People's Pharmacy

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Keep Raw Eggs Out Of Child's Milk Shake

Posting Date: 12/13/2004

A. Bed sores require medical supervision because they can lead to life-threatening infection. It was just such as complication that caused Christopher Reeve?s death.

We first heard about sugar for hard-to-treat wounds in 1985. Dr. Richard Knutson, an orthopedic surgeon in Greenville, Mississippi, described using a sugar and iodine mixture to treat serious wounds in more than 5,000 patients.

When a nurse first told him about this old-fashioned approach, he was skeptical: "The first thing you think about is the old jar of marmalade in the fridge growing all that junk. You think you'll create a perfect medium for bacterial growth. That turned out not to be the case."

Dr. Knutson mixed 4 pounds of table sugar with 1 pound Betadine antiseptic ointment and 6.5 ounces Betadine solution in a double boiler. This mixture is applied daily to a depth of one quarter inch on a clean dry wound. It can be covered with an ordinary gauze pad, and should be changed at least once a day.

Use of Betadine on an open wound such as a bedsore is controversial. Before considering this recipe, please check with the patient?s physician.

Q. Other than over-the-counter drugs or baking soda, is there a natural way to reduce heartburn?

A. Chewing gum or sucking on hard candy stimulates the flow of saliva. This helps neutralize stomach acid that has splashed up into the esophagus.

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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.PeoplesPharmacy.org. Their newest book is The People's Pharmacy Guide to Home and Herbal Remedies (St. Martin's Press).