Reader rejects home remedies as hoaxes

Q. I strongly disagree with your support of “home remedies.” Scam treatments are provably worthless, but they are not harmless. Untold numbers of hapless victims have died through past centuries from foolish wishful thinking and quack remedies.

When desperately ill people put their beliefs in a bogus remedy, they put their health on the line. You wrote about a boy with a nosebleed. His mother put keys on the back of his neck, and he got lucky and stopped bleeding. If I had a nosebleed, I’d want immediate medical attention instead of keys.

Quack doctors and faith healers the world over bilk people because it leads to fabulous wealth and fame for the healers.

A. We share your concern about quack healers making money from people’s desperation. Dismissing all home remedies as worthless, however, would be shortsighted.

As we have said many times, common sense is the most important component of any home remedy. Desperately ill people require medical attention.

In the case of minor complaints, however, we think a remedy is worth a try if it might help, won’t hurt and doesn’t cost too much. If a nosebleed stops immediately after cold keys are applied to the back of the neck, that seems to offer empirical evidence that the keys are helping. If the nosebleed doesn’t stop, it is time to get urgent care.

Q. I was a candidate for knee replacement, which I did not want. When two series of steroid shots into my knee didn’t relieve the horrible pain, my doctor suggested that I try taking turmeric capsules.

That was a year ago. In addition to taking turmeric, I also have been drinking grape juice with Certo in it. I’m 63, and I haven’t felt this good in years. I no longer have tendinitis or knee pain, though I know my regimen sounds weird.

A. We’re glad your physician is open-minded about nondrug approaches for arthritis and chronic pain. There are dozens of studies demonstrating that the active ingredient in turmeric, curcumin, has anti-inflammatory activity.

A randomized controlled trial comparing a turmeric extract to ibuprofen for knee osteoarthritis found both treatments equally effective for pain relief (Clinical Interventions in Aging, March 20, 2014). The turmeric extract was less likely to cause stomach upset.

We aren’t aware of any studies of Certo (plant pectin) in grape juice. There are, however, a few studies demonstrating that the purple compounds in grapes have anti-inflammatory activity (Food and Function, April 2015).

Q. One of your readers recently shared her success with pine bark extract for hot flashes. I was not looking forward to the hot, humid Houston summer, so I started taking Pycnogenol. My hot flashes ceased immediately. Why is this not better-known?

A. A review of herbal preparations reports that Mediterranean pine bark extract (Pycnogenol) eases “vasomotor symptoms,” doctor-speak for hot flashes (Maturitas, February 2014).

2015 King Features Syndicate Inc.