Everybody loves corn on the cob. Well, almost everybody.  When you clean the corn you usually throw away the husk and the stringy stuff.  That stringy stuff is called the corn silk and if you knew how good it was for you then you might not throw it away next time.

Corn silk, sometimes referred to as mother’s hair, mealy silk, or Zea mays is available in the marketplace in a powdered form, capsule form, as tea or in an extract form.  It has many health benefits for a diverse amount of problems.

When taken in a juice form it is a very effective diuretic which can help with various kidney related ailments such as inflammation of the bladder, urinary tract infections and painful urination.  Served in a tea form, corn silk can help with inflammation of the prostate.

Because it is a diuretic, corn silk can help people who suffer from water retention and bloating due to kidney problems or PMS.  Because corn silk coats the lining of the urinary tract, it helps keep a steady movement of matter through the urinary tract and helps reduce any sediment formation in the kidneys. It is also beneficial for people with heart problems and contains high levels of vitamin K which helps control bleeding especially for women during childbirth.  It also helps to control bed wetting in children and adults.

Corn silk is also useful in controlling ailments such as mumps, urinary tract infections, obesity, gall bladder stones, kidney stones, jaundice, hardening of the arteries, gout, cystitis and gonorrhea.  Corn silk can also help to lower blood sugar and stimulate the flow of bile to aid in the digestion process.  It can also be beneficial to people with carpal tunnel syndrome and arthritis to relieve pain.  When used as a topical treatment it can expedite the healing of wounds and skin ulcers.

(To Be Continued)