People’s Pharmacy: Vodka provides relief for breast rash
Q. You had a question from a woman suffering with a rash under her breasts, and I would like to offer my solution: vodka! I make a spray of half vodka, half distilled water and a few drops of orange essential oil. I use the spray as a deodorant, but I also spray it under my breasts. I started using this when I kept reacting to every other deodorant and have found the spray works especially well for itchy rashes.
A. Thanks for sharing your remedy for body odor, rashes and fungus. You are not the first one to suggest vodka. Some have used it as a deodorant, and another reader tried it against a fungal infection: “I had a fungus on only one foot for 30 years. I solved it by thoroughly wiping my foot with a vodka-soaked cloth every night. (I used really cheap vodka.)
“After three months, I noticed that my toenails seemed to be growing in pink, so I continued, and now, after about 13 months, all my toenails look like new. I continue using the vodka-soaked cloth several nights a week. It’s been four years, and they’re still good.”
Q. I am suffering from multiple symptoms of hypothyroidism. My blood work shows up as borderline hypothyroid.
I am being treated with Synthroid (levothyroxine), without success. The doctor prescribed 25 mcg, and my symptoms disappeared, only to return in two months. The dose was boosted to 50 mcg with the same result, except the symptoms returned even faster.
I would like to try natural desiccated thyroid, but my doctor does not believe in it. I am suffering and don’t know what to do.
A. Perhaps your level of levothyroxine is not adequate. Your starting dose of 25 mcg was an extremely low dose of this hormone; even 50 mcg is on the low end.
We are sending you our Guide to Thyroid Hormones to help you interpret your blood tests and offer you information about adding T3 to your T4 (levothyroxine) treatment. Anyone who would like a copy, please send $3 in check or money order with a long (No. 10), stamped (66 cents), self-addressed envelope to: Graedons’ People’s Pharmacy, No. T-4, P.O. Box 52027, Durham, NC 27717-2027. It also can be downloaded for $2 from our website: www.peoplespharmacy.com.
Taking desiccated thyroid is only one possible solution. Your physician might be more amenable to adding a slow-release pharmacy-compounded T3 to the T4 in Synthroid. Some people feel much better on such a regimen.
Q. I read in your column a question from a mother whose child had recurrent ear infections. When my son was young, decades ago, he had lots of ear infections, too. I finally took him to a specialist who said he needed ear tubes inserted surgically.
Meanwhile I read a book by Adelle Davis that suggested a pediatric vitamin supplement with D, E and A. I started him on the vitamin, and when we returned to the specialist, his ears were clear. I told the doctor I gave him the vitamin supplements, and he said he didn’t care if I gave him jelly beans. We never went back.
A. We hope that a doctor would not be so dismissive today. Vitamin D deficiency is not uncommon among babies and schoolchildren, and studies show that children who are deficient in this critical nutrient are more susceptible to recurrent ear infections (Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal, June 2013; October 2013).