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Welcome everyone and thank you for subscribing to this first monthly Wheatgrass At Work Newsletter.
Wheatgrass - A Different Perspective
The popular view of wheatgrass these days is that it is primarily a nutritional supplement. Something you drink. I personally think this aspect is over-emphasized. Wheatgrass can be, without doubt, a powerful healing agent - systemically and topically.
Wheatgrass has been used therapeutically for centuries. In the 1930’s it enjoyed an explosive resurgence of interest and became widely known as a low cost, effective healing agent for example in post-operative wound healing and the treatment of burns. Almost invariably, these therapeutic properties were put down to the effects of chlorophyll, which then became flavour of the month, appearing in numerous products including toothpaste. The biochemical analysis of wheatgrass was comprehensively determined and the various components were attributed with “therapeutic” properties. E.g. vitamin K. However, there were other observed benefits such as enhanced fertility, growth stimulation and improved health in test animals that could not be explained. Thus developed the concept of the ‘Grass Juice Factor’, a water soluble substance that has to this day not been identified.
This Grass Juice Factor is known to exist not only in wheatgrass, but in all the cereal grasses, rye, oats, barley etc., in peas, cabbage and many other plants. However, the highest concentrations (observed clinically) appeared to be in the cereal grasses. Now, although popular opinion is that chlorophyll and other components give wheatgrass its healing properties, I tend to disagree.
Over the past nine years, I have used a wheatgrass extract successfully in literally thousands of patients for treatment of numerous ailments from ingrown toenails to wound healing to burns. Knowing, by analysis, what the extract contains, I am convinced that the chlorophyll plays a minor part, if any in the healing process. Chlorophyll breaks down rapidly on contact with light i.e. virtually straight after the grass has been juiced. This means that very little chlorophyll finds its way into my extract – a fact I have proven by chemical analysis. So what does do all the healing work?
Well, knowing that the broad spectrum of conditions I have observed clinically most likely could not be improved by chlorophyll or any of the other constituents of wheatgrass, then it most likely comes from the Grass Juice Factor. So what does this mean? To me it means that there must be some unifying feature or features about the Factor that can account for its anti-inflammatory, wound-healing, hemostatic and connective tissue softening properties.
When I first became aware of the extract and began using it on my patients, I was amazed at the number of “healing” phenomena I was observing in any normal working day. These were phenomena that, as a practising doctor, I had never seen the like of in 25 years. After all, when one is using standard pharmaceuticals, one does not often see “phenomena”. Healing perhaps, or rapid cure of bacterial infections, but I was seeing something totally foreign to me. Let me give you an example.
A young woman was carried into my office by her partner. She had fallen down the stairs and sprained her ankle. The pain and swelling was so bad, she could not walk. She certainly had a grossly swollen and unmovable ankle. Under normal circumstances, I would have applied ice, pressure bandages, given her a pair of crutches and told her to rest overnight and report back the next day. Instead, I applied some wheatgrass mixed in a base cream to the swollen tissue. Within about 20 minutes, she was able to limp out of the office without crutches, and her pain had eased. The next day, the swelling had almost disappeared and she was walking with minimal pain.
This may not sound too remarkable, but when you have been treating patients for many years, you get a fairly good idea of what to expect. In this case, I was astonished at the rapid rate of recovery. Subsequently, many other such cases came my way, and I achieved similar results. Nonetheless, it still never ceases to amaze me how rapidly so many patients with soft tissue injuries respond with rapid reduction of swelling and pain, with minimal if any skin discolouration the next day. This suggests a powerful hemostatic effect by the wheatgrass. This is usually attributed to vitamin K, but my feeling is that it is more likely due to the Grass Juice Factor.
So almost every day, I was seeing new “phenomena”. I wondered why I had never heard of wheatgrass as a therapeutic agent. But then, I had never used an "alternative" product before. Anyway, because the extract was very safe, I never hesitated to try it for any kind of condition. Open wounds healed rapidly without infection. Burns also never became infected, and pain often disappeared within hours of application of wheatgrass.
At this stage, I had never heard of wheatgrass as a healer, or of people drinking the fresh juice for improved health. So in a sense, I did my apprenticeship the hard way, all the time thinking I had made a major discovery. I wrote down many anecdotes of my “healing” experiences, thinking I had a world-beating therapeutic agent on my hands. And I did. But I didn’t know it had all been done before!
Some time later, I told a veterinary friend some of my clinical coups expecting an enthusiastic response. Unmoved, he left the room and returned with a copy of Ronald Siebold’s ‘Cereal Grass. What’s in it for You’ and suggested I read it. (free download at the hyperlink)
To my amazement the first 4 chapters contained nearly all the "original" therapeutic uses for wheatgrass I had “discovered”. Yes, it had all been done before. But not entirely. I had something original to add to the knowledge base of wheatgrass healing.
Because, as I said, I had used the extract in such a broad spectrum of conditions, I had, after many late nights walking the floor, eventually come to the conclusion that, whatever it was in the wheatgrass was acting as an immunomodulator. In other words, something in there was “normalizing” damaged, injured or pathological tissue.
But, most of my colleagues would say no such thing exists. I would have said the same had I not experienced such a collection of phenomena first hand as I had.
I hold to this claim to this day and, hopefully, over the next few years, I’ll be able to verify it. Wheatgrass, in some conditions at least, clearly appears to be a better healing alternative than anything the pharmaceutical industry has managed to produce. For instance, I have had numerous patients with severe, refractory eczema who have been able to completely dispense with both oral and topical steroids. How do I do this? Well, I teach the patients good skin care e.g. soap and hot water avoidance and then I give them the extract to spray on and to drink, 2 or 3 times a day. In a couple of months, often much sooner, they are able to leave off steroids completely. Adverse effects are virtually non-existent and the wheatgrass extract is much cheaper. And you don't need a prescription!
There are many other conditions I treat with my wheatgrass extract you can read about on my non-commercial website at http://www.wheatgrassprofessional.info
An Interesting Journal Abstract
Wheat Grass Juice in the Treatment of Active Distal Ulcerative Colitis
A randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial.
Scand J Gastroenterol 2002;37:444-449
Based on a preliminary pilot study which suggested efficacy of wheatgrass juice in the treatment of ulcerative colitis (UC). 23 patients diagnosed clinically and sigmoidoscopically with active UC were randomly allocated to receive either 100cc of wheat grass juice, or a matching placebo, daily for 1 month. 21 patients completed the study. Treatment with wheat grass juice was associated with significant reductions in overall disease activity and severity of rectal bleeding. No serious side effects were found. The researchers concluded that wheat grass juice has a therapeutic role and offers a genuine therapeutic advantage in patients with active left colon ulcerative colitis. Notable was the potential of patients being empowered by producing their own wheatgrass thereby becoming active participants in their own treatment.
Well, that's it for this month. I look forward to talking to you again in August.
Dr. Chris Reynolds.
Melbourne, Australia. |
