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This month, I thought you might like to take a peek into "a day in the life of" a doctor who frequently uses wheatgrass therapeutically in his daily work. There are not too many of us around, but I do know of other doctors who are using my extract successfully in clinical practice and who are beginning to realise just how important a therapeutic agent it is and how useful it can be. And the numbers are growing.
When I look back over the past 8 or 9 years and the thousands of patients who have responded to its effects, I feel very grateful. Grateful that I have been fortunate enough to have been exposed to such an effective remedy. A remedy that helps the recovery of so many of my patients. The most amazing thing is that what my colleagues and I are doing is nothing new. Wheatgrass has been known to be a powerful therapeutic substance for thousands of years. There was a resurgence of interest in it, but mainly as a nutritional supplement, in the 30`s and 40`s. That interest remains to this day and the use of wheatgrass and barley supplements are burgeoning worldwide. But, therapeutically, it just seems to have been forgotten. Now, when I look back, I wonder how I ever managed to practice medicine without it.
Being a general practitioner, there are so many areas where I can put it to use, for instance in wound healing, burns and soft tissue injuries, not to mention earache and high fever in children. One huge advantage over many pharmaceuticals (which I also use often) is the virtual absence of adverse reactions. Combined with remarkable efficacy, low cost and accessibility without a prescription, to my mind it is an essential tool of trade for every hands-on practitioner, complementary therapist or not. Often wheatgrass can solve a problem where there is no suitable pharmaceutical alternative.
For example, a small boy presents with a split in his foreskin that hurts to the point of tears every time he urinates. Just a little thing, but nonetheless a therapeutic dilemma. What will you do, doctor? Well, in the old days I would have recommended perhaps an emollient cream or possibly some hydrocortisone ointment if that didn`t work. But I would not have felt comfortable with that because I would have known that it was unlikely it would achieve anything. There really is not much available in our pharmacopeia that actively HEALS damaged or broken skin. Arnica possibly, but that can`t be used on open wounds and would probably have hurt the boy. In this case, I applied a smidgen of wheatgrass cream. The next day the lesion had healed and there was no more pain.
Let's have a look at some of the therapeutic "successes" I have achieved with wheatgrass this week and you`ll readily understand why I love my work as a doctor.
First, we have a nine year old boy who fell off the playgym at school and suffered a fractured elbow, not badly displaced, but very swollen and painful. The fracture was reduced and the limb immobilised in a collar and cuff. Wheatgrass spray and cream were applied frequently over and around the exposed elbow. The first night, the boy woke at midnight complaining of pain, more cream and spray were applied and he slept till morning. The following day he was virtually pain-free. At day five, swelling had obviously reduced and bruising was only just visible. Quite remarkable for a supracondylar fracture. Because of previous experience using wheatgrass with fractures, I am quite confident that this little boy's fracture will heal significantly faster compared with passive healing.
How is wheatgrass effective in this situation? Well, somehow, wheatgrass slows and/or stops cutaneous and subcutaneous bleeding. I know this because I have witnessed the phenomenon many times. For instance, I have often used the wheatgrass extract to staunch bleeding in an open wound that has been hemorrhaging slowly for several hours, and it only takes a few minutes. The swelling of a sprained ankle, much of which is caused by subcutaneous blood loss, can be reduced dramatically over 6 to 8 hours or less by applying wheatgrass. So, in a fracture, where there is usually considerable bleeding from the broken bone, wheatgrass slows or halts the hemorrhage which slows the healing process. Pain reduction possibly occurs via Substance P inhibition and is usually quite rapid. Even if the wheatgrass is applied to the exposed skin at the ends of a plaster, it still works.
One of the more enigmatic features about wheatgrass is that it stops surface bleeding AND absorbs blood clot. That is, it is simultaneously hemostatic and hemolytic. What kind of hematological mechanism could that be? I don't know the answer to this question, but I think a discerning hematologist might like to know. It is a readily observable phenomenon that could open up a whole new field of research into blood clotting mechanisms, not to mention the enhanced healing possibilities in surgery and orthopedics.
Next, an 18 year old university student approaching her final examinations, working her way through university at a nearby restaurant arrives tearful and desperate having spilt a boiling hot cauldron of soup over her right palm. She`s desperate because, apart from the pain, her final examinations are imminent (she`s right-handed), she is facing eviction for overdue rent and she`s broke. Her employer has to find and train a replacement and faces an increase in his workers` compensation premium. The burn looks bad. At first blush it`s at least second degree, and the whole palm is affected. At a guess, two to three weeks off work. Painful, time-consuming soaking off of daily dressings, wound debridement, pain management, infection risk, possible allergic reaction from antibiotic creams that do little to heal and a difficult social problem cross my mind. Costs begin to mount.
I applied the wheatgrass cream and a non-stick dressing and bandaged her hand, then wrote her a prescription for a strong analgesic, telling her I thought she would be able to return to work in the morning. Tearfully, doubtfully, she shook her head and left with an appointment for review first thing the next morning.
When I arrived at the clinic, she was sitting in the waiting-room minus the bandage with a big smile on her face. The pain, she said, had disappeared around midnight. She had a full range of pain-free movement of the hand and fingers, and there was no palpable tenderness, blistering or broken skin. The palm was mildly red, but that was all. Antibiotics were not necessary. She returned to work. Her employer was also relieved to see her back.
Since I began using wheatgrass for healing in 1995, I have never had a patient with an infected burn, nor have I had to use topical or systemic antibiotics. Wheatgrass appears to boost the local immunity so strongly, that the body heals itself and somehow, possibly via Substance P inhibition, stops pain quickly. I believe that if the wheatgrass spray was available in for example hospital emergency departments and ambulances, lives could be saved. What other substance at once eases pain, prevents fluid and protein loss from the burn surface by rapidly re-epithelialising the wound surface and strengthens local immunity to prevent infection? Nothing that I know of.
Imagine the potential savings to the hospitality, health and insurance industry if doctors used wheatgrass just for burns! Never mind the many other uses such as fracture healing and soft tissue injuries.
A 16 year old ballet dancer suffered severe eczema to the anterior neck and had applied Elocon cream, (mometasone furoate), daily for six years. Her skin was badly atrophied, wrinkled and discoloured. Not an ideal scenario for an aspiring ballerina. I had not seen her before, but she had come in for a repeat prescription three months earlier. If anything upsets me, it is steroid-damaged skin. Why? Because it simply shouldn`t happen. Yet, prior to wheatgrass, because we had little else other than steroids to control eczema, I was just as guilty as my colleagues of causing such damage. Now I know that I can almost invariably help the patient`s skin return to normal. It may take six months or so, but I have had few treatment failures.
Earlier, I had encouraged this young woman to cease her topical steroid cream and to avoid soap and hot water as much as possible. I also commenced her on twice daily applications of wheatgrass spray. The result, as in so many of my chronic eczema patients has been dramatic. The redness and the wrinkles have gone and, apart from a little dryness, the skin looks quite normal and her self-confidence has returned. I see results like this almost every day of my working life. Once again, we are talking about immunomodulation or immune enhancement of the skin itself as opposed to the immunosuppression of steroids and most other pharmaceuticals recommended for the treatment of eczema. Simple reason tells us to expect the wheatgrass to win, which it most often does.
Finally, I receive a telephone call from a mother in Canberra who wants to thank me for clearing up her kindergarten-aged daughter's molluscum contagiosum. A naturopath had recommended paw paw cream and the lesions spread, and her general practitioner told her nothing could be done. She searched on the net and found my website. In four weeks, using wheatgrass, all the lesions had disappeared. Coincidentally, another mum brought her ten year old in this morning with the same problem. I recommended the wheatgrass spray and cream to her three weeks ago, and the lesions, which were extensive and present for two years, had disappeared. This young girl was terrified about attending because the last time she saw her doctor in Japan, he spent an hour squeezing the lesions which did little for her skin, but understandably soured her view of doctors. But one thing leads to another. Her mother asked me if the wheatgrass might help her daughter`s hair loss that resulted from radiation treatment she had for a brain tumour twelve months earlier. She was told the hair would re-grow, but only a few small wisps had emerged over the area which affected almost fifty percent of her scalp. I told her I didn`t know, but because wheatgrass is benign, it was worth a try. I promised nothing, but given the immunosuppression the radiation had caused, there may just be a chance the immune-enhancing effects of wheatgrass will help. Because we have nothing to lose, we`ll give it a go. I`ll keep you informed.
Having written these anecdotes, I think it might be the way to go in future newsletters. Please let me know what you think. Thank you.
Dr. Chris Reynolds
Melbourne, Australia.
P.S. For some examples showing the efficacy of wheatgrass extract in various skin disorders and more information about wheatgrass therapy in general, please refer to my website http://www.wheatgrassprofessional.info |
