Bring a favorite surprising medical/health thing you found out about, and/or one you wonder about!
I'll start. I've got a good one. But first:
KosAbility is a Sunday 7 pm eastkost/4 pm leftkost volunteer diary series as a community for people living with disabilities, who love someone with a disability, or who want to know more about the issues. Our use of "disability" includes temporary as well as permanent health/medical conditions, and small, gnawing problems as well as major, life-threatening ones. Our use of "love someone" extends to cherished members of other species.
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I got a three-in-one surprise recently. After my mother-in-law's recent head injury, the job of changing her dressing twice a day fell to me and my wife. The doctor had supplied a tube of honey to use on the wound. The idea of using honey made perfect sense to me. The fact that a doctor thought it was a good idea, now that was a surprise. I checked the tube, there was nothing else in there. Just Lepto-something honey. I figured Lepto-something was a species of bee. (I know there are some people reading this going, "No, no, that's not it at all!" Don't worry, I'm getting there.)
The second surprise was how clean and how fast that wound healed. At one point my wife and I looked at each other and asked, "You ever see anything like this?” Neither of us had. So I puzzled out the word on the tube of honey, Leptospermum, and googled it. It's not a species of bee (although I maintain that wasn't a bad guess). Turns out, it's a genus of shrubs and trees from Australia and nearby lands. Regular honey bees turn the nectar from certain members of this genus into something special, with all the virtues of regular honey and then some. (Turns out the doctor knew something I didn't know. Heh. Surprise!)
And lastly, the fact that this genus is endemic to Australia was probably the biggest surprise. See, when I think of the flora and fauna of Australia, I don't usually think of koalas, kangaroos, and eucalyptus trees. I think of saltwater crocks, jack jumpers, and gympie-gympie trees. Even the beautiful Australian Christmas tree is busily strangling and parasitizing all of its neighbors' roots while you admire its blossoms. And here, from this land that seems to want to kill all humans in the worst way, comes this amazingly helpful synthesis of flower and bee.
Good on ya, Oz!