What home cures were you raised on?

My family had the same cures for some things as other people.  Chicken soup for a cold, etc.  My favorite is still what my father said, "You will feel better when you quit hurting."  Or he would hand us a Tylenol and say, "Your cold will be better in 10 days to 2 weeks."  That is the running time of a bad cold.  Sometimes you just have to let things run their natural course.

When I was about 9, I had a really bad case of the hiccups.  I couldn't get rid of them and I was driving my parents nuts.  My dad sat me on the piano bench and told me sit tall and make myself burp.  Low and behold - my hiccups went away for a little while (I get hiccups all day long even now - just with short reprieves).  But the belching trick does help.  At least it helps me.

When I was little, we had Jewish neighbors.  I had chronic earaches.  One day Mrs. Israeloff (whose husband was a pediatrician) came over and brought an eye dropper and some olive oil.  She warmed a bit of the oil in a pan to about 99 degrees - because it was just a bit warmer than my skin.  She then dropped the warm oil in my ear and packed it with cotton.  The pain was gone.  I would never recommend this instead of a DR visit but before the visit this trick works great.   My earaches were usually caused from swimmers ear (where the water gets trapped in the ear canal).  This worked great on my earaches that were not an infection.  My youngest daughter had chronic ear pain too and this worked on her most of the time too.  I still do this when I have an earache.  Be careful though, Pam and I both have an eardrum that has a pinhole in it.  Don't go dropping oil in that ear!  You could do more harm than good!

When the Brugger family was in Germany the first time, our piano teacher, Frau Berner, told my mother to drink peppermint tea when she had a headache.  I do that now when I just have a dull throbbing headache and it works great - so does chamomile.  To sleep, chamomile works beautifully but there are some other herbal teas on the market that work great too.  I realize now that the flavored water is just a way of re-hydrating your body and the throbbing headache is quite often a signal you are dehydrated.  At least that holds true for me.

When I was really young, I had 3 great-aunts that lived together.  Aunt Ida, Aunt Cora and Aunt Lou.  All three suffered from various levels of arthritis.  Aunt Cora's was the worse off - hers made her use a walker (but she was in her late 90's at this point).  Aunt Ida (the oldest sister) had actually had the arthritis eat through one of  her hip joints - she would just pop her hip back in every time she stood up!  I asked them once how they kept going - because in the 1960's - arthritis quite often put you in a wheelchair.  They both told me exercise.  Just keep walking.  I realize now that their advice is the most sound advice anyone with arthritis could be given.  Since mine is inherited and probably from that side of the family - I plan to exercise and walk into my 100's too - just like they did.