Help me validate another "Facts" mass emailing.

[Enright3]

~sigh~ I received the following mass email from a well meaning relative. If you’re interested, help me debunk or validate them…

DID YOU KNOW THAT. .

Drinking two glasses of Gatorade can relieve headache pain almost
immediately – without the unpleasant side effects caused by traditional
“pain relievers.”

Did you know that Colgate Toothpaste makes an excellent salve for burns?

Before you head to the drugstore for a high-priced inhaler filled with
mysterious chemicals, try chewing on a couple of curiously strong Altoid
Peppermints. They’ll clear up your stuffed nose.

Achy muscles from a bout of the flu? Mix 1 Tablespoon of Horseradish in
a cup of Olive Oil. Let the mixture sit for 30 minutes, then apply it as a
massage oil, for instant relief for aching muscles.

Sore Throat? Just mix 1/4 cup of vinegar with 1/4 cup of honey and take
1 tablespoon six times a day. The vinegar kills the bacteria.

Cure urinary tract infections with Alka-Seltzer. Just dissolve two
tablets in a glass of water and drink it at the onset of the symptoms.
Alka-Seltzer begins eliminating urinary tract infections almost instantly
– even though the product was never been advertised for this use.

Eliminate puffiness under your eyes… All you need is a dab of
Preparation H, Carefully rubbed into the skin, avoiding the eyes. The
Hemorrhoid ointment acts as a vasoconstrictor, relieving the swelling
instantly.

Honey remedy for skin blemishes… Cover the blemish with a dab of honey
and place a Band-Aid over it. Honey kills the bacteria, keeps the skin
sterile, and speeds healing. Works overnight.

Listerine therapy for toenail fungus… Get rid of unsightly toenail
fungus by soaking your toes in Listerine mouthwash. The powerful antiseptic
leaves your toenails looking healthy again.

Easy eyeglass protection… To prevent the screws in eyeglasses from
loosening, apply a small drop of Maybelline Crystal Clear Nail Polish to
the threads of the screws before tightening them.

Coca-Cola Cure for rust… Forget those expensive rust removers.
Justsaturate an abrasive sponge with Coca Cola and scrub the rust stain.
The phosphoric acid in the coke is what gets the job done.

Cleaning liquid that doubles as bug killer… If menacing bees, wasps,
hornets, or yellow jackets get in your home and you can’t find the
insecticide, try a spray of Formula 409. Insects drop to the ground
instantly.

Smart splinter remover… just pour a drop of Elmer’s Glue all over the
splinter, let dry, and peel the dried glue off the skin. The splinter
sticks to the dried glue.

Hunt’s Tomato Paste boil cure… cover the boil with Hunt’s tomato paste
as a compress. The acids from the tomatoes soothes the pain and brings the
boil to a head.

Balm for broken blisters… To disinfect a broken blister, dab on a few
drops of Listerine… a powerful antiseptic.

Heinz Vinegar To heal bruises… Soak a cotton ball in white vinegar and
apply it to the bruise for 1 hour. The vinegar reduces the blueness and
speeds up the healing process.

Kills fleas instantly. Dawn Dish Washing Liquid does the trick. Add a
few drops to your dog’s bath and shampoo the animal thoroughly. Rinse well
to avoid skin irritations. Good-bye fleas.

Rainy day cure for dog odor… Next time your dog comes in from the
rain, simply wipe down the animal with Bounce or any dryer sheet, instantly
making your dog smell springtime fresh.

Eliminate ear mites… All it takes is a few drops of Wesson Corn Oil in
your cat’s ear. Massage it in, then clean with a cotton ball. Repeat daily
for 3 days. The oil soothes the cat’s skin, smothers the mites, and
accelerates healing.

Vaseline cure for hair balls… To prevent troublesome hair balls,
apply a dollop of Vaseline petroleum jelly to your cat’s nose. The cat will
lick off the jelly, lubricating any hair in its stomach so it can pass
easily through the digestive system.

Quaker Oats for fast pain relief… It’s not for breakfast anymore! Mix
2 cups of Quaker Oats and 1 cup of water in a bowl and warm in the
microwave for 1 minute, cool slightly, and apply the mixture to your hands
for soothing relief from arthritis pain.

If you send this to 15 people and only one of them doesn’t know about
this, then it was all worth it. You might have saved a life or at least a
little PAIN!!!

[engineer_comp_geek]

@Enright3

Coca-Cola Cure for rust… Forget those expensive rust removers.
Justsaturate an abrasive sponge with Coca Cola and scrub the rust stain.
The phosphoric acid in the coke is what gets the job done.

They did this one on mythbusters. It actually worked.

[picunurse]

Did you know that Colgate Toothpaste makes an excellent salve for burns?

Never put anything on a serious burn! See a doctor. If its a mild burn why bother?

Sore Throat? Just mix 1/4 cup of vinegar with 1/4 cup of honey and take
1 tablespoon six times a day. The vinegar kills the bacteria.

Vinegar does have a vey mild bacteriocidal effect, not enough, IMHO to actually cure a strep throat. The mixture might be soothing while a viral sore throat cures itself. NEVER GIVE HONEY TO AN INFANT Seems like Listerine would work too.

As to all the other Listerine remedies, its not a powerful antiseptic, but it it has a little alcohol in it, no mystery there. Isopropol alcohol is stronger.

Eliminate puffiness under your eyes… All you need is a dab of
Preparation H, Carefully rubbed into the skin, avoiding the eyes. The
Hemorrhoid ointment acts as a vasoconstrictor, relieving the swelling
instantly.

From personal experience, this worked for me.

Easy eyeglass protection… To prevent the screws in eyeglasses from
loosening, apply a small drop of Maybelline Crystal Clear Nail Polish to
the threads of the screws before tightening them.

makes sense, short term, but why Maybelline, wouldn’t any clear nail polish do the same thing? Super Glue works too.

Vaseline cure for hair balls… To prevent troublesome hair balls,
apply a dollop of Vaseline petroleum jelly to your cat’s nose. The cat will
lick off the jelly, lubricating any hair in its stomach so it can pass
easily through the digestive system.

** Never give your cat petroleum jelly!** The changes of aspirating (sucking it into their lungs) is very high, since it has little or no taste. It also leaches fat soluible vitamins from their GI tract, so you could cause a very preventable health problem! Spring for hair ball medicine.

Next?

[Duck_Duck_Goose]

Did you know that Colgate Toothpaste makes an excellent salve for burns?

Modern medicine sez that you don’t put any kind of ointment or salve on burns more severe than “minor” and “small”.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/invoke.cfm?id=FA00022

Before you head to the drugstore for a high-priced inhaler filled with
mysterious chemicals, try chewing on a couple of curiously strong Altoid
Peppermints. They’ll clear up your stuffed nose.

It’s possible–eucalyptus and menthol will do the same thing. They make your nose run, and mucus running out your nose does tend to mean that your nose isn’t “stuffed up” any more.

Sore Throat? Just mix 1/4 cup of vinegar with 1/4 cup of honey and take
1 tablespoon six times a day. The vinegar kills the bacteria.

Sore throats aren’t caused by bacteria per se. Sore throats are caused by a multitude of things, and if “killing bacteria” in your throat could take away your sore throat, all you’d have to do would be to gargle any OTC brand of antibacterial mouthwash and your sore throat would be fixed. Which doesn’t work. Even Chloraseptic doesn’t work for very long.

But honey does make a sore throat feel better.

Cure urinary tract infections with Alka-Seltzer. Just dissolve two
tablets in a glass of water and drink it at the onset of the symptoms.
Alka-Seltzer begins eliminating urinary tract infections almost instantly
– even though the product was never been advertised for this use.

So where are the double-blind lab tests that prove this? Even cranberry juice finally got a “yes” from double-blind testing.

Eliminate puffiness under your eyes… All you need is a dab of
Preparation H, Carefully rubbed into the skin, avoiding the eyes. The
Hemorrhoid ointment acts as a vasoconstrictor, relieving the swelling
instantly.

This does actually work.

Listerine therapy for toenail fungus… Get rid of unsightly toenail
fungus by soaking your toes in Listerine mouthwash. The powerful antiseptic
leaves your toenails looking healthy again.

Again, where are the double-blind studies for this? Listerine is anti-bacterial, not anti-fungal.

Easy eyeglass protection… To prevent the screws in eyeglasses from
loosening, apply a small drop of Maybelline Crystal Clear Nail Polish to
the threads of the screws before tightening them.

Well, yeah. You basically just gluing the screws in place. So?

Coca-Cola Cure for rust… Forget those expensive rust removers.
Justsaturate an abrasive sponge with Coca Cola and scrub the rust stain.
The phosphoric acid in the coke is what gets the job done.

Snopes Cokelore:

That you can cook and clean with Coke is relatively meaningless from a safety standpoint — you can use a wide array of common household substances (including water) for the same purposes; that fact alone doesn’t necessarily make them dangerous to ingest. Nearly all carbonated soft drinks contain carbonic acid, which is moderately useful for tasks such as removing stains and dissolving rust deposits (although plain soda water is much better for some of these purposes than Coca-Cola or other soft drinks, as it doesn’t leave a sticky sugar residue behind).

Cleaning liquid that doubles as bug killer… If menacing bees, wasps,
hornets, or yellow jackets get in your home and you can’t find the
insecticide, try a spray of Formula 409. Insects drop to the ground
instantly.

A stream of any liquid will ground flying insects. The trick is to hit the wasp dead-on, because otherwise, your ass is grass…

Smart splinter remover… just pour a drop of Elmer’s Glue all over the
splinter, let dry, and peel the dried glue off the skin. The splinter
sticks to the dried glue.

Only theoretically, and only if it’s a tiny splinter caught right in the outer layer of skin, shallowly enough so that it would work its way out by itself in a day or two.

Hunt’s Tomato Paste boil cure… cover the boil with Hunt’s tomato paste
as a compress. The acids from the tomatoes soothes the pain and brings the
boil to a head.

Boils are caused by staph germs; you’re probably better off with a doctor, and antibiotics.

Balm for broken blisters… To disinfect a broken blister, dab on a few
drops of Listerine… a powerful antiseptic.

Possibly, but I bet it stings like heck.

Kills fleas instantly. Dawn Dish Washing Liquid does the trick. Add a
few drops to your dog’s bath and shampoo the animal thoroughly. Rinse well
to avoid skin irritations. Good-bye fleas.

No. I’m here to tell you that this does not work. The detergent hasn’t been invented that the average flea couldn’t shrug off like a gentle summer rain. If detergent alone could kill fleas, we wouldn’t need flea soap with pyrethrins in it.

Rainy day cure for dog odor… Next time your dog comes in from the
rain, simply wipe down the animal with Bounce or any dryer sheet, instantly
making your dog smell springtime fresh.

I am also here to tell you that this does not work. You are only attempting to mask one odor with another odor, instead of removing the first odor, so you end up with a dog that reeks not only of Wet Dog, but also of Bounce Springtime Fresh. Big whoop.

[Fringe]

I loved how so much of that works, instantly, unlike those dangerous mystery chemicals that people spend money on.

I just dislike the way most of those were phrased. Something about it seems…off.

[stpauler]

[QUOTE=Enright3Eliminate puffiness under your eyes… All you need is a dab of
Preparation H, Carefully rubbed into the skin, avoiding the eyes. The
Hemorrhoid ointment acts as a vasoconstrictor, relieving the swelling
instantly.
[/QUOTE]

Cecil on thathttp://www.straightdope.com/classics/a990305.html

[stpauler]

Well, that was some of the crappiest coding I’ve done in a long time. Hooray for me.

[picunurse]

[Hijack]

So where are the double-blind lab tests that prove this? Even cranberry juice finally got a “yes” from double-blind testing.

I participated in the early studies.
It was actually the interaction between hippuric acid (the active chemical in cranberry juice) and furosemide, a strong diuretic, they were testing.
It was a 4 week study. I had to drink a liter of a different liquid over a half hour every Monday. Then they put in an IV to replace my urine output, gave me the drug IV, then took blood and urine samples every 15 minutes for 8 hours.
I will never drink cranberry juice again.
I peed between 18 and 22 liters in 8 hours. (average 8 hour output is about 3/4 of ONE liter.)
Even though the hospital room was not air conditioned and it was mid-summer in Missouri, 90°-100°F, I shivered under 5 blankets from the rapid fluid replacement. Lessons learn :smack: [/end hijack]

[Cervaise]

I think we should make up a list of these on our own, and see whether or not it gets circulated.

“Did you know you can keep houseflies off your window screens by putting a clove of garlic in the two lower corners of the sill? Try it, it really works!”

“Tired of the cat leaving bits of kibble on the floor around its food bowl? Put the bowl on an eight-by-ten photograph of David Hasselhoff, and presto! instant clean-eating kitty! Try it, it really works!”

“Want to keep birds from shitting on your car after you’ve washed it? Fill half a dozen gallon-sized plastic milk jugs with Cheez Whiz and place them in your back seat immediately after washing, and the birds will never fly over your car again! Try it, it really works!”

Ad nauseum.

[Excalibre]

@Fringe

I loved how so much of that works, instantly, unlike those dangerous mystery chemicals that people spend money on.

I just dislike the way most of those were phrased. Something about it seems…off.

A lot of them seem off to me because they mention brand names unnecessarily. Why Heinz Vinegar? Why Hunt’s Tomato Paste? Like some really crappy, faintly creepy viral marketing campaign or something.

[Smeghead]

@Enright3

Sore Throat? Just mix 1/4 cup of vinegar with 1/4 cup of honey and take
1 tablespoon six times a day. The vinegar kills the bacteria.

Half a tablespoon of vinegar is not going to hang around your throat long enough to kill anything significant. It’s also worth pointing out that the sore throat is caused by your immune system’s response to an infection, not by the infection itself. So even if you kill off whatever’s causing it, it’ll still take a day or two to subside completely.

Honey remedy for skin blemishes… Cover the blemish with a dab of honey
and place a Band-Aid over it. Honey kills the bacteria, keeps the skin
sterile, and speeds healing. Works overnight.

I’m not sure exactly what they mean by “blemish,” but honey has been used historically on wounds. It soaks up any water around, making it unavailable for bacterial growth, so it does act as a mild antiseptic. Of course, Neosporin will do the same job faster and better, but I get the feeling that’s not the point for these people.

[Kent_Clark]

No, not a bviral marketing campaign, just a bunch of old home remedies that were around a long time before e-mail.

For me, honey and lemon does a much better job on my sore throat, and vinegar tends to make me gag.

I have used clear nail polish on the screws on my glasses, and it does help. For a while.

Horseradish massage oil? Why not? If the horseradish irritates your skin, it diverts attention away from the aching muscle. Just like any other liniment.

The Preparation H eye treatment was once a joke on the series Maude – 30 years ago. If it’s a sitcom joke it must be true, right?

We could also chew on tree bark to get rid of a headache, just like our forefathers did. Of course, you’d have to chew an awful lot of tree bark to get the effect of one aspirin.

[stargazer]

I’m wondering if all or many of these products are distributed by the same company – it’s been a long time since I’ve seen this many specific product names in one of these types of lists. I mean, the store brand tomato paste wouldn’t have the same effect as Hunt’s?

[guizot]

@Cervaise

I think we should make up a list of these on our own, and see whether or not it gets circulated.

“Did you know you can keep houseflies off your window screens by putting a clove of garlic in the two lower corners of the sill? Try it, it really works!”

“Are dust devils collecting under your furniture? Put a bottle of Hidden Vally Ranch Dressing on the floor in the middle of the room. You’ll never see another dust devil again. Try it, it really works!”

[Kent_Clark]

No, they aren’t distributed by the same company – Hunts and Heinz are competitors, in fact.

They’re old home remedies. They got their start because someone used Hunt’s tomato paste or Dawn dishwashing liquid and thought it worked.

For the granddaddy of all these home remedies, check out the 104 uses for Avon Skin So Soft bath oil

For the record, manufacturers hate when people try to use their products as home remedies, for fear they’ll either a) be sued if someone has a reaction to covering their skin with horseradish or b) find themselves talking to the Food and Drug Administration about what studies they’ve done on the side effects of putting Listerine on an open blister.

[Blake]

Drinking two glasses of Gatorade can relieve headache pain almost immediately – without the unpleasant side effects caused by traditional “pain relievers.”

Well yeah, that’d work. Fact is that a great many headaches are caused by mild dehydration. IIRC it’s actually most headaches. The reason why a lot of analgesics work so well for headache is because they are traditionally taken with a glass of water. It’s not that aspirin or paracetamol don’t work, it’s just that the water alone would have done the job almost as fast.

Gatorade of course had been designed to cure mild dehydration even faster than pure water. So it would be perfectly true that Gatorade could relieve headache pain even faster than analgesics. Not all headache pain, not all the time, but certainly Gatorade can relieve headache pain almost immediately. A glass of water would do the same thing a few minutes slower.

Cleaning liquid that doubles as bug killer… If menacing bees, wasps, hornets, or yellow jackets get in your home and you can’t find the insecticide, try a spray of Formula 409. Insects drop to the ground instantly.

More gratuitous brand name spam. Almost any surfactant will kill insects and cause flying insects to rapidly fall to the ground. Here’s Cecil’s take on it: http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_064.html

It’s messy, sticky stuff that leaves unpleasant residue on the floors and walls and often stains fabrics, but if you want to spray your room with Formula 409 then it will sure kill insects. Of course whatever dishwashing detergent you currently have will work just as well, as will Ivory soap as Cecil discusses. (BTW I disagree with Cecil’s reasoning about why it works but I’ve been into that in CoCC. For the purposes of this thread the important thing is that it will work, for Formula 409 or Ivory soap or dishwashing detergent or any other surfactant.

Smart splinter remover… just pour a drop of Elmer’s Glue all over the
splinter, let dry, and peel the dried glue off the skin. The splinter
sticks to the dried glue.

[Vikings] Spam. Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spaaaaaam, Wonderful spam, gotta be spam.[/Vikings]

Elmer’s Glue is just somewhat watered down PVA. The generic stuff is cheaper and would work just as well, if this worked at all. The obvious downside is that it’s gonna tear out your hair when the glue comes off. PVA doesn’t have any magical properties of sticking to splinters but not to hair. Might be OK for the soles of the feet or he-man types, but for us hairy wusses it seems like a pointless exercise. It will only remove the splinter if it’s protruding above the skin surface, and if that’s the case it could be removed faster and more painlessly using a pair of tweezers.

Heinz Vinegar To heal bruises… Soak a cotton ball in white vinegar and
apply it to the bruise for 1 hour. The vinegar reduces the blueness and
speeds up the healing process.

Sounds like a crock to me. Vinegar is just dilute acetic acid. A bruise is an internal bleed. How exactly is this acid supposedly getting through the skin and what possible effect could it have if it did make it through? The best cure for bruises is the standard RICE method when the injury is received and then using heat and massage to disperse the clot after the first day or so.

Kills fleas instantly. Dawn Dish Washing Liquid does the trick. Add a
few drops to your dog’s bath and shampoo the animal thoroughly. Rinse well
to avoid skin irritations. Good-bye fleas.

Same of the suggestion for Formula 409 above. Most surfactants will kill fleas if you can wet them thoroughly. Trouble is that wetting flea thoroughly is difficult. The bigger problem is that fleas aren’t dumb. If they are stressed they’ll abandon dog. Then once you’ve ‘rinses well to avoid skin irritations it’s hello fleas again.

Like Duck Duck Goose said, if detergent could kill fleas why do we have all these expensive detergents with pyrethrins and far more hazardous insecticides in them?

[Gary_T]

@Enright3

Smart splinter remover… just pour a drop of Elmer’s Glue all over the splinter, let dry, and peel the dried glue off the skin. The splinter
sticks to the dried glue.

I have serious doubts that a splinter will stick to the glue more vigorously than it sticks in flesh. But the real question is, how are you going to arrange for the glue to be undisturbed long enough to dry before it gets rubbed off somehow?

[Blake]

And a further note on the use of Formula 409 to kill flying insects. DON’T.

I just looked at the MSDS here: http://www.biosci.ohio-state.edu/~jsmith/MSDS/FORMULA%20409%20CLEANER.htm

Health Haz Acute And Chronic: EYES: IRRITATION. SKIN: ABSORBED. EXPOSURE TO ETHYLENE GLYCOL MONOBUTYL ETHER WILL CAUSE BLOOD & BONE MARROW DAMAGE.
Carcinogenicity - NTP: YES
Carcinogenicity - IARC: YES
Carcinogenicity - OSHA: NO
Explanation Carcinogenicity: SEE INGREDIENTS
Emergency/First Aid Proc: EYES: FLUSH W/PLENTY OF WATER. SKIN: WASH W/ WATER. INHALATION: REMOVE TO FRESH AIR. OBTAIN MEDICAL ATTENTION IN ALL CASES.
Precautions-Handling/Storing: MINIMIZE SKIN CONTACT & INHALATION OF VAPOR & MIST.
You really don’t wanna be spraying this stuff into the air to kill insects. It’s nasty. It will doubtless cause insects to drop to the ground instantly. It may cause you to drop to the ground some time later as you breathe it on or get it in your skin. This product is designed as a surface cleaner. Don’t use it as a space spray.

[RealityChuck]

@picunurse

** Never give your cat petroleum jelly!** The changes of aspirating (sucking it into their lungs) is very high, since it has little or no taste. It also leaches fat soluible vitamins from their GI tract, so you could cause a very preventable health problem! Spring for hair ball medicine.

Whose active ingredient is . . . .

petroleum jelly!

An already common technique for hairball control is adding petroleum jelly to the cat’s food.

“There’s a whole variety of hairball remedies that are currently available. They’re basically flavored petroleum jelly, with beef flavor or liver flavor,” said Dr. Deborah Besch, a veterinarian at Austin Veterinary Hospital. “And what it does, it lubricates the intestinal tract so the hair slides on through.”

Panda Bears Tomboy offers pop cacophony

So this is not only a good cure, but the one your vet will tell you to use.

[BiblioCat]

@Smeghead

… but I get the feeling that’s not the point for these people.

My thoughts exactly. :rolleyes: