Vinegar helps detect cervical cancer
Score another one for vinegar. It's in our salad dressings, it cleans windows, and is used for personal hygiene.
Today we feature a story about how vinegar, cotton, and a bright light can be used to help detect cervical cancer. It appears to be working when used in developing countries, though I wonder what the reaction would be if the method were used in the United States. The study was published in the Lancet.
From the story in the Daily News:
The visual screening test is done by a nurse or trained health care worker who washes a woman's cervix with vinegar and gauze using a speculum to hold it open. After one minute, any pre-cancerous lesions turn very white and can be seen with the naked eye under a halogen lamp.There were 167 cases and 83 cervical cancer deaths in the women who received the screening, compared with 158 cases and 92 deaths in those who didn't. That represents 25 percent less cervical cancer and a 35 percent lower death rate among those screened.