Soy sauce soothes burns, reader discovers
Q. I listened to your public radio show and heard a man call in recommending soy sauce for burns. "How weird is that?" I thought. But then, as I took a loaf of bread out of the oven, the inner edge of my thumb and the fleshy pad underneath hit the metal rim of the pan. I expected a painful burn. I decided to try the soy-sauce remedy.
The pain eased up in less than a minute, the soreness did not materialize and even the redness went away!
A. We wish we knew why this home remedy works, but we have heard from several people that it does, including an Army Ranger who told us that U.S. Special Forces medics also used soy sauce for combat-related burns.
Q. Just as soon as the temperature gets near freezing, my hands and heels start getting painful cracks in them. What do you recommend?
A. One of our favorite moisturizers started out as a veterinary product years ago. Udder Cream from Redex is inexpensive and effective for moisturizing hands and feet.
If you want to use something even stronger, a dab of Vicks VapoRub or Bag Balm (another veterinary product) on the cracked skin at bedtime also can help. Be sure to put socks on your feet or light cotton gloves on your hands to protect the bedsheets from the petrolatum base.
We are sending you our Guides to Skin Care & amp; Vicks for more information on dealing with dry skin and fungus.
Q. Why do things like the flu flourish in certain seasons?
A. Doctors often suggest that during the winter we all stay inside and cram ourselves together in close quarters, where it is easy to transmit these viruses. That may play some part, but we suspect low levels of vitamin D also may contribute.
In the winter, the sun is at a lower angle, and people spend less time outside getting sunshine on their skin. When the temperature is cold, they are also bundled up, so that not even their hands are out in the sunlight. This reduces the amount of vitamin D the skin can make.
Adequate levels of vitamin D stimulate the immune system to make a compound called cathelicidin. This natural anti-microbial kills bacteria, viruses and even fungi. Having plenty of cathelicidin in your system might help protect you from influenza viruses that also happened to be around during the summer. When levels drop, as they do in winter, all of us become more vulnerable to the viruses we share so easily.
Q. When my daughters got lice that were immune to all the lice shampoos, a friend of mine said that the health department had told her to smother them with mayonnaise. We left it on overnight covered with a shower cap.
The mayo killed all the lice, and a repeat treatment a week later took care of the hatched nits. As a nice side effect, the treatment left their hair soft and shiny.
A. This treatment works on the same principle as coating the hair with petroleum jelly, but mayonnaise is much easier to wash out!
In their column, Joe and Teresa Graedon answer letters from readers. Write to them in care of this newspaper or e-mail them via their Web site: www.Peoples-Pharmacy.com.
& copy; 2006 King Features Syndicate Inc.