Cabbage is a CURE???? Seriously?

[heydude]

A friend was told to wrap cabbage around his foot that was in pain.

And it worked.

Seriously!

Anyone else heard of this?

[redfox]

Probably kept him off of it. Hard to hobble around with cabbage on foot... :)

[CathyA]

Actually, I heard that on a "Lidia's Italy" cooking show. She was in Italy, and an older man told her this. He would wrap cabbage leaves around his painful knee.
Hmmm......I think I'll try it! I'm open to anything, if it helps with pain.

[Float On]

I wrenched my knee 6 weeks ago bowling and still in pain. At this point I might try anything including cabbage. Just raw or do they steam it first and it's actually the heat working?

[CathyA]

What I saw, was raw.
You should use ice on it several times a day, especially if you can't take NSAIDS. Read up on knee health and the exercises that will strengthen the supporting muscles around it. I'm amazed at how much strengthening those supporting muscles can help with knee pain. Good luck!

[Mighty Frugal]

Well I know everyone (including books and the medical community) tells nursing moms to put cabbage leaves on their breasts if they are inflamed and/or blocked ducts. Not sure how it works but it does

[Tiam]

Does comfrey work like that?

[Tiam]

Anyway, I read about cabbage leaves, and apparently they are an anti inflammatory. What I read, recommended blanching the leaves, and perhaps removing the stem to allow it to be flexible enough to wrap around a joint. Then cover with plastic wrap and leave on over night. I should try this, as I have terrible knee pain.

[kally]

I was reading a book just this week and a woman put it on her breasts when she had mastitis (sp) from breast feeding and it worked (well in fiction anyhow)

[Bastelmutti]

This is the remedy for mastitis recommended in Germany (where natural remedies are more mainstream than here) as well.

[loosechickens]

and if the cabbage really isn't a cure, but you believe it is, well, the placebo effect is real and works. Our minds and bodies are intimately connected in ways we only can guess, so belief in the "cure" is as important as the cure itself, sometimes.

[Amaranth]

Here's a link that explains why some of those work due to the specific chemicals in the cabbage:
http://www.earthclinic.com/Remedies/cabbage.html

For the knee pain it seems to me that the large outside leaf on the knee could have some effect as the chemicals are absorbed through the skin, but that if you then made the smaller inner leaves into a slaw and ate that, that it would have the bigger impact on reducing the knee joint pain. Also the results could vary depending on whether the problems in the knee were due to muscles, tendons, cartilage/bone, or brusing and whether the internal and external use of the cabbage affected those particular things.

Most of my herb books talk about beneficial medical effects of eating cabbage, only a few about using it as a poultice.

[JaneV2.0]

Years ago, someone discovered that moldy bread was an effective treatment for infections. I keep my mind open.

Re the placebo effect, this is one of my favorite quotations: "The art of medicine consists of keeping the patient amused while nature heals the disease."
-Voltaire

[domestic goddess]

I've heard of this as an old-time remedy for gout, but not for any other type of pain. Well, if it works, it works. And if it doesn't, you can cook up the rest of the cabbage and eat it! No waste here, so I guess it is a win-win situation.

[puglogic]

Here is a strange-sounding but fabulous recipe for cabbage:

Cabbage Slaw
1/4 of a cabbage, red or green, cored and shredded (red is really good)
1/3 cup golden raisins
1/3 cup chopped walnuts
2 oz gorgonzola or blue cheese, crumbled
Dressing: 1T olive oil + 2T balsamic vinegar

Mix everything and salt & pepper to taste, and serve. An amazing combination of flavors if you like tangy cheese.

I'm thinking of putting cabbage on my shoulder. Who knows? Maybe it will help.

[mtnlaurel]

It's on sale at my grocery store this week 2 #s for .99

How could you go wrong?

[Mrs-M]

Puglogic, oh yum! Thank you!!!