Mustard folk remedy

Photo courtesy of WordRidden

I enjoyed this recent article [link no longer available] about mustard powder from registered nurse Jean Gouveia.  Oh, she’s not prescribing anything – she warns you…

Therefore, if you choose to try it, you do so at your own risk. If you grow a third ear or turn blue with green polka dots, don’t think of suing this poor writer; just join a scientific investigation or the travelling circus.

Someone was obviously having way too much fun writing this article.

But anyway, her suggestion is that you try sniffing hot oriental mustard powder when you feel a migraine attack coming on.  She heard about this remedy from someone else, and tried it successfully in her own family.  Doesn’t seem to work for the gals, though, just for the guys.  But we’re not talking about a scientific trial of 21341 patients here – if I were a gal, I’d try it!

Some of my readers may think I’m off my rocker to suggest such a treatment, but others of you may realize that it’s not such a strange thing after all.  Getting hot and spicy things into your nose as a headache remedy (particularly for cluster headache) is a well accepted home remedy.  That ingredient that makes your peppers hot, capsaicin, somehow seems to help some people with headache, both by eating it and sniffing it.  Why not hot mustard?