Quick & Handy Home Remedies: Find practical, affordable ways to deal with some of life's most common ailments, proving that getting back to the basics has its reward. Only $16.95 +s/h
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Q. I read about someone who wanted to know how to get rid of plantar warts. My grandson had one on his foot for quite some time and was going to a doctor for treatment.
His grandpa had him put a piece of raw bacon fat on the wart overnight and in a couple of nights it was gone. To try this, use a fresh piece of bacon each night and fasten it on with a bandage.
A. Plantar warts (warts on the soles of the feet) are notoriously hard to treat. Readers have suggested duct tape, castor oil and hot water soaks. Bacon fat is a new one for our collection.
Q. For all of his 65 years, my partner has gotten seasick whenever he was on a boat. This was true even for two years serving on a ship in the Navy.
We just took an Alaska cruise on which I served as a guide. He felt just fine, even though some others did not.
Why? Because we read your column about ginger capsules, available in health food stores. He took the capsules with meals three times a day. He got great benefit and had no side effects. I am telling everyone I know!
A. Thanks for sharing his experience. Ginger has a long history against motion sickness.
Q. What is fenugreek? I have been diagnosed as borderline diabetic. The doctor said with proper diet and exercise I can beat the diabetes. My neighbor said this over-the-counter product helps keep blood sugar in check. Do you have any additional information?
A. Fenugreek is an herb used as a culinary flavoring in Indian cooking. Research in animals shows that it can help lower blood sugar.
There are many other natural approaches to controlling blood sugar including cinnamon, bitter melon, oolong tea and vinegar. Several years ago a physician shared a patient’s success with nopal cactus (prickly pear) tea.
We have discussed these and many other practical ways of coping with type 2 diabetes in our brand new book, Best Choices From The People’s Pharmacy (Rodale Books). Diet and exercise are the cornerstones of blood sugar control. Whatever you try, make sure your doctor is supervising your progress.
Q. I'm a woman who takes a multivitamin, a B-50 complex, calcium tablet and a couple of prescription pills daily. Within a half hour of taking my vitamins I pee a bright yellow color. Doesn't this mean the dosage is excessive? Should I cut the tablets in half?
A. Your vitamin B-50 complex contains riboflavin (vitamin B2). This fluorescent yellow compound is rapidly eliminated through the urine and is responsible for the bright yellow color you have noticed. It’s not dangerous and you don’t need to cut the pills in half, though if it bothers you, you could purchase a lower dose of B vitamins.
Q. My wife had been taking black cohosh for menopausal symptoms for several months when an annual checkup showed that some of her liver enzymes were elevated. After ruling out various forms of hepatitis, fatty liver disease or other liver pathology, her doctors concluded that the black cohosh was probably the source of her problem.
She discontinued the black cohosh and her liver enzyme panel is back to normal. I just thought you should know that not everyone does well on this product.
A. The British equivalent of the FDA (the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency) issued a warning last summer that black cohosh may cause liver disorders. Such reactions are believed rare but can be very serious.
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I have years of first-hand knowledge as to what I say, but no documentation.
I've searched the web out of curiosity to see if my application was listed. It was not. However, your web site has a "cure" tale, so I will add my response.
A writer above posts that bacon fat was used to get rid of plantar's wart. I believe it, for bacon fat has been part of my family's medicinal treatments for well over 100 years.
When I was young, I filleted fish--professionally. I could skin and de-bone a 3-5 pound rock cod at the rate of about 600 lbs per hour. Actually, start to finish on one fish--8 seconds.
However, when the knife is working at that speed, one is bound to slice a finger or two from time to time. It just happens.
Minor cuts merely required washing and a band-aid, but deeper cuts (and I've had several in my life) or those that go right to the bone require better medicine. That medicine in my family is bacon fat.
Bacon fat does a number of things. It helps stop the bleeding. It soothes the cut to reduce the pounding when your heart feels like it has moved to the cut. And finally, the bacon fat, in combination with your own body's properties, work together to hasten to heal the cut with minimal, if any, scarring.
Why? Well, I don't know, really. However, it has been said that the pig is a very close relative to humans in terms of skin and tissue. Haven't doctors experimented with pig valves for human use? And before we had synthetic skin or machines capable of harvesting human skin in thousandths of an inch for burn victims...they used pig skin.
And by the way, when you skin fish you must have use of your fingertips. But what do you do if you cut your fingertip? I'd use Playtex tampons to assist. Playtex applicators were plastic instead of cardboard. The larger cotton end could be sliced lengthwise, opened and used as a make-shift finger splint. It also held the bacon fat and allowed fingertip use via the shaped end, if in fact you'd cut your own fingertip.
Any questions? Good! Them's my thoughts and I'm stickin' to 'em.