Intestinal parasits and walnuts.
Roast stuffed turkey with walnut sage dressing. Broccoli walnut noodles. Orange trout salad with spiced walnuts. And of course, creamy vanilla ice cream with decadent chocolate syrup, topped oh-so-divinely with chopped roasted walnuts. Only one key ingredient makes all these scrumptious dishes unique in texture and flavor.
Check out the latest cookbooks, Discovery Channel's mouth-watering cooking demos and even family recipes dating back from when Lola had teeth - and there's no mistaking the versatility of the walnut.
But besides providing texture and flavor to a limitless number of entrees, soups, salads and desserts, the walnut has also been found to treat, not the palate, and not only intestinal parasites, but the human skin. Yes, even the most annoying viral skin infection known to humans - warts.
Besides drying frescos made by Renaissance painters and adding the extra kick to an ice cream sundae, walnuts are known for their nutritional content and medicinal properties. Since they provide many of the elements that the body requires but cannot manufacture, walnuts are deemed one of the most essential foods to put in a diet.
The nutrients in walnuts garnered them a niche in herbal medicine books, as well as science books of early physicians. They are a very good source of manganese and source of copper, two minerals essential in antioxidant defenses.
The black walnut in particular has a lot of medicinal and nonfood usage. Its tincture is said to kill adult and developmental stages of at least a hundred intestinal parasites.
Because the black walnut contains juglone, which also fights dermatomycosis (skin fungi), as discovered by the Greeks and Romans.
Juglans insularis is used in Cuba to treat various skin diseases in children. The National Institute of Health claimed that: "Crushed unripe walnut hulls have been used for generations in various types of folk medicine [.] to treat fungal, bacterial or viral infections such as herpes or warts."
Warts, those bumpy growths on the skin that are generally painless, are common but not necessarily normal. They affect all age groups and are quite contagious, depending on the severity of the wart. There are flat warts (found on the face and back of the hands), genital warts (found on the external genitalia, pubis and in between the thighs but can appear inside the vagina and in the anal canal), plantar warts (found on the soles of the feet) and the common warts that can appear anywhere. Some warts disappear without treatment, although it can take as long as six months to two years. Whether treated or not, warts that disappear often reappear.
Since warts are caused by a common virus, the human papillomavirus (HPV), people with poor immune system are more prone to develop warts. The walnut's high content of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants make for a very effective defense, making it an immuno-builder.
Nut so fast
Walnuts provide nutritional and herbal support, which enhance immune function and minimize recurrence of HPV. Researchers, however, caution that there is still no concluding scientific research that proves walnuts' ability to cure warts. As such, people are still advised to seek professional treatment. Drug therapy is the top choice of doctors, but patients can opt for cryosurgery, which involves freezing the wart to destroy its tissues; electrosurgery; lasers; and scalping, which uses a sharp instrument to cut the growth. Patients should be wary of treatments that cause scarring. Research shows that so far, the black walnut tincture does not develop scars after application.
However tempting it to do some treatments by yourself, homemade medicines and do-it-yourself methods should always be done with a thorough understanding.
Sometimes, all it takes is changing one's diet to prevent HPV from being contracted. This includes eliminating caffeine, alcohol, refined foods, sugar, saturated fats (animal protein and dairy); and eating more whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, legumes and essential fatty acids (nuts, seeds and cold-water fish) to strengthen the immune system.
Ultimately, everything still all boils down to proper diet and a healthy lifestyle. And that's not such a hard nut to crack.
More info on human intestinal parasites.