Pine Tree Resin for Those Awful Cracks in Winter Skin

A cure for cancer is all very well and good, but what can you do for the truly annoying wintertime problem when the skin on your fingertips crack and bleed?

A bit of research turns up that winter cold, a lack of humidity, dry skin and perhaps other underlying medical conditions can all be part of the problem. This cracking in the skin around the fingertips can be worse if you often have your hands in water--washing dishes, for example.

Some of the remedies I found using google were bag balm, other dry skin lotions, using a good lotion at night and putting on cotton gloves and wearing them to bed, Vicks Vaporub, and superglue. I've done the strong emollient at night with the gloves, and that does help. But it doesn't always heal the little cracks.

I don't have a dishwasher, just Ms. Right and Ms. Left to help out, and I wash dishes as they get dirty--which is often throughout the day. So not only do my fingertips crack, but they don't heal very easily. These cracks can be very painful, and occasionally bloody. Is there a good cure for this?

I was over to Fred's house, making him dinner or breakfast, and he had just gotten a box of some health food supplements and stuff. Included in that box were six tiny samples of pine tree resin (made with olive oil and petrolatum, whatever that is). He gave me one and I've been using it on the two little cracks I have in my thumb tip. They are responding very well--they'd probably be healed already if I could keep my hands out of water for a few days.

Here's some information on this ointment I found on the website that sells it:

PAV OINTMENT Trees could never live as long as they do, or be as resilient against fires, molds, fungus, cancerous growths, insect infestations, wounds, etc, without their precious resin. It is the healing power Nature puts in their pitch that gives the tree it's resilience to calamity and extreme conditions. Put Nature's healing power to work for you today! Learn what thousands now know about PAV, and why they now call it the "miracle salve" that challenges ALL skin problems!

PAV , Anti-fungal, antibacterial, anti-viral, topical formula. All natural, highly effective on ALL fungal conditions, itchy feet, foot odor, and infections! For most skin problems, PAV does the job! Dermatologists & Chiropractors LOVE PAV ! PAV contains rare, natural Tree Resin, Petrolatum & Olive Oil Note: petrolatum is a FOOD GRADE thickening agent!

This stuff is amazing. It is by far the best thing to put on pimples, blemishes, insect bites, etc. Nothing clears them up faster. It also works great for poison ivy, poison oak, spider bites, eczema, gum infections, diaper rash, genital warts, acne, gangrene, athletes foot, nail fungus, and the list goes on.

Hmmmm. This newsletter that published this was dated 2005, and when I did a search for PAV ointment at the website, PAV didn't come up. However, as they were selling a 1/6 oz. sample of PAV for $9.00 (yikes!), I wouldn't have bought the stuff anyway. Once I get my hands on some pine tree resin, I'll make my own salve with it.

The other salves I have on hand are calendula, which is working great for my dry winter skin, but it still not enough to heal the fingertip cracks, and plantain salve, which might or might not do the trick.

If the pine tree resin salve doesn't heal the cracks, then I will try this: I'll make sure I get enough PAV into the cracks, and then put a layer of superglue or New Skin over the salve, then gloves at night for a couple of nights.

BTW, my tone in the first paragraph is rather flippant about my last post, on the old gentleman's letter about his cancer cure with red clover blossoms. I don't mean to be: I found that testimony extremely moving and powerful. And if I were afflicted with cancer, I'd certainly turn to herbs and good nutrition, without a doubt. But there ARE other little crummy problems in life that herbs and good nutrition can help with as well.
HM

Liquid Vitamin C: Dandelion Greens and Pine Needle Tea

(Dandelion pix from www.foragingpictures.com, a companion site to Wildman Steve Brill's foraging page.)

Urf. I've been feeling pretty lousy the past couple of days. No energy, an excess of mucus in my system (most of it in my nose), tired, achy feeling, like a bad allergy time or starting a cold.

Yesterday I ate a bunch of garlic--good antibiotic properties and kicks the immune system into line. Since I was peeling garlic cloves anyway, and had a good store of garlic and had just seen a recipe for garlic syrup in a book called Healing Teas: How to Prepare and Use Teas to Maximize Your Health by Marie Nadine Antol, I decided to make garlic syrup. Here's the recipe from the book

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Garlic Syrup

Garlic does "brew" into a quite marvelous syrup. The effectiveness of this natural medicine is so powerful, that it simply had to be included here in some form. Accordingly, here's a very old recipe for Garlic Syrup.

1 pound peeled and crushed garlic cloves [I used a half pound plus a few other heads]

apple cider vinegar

pure water

1 cup glycerine (available at pharmacies)

1 cup honey

1. Put the peeled and crushed garlic cloves in a wide-mouthed 2 quart jar [I used my 1 qt jar]

Add equal parts apple cider vinegar and pure water until the jar is 3/4 full. Cap the jar loosely and let the mixture stand in a warm place for 4 days. Shake the jar several times a day.

2. Add the glycerine. Shake to blend. Allow the mixture to stand in a warm place for 1 more day, shaking several times.

3. Strain the mixture through cheesecloth or muslin, squeezing to remove all the exhausted bits of garlic. Return the mixture to the jar. Add the honey and stir until thoroughly mixed. Store the garlic syrup in a cool, dry place.

Great-grandmother's directions:

For coughs, colds, sore throats, bronchial congestion, high or low blood pressure, heart weakness or nervous disorders, take 1 tablespoon of the syrup 3 times a day before meals.

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It'll be ready in a few days. Can't wait to try this!

Since I have a tough time taking pills, I wanted to boost my immune system further by taking echinacea and goldenseal and Vitamin C with rose hips. But I keep gagging on the the Vitamin C tabs. So I went out and gathered dandelion leaves and pine needles. The power guys had been by yesterday cutting off tree limbs to keep the power lines clear, and there were many white pine boughs just lying there for me to use. The dandelion grows all over the place on the lawns by our pond, which are not sprayed with anything. I boiled water, added the dandelion leaves and pine needles, adding a handful of lemon balm for flavor, and let it steep for half and hour.

I expected my tea to be quite bitter, as dandelion leaves are bitter until the first fall frost, or so I had read, but it isn't bitter at all! It tastes good--piney and rich.

Both dandelion leaves and pine needles are rich in Vitamin C. Dandelion greens also have Vitamin A, Potassium, Phosphorus, calcium, thiamin, riboflavin and niacin. Check out their nutritional portrait here. Liquid vitamin C tea!

So if the SHTF, and you can't buy your vitamins, remember where those vitamins came from in the first place: green plants. Gather up a bunch of vitamin C rich plants and brew yourself a quart or two of tea. In my opinion, it is far better to get your vitamins and minerals from a plant source than from a pill anyway--you get the benefit of the synergy of the whole plant thataway.

Making your own medicines doesn't have to be hard or complex. Just go out for a walk and make friends with your common weeds.

Hopefully, this cold/bug/whatever will leave me in a day or so. I can't abide feeling sick.

Onwards, the only direction there is,

Handmaiden