People's Pharmacy

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Listerine Works For Trucker's Bottom

Posting Date: 08/29/2005

Q. I clipped your article on a cornmeal cure for nail fungus but mislaid it. Not knowing the proportions, I cooked some up and soaked my nails. Even done wrong, it helped mightily. Please forward the correct recipe, which my doctor and his nurse also want.

A. A listener to our public radio show shared the following remedy for nail fungus: ?Put about an inch of cornmeal in a 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. Done regularly, this will get rid of the fungus.?

There is no scientific data to suggest this recipe works, but gardeners report that sprinkling cornmeal around roses may discourage black spot fungus.

Q. For years I was troubled with allergies. But I have discovered the following natural approach. I use a neti pot to wash my sinuses with salt water. I take stinging nettle (Urtica dioica) capsules and I vacuum my bedding daily to get rid of dust mites.

A. Your approach combines several traditional remedies. Nose cleansing with salt water is popular from Scandinavia to India, where a neti pot, which looks like an Aladdin?s lamp is used to pour water into the nostrils. Stinging nettle is widely used in Germany to ease allergy symptoms.

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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).