Tag Archives: medicine

Folk Medicine

Nationality: caucasian
Age: 75
Residence: Apple Valley CA
Performance Date: 4/10/12
Primary Language: English

Since my grandmother has been a nurse all her life, she somehow managed to learn numerous home remedies and folk medicine that she swears by to this day that she also learned from her mother which seem to work better than modern medicine for some.

One of the more interesting remedies she seems to go by involves earaches. She believes that if you have an earache what you need to do is blow cigarette smoke into the infected ear and it is supposed to help the ear heal quicker. This is one of the craziest folk remedies I’ve ever heard of to date, it seems that cigarette smoke would hurt the ear because of the chemicals but maybe there is some ingredient that helps ears.

Folk Medicine

Nationality: caucasian
Age: 75
Residence: Apple Valley CA
Performance Date: 4/10/12
Primary Language: English

My grandmother explained to me that when you get a bee sting, to soothe the area and to stop the itching and swelling, you must put mud on it. She learned this from her mother who used to put this on the children whenever they had itchy areas and bee stings. It is also supposed to draw the stinger out .

 

Folk Medicine

Nationality: caucasian
Age: 75
Residence: Apple Valley CA
Performance Date: 4/10/12
Primary Language: English

An old way of getting rid of a cough, cold, or congestion is something my mother used to do for me when I was little. You make a mustard plaster from dry mustard, water and flour. You are supposed to rub it on your chest and it makes you sweat so you can get better faster.

I had also never heard of this before my grandmother telling me about it but after looking it up online I found that it is a commonly known folk medicine belief. There are many websites that explain what happens and how this remedy works.

Folk Medicine

Nationality: caucasian
Age: 56
Residence: Riverside Ca
Performance Date: 3/25/12
Primary Language: English

When I was little and I had an earache, my mom would take a cotton ball and dip it in warm olive oil that she had heated up to soothe the pain and make it feel better. It was also supposed to make the earache go away too. I know a lot of other kids had their parents do this too but I know my mom had gotten it from my grandma.

I’ve never had an earache so my mother never did this to me but after further research, I’ve learned that it is bad to put olive oil in anyones ear so I don’t know that this would be folklore I would pass on. I do know that this was a common way of soothing the pain.

Folk Medicine

Nationality: Caucasian
Age: 56
Residence: Riverside, CA
Performance Date: 3/14/12
Primary Language: English

Your grandmother used to make your uncle and I do this any time we got a splinter or any time one of us had a cut anywhere that got infected. What you do is you take adhesive tape and put it on the infected area. Your grandma swears by it, she thought that if you did this, the sticky part would ‘suck’ out the splinter or puss and heal whatever was hurting.

This method was taught to me when I was little, and I also swear by it. Since my mother taught it to me I tell my friends to do this when they get infections and things like this.