Coconut can ease diarrhea; Foot odor? Go barefootin’
PEOPLE’S PHARMACY PRESCRIPTIONS AND HOME REMEDIES
Q: My dog gets colitis when she is under stress. Knowing my mother’s success with coconut macaroons to ease diarrhea after cancer treatments, I thought of giving some to our dog. I didn’t want to give her cookies with sugar, so I just sprinkle unsweetened coconut (about a half-teaspoon) on her two meals a day, and all is well.
A: Coconut has a reputation for combating chronic diarrhea. We first heard about this remedy (two Archway brand coconut macaroon cookies daily) from Donald Agar in 1998. He suffered from diarrhea due to long-standing Crohn’s disease.
His discovery was serendipity, but there is some actual research to support his experience. A study in the Journal of Medicinal Food (December 2013) found that virgin coconut oil and its component fatty acids discourage Clostridium difficile (C. diff ) overgrowth.
Another reader inquired: “I assume it’s the coconut in the macaroons that does the trick. If so, rather than buying cookies, I would like to make them myself, gluten- and dairyfree. Am I missing the point of the cookies, or will my homemade ones work just as well?”
The coconut macaroon recipe we offer in our book “Recipes and Remedies” (online at www. peoples
pharmacy.com) contains no gluten or dairy.
Q: When you write about foot odor, allow me to recommend a simple treatment: Take your shoes and socks off. The organisms that
cause noxious foot odor thrive in warm, dark, moist environments and feed on dead skin cells sloughed off the feet. So whenever it’s socially acceptable, go barefoot. (Not socks only, not slippers — barefoot.)
A: You are quite right about the cause of foot odor. Your solution is appealing, but in some seasons and locales, it is impractical. We imagine few people could walk around Northern states barefoot at this time of year.
Q: A few years ago, my vitamin D was so low, it was almost undetectable. I had widespread muscle and joint pain and was diagnosed with fibromyalgia.
My feet would cramp so badly at night that I was unable to walk. My hands burned and ached, and I could not make a fist or spread my fingers without extreme pain. My elbows were so painful, I could not even lean them on a foam pillow. I was miserable.
My doctor said that women with fibromyalgia do not make enough vitamin D, no matter how much sun they get. I live in Florida and get plenty of sun.
I was prescribed 50,000 units once a week, with 3,000 IU daily thereafter. My vitamin D level was still low, and the dose went up to 5,000 IU. I now take 7,000 IU of vitamin D daily.
Adding Vitamin D to my daily multivitamin has been a lifesaver. Many of the fibro symptoms went away, and others have been mitigated.
A: A review by the advocacy group Vitamin D Council suggests that people with fibromyalgia should try to keep their level of 25-hydroxyvitamin D, measured with the simple blood test you mentioned, at or above 40 nanograms/milliliter.
Our “Guide to Vitamin D Deficiency” has information on many symptoms of low vitamin D and how to increase it. For a copy, please send $3 in check or money order with a long (No. 10), stamped (71 cents), self-addressed envelope to: Graedons’ People’s Pharmacy, No. D-23, P.O. Box 52027, Durham, NC 27717-2027.