***THIS SOUNDS WEIRD, BUT . . .

The immune system is kind of a mystery. We don't hear much about where any of our immune system parts are, what they do, how they do whatever it is they do, etc.

Well, maybe you've heard of lymph glands. Perhaps a huge lump showed up on the side of your neck–which, you decide, can only mean cancer.

So, off you hie to see the doc, who tells you an allergy caused your tender-to-the-touch lump. You breathe a sigh of relief and get on with life, happy that it wasn't more serious.

But, like all of health, it's good to know a little something about this mystery system.

Our lymphatic system sends lymph, a watery fluid, through a network that includes lymph glands, where any gunk gets cleaned up. Then the cleaned up lymph gets sent along to the next stop. At least, that's the way it's supposed to work.

Sometimes, usually through surgery or an accident, the lymphatic system gets dammed up. Nothing's going anywhere–no cleaning, no moving along. And great is the pain thereof. And the swelling. With no breaks in the action.

It's called lymphedema, and if it doesn't resolve itself, medicine doesn't have much to offer.

If you have, or know somebody that has, lymphedema, I'd like to ask a favor.

As most of you know, I spend my time digging through health research and anecdotal stories. I recently happened onto something weird enough to work, but I can't verify it.

I found a lot of posts, on multiple sites, about raw cabbage and/or green tea being powerful healers of lymphedema.

The posts weren't from research studies, but were testimonies of patients.

One woman wrote since she had to wear compression hose to bed anyway, she chopped up some raw cabbage and crammed it into the hose before going to bed, just to see if there was anything to this raw cabbage deal. And experienced very positive results. So, she kept it up and got rid of her "learn-to-live-with-it" lymphedema.

And I read the same kind of stories about green tea. Several cups each day. (Organic and not brewed in fluoridated water.)

I know this sounds really weird, but it won't hurt anything to check it out.

Why not wait for research, you ask? No deep-pockets enterprise is going to cough up big bucks to test the efficacy of wearing cabbage in your socks.

So it comes down to whether to continue life with a painfully swollen, almost useless limb or feel like a dork by trying the cabbage solution–and possibly getting your life back.

If anybody with lymphedema is willing to give cabbage and/or green tea a try, I'd love to hear the results, whatever they are.

God is good,
Bette Dowdell