Page 40 - Fall2012

By stabilizing with some of the higher numbers coming from Enig—report levels of zero. 12,13 Yet a 1948 study
blood sugar, Italy, where even commercial pigs are more likely showed that vitamin A deficiency in rats can be
to see the great outdoors.
corrected with lard. Indeed vitamin A-deficient
9,10
bacon helps However, far higher numbers have been rats reversed the deficiency provided that fats
prevent reported, especially for pastured pigs. Accord- replaced the sucrose in their chow. Even more
mood swings, ing to Dr. Mary Enig, USDA laboratories in interesting, those animals fared better than those
the 1980s came up with the figure of 2,800 IUs on the same diet with added vitamin A palmitate,
reduces per 100 grams, though those data were never a synthetic form of A. Although any fats seemed
anxiety, officially reported by the government agency. to help, the effect was most pronounced with
11
14
improves According to her source at the USDA, the agency lard. This makes little sense given the seeming
chose to suppress this information because it lack of vitamin A in lard, but a series of studies
focus and wanted the public to think its vitamin D must from the early 1950s identified the presence of a
enhances come from fortified milk and other BigAg prod- “vitamin A replacing factor” in lard even when

coping skills. ucts. Whether the 2,800 IUs figure is valid and vitamin A itself was not detected. 15-19
represents sophisticated laboratory testing still
As we would expect, the good fat in bacon
not in common use or a typographical error for comes accompanied by cholesterol, a “no-no”
280 IUs is not known. USDA databases from that according to the Food Police, and yet another
period do not even include vitamin D. reason for bacon’s dangerous reputation. The
Other unanswered questions involve the evidence against cholesterol causing or contrib-
vitamin A content of bacon fat or lard. USDA uting to heart disease, of course, is inconsistent,
tables—both the official tables and the un- contradictory, misinterpreted and sparse. It’s
published 1980 findings discovered by Dr. oxidized cholesterol—as found in the powdered

THE NOSE KNOWS!

Bacon lust has led to the creation of such novelties as bacon-flavored lollypops, ice cream, chocolate, doughnuts, air
fresheners, breath mints and even sexual lubricants. Bacon-look Band-Aids fix owies, and a “Mr. Bacon versus Monsieur
Tofu” game lets us watch the Greasy Punk take down the Soy Boy for “lots of fun wherever fun is needed!”
What else can bacon do? The “white bacon” known as salt pork can stop nosebleeds. Or as the authors of an article
in the Annals of Otology, Rhinology, and Laryngology reported, strips of “cured salted pork crafted as a nasal tampon and
packed within the nasal vaults” stopped the life-threatening nosebleeds of a four-year-old girl with Glanzmann thrombas-
thenia, a rare genetic disorder that causes chronic nosebleeds.
Similarly, Archives of Otolaryngology published a letter from Jan J. Weisberg, MD, in 1976 documenting his treatment
of a patient with salt pork "for epistaxis secondary to Rendu-Osler-Weber disease,” an inherited problem in which blood
vessels develop abnormally, leading to frequent nosebleeds.
Apparently, this cure for nosebleeds is traditional, though mostly forgotten. In 1953, Henry Beinfield, MD, of Brooklyn,
New York, published tips on managing postnasal hemorrhage and explained, "Salt pork placed in the nose and allowed to
remain there for about five days has been used, but the method is rather old-fashioned."
In 1940, A.J. Cone, MD, wrote, "it has not been uncommon in the St. Louis Children's Hospital service to have a child
request that salt pork be inserted in his nose with the first sign of a nosebleed . . . Wedges of salt pork have saved a great
deal of time and energy when used in controlling nasal haemorrhage, as seen in cases of leukemia, haemophilia . . . hy-
pertension . . . measles or typhoid fever and during the third stage of labour.”
So why have we not heard this before? Most likely because doctors turn up their noses at the practice because of
worries about bacteria and parasites. Or maybe just the fear that something that smells so delicious must be dangerous!

REFERENCES:
• Abrahams, Marc. Pork, the surprise remedy for a nosebleed. London Guardian. January 23, 2012.
• Humphreys I, Saralya S et al. "Nasal packing with strips of cured pork as treatment for uncontrollable epistaxis in a
patient with Glanzmann thrombasthenia." Ann Otol Rhinol Laryngol, 2011; 120 (11); 732-6.
• Weisberg JJ. Letter: Rendu-Osler-Weber disease—is embolization beneficial. Arch Otolaryngol. 1976. 102 (6): 385.
• Beinfield HH. "General principles in treatment of nasal hemorrhage: Emphasis on management of postnasal hemor-
rhage." Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg, 1953. 57 (1): 51-59.
• Cone, AJ. Use of salt pork in cases of hemorrhage. Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 1940. 32 (5): 941-46.
40 Wise Traditions FALL 2012 FALL 2012 Wise Traditions

101665_text.indd 40 9/14/12 1:33 AM