Encouraging news on some herbal remedies.

This is fascinating. I swear, nobody understands me when I request strange foodstuffs, but I trust what my body tells me. As some know, I was recently diagnosed with diabetes, in addition to my other problems. Mrs. cav found herself in Little India, here in Toronto, and called me to ask if I wanted anything. The first thing I could think of was fresh curry leaves. I know that was no coincidence. Another interesting factoid: I get bad migraine, and because of my liver problems, I can't take any medication. Mrs. cav, always the dear one, found an aromatherapy migraine relief, just a sea sponge in a jar soaked with essential oil of rosemary. I've tried it for the last few days, in prime migraine weather, and no headaches. I am amazed.

Yep - next thing is to try to assist indigenous folk to get some mobnet for their cultural intellectual property.

Multi-nationals are beginning to "mine" for such remedies - and, while they of course deserve reward for their research and marketing, so do the folk who originally discovered them.

I will catch up with a friend just back from India - partly looking a this stuff - this weekend, hopefully - so I expect to hear lots of interesting stuff...

And of course - some low-tech stuff coming back - like allowing maggots to clean intractable wounds - I heard about this ages ago, and I know it is done here sometimes:

Full story here
http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,65117,00.html?tw=rss.TOP


"Dawn of the Dead-Flesh Eaters


By Randy Dotinga | Also by this reporter Page 1 of 2 next »

02:00 AM Sep. 29, 2004 PT

SAN DIEGO -- Donna Nordquist, a sturdy retired office manager, knew just what to say to the dozens of maggots inserted into a slow-healing wound on her ankle: "Go for it!"

Call her an exception to the rule. Few patients are as accepting as Nordquist was during two days of "maggot therapy" last week. Many refuse outright to let the little worms anywhere near them, like the 92-year-old Beverly Hills woman who shrieked when plastic surgeon Dr. Barry Handler brought up the idea. "She probably never had to deal with a maggot in her life, and she didn't want to start now," he recalled.


Today's the Day. Even so, hundreds of U.S. doctors have jumped on the low-tech maggot-therapy bandwagon, and the nation's leading producer of medical maggots has had to double production less than a year after the Food and Drug Administration approved the animals as bona fide medical devices. It seems that maggots, long neglected by medicine, have come back from the dead.

Their resurrection began in the early 1980s when Dr. Ronald Sherman, a researcher at the University of California at Irvine, began exploring their potential benefits for patients with wounds, especially on their legs and feet.

Despite their reputation as disgusting and repulsive animals, maggots -- blowfly larvae -- are largely harmless. Their life cycle is simple: The flies lay eggs when they find decaying flesh. The maggots hatch, enjoy several meals at the nearest dead-animal buffet, develop cocoons known as pupae and turn into flies. Then everything begins again............"



And - honey (a particular sort) for fighting golden staph in wounds....

I'm so glad science is finally verifying some of this stuff!