Usnea, more commonly known as Old Man's Beard is one of the most useful of all the natural medicines out there. It is a very powerful anti-microbial.
I have been familiar with it for 10 years and have been using it fight infections.
We make a tea out of it for sinus and respiratory infections. Also works good for any soar throat including strep.
Last year, my wife got fish finger and it turned really bad. She started to drink OMB tea and used a hot compress made of OMB and almost immediately it kicked the crap out of the infection.
For those who do not know what fish finger is: it is an infection from the bacteria in salt water fish. If you get cut or scratched and the fish slime gets into it, you can get serious infection with in hours. Most people around here get it from getting cut on King Salmon teeth when unhooking them.
If you do not know what it is. You need to learn it. Here is a link to a picture. The one you want will have a rubber band like string inside when you pull on a strand. Around here it grows everywhere there is a swampy area that does not have all day sunlight.
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...ed=0CBsQ9QEwAA
