Book Review:

Honey, Mud, Maggots, and Other Medical Marvels:
The Science Behind Folk Remedies and Old Wives’ Tales

by Robert and Michele Root-Bernstein

I was able to find this interesting book at my neighborhood library.

On the subjects they review, I find the material to be thoroughly researched and some of the remedies discussed immediately practically useful.

One warning: the authors dismiss Homeopathy in the chapter “Crackpots and Panaceas.” (Fortunately, it is at the end of the book.) I thoroughly disagree with what they say.

Honey

Let’s start with Honey, as they do in the title.

Honey and other sugar is known for its antibiotic properties; that is why it is used in preserving food. I was fascinated at the history of its use as well as the scientific explanations of why it works. Honey is effective on wounds such as bedsores and burns, as well as cuts and scrapes.

When a folk healer showed this treatment to Western doctors, he was asked what they had to say.

“Uh . . . They have to, if they are going to have the nerve to criticize, come up with a better idea to do it better. Since they don’t come up with a better idea, they don’t usually say much.”

What in Western medicine is cheaper and more efficacious than honey for wound care?

Next time you are tempted to pick up a tube of Neosporin, reach for raw unpasturized honey instead.

Mud (Clay)

Mud – or Clay – eating (Sound exotic and yummy?) is known around the world in preparations such as

• Terra sigillata,
• ampo,
• kartooti, and
• lithomarge.

Have you ever had a craving?

The rationale for eating clay may be as a food supplement during famine, both to dull the appetite and provide minerals. Alternatively, it can be supplemented for detoxification.

Modern medicine prescribes “Fuller’s Earth” to treat poison ingestion when no specific antidote is known. Also in cases such as poisoning by the herbicides paraquat and diquat, as well as some chemical and biological warfare agents! Wouldn’t that be handy to have around?

And of course, Tums and Rolaids antacids contain calcium carbonate, which is often obtained from mining chalk deposits.

Kaopectate for gastrointestinal distress is a combination of pectin from fruit and Kaolin, a porcelain clay.

Think back. So, now you may identify when you have eaten mud recently.

Maggots

Maggot therapy is one of many antiquated medical treatments that are unexpectedly making comebacks in modern forms.

Read about it, and leave the treatment to doctors who can obtain the correct “sterile” species that feeds only on dead and dying tissue, not living flesh.

Also the history of using leeches is presented.

Another therapy in this category is the use of “Laudable Pus,” or stimulating the formation of pus in a wound to facilitate the healing process.

Medical Marvels

The use of mineral-spring baths and water immersion and it benefits are discussed in this book, as well as some risks.

Circumcision and contraception are also presented.

In addition, you can read the history of the use of sterilized cellophane for wound dressing.

You might want to stick to honey for wounds, or broaden your home remedy resources by knowing the scientific healing properties of saliva and the tradition of licking wounds.

Urine Therapy

There are whole books about urine therapy (with titles such as Your Perfect Medicine) and these authors spend a chapter discussing it. As well as an effective and cheap treatment on skin for wounds, burns, rashes, and fungal infections, urine may be drunk, in a practice called amoroli.

A review of physiology reminds us that urine is a sterile filtrate of blood, and fresh urine from a healthy person poses no infectious threat (however, on standing, it can provide a medium on which things grow.) The 5% solids typical of urine are mostly urea and sodium chloride.

Urea is a component of many modern medicines, so look on the label of your hand cream to see if that ingredient or its alternate name, carbomer, is listed.

It also appears in preparations to soften ear wax, treat herpes simplex infections, and reduce inflammation on the skin. So, why not use the real thing?

Morning urine contains the highest concentrations of melatonin, the hormone which calms us to help induce sleep, so amoroli can be conducive of better sleep. There are other hormones in urine, and their concentration from pregnant mare’s urine is the basis for the top-prescribed drug for women, Premarin. Maybe as recommended in Traditional Chinese Medicine, the woman should drink her own urine to regulate her hormones in preference to taking Premarin.

Because it Works

The authors of Honey, Mud, and Maggots do a service to open our minds to some historical practices by showing the scientific validity behind them.

They also take us through a history of some practices, show how they are used around the world, and show how they are either at the root of some modern practices and prescriptions (like the Kaopectate), or are being re-integrated (as in the use of leeches.) The strongest selling point is that these practices have stood the test of time precisely because they work.

Take a look with fresh eyes. What’s in your medicine cabinet? What of these can you add or integrate?

Please let us know in the comment section below.

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