Cpnhelp.org

I'll take a case.  Where do I sign up?  It certainly cured what ailed ME. 

A quote:

"Treatments which affect inflammationⁱ, such as application of heat and cold, were (and are) strangely powerful in general medical care. As are foods and drugs that modulate the process: the story of aspirin is familiar, but other antiinflammatories have had a long history as "nostrums" simply because they affect symptoms of so many diseasesⁱ positively. For example, the body oil of the Chinese water snake, which is 20% EPA (an n-3 fatty acid also common in fish) was long sold as a cure for rheumatismⁱ and aches and pains anywhere. Thus the pejorative "snake oil." But the stuff probably worked like aspirin, because today we know that (in general) the 3-series prostaglandins made from n-3 fatty acids are not as inflammatory as the more common ordinary kinds. Fish oil is good for arthritis, and so is snake oil. Take that, quackbusters." -- Steven B. Harris, MD

Three residents in our barn, Slinky, Curly, and Loopy, are friends and not to be confused with the honest, hard-working oil put forth by honest, hard-working snake-oil salesmen such as those who grace our preserves. Thank you, Sarah, for bringing this to our attention. Rica

I, too, thought that snake-oil was merely a pejorative literary metaphor of US origin. (Of course we don't have many snakes in the UK.) Thanks, Norman: you are very informative. I hadn't thought of snakes being a source of EPA. It makes sense, though.

I thought it went out of fashion because snakes so seldom seem to rust up. Mink oil, same deal -- but they squeak anyway, oil or no.

Notice it was recommended as a liniment? Does omega-3 penetrate the skin?

Perhaps Snake Oyl went off in a huff when her sister, Olive, captured Popeye's affections.

While in China about a year ago I had the nerve to drink a glass of snake wine. It was poured from a huge glass bottle with a dead snake rapped up in it. Later I was told that I could get parasites from this, but I think it was way too strong and would have killed anything living. It actually tasted like brandy. Too bad this snake oil probably does not kill parasites in my red blood cells aka babesia or I would have brought home a bottle and drunk some every day!

Only you, David, would have thought of this.     I'll be telling the story at dinner tonight. 

Sarah, that is odd -- it's "supposed" to be good for the skin. I wonder, though; good fat is still fat.

My skin is terrible right now. It doesn't seem fair that the acne comes back but the hair does not.

Still, the question about transdermal absorption has burned about 1/2 my lunch hour, with no results at all. I did a Highwire search on "transdermal" with "EPA" and with "DHA" and with "eicosapentanoic": no joy. I did find out when I googled that there is ONE doctor who says that increasing serum magnesium will increase DHEAⁱ, but that really isn't on topic.

Olive Oyl's skin was amazingly good. She was never shown with spots. Of course, neither was Emporer Tiberius, although his skin was very poor. Perhaps they had the same publicist. So, that is a neither here nor there.

Observe, though, that snakes never seem to have any problems with their skin, other than a certain tendency toward scaliness. Well, and it all falling off occasionally. Leopards, furthermore, DO NOT EAT SNAKES! I rest my case.

 

 

As this seems to be an entertainment thread I feel that I should post a link to see Olive Oyl in action. She's my favourite cartoon character:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqLcIytH3ZE&NR=1