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Common household vegetable is just as good as dock leaf for helping nettle stings
New research has suggested that rubbing a piece of lettuce on your nettle sting could be just as effective as the age-old tradition of hunting for a dock leaf.
With each passing year comes countless discoveries that push forward our understanding of the human body, nature, and the wider world around us. Just recently, a vegan diet for 8 weeks was linked with a reduction in biological age estimates. Now, a recently published study has demolished our understanding of nettle-sting care.
You don’t need a dock-leaf for your nettle stings
Since we were kids, our parents and grandparents have passed wisdom to the next generation. Part of that wisdom was the belief that only a dock leaf could cure a nettle sting. As it turns out, that was complete rubbish.
A new study published in the Emergency Medicine Journal delved into the complicated world of nettles, which are native to both the UK and US. Their stems are covered in spiky little hairs called trichomes that snap off easily when touched, releasing chemicals histamine, acetylcholine, and serotonin.
The dock leaf’s miraculous curative properties were first reported over 600 years ago by author Geoffrey Chaucer in his poem, Troilus and Criseyde. Now, researchers have theorized that the dock leaf was highlighted because it was simply within close proximity to nettles.
If so, any large, fresh, and non-toxic leaf would do the job, and dock may have become the leaf of choice simply because it grows in similar habitats to nettle, they suggest.
To test their theory, the scientists rubbed freshly harvested nettle leaves onto both arms of the participants. They then rolled a dice to decide which arm would receive a 60-second dock leaf rub, and which would get the lettuce.
The results broke our childhood
After being assaulted with the awful stinging nettle pain, participants were quizzed on how they were feeling. Discomfort scores were ranked from 1 to 5 in what was named the Insult to Complete Healing, or ITCH score.
Similarly, the researchers monitored the presence of the white bumps associated with a nettle sting. This score was named the Observable Urticaria/Count of Hives or OUCH score for short.
Ultimately, three of the six people correctly identified the arm that had been treated with the dock leaf. Their ITCH and OUCH scores also remained relatively similar, suggesting that both the lettuce and the dock leaf are just as effective at helping nettle stings.
Patient/Public Involvement work from other studies suggests that children, in particular, do not consider doing nothing to be an acceptable option when they are in pain, and we feel this may well be applicable to nettle stings,” they further noted.
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