The Medicinal Uses of Spider Webs

Lots of thoughts running through my mind this morning.  I check the news out of Israel a couple of times each day since the war began on October 7.  I’m not a military or technology buff, so the new strategies employed in the battles there surprise me.  And then my mind goes to a quote by Albert Einstein:

“I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought,

 but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”

I think of my drawers full of tapes and wraps, gauze, band-aids, antibiotics, dressings, and QuikClot.  Most of those are quite affordable when bought in bulk, but not so for the QuikClot.  I mean, sure you can easily buy a few packages, but enough to treat dozens of people in a serious catastrophe or conflict? 

And then I think about how we still have access to many of the advancements of modern medicine, but what will happen down the road, like when “World War IV [is] fought with sticks and stones”?  If that’s the case, our access to modern meds and supplies has likely also deteriorated.  No more QuikClot. 

Yes, we can use direct pressure and tourniquets if absolutely necessary.  Achilles supplied his troops with yarrow powder to slow bleeding from their wounds.  However, there are those places where tourniquets can’t be used.  Direct pressure may not be sufficient. 

God has provided a solution.  I hope you are sitting down for this.

Spiders.  Specifically, spider webs. 

(Cue the creepy crawlies and shivers running down spines.)

I’d never in a million years anticipated that spider webs could be used medicinally but for a post from an internet acquaintance on a thread at the forum I get my news from.  She’d had a heifer sever a major facial artery.  Blood was spurting everywhere, and due to the location, a tourniquet was impossible.  She’d applied a tight compression bandage, but it wasn’t sufficient.  Blood was still spurting through the layers.  So she grabbed a “handful” of relatively clean spider webs from the barn and applied them to the wound.  She then re-applied the compression bandage, and when she checked again ten minutes later, the blood had clotted and the bleeding stopped.  She has also seen spider webs work on a de-horned calf whose artery wasn’t pulled.

And then another poster shared that she collects spider webs each fall for this very same reason, noting that she has also used fresh yarrow but that the spider webs were more effective.

So I had to research the matter.

Apparently, spider webs have been used for clotting blood for centuries.  Even Shakespeare knew about it when he wrote in A Midsummer Night’s Dream:

I shall desire you of more acquaintance, good master cobweb,

If I cut my finger, I shall make bold of you.

A study conducted using silk from the common house spider Tegenaria domestica revealed an antibacterial effect against gram-positive Bacillus subtilis but not gram-negative Escherichia coli.[i] [ii]

Unfortunately, I couldn’t come up with anything else.  

Part of the problem lies in the fact that, as usual, if Big Pharma can’t benefit, it’s not going to research it.  However, even in other countries, they don’t write much about using spider webs.  It’s time-consuming to gather a lot of them, which is what you might need.  Also distasteful to some.  Keep in mind, it is not because the spider silk isn’t useful.  There are hundreds, maybe even thousands, of studies using spider silk medicinally.  It’s just that the spider silk being used is recombinant—genetically identical but manufactured by bacteria, and most often used internally for nerve and tissue repair, which will be beyond our capabilities in a collapsed society.

If you decide to gather spider webs, select clean webs without corpses if possible, or remove the corpses before storing.  Gather them on wax paper, dry them well, and store them loosely rolled in a plastic bag. 

To use spider webs on wound:

• Pack the spider webs into the wound.  
• Cover with gauze and tape in place.   
• When the wound has sufficiently healed, soften the spider webs with warm water and carefully wash them away. 

Maybe you’d rather just buy more QuikClot.  Pass on buying more food this month and next.  I’m right there with you.  At the same time, you can look on the bright side and also save yourself some time in housecleaning.  Instead of trying to get all the spider webs from the ceiling fans and corners, leave them there as part of your medical preps.  Hiding in plain sight.  And if nothing else, you can save the QuikClot for your family and use the spider webs on others. 

Links to related posts:

Hemostatic Agents to Stop Bleeding

The Medicinal Uses of Yarrow  

Maggot Therapy:  Truly TEOTWAWKI Wound Management

Other references of possible interest:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7849047/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8513057/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33806846/

https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/news/pressreleases/2017/january/chance-meeting-leads-to-creation-of-antibiotic-spider-silk.aspx

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[i] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3443048/

[ii] https://www.psu.edu/news/research/story/arachnicillin/

 

Festive Jello Cookies

I don't make a lot of jello salads, other than the obligatory one our family has for every Thanksgiving, Christmas, and 4th of July.  But I feel compelled to stock up on jello when it's on deep discount.  It doesn't provide much in the way of nutrition, other than a bit of protein.  However, it can be inexpensive form of sugar (when on sale), most everybody will eat it, and it is a good food for patients requiring a bland diet. (Ever wonder why it's on the menu when you're in the hospital.  It's not just because it's cheap; it's also because of the protein.)

Jello's been around for over 100 years.  Especially popular during the Depression and WWII, the General Foods Corporation issued numerous recipe books with thousands of ways to use Jell-O every day, some good, some not so great.  But they all look great, and some recipes really pique the curiosity.  Such was the case with a few cookie recipes.  Would they be any good?

Jello Sugar Cookies

3/4 cup butter

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup jello (raspberry gives the best color for red)

2 eggs

1 teaspoon lemon extract

2 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

Food coloring, optional (to intensify the color; paste and gel food coloring give the most vibrant color)

Colored sugar sprinkles, optional, to match color of cookies

Cream butter, sugar, and jello together.  Beat in eggs, and then mix in remaining ingredients to make a soft dough.  Roll dough into 1” balls and roll in sugar crystals.  Place on cookie sheet 2” apart and flatten slightly with a glass.  Sprinkle with additional sugar crystals, if desired.  Bake at 400°F for 6-8 minutes.  Do not overbake. 

Reviews:  OK, we gotta be honest here.  While these look fine, they just aren't super tasty.  If you've run out of everything else and need to take something sweet to a picnic, these might do the job.  Especially for kids who just take a bite and don't finish the rest anyway.

Jello Meringue Cookies

4 egg whites, room temperature (or use aquafaba)

¼ cup jello, any flavor

Pinch salt

3/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vinegar

Sprinkles, optional

In a small bowl, combine egg whites, jello, salt, and sugar.  Mix on low speed for 30 seconds, or until sugar is dissolved.  Then increase to medium-high speed until stiff peaks form.  Add vinegar and mix for 10 seconds more on low speed. 

Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.  Spoon or pipe the batter onto the parchment and decorate with sprinkles, if desired.  Bake at 350°F for 18 minutes, rotating cookie sheet halfway through baking.  

Reviews:  Well, these look okay, but the other Jello cookies look better.  And taste better.  (And that's not really saying much.)

Look, there are going to be a lot of crazy recipes appearing in print and online as people try to save some money or make use of boxes of jello that got lost deep in a drawer somewhere.  Better to just actually make a pan of jello rather than some jello cookies.

Links to related posts:

Jello Play Dough 

Jello for Food Storage--Do You Really Want to Go There? 

Fruit-Flavored Pancake and Waffle Syrups 

The Health Benefits of Sourdough Bread

I tend to avoid writing (and reading!) articles on the health benefits of xyz, considering the vast majority of them to be based on studies funded by whatever industry is going to benefit.  Blueberries, pomegranates, omega-3s, natural sweeteners … what else has been in the media lately?  People need to prep with what’s available to them and within their budgets and space constraints.

But bread is a little different, isn’t it?  Most preppers plan to be making and eating a lot of it.  It’s called the staff of life for a reason.  The Savior chose bread to be the emblem for His body when He instituted the sacrament among His apostles.  It’s relatively cheap and easy to store the raw ingredients.  There’s a lot of calories in them thar buckets of wheat.

However, one of the challenges we face is ensuring that the food we feed our families is healthy.  The problem is that many preppers haven’t been able to get on the whole-grain bandwagon when it comes to making bread for their families.  Whole grain bread tends to be denser, especially as we’re still learning to work with it, and sometimes the family just doesn’t like the taste.  Some people don’t have grain mills, or the mill they have doesn’t grind the wheat finely enough.  The list goes on.

Sprouted grain bread is touted as the healthiest option.  It’s a bit of work.  Whole wheat bread, my family’s go-to for forever and which I’ve been baking for the last fifteen years, comes in at second.  No surprise there, other than maybe not realizing that sprouted grain was healthier.  What absolutely floors me, however, is that sourdough bread, even if it’s made entirely with white flour (though better if you can replace some of the white with whole wheat flour) comes in at third place.[1] And then if you made the sourdough with whole wheat flour it would be even healthier.

I’ve been making sourdough bread exclusively since my friend Abby taught a group of us how to do it last month and shared her starter.  I need never buy a loaf of San Luis sourdough or any other brand ever again.  I’ve been able to keep the starter going and I’ve dehydrated some starter in case I ever mess up or someone mistakenly throws it out.

And while I would bake sourdough just for the phenomenal taste and ease of making it as compared to my other yeast breads, sourdough has a couple of impressive health benefits to keep in mind.

Gut issues

Sourdough by nature is the best choice for gut health not only due to the good bacteria that aid digestion and but also the forms of fiber that it contains.[2] 

Sourdough has far less gluten (however, it is not gluten-free) and fructans, forms of carbohydrate, than regular yeast breads.  It isn’t a solution for those who are celiac or otherwise require gluten-free diets, but it does work for those who are plagued by irritable bowel syndrome, gas, or bloating.[3] 

Diabetes

For those who are diabetic, sourdough bread is a much healthier choice as it has a lower glycemic index—the acetic and lactic acids that slow the digestion of carbohydrates mean that the blood sugars don’t spike as much after eating sourdough as compared to yeast breads. 

General nutrition

While yeast bread contains iron, calcium, magnesium, zinc, these minerals are bound by phytic acid and thus unavailable to the body.  The fermentation process in making sourdough breaks down phytates that bind the minerals in regular yeast bread, making them available to the body. 

In addition, sourdough exerts some anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant effects that are being studied further.[4]

Links to related posts:

Three Perfect Ingredients Sourdough Bread  

Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread 

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[1] https://www.eatingwell.com/article/7899934/healthy-breads-you-should-be-eating-according-to-a-dietitian/

[2] https://www.eatingwell.com/article/8047267/best-bread-for-gut-health/

[3] https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/nutrition/is-sourdough-bread-healthy-actually-what-science-says/ar-AA1j3j68?rc=1&ocid=winp1taskbar&cvid=bb21fd8aa5bf47078751fd222c135263&ei=11

[4] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30036730/