25 Uses for a $5 Bottle of Witch Hazel

I picked up some witch hazel at the drug store last month after hearing that it can help get rid of the redness left behind by mostly-healed acne. It worked great but I was curious about what witch hazel was actually supposed to be used for. Turns out, EVERYTHING. It has antiseptic, anti-inflammatory and astringent qualities. Below is a list of things that you can use this stuff for.

1. skin sores
2. diaper rash
   
3. small cuts
4. swelling (soak cloths and press them to area)
5. bruises
   
6. acne
7. reduce pore size
   
8. psoriasis treatment
   
9. eczema treatment
10. aftershave
11. cracked skin (antiseptic and helps moisturize)
    
12. insect bites
13. poison ivy rash
14. varicose veins (use same as swelling treatment)
15. hemorrhoids (witch hazel is the active ingredient in many OTC treatments)
16. speed healing of cold sores
17. sunburn
18. heal body piercings (having had several I could totally get on board with this, it is thin, so it won't hold moisture the way neosporin will, and smells less than tea tree oil and bactine. Plus it stops bleeding and swelling which bactine won't)
19. athletes foot
20. swimmers ear
    
21. use as hair spray (so long as you don't have dry hair)
22. use to degrease hair roots (dab with cotton ball)
23. use to reduce under-eye circles (see swelling and bruises)
24. make-up remover
25. repair cracked varnish on old furniture (let it soak, and it will slowly melt it)

And this doesn't even cover all the applications that work internally. Those would require preparing some sort of tea with the leaves of the plant. These are just uses for that one 16oz. bottle I got from the drug store last month (which is only about an eighth used up) which brings me to a word of caution: the brand I bought, as with a lot of brands is made using a lot of ethyl alcohol, so don't drink it! I know it seems silly but there are numerous sources saying "drink it to cure _____" this doesn't apply to the drug store brand! Other than that, I highly suggest going to pick up a bottle. It runs about 5-7 bucks a bottle and is very much worth the money.

Viruses that do Anything

I know next to nothing about virology, but I have always wondered...

How do you know if you have a virus? You start having symptoms. We can't even really treat the virus medically, we just take care of the symptoms. What if you had a virus that gave you no symptoms? What if you had a virus that DID have symptoms but you didn't know it? What if you got a virus that made you gain weight, grow your hair more slowly, act more aggressively or become depressed?

Well. You might.

AD-36 is a human adenovirus that may be linked with obesity. There is a positive correlation between having the virus in blood samples and having high body fat. Similar viruses caused weight gain when chickens and mice were infected. It's a virus that can make you fat. Chew on that.

Not a virus, but similarly tiny and morbid, cordyceps fungus infects insects bodies and brains. The fungus drives them to act against their instinct and climb very high before dying. This ensures that there will be maximum spore dispersal when the fungus grows and matures in the insect corpse.

Who's to say there isn't something out there to cause other random symptoms that we would never suspect as a result of being sick?

If you've got a few minutes, check out the free Science Talk podcast from Scientific American from 6/12/2008. They discuss how outside chemical signals and/or foreign organisms could really affect us in ways we don't normally think about.