In addition to the fact that cabbage is a very useful and tasty vegetable, its healing properties are often used in folk medicine. Cabbage leaf wraps help women cope with the problems associated with breastfeeding. Cabbage compress soothes a headache and relieves swelling from diseased joints. This article is devoted to the treatment of various diseases with cabbage leaves and compresses from the usual vegetable.
Cabbage leaf treatment
Cabbage treats hangovers, joint diseases and all types of tumors. The vegetable prevents anemia and relieves swelling, enhances immunity and ensures the beauty of hair, skin and nails. In addition, the vegetable is dietary, as it has a very low calorie content.
Did you know? The captains of sea vessels in the many months of sailing to supply the team stocked up a large amount of sauerkraut. It was this product that saved sailors from scurvy.
- Cabbage wraps are used for:
- degenerative changes in the joints;
- muscle and joint pain (for example, in the elbow or knee);
- rheumatism;
- inflammation (e.g., mammary glands or respiratory tract);
- any damage to the skin, such as ulcers, abscesses, wounds, boils, hemorrhoidal bleeding;
- headaches;
- inflammation or pinching of the sciatic nerve (sciatica).
Healing properties
Cabbage juice contains: phosphorus, manganese, copper, potassium, calcium, iron, sodium and vitamins A, C, E and vitamins of group B. This vegetable also has a high sulfur content, which creates a not too pleasant smell during the heat treatment of the product. Sulfur is an element that has a beneficial effect on hair growth, complexion and nail strength. Cabbage also has iodine, which greatly affects the proper functioning of the thyroid gland.
Important! Sauerkraut is made not only from white cabbage, but also from red cabbage varieties. Red sauerkraut has a more delicate aroma and contains antioxidants such as selenium and a large amount of vitamin E.
This vegetable is an excellent source of calcium and potassium, as well as a natural antibiotic that regulates the digestive system. Thanks to bacteria that produce additional ascorbic acid during fermentation, sauerkraut contains more vitamin C than raw vegetables. When using cabbage in compresses, its cooling, soothing and anti-inflammatory properties are especially noticeable.
Which sheets fit
As with other vegetables, the freshness of the vegetable is crucial. It is worth buying only a head of cabbage with hard and elastic leaves, without discoloration or patches of rot, not sluggish.
Before use, the leaves should be washed and dried from moisture drops. Further reduce the thickness and length of the main sheet core. The old way of our grandmothers with varicose veins, wounds, ulcers is that the leaf plates of cabbage are crumpled to softness, for example, beaten with a rolling pin until the juice appears on the inside.
Contraindications
There are very few contraindications to the use of this wonderful vegetable, but they must be taken into account. A diet rich in cabbage and other cruciferous vegetables is not recommended for people with thyroid disease.. The freely forming substances contained in it make it difficult for the body to absorb iodine from food, which can lead to a lack of this element in the body.
After wrapping with leaves, a rash or local dermatitis rarely appears. Most often this is due to the fact that the raw materials, that is, cabbage, were excessively treated with plant protection products.
Did you know? According to legend, heads of cabbage were created from Lycurgus's tears, which the god of wine, Bacchus, punished for the destruction of his beloved vineyard.
Compresses
Working with leaves of this vegetable is not difficult, but you should still follow the recommendations for applying a compress. Following the instructions, it is easy to avoid wrong actions.
How to apply a compress of cabbage:
- A large leaf is torn off from a cabbage head, after which a thickening is cut off or its thickness is reduced so that this place is close to the thickness of the leaf plate.
- On a wooden kitchen board, the leaf is slightly softened with a chop hammer, but only from the inside. The vegetable petal has the characteristic shape of a bowl with a concave and convex side - the inner side is the concave side.
- A sheet prepared in this way is placed on a painful place (or a place where there is inflammation, for example, on the chest), applying it with the beaten side to the body. Cabbage juice will stand out on the softened side of the leaf, and have an effect on the human body.
- The sheet plate is attached to the skin by lightly wrapping it with a bandage or scarf. The bandage should not be tightened too tight so as not to impede blood flow in sore spots. Due to the fact that the leaf is beaten off only inside, the juice will go directly to the body. A therapeutic compress with cabbage is usually applied in the evening, sleeping with it, and then removed in the morning.
- After removing the dressing, the leaf of the vegetable should be dry from the juice and slightly adhered to the body.
With honey for joints
Many people suffering from joint pain apply a compress of white cabbage to them. This folk remedy really helps with pain and relieves swelling.. Doctors say that cabbage juice actually contains ingredients that relieve swelling of the joints. But it should be noted that the use of this tool brings significant relief to patients, but does not cure the disease itself.
In case of pain in the joints, skin wrap of appropriately prepared vegetable leaves can alleviate the patient's condition. The compress will relieve swelling and significantly cool the inflamed tissue in the joint, since one of the properties of cabbage is the cooling of the body.
Did you know? Cabbage was used by the healers of the ancient Romans to treat wounds and changes in the joints.
For a compress, cabbage leaves should be cleaned of thick veins, and then slightly crushed to a state of juice. Next, you need to lubricate the skin with a small amount of melted honey and attach the prepared leaf to the sore spot. The compress can be fixed with a bandage or, if it is possible to sit quietly for half an hour - do not cover it.
Such cabbage wrappers are ideal for sore joints, a sore spine, swollen and tired legs. The tool can also be used in cases of inflammation of the veins and bruises. Wraps bring relief if they are repeated regularly.
Video: Cabbage compress with honey
For headache
Pre-prepared leaves are applied with the side on which cabbage juice has already acted to the forehead and temples, after which the vegetable plates are fixed with a scarf or bandage. Cool leaves are left in this position for several hours, after which they are replaced with fresh ones. They can also be removed as soon as the headache recedes.
With mastopathy
Cabbage leaves can help nursing mothers. Their used as compresses for stagnation of milk, swelling of the breast, inflammation of the mammary glands, as well as when weaning a baby from breastfeeding.
With stagnation of milk and mastopathy, the breast must be warmed up before feeding. It is recommended to take a warm shower, immerse the breast in warm water or make a warm compress. You can also express a little milk from the chest. These actions will help increase the outflow of milk, and heating will also open the pores of the skin. Cabbage leaves are applied to the breast after feeding.
Leaves can be fastened directly to the chest or put in a bra. With mastopathy, it is recommended to make a compress of cabbage leaves at night
Leaves should be cold, so before use, they are stored in the refrigerator for a short time. Before you put cabbage on your chest, you need to knead the leaves well, so that the juice begins to stand out.
For wounds and burns
Another way to prepare a useful and healing compress from cabbage for cutaneous injuries is to boil the vegetable in a small amount of water, in which two chopped onions and a spoonful of bran are also placed. Ingredients boil for 20 minutes over low heat. When the mixture is restored to the state of vegetable gruel, the product is ready for use. When the vegetable mass has cooled, it is laid out in an even layer on gauze or a piece of linen cloth, after which it is applied to the sore spot and kept in the form of a compress for 20 minutes.
Soothing effect - tanning enthusiasts often do not calculate the intensity of sunlight, and get a burn of the skin. In this case, the skin becomes hot and red, sometimes painful blisters form on it. In this case, fresh cabbage will help. First, yogurt or sour cream is applied to the burns to moisten the affected areas. Then cover the burns with a mixture of chopped cabbage, grated carrots and a few tablespoons of potato starch. The consistency of the burn mixture should resemble the density of a hand cream.
With eczema and dermatosis
In the treatment of eczema and dermatosis, cabbage wraps are used for one month, one hour a day. If eczema is dry, each leaf should be lubricated with vegetable oil on the inside. At the same time, you need to introduce more raw and stewed cabbage into the patient's diet. Be sure to drink fresh juice squeezed from this vegetable.
With bumps and bruises
With such injuries, juicy and elastic leaves taken from a fresh head of cabbage are applied to the damaged area. Many people in childhood put plantain leaves on scratches and wounds, in this case the principle of application is the same. A cool fresh leaf is tightly wound to the place of damage and left for 1-2 hours. Vegetable coolness relieves pain from bruising or shock. If the sheet quickly warmed up and lost effectiveness, it is changed to fresh, elastic and cool.
In cosmetology
Acne is an unpleasant disease of many people. Mask with cabbage perfectly helps the skin with inflammation and irritation. To prepare it, you need only a few leaves of cabbage, a little lemon juice and olive oil. The washed cabbage leaves should be chopped into gruel, mixed with lemon juice and vegetable oil, and then mixed until smooth. The vegetable mixture is applied for 15-20 minutes on the face. The result is fresh, radiant and non-inflamed skin. All cutaneous irritations will also be mitigated.
Sauerkraut mask recommended for acne and acne. A few cabbage leaves are passed through a meat grinder or chopped into a pulp on a blender. Then applied to the face and keep the mask in this position for about 15 minutes. After removing the mixture, the face is washed with cool water. The mask makes the skin fresh and supple.
Cabbage wraps applied to the face also restore the skin, help fight herpes and other skin diseases. Before use, the skin is washed with warm soapy water, and then vigorously wiped with a towel until it turns red and warmed up. After that, cabbage leaves, softened from the inside until juice is released, are applied to dry skin (without applied cream). Wrapping with cabbage leaf is not difficult to do, since the leaf inside is in the shape of a bowl.
Leaves soaked in olive or sunflower oil are a natural and safe way to moisturize the skin.. Oil-soaked cabbage leaves are placed on a clean face for 15 minutes, then rinsed with cool boiled water.
A mask of apples, avocados, sauerkraut and olive oil works well on rough, cracked and dry skin. Finely chopped cabbage is mixed with grated apple and avocado, after which a little vegetable oil is added to the mixture. The ingredients are thoroughly mixed, after which they are applied to the face for 20 minutes. The applied mixture is covered with gauze so that it does not exfoliate and does not peel off the skin. At the end of the procedure, the face is washed from the vegetable mask with warm water.
Important! Before using cabbage for cosmetic or medicinal purposes, it is necessary to check the presence or absence of an allergic reaction to this product. To do this, cabbage juice is applied to a small area of the skin at the bend of the elbow or on the wrist, if after 15 minutes there is no redness at this place, then there is no allergy.
Raw cabbage leaf juice has anti-inflammatory properties. If you wipe their skin, the complexion will improve, inflammation and irritation will be removed. This tool is also not bad. helps in the fight against acne. To extract juice from raw leaves using grinding in a blender, and squeezing the juice from the resulting mass. You can also use a juicer for these purposes. Cabbage oil is effectively used on the skin for allergic skin rashes. Juice also helps with various dermatological diseases.
Energy effect - if a person feels fatigue, lethargy, pain in muscles and joints, then in this case it is advisable to take an invigorating bath with cabbage. To do this, you need to take a few cabbage forks, disassemble them into leaves and boil in a small amount of water. The bath is filled with warm water, after which the vegetable broth is poured there.
In addition, a few drops of your favorite essential oil and boiled leaves in a small canvas bag can be added to the font. The leaves added to the bath enhance the effectiveness of the decoction, while the essential oils relax and soothe. Half an hour bathing in the broth of cabbage will make a person cheer up and feel better.
Use for children
There is a scientific explanation for why wrapping fresh cabbage leaves can relieve sore throats or treat burns, frostbite, and bruises. Cabbage contains sulfur compounds and potassium salt. These are ingredients that help fight inflammation and with angina.
Children do not like medicine, so you can try to cure a sore throat in a child with vegetable throat wraps. A few cabbage leaves are immersed in hot water for 5-7 minutes, after which they are removed and knead with an iron or wooden pestle, until the juice appears. The rumpled and steamed warm sheet is placed on the neck of the baby for 20-30 minutes.
The smell during treatment will not be the most pleasant, but better health is guaranteed. This recipe wraps around the sternum to help soften a debilitating cough and relieve airway inflammation.
Cabbage leaf is a natural medicine, besides it is very cheap, easily accessible and universal. Cabbage should be eaten as often as possible for preventive purposes, and in case of illness, you can try applying the cabbage treatment options before running to the pharmacy for medication.