Tag Archives: folk medicine

Nosebleed Cure

Nationality: Indian, Chinese, American

Primary Language: English

Other language(s): N/A

Age: 19 yrs

Occupation: Student

Residence: Plano, Texas

Performance Date: 2/10/2024

Text:

“Oh yeah, well whenever I had a bloody nose in my house and my mom was around, she would tell me to pinch and squeeze my left pinky and then the blood would stop after a few minutes. She told me this when I was really young and I’ve been doing it since. I mean I’m pretty sure it works, like I feel like the blood kinda stops when I do it. My mom always said it was a sort of acupuncture technique that her mom taught her and so on. So I mean I still do it, it reminds me of childhood.”

Context:

My informant, TF, is a friend of mine from my freshman year at USC, from Plano, Texas who then moved in late childhood to LA. I remember one day in the first semester of freshman year, our friends and I were talking about our families’ backgrounds, a way to get closer to one another, and one of us mentioned the topic of family traditions. I remembered TF mentioning having a sort of folk medicine tradition in his life that he still does. He just simply talked about it but never went into full detail. But once I heard about this project, I thought it would have been perfect to question him further about this topic.

Analysis:

This is a family tradition TF says, but I did some research to see if it’s well known, and apparently, according to Harvard Health’s article: Stopping nosebleeds: a pinch will usually do the trick, this is a rather uncommon but still scientifically acceptable way to stop a nosebleed. According to the author and Dr., Mary Pickett, “Most nosebleeds occur when a blood vessel in the nose’s soft cartilage leaks. These are called anterior nosebleeds. Posterior nosebleeds come from blood vessels higher up in the nose. It makes sense to treat every nosebleed as if it is an anterior one, and to try to stop it at home. You will be right 94% of the time.” She then explains to pinch a finger, a thumb most likely, and hold until it goes away within a few minutes. I find this really interesting. I had no idea that pressure points in your fingers could stop nosebleeds. I also would love to know where TF’s mother’s mother learned this from, maybe it’s a generational thing for TF. I mean this article was published in 2013 and based on TF’s age at the time he says around which his mother told him about this, the article wouldn’t have been made yet. This passed down ‘nosebleed cure’ could be a traditional family technique for TF, maybe one of their family members was a doctor, or got lucky, or was told by another friend, peer, or even anyone with medical ties.

Eating yogurt before leaving the house

Ritual:

If you eat a spoonful of plain yogurt before leaving home for something important, it brings good luck – including job interviews, tests, long vacations, etc.

Context:

JG is 59 years old and my mother. She grew up in India with a very religious Hindu family, before immigrating to the USA. Her parents were spiritual and superstitious. As a child, she participated in lots of rituals that were believed to provide good luck.

Analysis:

I vaguely remember my mom doing this ritual with me when I was in elementary school. I had always assumed it was for nutritious purposes – because I know we give milk to kids to help them grow taller, and yogurt is processed milk. However, I was surprised to learn it’s part of a superstition. Lots of people incorporate small rituals into their routines, especially on important days.

Upon further research, I learned that another variation of this superstition is eating yogurt mixed with sugar. This one has a somewhat more logical explanation that is based in Ayurvedic tradition. In this way, it is a folk medicine practice. The yogurt is a coolant for the body and the sugar gives you instant energy.

There is no logical connection between eating yogurt and having a successful job interview, for instance (even if there’s a correlation, that does not always equal causation). But, we like to think there is one in order to relieve our anxiety. It makes us feel like we have control over the results in more ways than we actually do. Our decisions about what to do, especially on important days for us, aren’t always rooted in logic that can be proven.

Latin American Home Remedies

Text: 

Menthol and “The green liquid”

Context: 

Informant: “Menthol, or what Americans call Vapor rub, was a huge remedy for me as a child. My grandma would use it on me anytime I was sick, and she would put it everywhere. She’d apply it on my nostrils, chest, and back, and it always gave me a feeling of relief.“

Collector: “My parents and grandmother would do the same thing, we think that stuff can cure anything. It kind of felt icy hot when applied, and it smelled medicinal, it would also give me immediate relief.“

Informant: “Icy hot is a great way to put it, and yes it smelled herbal. And speaking of herbs, did your grandma also have this green, herb-infused liquid that she’d place on you for like good luck or good health? It looked nasty and brownish but smelled really good.“

Collector: “Yes! My cousins and I would call it the money water, but my grandma never really gave us a formal name for it.“

Analysis:

In the case of Menthol and the mystery greenish/brown liquid, we have an instance of monogenesis, the diffusion of folk to different locations. What’s interesting in this case, is that HR’s grandmother was a Christian woman, while mine was a practitioner of Santeria, a fusion of witchcraft and religion. Although they both have different belief systems, it seems they share customs and folk medicines. I am not entirely aware of the origins of the heavy use of either form of medicine in Latin America, but they mostly stem from the interaction of European faith with indigenous belief. Latin America is a colonized land, and thus a lot of its culture is a fusion of some sort. When HR mentions the herbal smell or use of herbs within Menthol and green liquid, I was immediately reminded of Indigenous cultures and their ties to herbal remedies. Native cultures are known for being highly adept to use of herbs for rituals, medicines, and even good luck. When taking a step back and considering a diachronic perspective, one can see how Indigenous culture has diffused into Latin America over time.

Red Ginseng and Deer Antler

CONTEXT: HL is a second year student at USC, originally from Maryland. HL learned this practice from her grandparents, who she lived with until moving to Los Angeles. HL’s grandparents are both from Korea, which is where they learned this practice. HL’s relationship with this is that she does not believe it had any effect on her health and strength, but appreciates that her grandparents wanted that for her.

TEXT:

HL: So for some reason – in Korean culture – my grandparents would always have one of their siblings visit Korea and come back, and when they came back the would bring this syrup/juice thing that was made up of crushed up deer bones or some kind of big animal. It was the most bitter disgusting thing I had ever eaten in my entire life and I always knew when they opened the big red box that it was in there. So then I would have to drink this pouch of the crushed up bone juice, and they were like, “oh its so that you grow up to be healthy and strong” and stuff. So it’s a common East Asian herbal medicine thing. Yeah that was a tradition I grew up with. It would happen once or twice a year – whenever someone would go to Korea on vacation and come back. Probably from when I was about four to when I was ten. They prioritize it more for kids, and you can find these boxes with the pouches in HMART, like here I’ve seen them. They’re hidden away in a special area on a special shelf near the alcohol section. They’re like 100 or 200 dollars for a box of these pouches. I thought it was bullshit but I did it because they forced me too, or sometimes if I did it they would give me money. To specify, the pouches were actually red ginseng, other root things, and deer antlers, but I swear my grandpa told me it was bones.

ANALYSIS: This is an example of folk medicine, also related to life cycle, as it is primarily given to children. Red ginseng is native to Korea, as are deer, so both could be part of folk traditions going back many years. I do not know of the health benefits of either, but as with other folk medicine there could be medical benefits derived from them. HL said the mixture did not taste good, which can invoke a feeling that if it doesn’t taste good, but someone is drinking it anyway, then it must have some other benefit, such as health. It is a marker of life cycle, as HL said that this is mostly only done until 18. This folk medicine practice also serves as a way of passing down family practices and cultural heritage related to being Korean, as HL’s grandparents insisted she participate, which connects her to something they learned while growing up in Korea, while she was growing up in the US.

The Magic of Vicks VapoRub

Text:

I: Whenever someone in my family was sick or feeling under the weather, the usual go-to before any over the counter or cough medicine was Vicks VapoRub. It wasn’t necessarily a solve-all, but it was known in my family to make things feel a lot better and it would help you breathe better if you were congested. Funny enough, if I was only feeling a little bit sick, putting some of it on my chest before sleeping would make me feel better the next morning.

Context:

The informant is 48, was born and raised in the United States, and whose parents were born and raised in the Philippines. The informant isn’t sure where the use of Vicks to “cure” illnesses came from, but knows that it is a somewhat widely held belief in Filipino culture, and popularly satirized by Filipino-American comedians like Jo Koy. 

Analysis:

Within the informant’s family, the use of Vicks VapoRub is both a cultural inside joke while also acting as a type of folk medicine. While there is no scientific evidence suggesting that Vicks has physical benefits to ailments, the widely held belief that it is soothing during the healing process is passed down between Filipino family members. The reliance on the mentholated ointment may stem from a cultural stigma surrounding healthcare and accessibility to healthcare within Filipino communities. A sentiment shared by our elders was usually: “if you could fix it at home, there was little reason to seek help outside”. Though the sentiment remains, it’s relevance has faded with the newer generations, who look to Vicks not as a miracle drug but as a home remedy that soothes and is nostalgic, but does not necessary solve the problem.