Grandma's Wisdom: When you got cold...

[Minerva]

In your country/culture, do you have things told by your grandma (or grandpa for that matter)?

For example, in Japan, when you got cold/flu, have Negi (a type of onion somewhat between leek and spring onion) around your neck.

Then yesterday, my friend from the US said, "have a mug of hot water with cayenne pepper. That will clear your nose and head!"
I've never heard of that.
I wonder if other people have that kind of idea. Something we call "grandma's wisdom" in Japan.

Share your idea here! Not only against cold, but anything else will be welcomed.

And, yes, I have cold. I am currently sticking to hot lemon and honey (I went to supermarket to get lemons yesterday!). My friend thinks I should add Cayenne pepper in it...

[ch85us2001]

Eat jalepeno peppers, they make your nose run and clear it out of snot.

[Fiona]

Hot toddies!

[dragon wench]

Originally Posted by Fiona

Hot toddies!

lol yes! I know that one as "The Three B Cure"
*Brandy
*Book
and
*Bed*

You wake up and feel much better

[Waverly]

Hot lemon and honey tea, but it has to have whiskey! Works well when you don't have a cold too.

I think you should also strip down naked and cover yourself in a mixture of honey and tea tree oil. That's not a grandma thing - it's just something I like to think about.

[Luis Antonio]

Herbal tea and hon-ay.

Also, Fiona told me to have Toddy. BUt that's scottish stuff

[Fiona]

Originally Posted by Luis Antonio

Herbal tea and hon-ay.

Also, Fiona told me to have Toddy. BUt that's scottish stuff

Luis, you need to replace "but" with "because", I think

[dragon wench]

In a similar vein to jalapeno peppers and cayenne, I have found that a good, hot curry (as in suicidally spicy ) works wonders.
In addition to helping to clear the sinuses, it makes you sweat which aids in removing some of the toxins from your system.

Another thing that works well is a steam bath..
Boil up a large pot of water with something like Vic's Vapour rub added into it. Grab yourself a big towel, place your head over the pot, and the towel on top of your head. Stay beneath the tent for as long as you can tolerate; you may, periodically, have to come up for air.

[Gunofgod]

Originally Posted by dragon wench

Another thing that works well is a steam bath..
Boil up a large pot of water with something like Vic's Vapour rub added into it. Grab yourself a big towel, place your head over the pot, and the towel on top of your head. Stay beneath the tent for as long as you can tolerate; you may, periodically, have to come up for air.

This should work better with boiled potatoes.

[dragon wench]

Originally Posted by Gunofgod

This should work better with boiled potatoes.

Boiled potatoes work in a similar way to vapour rub ?
lol! If so, that's definitely a new one for me.

[Luis Antonio]

Originally Posted by Fiona

Luis, you need to replace "but" with "because", I think

Why? I mean... ok, if you say so. But that's scottish stuff, not brazilian stuff here people make tea from banana's heart (which I cant take) not from single malt whiskey.

[dj_venom]

@DW: Stop encouraging people to sniff fumes coming from certain objects .

Yeah, the Vics idea works, also having a hot juice with rum added in, if you feel like making that (it can be a bit hard to stomach).

[Phreddie]

Get some sushi, or even a cracker, cover it in Horseradish Wasabi, ingest, Im not talking about a dab, Im talking about a fine coating, not only does it clear out your sinuses, but its tasty too.

[dragon wench]

@DJV,
I'm sure you are confusing me with somebody else here


@Phreddie,
Oh indeed! There's nothing like wasabi for clearing out the sinuses!!!

[Maharlika]

Originally Posted by dragon wench

@Phreddie,
Oh indeed! There's nothing like wasabi for clearing out the sinuses!!!

That reminds me of this story about a friend of mine who mistook a tube of wasabi as some sort of mint-flavored japanese toothpaste.

As for Granny's Wisdom, here are a few Folk Cures from the Philippines.

The writer of the column is a Benedictine Monk with whom I had the pleasure to work with during my first year of teaching.

This was taken from The Philippine Daily Inquirer.

I took the liberty of editing out some of what was written since it talks about menstrual blood which I find too squeamish to post.

A whole section in the two-volume "Encyclopedia of Folk Beliefs and Customs" compiled by the Jesuit Francisco Demetrio (Xavier University, 1991) covers folk medicine. I consulted the book to see how leftover ash from Ash Wednesday was used in other ways and found so many folk remedies for all kinds of diseases.

Naturally sacramentals -- holy water, crucifix, rosary, medals, novenas, estampitas, images of saints, etc. -- figure in a lot of folk remedies. Some folk beliefs about their effects are quite, like the one traced to the southern city of Iligan, which holds that it is bad for a sick person to be visited by a priest, and worse if the sick is administered Extreme Unction because then he would die. We all die anyway, so I am wondering whether it is better to die with the sacrament than without it.

Some people don't agree. The more fantastic cures are as follows:

Unripe papaya is used as a cure for appendicitis. But this isn't half as bad as taking the "baticulon" of a chicken for same appendicitis. This is supposed to be the part of the intestine (?) where the waste material of the chicken is collected. The innermost yellowish layer is separated and broiled as a cure that seems worse than the disease.

Asthma is a common disease for which many remedies have been prescribed, ranging from dog meat, monkey meat, broiled centipede and roasted house lizard.

One cure for baldness is cheap but disgusting. You catch a fly (or seven flies), crush them and rub the paste on the bald part to make hair grow.

The cure for bedwetting has to be quoted lest readers think I am making it up: "A child who often urinates in bed can be cured by pouring a pail of water on him. No one must laugh when this is done." (The first part is easy; the second almost impossible.)There are many remedies for snakebite, the most unusual being the first excrement of a child applied to the wound externally and also taken internally! This is preserved in bottles and called "triaca" or "theriacum." The squeamish has the option of making a cut near the wound and applying ginger and garlic directly on it.

Infants or babies who keep people awake with their crying are cured by undergoing fumigation with various elements, ranging from blessed candles to fish and seaweed. So far the worst cure for a crybaby is whipping with coconut midrib or "tingting."

There are many remedies for sore eyes: excrement from red-feathered chicken, ground bedbugs mixed with oil, urine, breast milk and a child's urine.

Hemorrhage is cured with roasted and powdered earthworm mixed with coffee.

Most of these folk cures have disappeared in the wake of modern medicine, but knowing them helps us appreciate living in the 21st century and helps us understand or to be puzzled by the past.