Dog bounds off bed after sleeping on soap

Q. I have used your handy hint on putting soap in the bed for nighttime aches and pains. I’ve also shared it zealously here in Western Australia for more than a decade.

I hereby stand on my soapbox to tell the world that it works 95 percent of the time!

I don’t feel it is a placebo effect because one of my converts says that her arthritic dog, who always slept on her bed and struggled to the floor each morning, literally bounded off after the second night of being “soaped.”

You can’t tell me that the dog knew why there was a lump in the bed!

I could fill a book with success stories, but I just want everyone who has ever had a niggling ache to give it a go. It costs nothing, and if it falls out of the bed, then consider bending down to retrieve it as the start of your morning exercises. Why can you bend down? Because the soap worked.

A. We love your story of the dog benefiting from sleeping on a bed with soap in it. Many readers have told us that putting a bar of soap under the bottom sheet, near the legs, can prevent leg cramps. Some find that it calms restless legs, while others report that it helps ease aches and pains due to arthritis. Presumably that is the benefit your friend’s old dog felt.

No one knows exactly how this might work. The leading hypothesis is that it is a function of the volatile oils used to scent the soap (Journal of Multidisciplinary Healthcare, September 2008).

Q. One “old wives’ tale” remedy for heartburn is sauerkraut juice. I think homemade works the best. Are there other natural remedies for heartburn?

A. Homemade sauerkraut juice contains probiotic organisms. Studies suggest that such good bacteria may help ease symptoms of digestive distress (Gut Microbes, November-December 2010).

There are quite a few other natural remedies for heartburn, ranging from persimmon tea to ginger, mustard, vinegar or hot peppers. Deglycyrrhizinated licorice often can be helpful.

Q. I’d like to offer a bit of advice for men whose enlarged prostates sometimes make urination difficult: Exercise when you need to go.

For instance, if you live in a two-story house, and wake up in the middle of the night to find urination difficult, walk downstairs and then walk back up. Within a few seconds, your heart rate will go up and urination will become easy.

I’m not sure what the relationship is between increased heart rate and increased ability to urinate. Regardless, it works for me, and so far I’ve not found a doctor who was aware of this.

A. Thanks for the great tip for this very common and distressing problem. We found a number of studies suggesting that exercise during the day might reduce nighttime urinary symptoms. In one study, men who did tai chi exercises significantly improved their urinary symptoms (Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine online, Oct. 3, 2011).

Men who spend less time sitting still seem to have a lower risk of prostate enlargement (International Neurology Journal, September 2014).

2015 King Features Syndicate, Inc.