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Up from the clothes chute

Proven home remedies are more than memories

By GEORGI DAVIS
Published September 25, 2005

Every time my husband and I watch television, it seems as though we are bombarded with commercials that deal with medications. I realize that some people need these to feel good and stay healthy. My concern is the side effects they list when telling us how wonderful they are.

It is kind of like a good news, bad news scenario. I'm sure you've heard them all. These prescriptions warn that side effects may include, among other things, flu-like symptoms, earaches, headaches, liver damage, strokes, sore throats, nausea, muscle aches, internal bleeding or even heart attacks.

The one I like best are the side effects for the male enhancement drug. The commercials warn men that they may experience backaches or headaches. I don't know for sure, but I do think that it would not be conducive to making love if you are suffering from a headache or backache.

At any rate, although I know these drugs are miracle workers for some people, I sometimes think maybe the old remedies might still be best.

My grandmother and father had great home remedies for what ailed you. If you had the stomach flu, my grandmother fed you hot coffee over soda crackers and sugar. It worked!

For a stuffy nose, she mixed a teaspoon of salt in a quart of water and, using a straw, stuffed it up your nose. The stuffiness went away.

For colds and coughs, nothing beat Vicks VapoRub. It smelled good and made you warm all over. Maybe it was someone rubbing it on your back that felt so good, but it worked. It even saved me from a trip to the hospital when I had pneumonia!

My father preferred something stinkier. He used Musterole for coughs and colds that loosened phlegm and opened noses, but it didn't smell good at all. His other favorite for sore muscles was Sloan's Liniment. It was yellow and stunk to high heaven! The aches went away fast, just so you didn't have to smell the smell of the cure.

His other remedy for colds was a cup of hot tea laced with honey, lemon and a teaspoon of whiskey. It sure made you sweat, and you got some sleep. So did my parents.

In those days, a cure for insomnia was a cup of hot milk with a teaspoon of sugar. It put me to sleep in nothing flat. To this day, when I can't sleep I still heat up some milk, and I am out like a light.

My grandmother had her own miracle skin cream. I was blessed with freckles as a child. She told me to put buttermilk on the freckles, and they'd go away. They did. So did the tan I had gotten that summer.

Because I am allergic to so many medicines I find that I just don't take any. I tried to take medication for cholesterol, but I had serious side effects. Now I eat a teaspoon of cinnamon on my cereal. It is supposed to work. We all know that oatmeal is supposed to reduce cholesterol, along with many other natural products. If I ate all of them, I might not have any cholesterol at all, good or bad.

A friend of mine has restless leg syndrome. That's a new one on me! She put a bar of soap under her sheets and, like magic, the syndrome was gone. She now sleeps through the night.

I use Adolph's meat tenderizer on bee and wasp stings. I used it on a recluse spider bite, and it saved me from an allergic reaction. It draws the poison out, and the redness disappears in about 10 minutes. It probably tenderizes my skin, too.

Maybe this is another beauty cure. Maybe it would take away wrinkles, of which I am getting many.

I could go on, but I'm running out of space. I hope some of these cures will cure what is ailing you. They work for me. They might work for you. After all, it is inevitable: Someday we will all leave this earth. Let's hope we go happy and peacefully.

Thought for the day: A spoonful of sugar really does make the medicine go down! Or, what's good for the rat may not be good for the human.

[Last modified September 25, 2005, 02:15:40]