A friend happened to contact me yesterday--a young woman whom I know through Facebook and have never met in person--and she wanted to know whether I would like her to send me a package of dried manggis skin in the mail (she lives in Malang on the island of Java). She had read, she told me, that this could be helpful for the symptoms of multiple sclerosis.
How sweet is that?
I don't know if manggis is actually helpful. Like many westerners, I tend to be skeptical about 'natural medicines', suspecting the main ingredient to be wishful thinking rather than effective chemicals. Nonetheless, there is a certain palliative benefit in just knowing that somebody cares and wants to help. I mean, even my own family members have nothing to say about my MS, never ask after my condition, and, in fact, rarely even bother to speak to me at all--not that they dislike me, but because they're just too busy, I suppose. Or too self-absorbed.
And who knows? On one recent episode of Naked and Afraid--my new morning addiction, to be consumed along with my usual addiction to coffee--one of the 'survivors' ended up with skin poisoning from a black sap from a particular tree. This caused large, burning spreading sores, and despite receiving antibiotic treatment from the show's medical supervisor, the sores continued to expand and worsen. The man was ready to 'tap out', but his partner convinced him to try a natural salve that grows on a tree in the same area and is known to be a natural antidote to this deadly black sap. How convenient that the creator has set this second tree in the same locale as the first, right? Well, lo and behold, the treatment worked and the sores began straightaway to disappear!
So, yeah. Who knows? In any case, it couldn't hurt. And I'll certainly let y'all know if I am suddenly cured of MS. In the meantime, I am simply encouraged by a girl's random kindness.
How sweet is that?
I don't know if manggis is actually helpful. Like many westerners, I tend to be skeptical about 'natural medicines', suspecting the main ingredient to be wishful thinking rather than effective chemicals. Nonetheless, there is a certain palliative benefit in just knowing that somebody cares and wants to help. I mean, even my own family members have nothing to say about my MS, never ask after my condition, and, in fact, rarely even bother to speak to me at all--not that they dislike me, but because they're just too busy, I suppose. Or too self-absorbed.
And who knows? On one recent episode of Naked and Afraid--my new morning addiction, to be consumed along with my usual addiction to coffee--one of the 'survivors' ended up with skin poisoning from a black sap from a particular tree. This caused large, burning spreading sores, and despite receiving antibiotic treatment from the show's medical supervisor, the sores continued to expand and worsen. The man was ready to 'tap out', but his partner convinced him to try a natural salve that grows on a tree in the same area and is known to be a natural antidote to this deadly black sap. How convenient that the creator has set this second tree in the same locale as the first, right? Well, lo and behold, the treatment worked and the sores began straightaway to disappear!
So, yeah. Who knows? In any case, it couldn't hurt. And I'll certainly let y'all know if I am suddenly cured of MS. In the meantime, I am simply encouraged by a girl's random kindness.
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