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Hello Everyone,
This, my last newsletter for 2003 will, for various reasons, be brief. I would like to take this opportunity of wishing you all a healthy, happy and prosperous New Year, and look forward to sending you regular "Wheatgrass at Work" newsletters each month. My subscribers' list continues to grow which is a great encouragement to me. I am also receiving an increasing number of email enquiries for assistance with particular conditions. I am more than happy to help if I can, but sometimes it's a little difficult on a tight schedule to get back to you right away. Usually I manage to respond within a day or two so please bear with me on this.
Although this newsletter has been addressed to health professionals, many respondents have limited background in this area and have asked me to speak in plainer language. So from time to time I will use "lay" terms to make things a bit easier to understand.
A Wheatgrass Phenomenon - Knee Injury
Today, a young male consulted me regarding a skin rash. Also, six days ago, he had fallen off his skateboard and suffered a minor crack fracture of the patella. He made his way in to my room on crutches with considerable difficulty, his right leg stiff and unmoveable due to pain. Although his rash was a problem, knowing what wheatgrass can do as a healing agent, I was more interested in his fracture and the severe pain and stiffness he had behind the knee. There had been considerable bleeding with subsequent skin discolouration, and his quadriceps muscles were beginning to waste from non-use. He had been told he would be off work for at least six weeks, mostly without pay as the accident did not occur at his workplace.
On examination, the knee was immovable and any attempt to mobilise the joint was met with considerable protestation from the patient. It was very painful. I sprayed some wheatgrass concentrate over the knee joint and the painful calf area, then gently massaged in some of my wheatgrass cream. About five minutes later I helped him off the couch and he sat on his chair with his leg fully extended and stiff. I asked him to try bending his knee, but he was quite reluctant to do so because of the pain. I suggested that he may find things a little easier now and perhaps could try again. This he did, bending his knee well past ninety degrees, and without pain. He was able to walk out of my room using one crutch only as support. I think he will be back at work a lot sooner than six weeks.
In this case, the patient was quite understandably amazed at the result, but because I have used wheatgrass many times in this kind of context, I have come to know what to expect. And once again wheatgrass lived up to my expectations. The important point here is that the more you use wheatgrass clinically, the more you get an intuitive feel for when it is most likely to be effective. On the other hand, I do not know how this "loosening" of soft tissue and pain relief occurs. To me it opens up an entire area of potential research into the mechanisms of how and why joints stiffen when injured and why such stiffness can be relieved so quickly with wheatgrass. In this particular case, had the extract been applied at the time of injury instead of a week later, apart from some pain on movement, he would probably have been walking without crutches by now. There are so many questions that need to be answered, but, as I have mentioned before, wheatgrass can't make money for pharmaceutical companies. However, the potential savings nationally of lost worktime alone may one day prompt an enlightened politician to take a closer look. I'll see what happens in 2004!
Herpes Zoster (Shingles)
Some years ago, the CEO of a large Japanese company presented with the classic "saddle shaped" rash of herpes zoster on the chest wall. Unaware of the virtues of wheatgrass in this condition at the time, I prescribed acyclovir, a powerful immunosuppressant anti-viral agent. The medication worked well on the rash, but the severe oral infection and pain that followed as a result of the medication was serious enough to require hospital admission, and he was off work for four weeks. I felt in a way I had betrayed him. I remember thinking at the time, "There has to be a better way." Why do pharmaceutical companies recommend these drugs when the outcome of treatment can often be much worse than the disease itself? Don't get me wrong, I still use standard medications such as antibiotics and oral steroids when there is an obvious need for them. But here was an unfortunate patient with a potentially life-threatening complication that could have been avoided had I known how effective wheatgrass is in the management of shingles. Now I would never even consider using antivirals - the risk to the patient is too great. Wheatgrass has worked very well in every case I have treated. It is also a lot cheaper than acyclovir and there are no adverse effects.
I have just posted a recent example showing the efficacy of wheatgrass in zoster on my website at http://www.wheatgrassprofessional.info/zoster.htm
Hope you find it interesting.
Finally, a bit of frivolity compliments of 'The Age' newspaper in Melbourne.
'I've been reading about Mahatma Gandhi a great deal lately. I've discovered his years of travelling India on foot left him with serious podiatric problems, that he was as revered for his spiritual nature as much as for his political passions, his erratic diet left him very frail and his dental care was so bad he suffered from very bad breath. He was, in short, a super-callused fragile mystic hexed with halitosis.'
Well, I thought it was funny!
Happy New Year.
Dr. Chris Reynolds.
Melbourne, Australia.
P.S. For some examples showing the efficacy of wheatgrass extract in various skin and other disorders and more information about wheatgrass therapy in general, please refer to my website
http://www.wheatgrassprofessional.info You can also contact me at info@wheatgrassprofessional.info if you would like more information.
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