cures for all ails

[molly]

Now the cold and flu season is upon us with a vengence, and the drug companies are hitting us from all sides with their cure-all's, does anyone know of any interesting old wives cures? And how can I get rid of my hacking cough?

[bobbobley]

do you smoke? cutting out the fags will certainly help if so.

otherwise, i don't know any old wives tales about colds but suggest you try lemsip max strength - i find it really does work as well as the embarassingly dodgy ad implies.

[molly]

No, I don't smoke and nor does anyone else in the house. Every time I get a cold I always end up with a dreadful cough that takes forever to shift. Hubby says his mother used to give him a tablespoon of sugar soaked in vinegar for his cough when he was a kid.

[brawburd]

Stick with the drugs! Don't suffer. :)

[treaclefight]

i am 100% sure that if old wives had been able to buy lemsip they would have recommended it, and a whole host of other drugs. And convenience foods. they werent silly, old wives.

[Ember]

My mother-in-law used honey for absolutely everything and she was a spry old thing and hardly ailed anything until the very last years of her life. Me I swear by night nurse.

[coemgen]

I swear by onions,garlic and hot curries for clearing the sinuses. Whenever I feel a cold coming on I start taking echinacea tablets and it really does help to lessen the severity of a cold. It is said to boost the immune sysytem.

[lightheart]

As soon as feal the slightest twinge of a cold or the flu, take two standard paracetomol, have a nice hot cup of orange squash, wrap up warm and put yourself to bed for an early night. If you do this from the very first sign of the cold or flu you will usually be able to shift it before it gets hold. For the hacking cough, get a pop small pop bottle fill three uaters with sweet honey drop in two table spoons of vinager and top it up with lemon juice, keep it in the fridge for when you feal the tickles coming!!

[Wispy68]

Contac 400 is brilliant, and I think you can now buy it in 'non-drowsy' formula. A tablespoon of apple cider vinegar, in a glass of warm water, with honey is pretty good.

[TRINITY]

HOT PEPPERS

[molly]

Many thanks for all your answers. I'll try them all! For those who suggested honey, well done, honey has been used as an antiseptic since ancient Egyptian times. One or two interesting cures I won't be using are (1)For a chesty cold, you were advised to cut a piece of brown paper into a heart shape, warm it, rub it with a tallow candle, and lay it on your chest. (2) Mice, baked and eaten with onions, were suggested as a cure for whooping cough. (3)a cure for ague, use was to swallow a spider wrapped in its own web. (4) If you sleep in a grave yard for three nights you would never have bad teeth

[Ember]

Molly, If I slept in a graveyard I definitely would not have bad teeth, I would have chattered them away with fright.