Guest guest Posted July 14, 2004 Report Share Posted July 14, 2004 Potato Powder Instantly Clots Blood A powder made from potatoes can clot blood instantly and could prove useful in surgeries and on the battlefield for stopping life-threatening bleeding, researchers reported. The powder, made of purified potato starch, essentially "acts like a sponge and soaks up the water in the blood, concentrating coagulation factors," Mark Ereth, an associate professor of anesthesiology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and principal investigator of the study, told United Press International. The study, presented at the American Society of Anesthesiologists annual meeting, described how Ereth's team made small lacerations on the arms of 30 volunteers and found the powder plus pressure on the wound reduced clotting time by 5 minutes compared with pressure alone. "That's a substantial reduction" and could mean the difference between life and death for someone with a massive injury such as a gunshot wound or something that may occur in combat, Ereth said. In the movie "Black Hawk Down," which depicts a real-life incident that occurred in Mogadishu, Somalia, American soldiers were dying due to uncontrollable bleeding from combat wounds. Animal studies indicated the potato-based powder could stop the bleeding from such massive wounds and keep the soldiers alive until they could be transported to a field hospital and treated, Ereth said. He noted the U.S. military presently does not equip soldiers with a blood-clotting compound. There are a number of blood-clotting products on the market, Ereth said, "but most of them are cumbersome or expensive or both." This powder is both cheap and easy-to-use, he said. Bob Cerza, spokesman for the Medafor, of Minneapolis, the powder's manufacturer, told UPI the military currently is "evaluating the compound for treating life-threatening hemorrhage on the battlefield." The U.S. Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory in Quantico, Va., is conducting studies in which "they lacerate major leg arteries in pigs and allow the wound to bleed for 5 minutes before applying the powder," he said. Although the product still is under evaluation by the military, Cerza said they are considering equipping their soldiers or medics with it. He said it was approved for the management of severe bleeding by the Food and Drug Administration late last year and paramedics, fire and rescue squads, police and other emergency medical personnel have begun including in their equipment. Hospitals, SWAT units and bomb squads also are starting to stock it, he said. It is sold under the trade name Traumadex for this indication. Ereth said he keeps the powder in his car and takes it everywhere he goes. An over-the-counter formulation was approved in December for treating skin wounds, abrasions and nosebleeds, Cerza said. This formulation is called Bleed-X. The company plans to conduct further studies to assess the powder's potential for use in surgery to control bleeding, he said. It is approved for this use in Europe. In the operating room, the powder could help control severe bleeding during heart and liver surgery as well as other procedures and reduce the need for blood transfusions, Ereth said. He predicted over the next few years "it will reduce the need for blood transfusions substantially." Another advantage of the powder is it does not appear to cause allergic reactions as happens with some other blood-clotting products. One reason for this is the powder disappears within a matter of hours, Ereth said. It can degrade in as little as 30 minutes although remnants of it may remain in the clot for about a day. "It's gone before you can even begin to have an allergic response to it," he said. -- Copyright 2002 by United Press International. Don Quai <mysticalherbalist@...> wrote: Anybody have any ideas about potato starch? I juice raw potatoes and allow the juice to sit for 1/2 hour and after draining off the juice (drinking it) there will be about 1/2 to 3/4 inch of starch. After dehydrating it and powdering it up what can one do with it? I don't cook so can't use it in soups as a thickener. Any other idea? Uses, medicinally, as wall paper glue anything.-- Peace, love and light,Don Quai"Spirit sleeps in the mineral, breathes in the vegetable, dreams in the animal and wakes in man." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 14, 2004 Report Share Posted July 14, 2004 doodle bug wrote: > Hey Don, > > I did a little searching and came up with this: > > " Potato starch is used to determine the diastatic value of starch. > Boiled with weak sulphuric acid, potato starch is changed into > glucose, fermented into alcohol, to yield " British . " > > http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/duke_energy/Solanum_tuberosum.html > =--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Thanks Doodles, I bet they just say that. In reality they probably just drink the sulphuric acid. LOL Just kidding. Doesn't sound like something I would be much interested in drinking anyway. Course I don't partake of alcoholic whistle wetters anyhow. So how does brewing up British determine the diastatic value of starch? -- Peace, love and light, Don Quai " Spirit sleeps in the mineral, breathes in the vegetable, dreams in the animal and wakes in man. " Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 15, 2004 Report Share Posted July 15, 2004 I don't 'drink" either, but i used to know how to brew beer and you use potatoes as well as hops and brewers yeast and i think sugar .. I forgot what knew about it, but you keep it in a warm place, possibly with a light bulb to generate heat and let it fermint, covered with cheese cloth if i remember right, and when it is just right, bottle and cap it. I remember that what looked like smoke would come from a newly opened bottle, probably because it was a little 'green' and i've heard that sometimes a bottle would explode if bottled too soon...????? even mabe the potatoes were used enstead of hops??? I forget. Grany lee ----- Original Message ----- From: doodle bug health Sent: Wednesday, July 14, 2004 7:32 PM Subject: Re: Potato starch LOL, as another who doesn't drink and knows even less about alcohol. I have no clue. I thought it sounds a little odd to me. Becky __________________________________________________ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 15, 2004 Report Share Posted July 15, 2004 LOL! not just eating them : ) just puting the starch on a wound to stop the bleeding. However, it is rumored and told as fact, that if you have Rheuatoid arthritis, that members of the night shade family are contraindicated and white potatoes are in that family along with tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and i forget what else. However, i think that cayenne has so many offsetting benefits that i use it anyway. I wonder if black pepper, like pepper corns, are of that family? for a long time i seemed to have a lot of trouble digesting cooked black pepper, but when i use lemon pepper, it doesn't seem to hurt my digestion. curious. grany lee ----- Original Message ----- From: SophiasDream@... health Sent: Thursday, July 15, 2004 11:01 AM Subject: Re: Potato starch In a message dated 7/14/2004 9:24:19 AM Mountain Daylight Time, suziesgoats@... writes: Potato Powder Instantly Clots Blood Yikes!!! Sounds like somebody like me should stay away from Potatoes then !!!I think I remember somebody mentioning something about potatoes being something to avoid -- this clinches it!Peace,Cathie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 16, 2004 Report Share Posted July 16, 2004 Suzanne wrote: > Pam, > > If there is I sure don't know what it is. > Suzi > > */Pee Tee <peetee1965@...>/* wrote: > > BTW is there such a thing as a hydrogen peroxide powder? > Pam > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ No, just as there is no such thing as water powder. -- Peace, love and light, Don Quai " Spirit sleeps in the mineral, breathes in the vegetable, dreams in the animal and wakes in man. " Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 21, 2004 Report Share Posted July 21, 2004 I wonder if black pepper, like pepper corns, are of that family? for a long time i seemed to have a lot of trouble digesting cooked black pepper, but when i use lemon pepper, it doesn't seem to hurt my digestion. curious. grany lee Hi Granny Lee - great to see you on board. I've been down south for a while and just got back this afternoon so I am slowly getting through the posts. ((By the way, I've narrowed my move choices down to ton SC and Virginia Beach. So any more tidbits from individuals in those areas would be welcomed.)) Black Pepper: I have a colleague whose uncle was a mortician. She said he told her that he had discovered that black pepper remains in a persons body. I often wondered if black pepper had spurs that adhered to the bowel line...I really don't know..just musing here. Potato: My grandmother had a furnace on her first floor and it was so pretty and black and shiny I often found myself touching it and getting a very bad burn on my finger. Grandma would cut a piece of raw potato, scrap it and put the piece on the burn. When the piece started to turn red, she would cut another slice, scrape it and lay it on the burn. Potato is a good healer. And yes, the starch is good for cooking uses and clotting bleeding cuts as you have stated Granny. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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