My orthopedic surgery practice in Chicago is ethnically diverse. For years, patients from various European, Asian, and Hispanic cultures have been telling me about the power of crushed cabbage leaves applied directly to their swollen and painful skin, muscles and joints. After hearing about cabbage time and time again, I decided to dig a little further.

Cabbage is a green cruciferous vegetable and a member of the mustard family. There are many good reasons to eat cabbage, including glucosinolates (sulfur-containing compounds that may be of benefit in preventing cancer). But cabbage leaves are also loaded with vitamin A, vitamin C, and inflammation fighting phytonutrients. When cabbage leaves are crushed and kept on the skin, these inflammation fighters offer a local anti-inflammatory benefit and can reduce pain and swelling.

But is the effect real?

The answer is yes.  A randomized controlled clinical trial evaluating the efficacy of cabbage leaf wraps was published in 2016 in the Clinical Journal of Pain. The researchers found cabbage leaf wraps were significantly more effective than usual care in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis in terms of pain reduction, functional improvement, and quality of life.

Another group of researchers studied the effect of cabbage leaves in the prevention of breast engorgement. A randomized controlled clinical trial published in 1993 in Birth found that mothers who applied cabbage leaves to their breasts were able to exclusively breastfeed their babies longer than those who did not.

Because crushing and applying cabbage leaves throughout the day may not be practical for most of us, we developed cabb dab to offer 100,000 ppm of real cabbage leaf extract in an easily absorbed unscented cream, and cabb dab cooling with a touch of menthol for an extra cooling sensation.

Put the power of real cabbage leaf extract to work for you with cabb dab  and cabb dab cooling today!

 Mark Sokolowski MD

See also – “cabb dab unscented relief balm with real cabbage leaf extract” in our store.