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How I Started Using Wheatgrass
Hello again, and thank you to everyone for your interest and supportive comments regarding my first (July) newsletter. Also welcome to the many new subscribers I have the pleasure of meeting for the first time. It is most encouraging to know there are so many people interested in the therapeutic effects of wheatgrass - a subject that has fascinated me ever since the first time I used it on a patient in 1995.
A bed-ridden ex-bookmaker in his nineties suffering from numerous medical conditions including leg (venous) ulcers, he well knew his time was almost up. His only wish was to be able to spend his final hours with his loving wife in the home where he'd spent most of his life.
Alan had recently developed a very painful ulcer over one ankle bone which had developed a thick crust over it. It was obvious that he would require intensive treatment in hospital. A thick crusted lesion like that would take three or four cleansing treatments a day for several days before any healing applications could commence. The ulcer was also causing considerable pain. Given his poor state of health, including diabetes, emphysema and heart failure, it was unlikely he would ever return home.
Feeling very sceptical and expecting no improvement, I applied a dash of cream to the crusted surface and covered it with a light dressing, said I would drop by the next day and left, thinking no more of it. The next day, under a strong light, I gently removed the dressing from the ulcer. What I saw amazed me."That's a miracle!" I exclaimed.
The crust had completely disappeared and the wound was spotlessly clean. It was as if someone had spent all night scrubbing and scouring it. And when I shone the light obliquely across the base of the ulcer, I could see a thin layer like plastic film sealing the entire surface. It looked as if new cells had regrown across it overnight. During my 25 years as a practising doctor, I had never seen such rapid healing.
I knew immediately that I had stumbled on to something medically important. I had just witnessed some kind of healing phenomenon.
Then Alan interrupted my reverie. "S'good that stuff Doc. That pain's gone you know."
Here was another phenomenon! But what caused Alan's pain to disappear? it had been bothering him for months.
Well, the ulcer didn't heal completely, but that mattered little because the surrounding tissue paper-thin skin, (always a problem in healing varicose ulcers) strengthened considerably over the next few weeks allowing paper tape to be used to fix the dressing directly to the nearby skin without causing further damage. Also, Alan's wife was able to dress the ulcer herself. Just a simple wipe with a damp cloth, apply a little cream and cover with a light dressing every couple of days. No non-touch technique, face mask or special skills required! Imagine the time and money that could be saved in hospitals, nursing homes and domiciliary visits.
And Alan was able to stay at home and satisfy his last wish.
From that day on, knowing it was only wheatgrass and therefore very safe, I began to use the cream on as broad a spectrum of medical conditions as I could. From burns to fractures to painful swollen joints to earache in children. The responses to treatment were remarkable. To this day, I continue to increase my knowledge of its healing powers every working day. Wheatgrass completely changed my view of how medicine should be practiced. Strengthen the body's immunity and let it heal itself - a concept foreign to modern medicine because there was no such pharmacological product available. At least not one that was safe, cheap and void of adverse reactions. Wheatgrass put art back into my practice of medicine by helping my patients heal themselves.
I have attempted on numerous occasions, usually without success, to encourage my medical colleagues to heed what I have to say about wheatgrass so their patients can benefit from it the way so many of my patients have. Indeed, given the limitations and adverse reactions of many pharmaceutical products I have been able to substitute them with wheatgrass and achieve a superior result without harming the patient who is also empowered by being able to treat himself. I am glad to say that gradually the mood is changing. Many doctors are as disillusioned with many modern pharmaceuticals as I am. Take for example, the use of topical steroids in eczema........
Eczema? Using topical steroids? Try wheatgrass.
If you suffer from eczema, you will more than likely have been a victim of topical steroids at some time or other. Your doctor would most likely have recommended them, but, when you think about it, he has verly little else to offer. Apart from preventive measures such as soap avoidance and other basic methods, about the only effective drugs the family doctor has at his or her disposal are topical and oral steroids which do little to heal eczema. They suppress the skin's immunity and in time cause atrophy or thinning of the skin. Essentially they act as anti-inflammatories and help to suppress flare. However, they are readily absorbed through the skin and can affect one's hormonal and immunological status, sometimes quite profoundly, after prolonged use. In time, they begin to damage the skin causing atrophic changes, discolouration and eventually severe wrinkling. I have seen numerous young people with severely damaged skin that makes them look prematurely old. Hands, neck and face are common sites of unsightly steroid induced wrinkles and atrophy. This damaged skin is also more prone to infection and healing slows due to compromised skin function. But there is much that can be done to prevent and correct this problem, the skin being restored to normality with appropriate care and treatment. It just takes time and patience.....and wheatgrass.
Meanwhile, dermatologists resort to even stronger medications such as powerful immunosuppressants like azathiaprine and cyclosporins. In eczema, where there is a significant autoimmune component, why would one want to suppress the immune response? Well, the dermatologists don't want to suppress it, and would avoid it if they could, but, because of the strong chemical nature of many modern pharmaceuticals, they have very little else at their disposal. Or do they?
Over the years, the cereal grasses have been attributed by various writers with improving eczema. For example, in 1977, Dr. Tatsuo Muto in Japan gave green barley (all the cereal grasses have similar healing effects) orally to 38 patients with various skin diseases including eczema and achieved nearly 82% effectiveness. It follows that topically applied wheatgrass could also help eczema. Well, it can make a very significant difference. This is something I have proven repeatedly with my wheatgrass topical spray. Twice daily application over a period of two to three months has enabled hundreds of my patients to cease topical steroids completely. Others combine the spray with a steroid from time to time, but never anything stronger than 1% hydrocortisone, which is one of the weakest, therefore safest, available.
So why don't the pharmaceutical companies use wheatgrass to help heal eczema? One reason is there is no financial incentive because the cereal grasses can't be patented. Therefore, millions of eczema sufferers around the world are held hostage to topical steroids because doctors have precious little else to draw on from the pharmaceutical armamentarium. This discussion applies to numerous other natural therapies where profits before people appears to be the most pressing imperative.
Dr. Chris Reynolds.
Melbourne.
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