# Tried and true home remedies



## GeorgiaXplant (Feb 18, 2016)

Do you pooh-pooh home remedies and refuse to try them? I'm thinking specifically of putting Vicks Vaporub on the bottom of your feet to keep from coughing during the night and putting a bar of soap at the foot of the bed under the bottom sheet to help with leg cramps during the night.

My mother-in-law was one of those who wouldn't even try them. We got so tired of her complaints about leg cramps that when I changed her bed once, I put a bar of Ivory soap under the sheet. I know she didn't take it out because it was still there when I changed the sheets the next week. The complaints stopped

Any home remedies that you will share?


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## jnos (Feb 18, 2016)

Thanks, GeorgiaXplan :smile:  I've never heard about the soap under the sheets. And no more complaints? That's impressive. And aren't you sneaky? Way to go!

I love Vicks on my chest if I'm really congested, but have never heard of putting it on feet. Must remember that.


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## SeaBreeze (Feb 18, 2016)

I've knocked out a couple of colds over the years by crushing a raw clove of garlic and eating it several times a day.

  Also, a half teaspoon of baking soda in a small amount of water will often stop heartburn in its tracks, and safer to take than those pills or Tums.  Only if you have a specific health condition where you can't ingest salt, then it's not a good idea.

 At the first sign of a cold sore on the lips, the itchy feeling, mega doses of L-Lysine amino acid will stop it before it surfaces.  I haven't had a cold sore develop for years, and I used to get them several times a year, especially when I was exposed to lots of sun and salt-water.  When we were in Hawaii, I had several on my top and bottom lips, very painful.

Magnesium Oil will relieve cramps in legs or feet within seconds, never tried the soap thing, luckily I don't get them too often now, but I would definitely try the bar of soap.  I have a couple of old unopened bars of Ivory soap in the basement.

I would try the Vicks too, if I had bad coughing.  Haven't had too may colds at all since I've been retired and not around so many people anymore, also take lots of supplements.


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## fureverywhere (Feb 18, 2016)

It's funny that some home remedies are more in the head. When I first met my husband my oldest son was a toddler. Any bump, any booboo, any injury that didn't require stitches or a cast...the cure was a warm paper towel. Hubby was like " I don't get it, it's just a wet paper towel". Worked for all the kids and Dad used to do it for me too. Sometimes it's just the comfort of someone acknowledging your discomfort.


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## GeorgiaXplant (Feb 18, 2016)

The baking soda and water remedy for heartburn has been around for many years and works, but don't do it if you take meds for high blood pressure!

I've tried the Vicks on the bottom of the feet. It works for me. When I've done it, I've put socks on so that I didn't grease up the sheets.

I haven't any idea how or why the soap under the sheets works, but apparently it does. Since I don't get leg cramps, I've never tried it. I do know that whenever anybody mentions it, they also say that it has to be _soap_ soap, not something like Zest, which is a detergent. That's why I used Ivory for MIL's "treatment".


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## Jackie22 (Feb 18, 2016)

This brings back memories of the Vicks salve on the chest with a wool wrap right before bed time...mercy, did that burn.


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## QuickSilver (Feb 18, 2016)

Buying warts....   My grandma had the power...  So do I...   If I buy your wart.. it will go away..  I've done it many times.


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## GeorgiaXplant (Feb 18, 2016)

QuickSilver said:


> Buying warts....   My grandma had the power...  So do I...   If I buy your wart.. it will go away..  I've done it many times.



That's a new one on me, QS. As my kids used to say...'splain me.


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## jujube (Feb 18, 2016)

When my grandmother had dementia and was begging day and night for "nerve pills", "pain pills", "sleeping pills", etc., I asked her doctor for some placebos.  He got very indignant and said he would have not part in "messing with her mind" (helloooo.....what mind?)

So I went to the drug store and bought all the colors of Tic-Tacs and put them in old medicine bottles.  She was far enough gone that she didn't realize that they weren't medicines.  Every two hours, she got another "pill".  If she asked in between, she was reminded that she would be getting another "pill" in x number of minutes.  She was one happy camper and said "that new doctor sure knows what he's doing because he prescribed her such good sleeping, nerve and pain pills".  

I believe in doing whatever works....


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## Ruth n Jersey (Feb 18, 2016)

Not exactly a home remedy, but as been on the market for years. Good old Epsom Salts for sore muscles and Witch Hazel for skin irritations. When I was active in nursing as an LPN many years ago, I saw fantastic results by using plain sugar on elderly patients with bed sores when other medications didn't work.


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## FazeFour (Feb 18, 2016)

The maternal side of my family is Portuguese, and the older women had a remedy for everything. Here are just some that my siblings and I grew up with:

To stop bed-wetting; boil a rooster comb until tender enough to fall apart, and serve between two slices of bread.
To bring down a fever; have the fevered person sit with his/her bare feet propped-up. Cut a large tomato in half and push one half down onto the toes of one foot, the other half on the other foot.
Eye burns; have the victim recline and close their eyes. Place a handful of shredded raw potato onto irritated eye(s) until the potato is "cooked". 
Colds, flu, and other viral infections; slice or chop an onion and place it in a glass or open jar. Keep this jar in the "sickroom" until blackened from absorbing the virus.
Warts; count the warts and tie one knot for each wart onto a length of string. Bury the string. (this must be done at night)


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## Pappy (Feb 18, 2016)

Two weeks ago, I felt like I was coming down with a cold. I tried four parts of natural honey to one part cinnamon. I mixed it up and took two teaspoons full a day for about a week. It seemed to help as my cold never got fully developed. I also drink a cup of green tea with a teaspoon of honey daily. This seems to help with my digestive system. 
All in my head, maybe, but whatever works for each of us.


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## FazeFour (Feb 18, 2016)

Pappy said:


> Two weeks ago, I felt like I was coming down with a cold. I tried four parts of natural honey to one part cinnamon. I mixed it up and took two teaspoons full a day for about a week. It seemed to help as my cold never got fully developed. I also drink a cup of green tea with a teaspoon of honey daily. This seems to help with my digestive system.
> All in my head, maybe, but whatever works for each of us.



Not in your head, imho. I am a regular green tea drinker, and I credit my yerba tea for keeping me healthier than I'd be if I didn't drink it (at least 2-3 times a day).


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## Arachne (Feb 18, 2016)

Dettol on everything from cuts to laundry to cleaning in general. It is the English go to home remedy my grandmother used. What is dettol? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dettol


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## AprilT (Feb 18, 2016)

Vinegar is your friend, haven't had a soar throat take hold since I started rinsing with it at the start of a scratchy throat, works for so many ailments I buy it buy the gallon.  stomach bug, ear ache, plus great for laundry and other household uses, so I always keep it on hand.


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## chic (Feb 19, 2016)

I like wearing earrings everyday in my pierced ears but once in a while the piercing will become weepy and infected so I put 3 TBSP of fine crystal sea salt in a bowl and add enough boiling water to melt it. Then I dip a face cloth in the salted water and soak my earlobes. This will heal infections quickly.


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## Son_of_Perdition (Feb 19, 2016)

Baking soda was my go to remedy when I smoked.  I use an ice cube for any cold sores, been quite a while though.  I have just heard about the soap in bed not more than a month ago.  I try to get enough potassium to prevent cramps.  I started drinking apple cider vinegar 4 months ago, now convinced it has helped my blood sugar, heart, liver, well just about everything.  Headaches were helped with rubbing aloe vera on my forehead & temples.  Hemp hearts are a newer remedy that seems to work for me, but can't take them too close to bedtime, wired.  Epson salt, was my mother's answer to world peace.


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## Debby (Feb 20, 2016)

I've heard of some of these (like the soap for leg cramps) and not heard of others (like Vicks on the feet for coughing).  Maybe it's like some medicines, you know, some work for one person but not for someone else because my husband gets terrible leg cramps but the soap thing made no difference, nor did upping his magnesium intake.  But I can relate to what someone said about vinegar and colds because whenever I get a sore throat I seem to crave the vinegar juice that comes with those hot pepper pickles.

Here's a home remedy I found on the internet that works amazingly for sore throats.  You just put a little oil on your finger tips and then massage your throat from the jaw down to your collar bones.  It helps to move the inflammatory fluids out of the lymph glands in your throat which in turn eases the pain there! So while you're sitting in front of the tv, just multi-task by giving your sore throat a nice gentle but firm massage for about fifteen minutes.  Really works.  

Another home remedy but this is for squeaky runners or I guess other shoes too.  Take a dryer sheet (like Bounce) and rub it all over the bottom of your shoe.  It doesn't make it slippery or anything but it does eliminate that horrible squeak and it seems to last forever.


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## vickyNightowl (Feb 21, 2016)

FazeFour said:


> The maternal side of my family is Portuguese, and the older women had a remedy for everything. Here are just some that my siblings and I grew up with:
> 
> To stop bed-wetting; boil a rooster comb until tender enough to fall apart, and serve between two slices of bread.
> To bring down a fever; have the fevered person sit with his/her bare feet propped-up. Cut a large tomato in half and push one half down onto the toes of one foot, the other half on the other foot.
> ...




Lol,we had to chant something by moonlight for warts to go away.


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## Linda (Feb 23, 2016)

During the 15 years my husband worked on the road and ate in restaurants a lot, we kept bottled capsuled Charcoal in his suitcase.  It's great for food poisoning.  It works for humans and dogs.  You can get it in the herb section of a health food store.


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## Catlady (Jan 6, 2020)

I was going to start a thread about homemade remedies and did a search and found this thread from 2016, so I know it's an old thread but worth reviving.

A long time ago I had eyes that felt like they had sand in them, very scratchy and red.  I hate going to doctors.   A co-worker told me to make chamomile tea, cool it and soak a cotton ball in it and then rub my eyes with it.  I drank the tea and put some aside (without the sugar), and then rubbed my eyes 3 times that day.  The next day my eyes were fine.  I did it to three of my cats when their eyes were tearing, usually from a fight, and they were fine after a couple of chamomile treatments.  Here below are the wonders of chamomile tea:

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/320031.php


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