People's Pharmacy

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Cornmeal Fights Fungus on Roses and Toes

Posting Date: 04/18/2005

Q. You have responded to many questions about curing toenail fungus with home remedies, but here?s one you?ve never mentioned. Put about an inch of cornmeal in plastic dishpan. Pour in hot water, stir it so the cornmeal gets dissolved and when it is cool enough not to hurt, soak your feet for an hour.

If you do this regularly, it will get rid of the fungus. You can also sprinkle dry cornmeal on the dirt around roses to ward off black spot fungus infection.

A. Cornmeal has been used for centuries to make cornbread, hushpuppies and muffins. Using this grain to fight fungus is a fascinating adaptation.

Gardeners have also tried cornmeal to fight fungus (black spot disease) on roses. They sprinkle cornmeal on the soil around the plant in the early spring and then water it in.

Soaking feet in cornmeal glop is certainly a low-tech, low-cost approach to nail fungus. We don?t know how effective it is or how frequently you?d have to do it.

People who would like to know more about other approaches to nail fungus may want our Guides to Home Remedies and Nail Care. Anyone who would like copies, please send $3 in check or money order with a long (no. 10) stamped (60 cents), self-addressed envelope: Graedons' People's Pharmacy, No. HR-311, P. O. Box 52027, Durham, NC 27717-2027.

Q. I was fascinated to read about the 79-year-old person with arthritis who is tap dancing again after drinking Brownwood Acres tart cherry juice. I too have been on Brownwood juice since December, when I was in the midst of a gout attack.

I have been drinking it ever since, in addition to watching my diet and cutting out shellfish. I have had no further attacks.

I?ve had my uric acid checked and in mid-February it was normal. I got complacent and let up on the juice. Last week I felt a "twinge" so I went back to drinking cherry juice and the pain disappeared.