Month: March 2019

Kiwi Fruit Cures-Or Does It? What Do You Think?

kiwi
Kiwi for canker sores. Does it work?

I had so much hope. Recently during an Internet plunge, I had discovered a simple treatment, potentially a cure, for an ailment that has plagued me since I was five years old.

Diving deeper I discovered lots of anecdotal evidence and lots of praise for this juicy therapy. There was no scientific evidence, no double-blind controlled clinical trial, and no big-pharma pushing this natural remedy, but I was ready to perform my own therapeutic test. What did I have to lose?

The condition that gets me down? It’s canker sores, those little white punched out ulcers that pop up on the inner lining of my mouth with annoying frequency. They come in crops, they last for about a week and can cause pretty intense pain. Sometimes they come after minor trauma such as biting my cheek, other times they come from nowhere.

Most people don’t complain of any systemic symptoms, but mine are frequently accompanied by a prodrome of fatigue and swollen lymph nodes that on bad outbreaks will last as long as the ulcers persist.

In recent years the sores have shown an increasing tendency to arise on the undersurface of my tongue, leading to sluggishness of my speech. If you hear me slurring, I haven’t been dipping into the Macallan 12, I am just dealing with a bout of canker sores.

Remedies, I’ve tried a few; but they have failed, hardly worth the mention. Special toothpaste, adhesive strips lined with secret healing agents, avoiding spices, steroid unguents.  None have done much good.

Ibuprofen, lots of ibuprofen, cuts down on the pain but does nothing to shorten the course. Oral steroids do promote faster healing, supporting my theory that the sores are an auto-immune phenomenon, but I hate to overuse the potent drugs.

My medical colleagues haven’t offered much for me. My dentist just gives me soft toothbrushes. A rheumatologist I once spoke with scoffed at my notion that the swollen nodes had anything to do with the sores.

And then I stumbled across kiwi fruit. The online article described relief, and even prevention, by eating one kiwi a day. What was the preventive factor? Was it in the juicy green pulp, or in the tiny black seeds? Did the woody center core contain some homeopathic marvel? I didn’t know, and I didn’t care.

I became a kiwi hunter, buying cartons of the little gems every time I shopped. Woodmans, Sunset, Publix down in Orlando–I got my greenies from all of them, even paying a few pennies extra for organic varieties. It became my evening ritual, scooping the fruit out of its skin and enjoying the sweetness while I played Jeopardy! with Amazon Alexa.

And for a while, it seemed to be working. Two weeks, then three weeks, then a month, pain-free. Not a record, but encouraging. Until last weekend. I recall accidentally chewing on my cheek–and a day later the sores were there. AND under my tongue and on the opposite cheek. My kiwi cure had collapsed.

So now I look sadly at the crate of fuzzy New Zealanders in the fridge. I suppose I will find a way to eat them, though it will be with a heavy heart and a sore mouth, looking for the next “cure.” Any suggestions?

Last week’s blogs:

Sleep
Checking into Disney
____
Like what you read here? Add your name to our subscription list below. No spam, I promise!
___

#mc_embed_signup{background:#fff; clear:left; font:14px Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; }
/* Add your own MailChimp form style overrides in your site stylesheet or in this style block.
We recommend moving this block and the preceding CSS link to the HEAD of your HTML file. */

Subscribe to our mailing list

* indicates required
Email Address *

First Name
Last Name

//s3.amazonaws.com/downloads.mailchimp.com/js/mc-validate.js(function($) {window.fnames = new Array(); window.ftypes = new Array();fnames[0]=’EMAIL’;ftypes[0]=’email’;fnames[1]=’FNAME’;ftypes[1]=’text’;fnames[2]=’LNAME’;ftypes[2]=’text’;}(jQuery));var $mcj = jQuery.noConflict(true);

photo credit: Laurence Vagner <a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/86078191@N00/11824496485″>January photo challenge #7 : Fruit</a> via <a href=”http://photopin.com”>photopin</a&gt; <a href=”https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/”>(license)</a&gt;

Sleep is Just a Five Letter Word. Can I Get Enough?

sleep“Hey, Alexa. Set an alarm for 6:00 a.m. tomorrow morning.” That’s Barb, chatting with our bedroom virtual assistant. Barb’s schedule varies, particularly on babysitting days, so it is easiest to just ask for a different wake-up time every morning. For me, it’s 5:05 every weekday morning, so I use an old-fashioned alarm clock to wake up my world.

Not that I really need that alarm. I wake up almost every morning at 4:30. That half-hour between my eyes opening and the alarm blaring is a never-never land of half-formed ideas and memories. Glimpses and glimmers of the night’s dreams tug at the edge of my consciousness, as I try to recall the odd situations and incredible conversations that have filled my sleep.  It always saddens me to feel them slipping away.

Then comes the rush of real memories from the day before. More situations, and convesations. Hopefully a good laugh or two, some family time, and a meal worth remembering.  Sometimes a light bulb clicks on in my head and a blog topic appears, enough to get me started. I hope the ideas will flesh out on my commute and become a full post, and not another half-written piece sitting in my dead-blog pile.

Should I get up 15 or twenty minutes before the alarm? If I know there is a pile of prostate biopsies waiting for me in the lab, I will probably roll out of bed and begin to prepare for the day. Rising early will give me enough time to take Milo for a long enough walk to do his business, saving Barb the chore. And I can already hear him stirring in his “cubby” so I am sure he will be glad to see me early.  But I would love those last few minutes of sleep.

Sleep and I have not always had a consensual relationship. The creation of our laboratory almost 15 years ago was a dramatic stress point. Sleep evaded me for months as I tossed and turned wondering how we would get our equipment through the doors. Every over-the-counter remedy, as well as first and second line prescription drugs, proved useless. A road trip to Minnesota provided no relief. It took a specialist with a magic bullet in his arsenal to knock me out and reset my sleep cycle. Since that time, sleep has seemed like a gift to be embraced.

I know that as we age we sleep less. I remember the phone calls from my mother’s senior living home detailing her nighttime wanderings through the facility. But maybe there is hope for a good night sleep in the future. All I will have to do is say “Hey Alexa, set my brain for 8 hours of sleep,” and let Silicon Valley do its magic.

Miss Tuesday’s Post? Here is the link:  Checking Into Disney.

Like what you read here? Add your name to our subscription list below. No spam, I promise!
___

#mc_embed_signup{background:#fff; clear:left; font:14px Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; }
/* Add your own MailChimp form style overrides in your site stylesheet or in this style block.
We recommend moving this block and the preceding CSS link to the HEAD of your HTML file. */

Subscribe to our mailing list

* indicates required
Email Address *

First Name
Last Name

//s3.amazonaws.com/downloads.mailchimp.com/js/mc-validate.js(function($) {window.fnames = new Array(); window.ftypes = new Array();fnames[0]=’EMAIL’;ftypes[0]=’email’;fnames[1]=’FNAME’;ftypes[1]=’text’;fnames[2]=’LNAME’;ftypes[2]=’text’;}(jQuery));var $mcj = jQuery.noConflict(true);

photo credit: minxlj <a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/11667367@N00/377800291″>Tired little Moo</a> via <a href=”http://photopin.com”>photopin</a&gt; <a href=”https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/”>(license)</a&gt;