The Chairman
03-08-2003, 10:43 AM
I think we all have had experiences where we were subjected to cultural folk remedies. For example, as the only child of a Roman Catholic-Italian father and a Jewish mother, I can verify that Jewish moms definitely look at chicken soup as a panacea, "Jewish penicillin," and Italian grandmothers have some interesting approaches to common medical ailments as well. (For example my Italian nonna would give me grappa when I had a cough or would give me a teaspoon of Campari or Fernet Branca when I had a stomach ache (followed by Brioschi, a lemon flavored fizzy antacid that came in white pellets and tasted like lemon soda when added to water.)
Anyway, I was taking a hot shower today (hangover, not horniness) and I noticed that when I go into the shower I almost always need to hack. It makes sense, the hot vapor loosens phlegm, that's why lots of people with colds use a vaporizer....(And Too Cute will be happy to know that just like I don't pee in the shower I don't hack a loogie in the shower either (I save that for later).)
So anyway I was reminded that very often, Hispanic friends or co-workers have related to me that when they were sick as a child, their mother put them in the bathroom with a hot shower on and it filled with steam and this was their way of curing the gripe or their chest cold, etc. (Makes total sense and I'm sure it's cheaper than a Turkish bath or a reverse osmosis heat vaporizer.)
Already being an expert on Latin American Folk remedies, I wonder what other cultures have interesting approaches to health ailments. Or to be even more general, what interesting approaches people on the board experienced that were unusual.
Another example that comes to mind was my friend Anthony's father who seemed to think that a styptic pencil (for stopping blood from shaving nicks) was a cure-all. If he has a mosquito bite, his dad blotted on some styptic pencil. If he had a canker sore, out came the white stick that looked like chalk. If he had a zit, his dad would tell him the styptic pencil would eliminate it faster than Oxy-10.
OK, I'm done now.
<img src = http://thereisnogod.faithweb.com/images/headi.gif>
2%
slanted and enchanted...
adf sig pics rawk!
Anyway, I was taking a hot shower today (hangover, not horniness) and I noticed that when I go into the shower I almost always need to hack. It makes sense, the hot vapor loosens phlegm, that's why lots of people with colds use a vaporizer....(And Too Cute will be happy to know that just like I don't pee in the shower I don't hack a loogie in the shower either (I save that for later).)
So anyway I was reminded that very often, Hispanic friends or co-workers have related to me that when they were sick as a child, their mother put them in the bathroom with a hot shower on and it filled with steam and this was their way of curing the gripe or their chest cold, etc. (Makes total sense and I'm sure it's cheaper than a Turkish bath or a reverse osmosis heat vaporizer.)
Already being an expert on Latin American Folk remedies, I wonder what other cultures have interesting approaches to health ailments. Or to be even more general, what interesting approaches people on the board experienced that were unusual.
Another example that comes to mind was my friend Anthony's father who seemed to think that a styptic pencil (for stopping blood from shaving nicks) was a cure-all. If he has a mosquito bite, his dad blotted on some styptic pencil. If he had a canker sore, out came the white stick that looked like chalk. If he had a zit, his dad would tell him the styptic pencil would eliminate it faster than Oxy-10.
OK, I'm done now.
<img src = http://thereisnogod.faithweb.com/images/headi.gif>
2%
slanted and enchanted...
adf sig pics rawk!