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Hello. Let me wish you all the best for a happy and prosperous 2007 and I hope you also derive something of value from my newsletters.
Wheatgrass heals ailing skin graft
Last month broughtquite a healing challenge. A 50 year old businessman was savaged by a dog requiring a split skin graft to his leg. After 6 weeks' standard medical treatment, the graft only "took" over part of the wound, leaving quite a large uncovered area. Frequent dressing changes and medical interventions were both time-consuming and expensive.
Two days after applying my wheatgrass extract and a non-stick dressing, there was a striking improvement in the wound surface. (View here) Because wheatgrass prevents dressings sticking to wounds and infection is rarely a problem, it was a simple matter for the patient to manage his own wound. There was no need to review him other than to take photographs and ensure the wound was healing well. It healed completely in less than three weeks.
The cost savings in nursing and medical care for this patient were significant. Had he been treated with the extract from the beginning they would have been even greater as I am certain the wound would have healed much quicker. Consider for a moment the economical benefits if all hospital wound-healing procedures were assisted in this way, not just for skin grafts, but for surgical wounds, open traumatic wounds, and to burns. They would be immense.
How does wheatgrass work? Classic teaching is to keep the wound surface clean and moist each time there is a dressing change. Reportedly cells grow more quickly and there is less adherence of the dressing to the wound surface. In fact, even with a moist surface, because the surface often dries out and because it is cleaned with physical agents such as skin wipes and irrigants, some surface damage usually occurs and slows the healing process.
Wheatgrass has the opposite effect. It very quickly seals the wound surface (within 24-36 hours) with a thin layer of new skin cells (re-epithelialisation). This enables the wound to heal from underneath the wound surface so that dressings don't stick to the wound, leaving natural healing to proceed unimpeded. In addition, growth factors contained in the wound fluid (exudate) are somehow stimulated by wheatgrass to expedite the healing process.
Vaginal dystrophia
This condition usually affects menopausal women causing dryness of the vagina and the neck of the uterine cervix. It is common and most often due to reduced estrogen levels. It can cause dryness, itching, burning, irritation and sometimes post-coital bleeding. It is usually treated with supplemental estrogen which is not always effective and can cause adverse effects.
In 1991, a group of Italian doctors in Turin performed a double-blind study on 60 women with vaginal dystrophy using a herbal cream that contained phytostimolin derived from Triticum vulgare - better known as wheatgrass. There were two groups differentiated on the basis of previous surgery. The groups showed an overall efficiency of 70% and 90%. The researchers attested to the "absence of side effects and the good level of tolerance" of the cream they used.
You might like to know that I also use wheatgrass to good effect in this condition. Why would it work? We don't know exactly, but if we look again at growth factors and their ability to cause cell regeneration and re-growth, and, knowing that wheatgrass somehow causes rapid regeneration of cells as seen in the wound healing example above, it starts to make some sense. Anti-aging remedies don't always relate to the skin!
Reference: PubMed
Bottino. G. et al. Use of phytostimolin vaginal cream and lavage in cervical dystrophy after DTC of the cervix. Minerva Ginecol. Mar 1991;43 (3):123-5.
Wheatgrass At Work Forum
If you have a question, comment etc. about wheatgrass, please contribute to the Wheatgrass At Work forum on the Dr Wheatgrass website rather than by email. This way you can share information with the growing numbers visiting the site.
Thank you.
Dr. Chris Reynolds.
Melbourne, Australia
P.S. Please visit my website "Wheatgrass for Health Professionals" for a comprehensive view of the therapeutic properties of wheatgrass. |
