Heidi: Help! I wiped out on a dirt trail yesterday while running (tripped on a rock). No broken bones, but lots of abrasions and bumps and sore everything!!

Is there anything I can do to speed up the healing process? None of my cuts are deep, but I scar very easily and don't want my legs and elbows to look like I've been through war (which is what they currently do).

I've avoided taking any pain meds to avoid bruising and even stopped quercitin thinking it would thin my blood as well. I'm using topical arnica in Traumeel. Eating lots of leafy greens, broccoli, spinach, tomato, red bell pepper and asparagus. Salmon twice a day.

Anything else I can do to prevent the scars and speed the healing? thanks! Carolyn

Ack! Carolyn, what have I told you about not falling down? ~~;-D

Broth does nice things in this circumstance. Roast up a chicken, turkey or game bird, remove the meat for eating, and throw the bones & innards into a large pot with a quartered onion, a few chopped carrots and celery stalks, and a bundle of herbs. Boil, skim the first foam off, then simmer for a few hours (or overnight). Season to taste and drink it warm, adding whatever you like to make a soup if desired. Cayenne, cumin, dulse, sea salt for example.

Seaweeds, vitamin E, and minerals are great foods to help heal bruises and cuts. Eat plentifully of the vitamin C foods and add an acerola cherry or rose hip supp -- pop them like candy while you're still sore & cut up.

Last, Heallix taken internally and dribbled on topically; and a hyaluronic acid supplement taken internally, wil provide lots of skin-restorative elements to aid you in healing without scars.

I very much sympathize, dear!! Things have changed since I started the O diet years ago, yet still I absolutely dread cuts because of how slowly the healing process always was. It used to take me months just to see a tiny shaving nick fade away. By the way, the quercetin is GOOD for reducing inflammation, but it's fine to proceed without it. Best hopes for a speedy and complete heal-up for you! :-D

Heidi, I have been reading the responses about the tetanus shot and wanted to share an experience that happened to older brother (he died at the age of 38 nine years ago).

When my brother was 4 years old, my parents said that he fell and hit is head on the corner of a table and had to have stitches. He also was advised by the doctor to have a tetanus shot. Soon after that he developed kidney disease.

There is no accurate information that the tetanus shot caused his kidney disease, but the doctors seem to think it is the probable cause because he developed the disease shortly after having the shot.

He spent his life in and out of the hospital for health problems due to kidney disease. When he was in college he was able to get off of dialysis and receive a kidney transplant. He kept the kidney for many years, but died a few years ago from lymphoma in his bloodstream due to the medicine he had to take to keep from rejecting the kidney.

The lymphoma also caused his blood to clot causing a stroke. My brother's blood type was A.

Again, I don't know if the tetanus shot cause his kidney disease, but the evidence seems to point toward it. Just wanted to share this with you. Susan

Oh, I'm so sorry for your loss, Susan. What a terrible thing for your brother, and your whole family. Thank you for telling us his story... I hope it will give pause to anyone weighing this issue. This is another in a long line of horrors which I cannot but lay at the feet of the thoughtless innoculation practices of 'modern medicine.' Bless you, and thank you again for writing! :-}

Heidi, I'm writing you, because I could not find a way to ask the writers of the Natural Medicine Update, why the word "doctor" always appears as "tor". Possibly you would pass this on to the powers that be? Thanks a bunch. Donna (O- Sec)

Hi, Donna! Just send a note to Peter through his blog ~ I think he will know whom to pass your message to. Thanks, dear! :-)

Dear Heidi, Remember about a year ago I told you that I had placed a notice in the organic veg.shop to invite BTD people to meet with me for general conversation and support? Well, nothing came of that, perhaps it was too impersonal.

In the meantime however, I have joined a barter group (labour exchange trading system), and have offered blood type conversations as one of my contributions, and low and behold, it is a winner! I have met 3 interested peole already in quite a short time, and had lots of fun and support in browsing through the BTD books and website together.

On another topic, there has been news in Australia of the debate about fetal cord blood banks for private and general use.

What has always puzzled me is why the blood is not drained back into the newborn baby before the cord is cut to give all that extra protection from the beginning. Maybe there is a medical reason? It couldn't be just that it would take an extra few minutes in the labout ward?

Hope someone can help out with this. All best wishes, Jenny (A2) Melbourne

Hello, Jenny! My midwife friends are more inclined toward 'lotus birth,' meaning allowing the placenta and cord to do what they will do without clamping or cutting. It's purely my opinion that hospital personnel would clamp & cut in order to have immediate control of the baby. That approach (now old-fashioned), included sweeping the child away from the mother and into its own little cubicle where it could be vaccinated, blood typed, circumcised, "observed," etc. Immediate cord cutting would also enable them to do blood draws, tests & such on the cord and placenta as well.

As to the fetal blood bank business, it sounds like yet more fishy public-funded interference in a profound human function, to me. The idea of healthy women routinely going to hospital for their births is ever so odd, even quite sad, to my mind. That said, beliefs and their attendant fears are powerful ~ so each of us may have strong feelings on that point, which should be honored.

If I were planning to have a child, I'd aim for a water birth ["aim" paints a rather funny picture in this context! :-D], and I'd thoroughly research the pros and cons of the handling of the umbilical cord. Next task would be finding a midwife who was experienced and comfortable with my preferences. There is some interesting reading on this topic in an English midwifery online group ~ it's a bit dated (2002), but covers a number of real-life situations. Have a look: Cutting the Umbilical Cord -- Midwifery Archives. Plenty of other natural-birth resources about the Net as well.

I'm really pleased your new barter group has produced some BTD buddies for you! I wondered what had happened with your efforts to find others interested in this paradigm, and it's good to hear you have contact with a group now. It will grow! ;-> Thank you for stopping by, Jenny! :-D

Ostrich is okay for all blood types so I'm happy to have found Fossil Farms Ostrich http://www.fossilfarms.com/ at Fuddruckers Restaurants http://www.fuddruckers.com/ . Fuddruckers is family oriented. The bad news is that there are no side items to go along with the ostrich burger. And they cook it "medium" or better. But, when one is "on the go" and needs protein...it is an option. Lynne

Good to know, and thanks for the note, Lynne! :-D