I’m not much of a pill popper, and am typically happy to explore alternative ways to solve (minor) physical ailments. In fact, my husband is constantly teasing that my family’s remedy for any ailment is simply to drink more water, or have a cup of tea.
Well a new study as reported recently by The Guardian cites “nasal packing” with pork as a legitimate option for stopping chronic nosebleeds. What is nasal packing with pork and why would anyone do this?
Ian Humphreys, Sonal Saraiya, Walter Belenky and James Dworkin treated a girl who had a rare hereditary disorder that brings prolongued bleeding..they pack the essential details into two sentences: “Cured salted pork crafted as a nasal tampon and packed within the nasal vaults successfully stopped nasal hemorrhage promptly, effectively, and without sequelae … To our knowledge, this represents the first description of nasal packing with strips of cured pork for treatment of life-threatening hemorrhage. They acknowledge a long tradition of using pork to treat general epistaxis, ie nosebleed. The technique fell into disuse, they speculate, because “packing with salt pork was fraught with bacterial and parasitic complication.
I won’t even get into whether or not its permissable or “kosher” to use a pork product to stop a nosebleed. But I will say that packing my nose with pork is one alternative medicine I’m not quite ready to give a whirl. Would you?
