics are designed to kill have adapted to them, making the drugs less effective.[iv]

Dr. Stuart Levy, president of the Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics stated, “The number of bacteria resistant to many different antibiotics has increased, in many cases, tenfold or more. Even new drugs that have been approved are confronting resistance.”

To Summarize on Antibiotics: They don’t work for the majority of sinus infections and respiratory conditions because they don’t address the underlying causes, which are either viral or fungal in nature. In the small percentage of the time that an infection is bacterial, they are less effective or don’t work at all because we’ve become resistant to them. There is a much better solution that addresses ALL possible forms of infection AND the approach is natural AND builds the immunity where antibiotics kill-off beneficial flora populations exposing us to future fungal infections.

Oregano Oil Added to My Candida Elimination Program

As I discover additional proven approaches from my direct experience or from science and medical studies, I continue to update and reformulate our proven candida program in the Breakthrough Sinus Solution Program. While oregano oil alone won’t wipe out an aggressive candida overgrowth, which is one of 7 factors which plague the chronic sinusitis sufferer, I have updated the program to include this important antifungal.

I’ve read dozens of studies on oregano oil and other medicinal herbs that contain high amounts of phenolic derivatives, and there are hundreds more that come to similar conclusions. One example study found that Origanum oil at 0.25 mg/ml was found to completely inhibit the growth of C. albicans in culture.[v]

My Recommendation for Use

On a good mouth-rinse for candida, I recommend buying a good medicinal oregano oil. I am impressed with the quality of the Pathway Oregano Oil. You need to make sure that it is medicinal, deriving from Mediterranean wild oregano, such as Pathway. There is a lot of poor quality oils in the marketplace, so make sure of the quality that you are purchasing.

Put 3 drops in a small glass of water and then gargle it for a minute or so. Then swallow it. Do this 2x a day for 10 days with a sinus infection. You can gradually increase the number of drops to 5 or 6 drops in water.

If you’re following a candida elimination program, add this to your program during the first 2 weeks. Then return back to using this after 90 days for an additional 2 weeks. I have found that the most effective treatment process for candida is to rotate the antifungals during the program. Although candida does not become resistant to oregano like it does with fluconozol or diflucan (the prescription approach that I rarely recommend) or even other antifungals, I like to hit candida from all sides during the program. Candida is an aggressive condition that takes an all-out assault to get under control.

Thrush – Taking this oil as a gargle and swallow is also very beneficial for Thrush. Thrush is a name for the candida fungal infection afflicting the mouth and back of the throat. The common signs of thrush include a whitish tongue, possible raised bumps on your tongue, roof of your mouth, gums, inner cheeks, or the back of your throat.

You could also buy oregano in a gel cap to take with your vitamins. Many people have a hard time taking oregano oil in water because it is very strong and leaves that oregano aftertaste. The Pathway Oregano Oil contains a full spectrum of naturally occurring compounds from Wild Mediterranean oregano oil from the Origanum vulgare species in a base of cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil. This oregano oil is standardized to 70% carvacrol, that we’ve already discussed has so many incredible benefits.

Why Oregano? Again, it’s antifungal, antiviral, and antibacterial and it has anti-inflammatory properties – all needed for a candida elimination program. One other benefit I haven’t mentioned is that oregano oil promotes antihistamine properties for allergies. Most of my patients who have chronic sinusitis also have allergies, so this is another great benefit of using this product.

Cautions and Warnings:

Do not use this product if you are pregnant, only do so if you are instructed by your physician to take during pregnancy. I would also recommend using this product for short periods of time, for a few weeks while you have an infection, or with candida rotate it back in a few months later for another two-week duration.

[i] Med Dosw Mikrobiol. 2012;64(4):297-307.

[The antibacterial activity of oregano essential oil (Origanum heracleoticum L.) against clinical strains of Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa].

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23484421

[ii] Mol Cell Biochem. 2001 Dec;228(1-2):111-7.

Antifungal activities of origanum oil against Candida albicans.

Manohar V¹, Ingram C, Gray J, Talpur NA, Echard BW, Bagchi D, Preuss HG.