Monday, September 22, 2008

Hemorrhoids and beer

A number of years ago,while in practice, I visited a fellow colon-rectal surgeon in Belgium. One of the interesting things I learned from him, was that he routinely used beer for his patients after rectal surgery. A few bottles a day, relieved pain,made the patients happy and helped with bowel movements.
When I came back to the States,I initiated the use of beer in my practice.Initially the nurses and my colleagues laughed at me, until they became convinced of its efficacy.
For a while I was known as the "beer doctor".
The reason I bring this up,is because in this past weeks Daf Yomi (the daily study of the Talmud) it states very clearly that one of the treatments of Hemorrhoids is BEER!(gittin 69b)
I recall many years ago that Dr Fred Rosner published a treatise on the teachings of Maimonides and hemorrhoids.
As the saying goes" there is really nothing new under the sun".

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I am not quite certain why John McCain would mention AG Andrew Cuomo as a possible czar for the housing-financial mess.If memory serves me correct,it was on his watch under Clinton that the housing-mortgage mess was allowed to fester.