Listening to the radio these days leaves one with a sinking feeling. Apart from the absence of any of the sort of music that I like and which is freely available anytime I go to Grenada, Barbados or really any other country, the repeated bad news emanating from Parliament, plus the racist opinions of so many callers, plus the number of charlatans masquerading as doctors, is amusing if not downright frightening.
It’s amazing that we have any sick people in T&T. According to these jokers, after you’ve done the “tests’ they offer in their offices and bought the tea and ointment from them, all you have to do is take this herb and rub that ointment and you will live well.
Local “old wives’ tales” are common all over the world. I sometimes wonder why I spent 11 years studying medicine and paediatrics when I could have taken a six- week course in Venezuela and established myself as a “panyol specialist” in bush medicine and start curing people.
However, there are some folk tales that appear grounded in science. The best for me is “chicken soup” for colds and diarrhoea. Chicken soup aids recovery through warmth (effectively releasing good hormones into the bloodstream), hydration, nutritional content (electrolytes and amino acids) and possibly anti-inflammatory effects.
Lime and honey for a cough or sore throat is another good old-time one, much beloved by adults in my Guyanese family when mixed with rum. It should be drunk as hot as possible. The steam moisturises the nose, water hydrates the body and the acidity increases saliva and mucus, which lubricate the inflamed, dry throat and soothes the cough. The sweetness of the honey stimulates those good hormones and white blood cells and honey itself has some antimicrobial activity.
Forget the rum unless you are over 25.
Ginger is much loved in T&T. It seems to reduce nausea and vomiting because it contains compounds that block brain signals that trigger nausea. The UK National Health Service recommends ginger tea, non-alcoholic ginger ale, crystallised ginger and ginger biscuits for morning sickness during pregnancy. Ginger ale is also recommended for Gastro, not for its anti-nausea properties because it has very little ginger in it, but as a home rehydrating fluid.
Cranberry juice for Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs) is a time-honoured home treatment. Unfortunately, it only works if you drink it before the infection. A 2023 review by the influential Cochrane database group found that it worked to decrease recurrent UTI in women, and in children and women who had surgery on their bladders. It does nothing for pregnant women and the elderly with bladder-emptying problems.
Hot tea to cool you down does not make sense but it works. Hot drinks will initially raise your temperature but nerves in your intestine react to the hotness by stimulating the brain to produce more sweat. When sweat evaporates, it lowers the temperature and cools you down. However, a cup won’t help you if you are uncomfortably hot and already sweating. It’s more important here to keep hydrated and seek shade.
Folk stories related to males are common. Tight jeans make men infertile, is one. It’s not true but tight underwear increases the temperature of the testicles, which affects the quantity and motility of sperm, but not enough to be a major problem.
Another is that prolonged cycling can cause erectile dysfunction when the nerve that runs under the testicles, and which manages sexual sensation and arousal, is compressed by a poorly fitting bike saddle. There does seem to be an increase in “genital numbness” in some men who cycle for long periods. The good news is that the condition, “cyclist’s syndrome,” does not last long and there is no long-term impact on sexual health.
Even more interesting is the ole talk around the largest muscle in the human body, the gluteus maximus, proudly known locally as big bottom or “bamsee.”.
Louise Thomas, PhD, professor of metabolic imaging at the University of Westminster, London, England, studied 61,200 MRI images of bottoms last year and concluded that, i) women with a large initial gluteus maximus had a substantially lower future risk of developing type 2 diabetes, but, ii) shape was also important. Women with rounder glutes were at increased risk of diabetes since a rounder, fatter bottom was due to increased fat deposition secondary to diabetes. The detail is in the roundness.
In men, size and shape were linked to muscle. Men with flat bottoms, consistent with muscle atrophy, apart from being older and frailer, were at higher risk of becoming diabetic.
One looks forward with some eagerness to studies on local bottoms.
