I was glad Tom Hale brought up the point about being careful about putting
veges (esp. unwashed) on open wounds.  Yet this cabbage business does have
some promise, I think, as a way to reduce swelling.  I've had some sinus
problems which have gotten rather chronic during menopause (or mental-pause
as my children prefer).  I felt my whole face begin to swell one day at the
office, and being without sinus pills I went to the fridge and grabbed some
cabbage leaves.  All the swelling went down and a lot of the pain went away.

Once, years ago when I lived in a very rural county in the  Appalachian
region of Ohio I knew an old woman named Edna Bowen who made medicines out of
barks and herbs.  She pointed out to me a plant called mullien (maybe
mullain) which looks like a fuzzy cabbage.  It grows all over (I've seen it
growing as a weed in my neighborhood here in Tx where its quite hot) and
looks like a head of cabbage growing -- same color light green, only the
leaves are somewhat fleshier and fuzzy like an african violet's leaves.  Edna
told me this was the plant that all the people used when she was growing up
as a poltice for swelling disorders: bumps, breaks and sprains.  She said
they'd put the leaves over the affected body part and bind it up with brown
paper to hold in place.

The husband of a client of mine once -- she was engorged, he was a pharmacist
in a grocery store added an interesting insight.  As I was using cabbage on
her breasts, he wondered whether what was occurring was a subtle release of a
gas (caused by heat from body) which when breathed elicited a hormonal
response.  He had the thought because in grocery stores (and in my
refrigerator crisper drawers) they know not to store certain fruits together
because the gasses they emit speed ripening. Since prolactin has effects on
preservation of fluid stores and if edema is storage of too much fluid in
swollen tissue, I wonder if there is some sort of gas which triggers a
countering force. I am not clever enough on the biochem. to know what that
would be, but its odd there is so much anecdotal reporting of positive
affects of cabbage and cabbage-like plants on swelling disorders.  It sure
would be nice to have some better info on how (or if) this really works so we
don't misuse it.  Herbs can be potent.

Barbara Wilson-Clay, BSE,IBCLC
priv. pract. Austin, Tx