Cures for the Ailments of Yesteryear

[Derek WC]

I've decided to create a thread that discusses cures for various sicknesses that would have been used in the Golden Era, due to the fact that I've been ill for the last few days, and this is the only thing really on my mind.

So tell of your various home remedies from coughs to vomiting, from sore throat to tired feet.

 

[Shangas]

For curing...ehm...frequent and unwelcome trips to the household commode on a daily basis, plain rice-porridge is best. Flavoured with some ginger, soy-sauce and pepper.

For headaches - Sleep.
For sore-throats - Herbal tea. Pots and pots of it. Or throat-lozenges (again, lots of those, too).
For runny/blocked noses - Garlic. Lots of it. Either in your food, in your drink...but better yet, in you.

 

[Miss sofia]

Hi there, i'll get the ball rolling...

All remedies regularly practised by Italian family.

Always keep a big bag of bicarbonate of soda in the med. chest, as well as having loads of household and beauty uses, it's also good for the following:

Sore, swollen, aching feet: put a generous amount in a basin of water and soak feet. Working in a busy Tuscan restaurant, we all used to soak our feet on the verandah after a long service with a cold beer in hand and it works.

Also good for bathing if one has cystitis, add some to a bath or bidet.

Indigestion, heartburn, general 'i've overdone it' - a generous teaspoon of bicarb in a glass of water.

Cuts, stings, nappy rash, spots, sore and puffy eyes: - infuse a camomile teabag in a cup of warm water and bathe the affected area with a cotton pad.

Camomile is also delicate enough if very diluted to be applied to small children, also can be given orally to soothe them and rehydrate, only a small teaspoon or two, but again my italian family were all given it as children and i used to give it to my son when he was little and it seemed to work.

Buy an Aloe Vera plant and keep on the windowsill, cut off a stalk and apply directly to the skin for blessed, cooling relief from burns, cuts, stings, sunburn etc.

Blocked nose, head cold, etc: - get the kettle on, when the kettle has boiled pour into a basin, add a few drops of olbas or menthol oil and inhale with a towel covering head/basin. Then a liberal application of vicks vapour rub, more olbas oil on your pillow. Huge hot toddy before bed, works like a charm.

Wrap yourself up in October in brown paper smeared with goose fat, tie with string and don't take it off until about April, that way you should avoid colds and the need for too much of the dreaded central heating.

 

[Foofoogal]

Coming from a large family our mom had many, many.
Not sure how good they were or are so don't try these at home caution is warranted. lol
----------------------
Have fever. Slap vicks on your chest, cover with cloth around your neck and then about 50 covers and then sweat till you cannot sweat anymore.
Honey melted in a spoon with vicks and taken internally. (not recommended as it is a petroleum product. )

Cod liver oil in the Spring for tonic. Barely lived thru these ordeals. (can still smell this when I think of it. Yuck) Either that or didn't want to tell mom in case she came up with something else.

Cup of sugar on bleeding to clot till you can get to emergency room.

Hot lemonade for about anything remotely looking like a cold.

Mercurochrome or monkeys blood we called it for about anything.
Aloe vera for sure.

Tons of prayer of course.

Now we had other very odd ones like blowing smoke in our ears when we had an earache. It did work a bit to melt the wax.

 

[Derek WC]

I've heard about swallowing a tablespoon of Vapo-Rub to cure almost anything in the Reminisce magazine. My grandmother also talks about using codliver oil when she was a kid. Prayer is definitely the most fool-proof cure of them all.

For curing...ehm...frequent and unwelcome trips to the household commode on a daily basis, plain rice-porridge is best. Flavoured with some ginger, soy-sauce and pepper.

Laughter is also a good cure for almost anything. lol

 

[Derek WC]

Darnit, I just can't keep any food down. A few minutes after I've eaten something I just vomit it back up. Perhaps some kind hearted soul has a remedy for this?

 

[Feraud]

Go visit a doctor.

 

[Gilboa]

Vinegar and Coca-Cola

Laughter is also a good cure for almost anything. lol

That ALWAYS works for me.




In my childhood, when I was living with my Nan (and she told me that is what they did to her when she was young):

For colds: 2 woolly socks soaked in vinegar, put on your feet, wrap the feet with the cold, smelly socks in plastic bags (or anything that is relatively waterproof), hop into bed, 2 duvets on top, sleep and most importantly: SWEAT!! I am still now and then using this method, because it indeed works a treat, even though it is smelly.

Sick stomach: Coca cola. Evertime when I was sick as a child I was given coca cola. It worked! It was even more fun when sick while great grandmother was present: it was coca cola with a shot of whiskey, the ultimate cure for an upset stomach!


And as mentioned by 'Shangas': Garlic! I love garlic, but come autumn and winter, I do infact get regular cravings for garlic, and quite often I squeeze it on a bit of bread with olive oil. I hardly ever get a cold, probably because nobody wants to come near me

 

[Derek WC]

Go visit a doctor.

Yeah, I was planning on that tomorrow.

Strange treatment, Gilboa. Ginger ale or 7-up also work for an upset stomach, and welcome to the Lounge.

 

[Miss sofia]

Darnit, I just can't keep any food down. A few minutes after I've eaten something I just vomit it back up. Perhaps some kind hearted soul has a remedy for this?

I second the going to visit the doctor.

 

[Gilboa]

Strange treatment, Gilboa. Ginger ale or 7-up also work for an upset stomach, and welcome to the Lounge.

Thank you.

The strangest treatment I remember was when I had scarlet fever (aged 5ish) and was given coca-cola once a day. I was never allowed to drink it otherwise. I still do not know to this day why, appart from the fact that originally, coca cola appears to have been a medicine.

 

[Silver Dollar]

I grew up with Jewish parents and grandparents. Some of the home remedies I thought were a bit different.

1. For upset stomach Castor Oil. If that didn't work, you got an enema.
2. For headache. One aspirin. If that didn't work, you got an enema.
3. For constipation. Karo Syrup. If that didn't work, you got an enema. That definitely worked there.

4. For diarrhea. A big bowl of rice and a banana. If that didn't work, you got an enema.

5. For flu, cold, sinusitis. A big bowl of chicken soup. If that didn't work --you guessed it.

6. For any non descript illness before you called the doctor. Bankis. A series of small glasses placed on the back like suction cups. If that didn't work, you got chicken soup. If that didn't work, Well, at least you were cleaned out.

 

[Miss sofia]

lol lol lol Much like the Italians, every prescription from the doctors was prescribed as a suppository! I never got ill strangely enough when i was sent over to the family for the summer when i was a kid after the first few summer colds got treated that way!

 

[fortworthgal]

The only slightly odd remedy I remember from my childhood was the infamous hot toddy. I had chronic bronchitis and sinusitis (double whammy!) so I a frequent recipient. It was a mug of boiling water with some lemon juice, honey, maybe some cloves or something, and a shot of whiskey. Yep, I drank this many times as a child.

I think the only real benefit and purpose of this beverage was to simply knock the sick kid out cold with the shot of whiskey. lol

 

[Derek WC]

Well, I didn't even need to visit a doctor because he told me what I already knew, which was that I have a bad cold that's been going around.

Very interesting learning about what different cultures do, like the Italians and Jews.

 

[CopperNY]

ear ache: blow tobacco smoke into the ear.

in my case, Black Cavendish pipe tobacco from either my father or grandfather.

 

[HepKitty]

Garlic oil & a cotton ball in the ear for ear infections

Powdered ginger in gel caps, taken like vitamins, gets rid of gas

Peppermint tea for minor heartburn (couldn't drink enough when I was pregnant)

Steam your face with chamomile tea to clear sinuses. Good for your skin too

Neti pot + aqueous solution of NaHCO3 and pure NaCl to help with hay fever and sinus infections

Cucumber slices under the eyes to reduce puffiness (careful this can sting a little)

Tea tree oil for minor skin anything, scrapes, cuts, etc

 

[Diamondback]

And as mentioned by 'Shangas': Garlic! I love garlic, but come autumn and winter, I do infact get regular cravings for garlic, and quite often I squeeze it on a bit of bread with olive oil. I hardly ever get a cold, probably because nobody wants to come near me

Ah, garlic, the supreme deterrent of bloodsuckers and carriers of other parasites no matter how many legs they have.lol

 

[Eric P]

A lot of these are still used in 3rd world countries, Here is a download of 'Where there is no Doctor' It is a very informative publication. It talks about the home cures. http://www.hesperian.org/publications_download_wtnd.php

 

[Derek WC]

Interesting stuff Hepkitty, I'll have to remember that. Same with you Diamondback, as I am going to Wisconsin this coming summer. Lot's and lot's of big mosquitoes.

Also interesting Eric P, and welcome to the Lounge.

I got this from the 'Remedies We'd Rather Forget' column in the Reminisce magazine.
To get rid of warts count the number of them you have, than tie a knot in a string for every one, and have somebody else bury the string so you don't know where it is, and when the string has rotted the warts will be gone. Apparently it worked too.