Re: [HAPS-L] Cabbage and lactation

On 7/20/07, David Evans <devans@xxxxxxx> wrote:

Valerie wrote: "... mud packs would create an unclean environment..."

Sorry no, that's not true: Fuller's earth was used to reduce swelling
for infections and draw out secretions--it was made sterile (they used a
pressure cooker) and the practitioner would merely wash the debris away
with a sterile solution (iodine/alcohol for me) after the pack was
removed. Therefore, what you say is incorrect.

An actual MD used this poultice on me when I was a small child for an
extremely serious skin infection (an adult could put a hand in the
opening) in a place and time when there were no other immediate options.
The material worked briefly for me and may have saved my life until I
could be taken to a more modern facility many miles away by almost
hopelessly worried parents. The doctors in the larger town shot me up
simultaneously with the three giant life-savers of that day:
chloromycetin, penicillin, and tetracycline (even then, dusting sulfa
was thought to be useless) and removed whatever else they could by
surgery. Obviously, the antibiotics and surgery did the trick!

My office copy of the PDR (1999-I'm lazy) does not even list Fuller's
earth so knowledge of the treatment is slipping away with the greatest
generation, including its physicians. It is unfortunate that we are
clearly losing information about some useful treatments from the
pre-antibiotic era since, as microbial evolution marches on, there are
fewer chemicals we can throw at staph infections and, sadly, we may see
a lot more use of Fuller's earth and its ilk in the future...

Fuller's earth can be used with more minor irritations and does reduce
swelling, redness, and skin exudations generally. Here is a website
which provides a more trivial (than mine) example for you:

http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/ate/pregnancyandfamily/203209.html

I have noticed in traveling to other parts of the earth that poultices
generally have a wide application in the pre-industrialized world and
sometimes are remarkably efficacious.

Probably more important than all of the above is that I have not seen
any evidence yet presented that cabbage leaves can do anything topically
but stink up and chafe a woman's breast!
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