Topricin

A few years ago I had a problem with plantar fasciitis in my left foot, and the pain was excruciating. Connie did some research and found a product called "Topricin" that got high marks in reviews and seemed like this might help. She also had a few aches and pains too, so we got some of it and tried it out. Well, not sure I can claim this product did ALL of the work, but my foot definitely started feeling better and that pain is just a memory now.

So when the joint in my thumb started aching and I get a clicking noise when I bend it, I figured I would give this stuff a try with that and see if it helps. While rubbing it onto my thumb, I happened to glance over at the jar and started reading the ingredients. Well darn! Lots of those names sure looked familiar to me! Quite likely they will look familiar to some of you, as well.

so... ground up snake bits eh?

Yeah... and check out what that "Rhus toxicodendron" is.....

So will you keep using it?

Sure. It seemed to work before for me. I just thought the ingredients were an interesting mix.

I suspect that there are a lot of things we use that if we actually knew what really was in them would be an eye opener. Heck, how many people could even walk through the meat department of their grocery store thinking about what the butchers are doing behind the scenes? Sometimes you just can't look too closely at things for your own peace of mind.

Nothing like rubbing yourself down with poison ivy to get you going in the morning. Judging by your time stamp, it doesn't do anything for insomnia.

Originally Posted by Jet76

Nothing like rubbing yourself down with poison ivy to get you going in the morning. Judging by your time stamp, it doesn't do anything for insomnia.

Actually my hours are a direct result of being retired. I am no longer a slave to an alarm clock. I go to sleep when I am tired, and I get up whenever I want to. Heck, for that matter, I usually don't know what day it is, much less what time it is.

As for poison ivy, I don't react to it much, if at all. When I was a child, I remember myself, my younger brother, and a friend of his playing on "Tarzan vines" on the bay side in Ocean City, MD. That was back when there was still woods there, I guess. Anyway, we didn't realize it at the time, but those vines were all poison ivy. Afterwards, I had a small blister between two of my fingers, my brother had his arms blistered up in patches, and his friend had to be taken to the emergency room in the local hospital.

Actually it is the compound urishinol in poison ivy that causes the reaction. I would hope no one would make a salve out of that......

I must say that is the most interesting ingredients I've ever read. Much like snake and spider venom I can see poison ivy being used as medicine. I used to work in grocery and restaurant in my younger years. Yeah you don't really want to know goes on behind the scenes. :P

What does the X mean? I dislike ambiguous units of measurement. Belladona is also a highly toxic plant. And Heloderma?? Who milks gila monsters? I'm calling BS on some of these.

Snake oil ?