Study: Bacon an Effective "Nasal Tampon"

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Bacon up that nosebleed, boy!

OK. The main reason for this post is to get the phrase "nasal tampon" into a headline.

But as long as we have your attention and/or disgust, let's talk about one of the strangest medical studies we've come across in, well, ever.

The study, from doctors and scientists at the Detroit Medical Center and published in the Annals of Otology, Rhinology & Laryngolgy (our subscription lapsed), looked at the use of cured bacon to stop prolonged nosebleeds.

Yeah, you read that right. Doctors packed a patient's nose with perfectly good* bacon to stop its bleeding.

(*Full disclosure: We don't know for a fact that it was perfectly good when it went in, but we can say with confidence that it was not perfectly good when it came out.)

The money excerpt, from a Guardian article about the study:

Cured salted pork crafted as a nasal tampon and packed within the nasal vaults successfully stopped nasal hemorrhage promptly, effectively, and without sequelae.... To our knowledge, this represents the first description of nasal packing with strips of cured pork for treatment of life-threatening hemorrhage in a patient with Glanzmann thrombasthenia.

Granted, the study looked at a patient with a serious condition. But if it helped that person, then it must do wonders for the everyday nosebleed.

Any Gut Check readers out there prone to nosebleeds and willing to try stuffing bacon up the ol' schnozz? Take pics, write us a quick summary and we'll post it in our own annals of rhinology. We'll give you a couple of gift certificates or something for your trouble.