Home Remedies

"The View" on ABC last week featured some natural remedies for everyday ailments and why they work. I stole the following from their "recap" section, but the comments in colored text are made by me.

Common Cold: Hot chicken soup
• Helps unclog your nasal passages, increases the flow of nasal mucus. Nasal secretions serve as a first lien of defense in removing germs from your system.
• Also, garlic and onions have an antiviral property, so adding some spice in the form of cayenne or chili peppers can help.
• Why it works: At least one scientific study suggests that a steaming bowl of chicken soup affords more than comfort—although it's important not to sell comfort short. Hot liquids in general can be soothing, if only because they require you to slow down, sit still and sip patiently in order to consume them without scalding yourself. The best scientific evidence we have for chicken soup's cold-fighting capacity, however, comes from a study at the University of Nebraska where researchers exposed neutrophils, the white blood cells that fight infections but also cause inflammation, to diluted chicken broth. The liquid actually slowed the movement of the cells, suggesting that in the body, chicken soup can do the same thing. The result, if you have a cold, would be relief of some of the symptoms.
• The steamy bowl under your nose helps with the mucus and the ingredients like garlic, onions, etc. can help support immunity—it's helping with the symptoms and giving your immune system a little boost.

Nasal Congestion: Contact lens saline solution
• Irrigate the nose with contact lens saline solution, using a netipot or try putting a few drops of eucalyptus oil on the floor of a hot, running shower and inhaling the steam that accumulates.

Chest Congestion: Onions in towels (This sounds disgusting!)
• Cook onions until they are translucent and put in towels to make a hot pack and put it on your chest and back.

Headache: Headband (I'll try anything for this)
• This old business of grandma tying a tight cloth around her head has some merit to it.
• Why it works: It decreases blood flow to the scalp and lessens the throbbing and pounding of a migraine.

Hemmoroids: Olive oil (uh... I don't know a thing about this)
• Dab a little on a wad of cotton or tissue and wipe affected area.
• Why it works: It has anti-inflammatory properties.

Constipation: Sugarless gum (Which is why I am always regular...yeah TMI)
• Chew sugarless gum. The sugar alcohols used to sweeten sugarless gum—malitol, sorbitol, mannitol and xylitol are not absorbed from the digestive system. They act as "osmotic laxatives", attracting water into the digestive tract. Experiment to find the right dose.
• Downside: Many sugarless gums contain aspartame, which some people prefer to avoid.

Nosebleeds: Keys
• Drop a keyring down bleeder's back.
• Believed to be a folk remedy from colonial America/British Isles.
• Why it work: Probably because the keys are cold and it makes your blood vessels constrict. (I bet ice would work, too.)

Hiccups: Spoonful of granulated sugar (I need to try this!)
• Swallow a spoonful of granulated sugar. Why it works: Theory is that the effort required to swallow the dry sugar disrupts the spasms in the diaphragm (doctor recommended).

Warts: Duct tape
• Clean the area. Then cut a piece of duct tape to a size slightly bigger than the wart. Apply the duct tape to the site and rub into place. Every three days, remove the tape and file down the dead skin with a pumice stone or nail file. Repeat until it disappears.
• Why it works: The tape causes some local inflammatory reaction that induces the immune system to kill the wart virus. A dermatologist study on school children proved this. Investigators speculated that the duct tape had somehow stimulated the children's immune system, because some untreated warts also disappeared. Another doctor reported that a teenager used athletic tape around his finger and fingernail which is very difficult to treat and warts disappeared within a month.

Foot Odor: Tea, Listerine
• Soak feet in a strong tea and three capsules of Listerine for about 20 minutes. The tannins in tea are a drying agent and will help eliminate the smell. The Listerine will keep the smell from coming back