People’s Pharmacy: Almonds can settle heartburn
Q. I have a new patient with severe heartburn. As a naturopathic physician, I find taking a person off her particular food allergens usually clears heartburn up permanently.
I saw her yesterday, and she had a bad episode during our visit. I watched her stop it almost immediately with two almonds. She says it works every time.
A. Your patient is not the first person to report that a few almonds can prevent or stop heartburn. Last year one reader wrote: “Almonds after every meal seem to be working for me. I haven’t taken Zantac for the past two weeks, and I haven’t even needed much antacid.”
A review on food allergies in the Journal of the American Medical Association (May 12) suggests that food allergy may not be as common as some people believe, affecting fewer than 10 percent of adults. The authors conclude, though, that more than 2 percent do have food allergies, and many others have some food intolerance. Avoiding foods that cause heartburn makes sense.
Q. I read about golden raisins and gin helping arthritis. I am 66, with arthritis and post-polio syndrome, so I am looking for any conservative approach to pain relief.
Is there a reason that people choose golden rather than brown raisins? Is any type of alcohol OK, or is gin the only one to try? Do you have any other nondrug treatment hints to help me?
A. Home remedies often have no science to back them up, and this one is no exception. Some people who have done their own experimenting found that dark raisins also may help. Others have tried rum instead of gin, and we recently heard that soaking raisins in vinegar and honey also works.
If gin-soaked raisins do not work, other natural remedies that might be worth a try include boswellia, bromelain, tart cherries, turmeric and various concoctions of grape juice with other juices.
We are sending you our Guide to Alternatives for Arthritis, with more details and many other options for you to try. Anyone who would like a copy, please send $3 in check or money order with a long (No. 10), stamped (61 cents), self-addressed envelope to: Graedons’ People’s Pharmacy, No. AA-2, P.O. Box 52027, Durham, NC 27717-2027. It also can be downloaded for $2 from our website: www.peoplespharmacy.com.
Q. Being from a science/medical background, it frustrates and irritates me to no end that a silly nonsense remedy, putting soap under the bottom sheet, actually works. I’ve dealt with severe restless legs syndrome for years. During the worst phases, I got no sleep four or five nights a week because I just couldn’t stop moving my legs.
Desperation drove me to try the soap about six months ago. I haven’t had a bad night since. at all.
I’ll actually have RLS symptoms in the living room watching television, and they abate as soon as I go to bed, where my soap is. This actually makes me a little bit mad, because it makes no sense! There’s no rational reason why this should work, but it does!
A. We can’t disagree with you. Putting soap under the bottom sheet makes no sense to us either. Nevertheless, hundreds of readers report benefit. Of course, others tell us it is worthless. But we think such an inexpensive, low-risk approach is worth a try.