Does anyone believe in "old wives tales" or "homemade remedies/aids"?

Most of these things are garbage. The only one I know of that works 100% of the time is the hiccup cure that my grandmother used to have me do. Swallow a dry teaspoon of sugar. Never failed me or anyone I have had try it.

Some of them work and some are meaningless. It depends. Here are some odd ones that really do work. Here are some more.

I’m an atheist skeptic that openly claims astrology is bunk, I dont believe in conspiracy theories, or that we have been visited by aliens or that some people are haunted by ghosts.

So, you would assume from the aforementioned that I doubt the validity of old wives tales, and you would be right in assuming so. However, some of these crazy little remedies do actually work quite well indeed.

Burdock root in my experience, clears up spots faster than any acne treatment. Whiskey will numm a tooth ache for a while, and shaving foam is quite good at getting stains out of carpet.

@poisonedantidote Thank you so much Ill have to try that burdock root and I never knew that about the shaving foam so thank you!

Personally, I think the placebo effect has a lot to do with those things. There’s a company that makes a product called Obecalp (placebo spelled backward) which is intended to be used as a “medication” for kids’ hurts and other conditions.

Science has abandoned a lot of wisdom that has been passed on from generation to generation. The more they study they often find the scientific reason these old remedies worked.
Moral of the story, if something works, don’t throw it in the trash just because you don’t understand why.

There are alot of medications that are derivatives of plants and things taken from nature so a lot of the things done in the older days do have some medicinal value to them. Did you know that Curare was used as anesthesia before they came up with synthetic versions were used.

Well, you don’t get to be an “old wife” without learning a few things along the way. Many of the old folk remedies work quite well. Others are ineffective at best and can even be harmful. Fortunately there have been several attempts by modern medical science to look for wisdom in traditional medicine. At the end of the day it is worthwhile to listen to the advice of your doctor. However, that being said, it also often pays to listen to the advice of your grandmother. After all, she didn’t get to be older than Methuselah without knowing a thing or two about keeping healthy.

I remember when I was a kid my granny telling me to soak a bee sting in vinegar…...owwwwwww!!!!
As you can see, I was very gullible back then :¬(

Some old wives tales and homemade remedies work and some can be very harmful. The important thing is to know the harmful ones. Like people used to think sweat out a fever. You can get brain damage or die from trying to raise the temperature of a person with fever so they will sweat more, every effort should be made to cool the patient.

Aspirin was first made from tree bark, and then we began to chemically synthesize it. I would guess there are people out there who still know the bark that can lower fever and aches and pains.

Chicken soup for colds can’t hurt and usually does help.

@tom_g That might work for hiccups, but unnecessary to swallow the sugar. Just take a deep chest breath (not stomach) keep your chest out while you breath with slow shallow breaths, again maintaining your chest out in one poisition. Do it for a minute, sometimes less, hiccups gone.

I absolutely believe that roots and herbs are good medicine. Always try holistic medicine first. How many of our modern day pharmaceutical remedies are based on these tried and true methods?

@bkcunningham About 40%, I believe.

I use a lot of remedies, particularly herbal and food based ones (bone broth really is a magical healing elixir) that are fairly well established in traditional medicine. In addition to my own wilderness living skills, I know a fair number of herbalists, some trained medical professionals. Some remedies, however, are just weird shit people thought up. My gauge is whether or not it was actually incorporated into a living and successful medicine tradition from people who lived healthily.

And of course, at the age of 12 my life was basically saved by natural remedies. My grandfather and his twin would have died at infancy if they hadn’t been given cod liver oil when they were sent home to die.

Our culture tends to push the progressivist line on us to say ours is the pinnacle of medicine and health. It is not. We can believe this trick of perception because previous agricultural peoples have had lower standards of living, increased disease, and reduced life expectancies. However, non-agricultural peoples, that is the way we lived for over 95% of our history, typically fared better and had highly effective standards of living.

the ones I believe in
duct tape gets rid of warts
if you burn yourself apply cold compress with water and vinegar, it will take the burn away faster
honey works for a sore throat
chicken soup will stop a cold!
drink upside down from a large glass of water for hiccips or bitters on a lemon wedge with a spoon full of sugar, bite into that and poof your hiccups are gone and you don’t have to be embarrased by bending over at the waist drinking water upside down at the bar

I use a lot of natural supplements and homeopathic remedies. They work, and I refuse to believe that they’re all placebo, because they also work on my children and my pets.

A homeopathic rabies tincture saved my dog’s life. Granted, I did sit down in front of her crate where she was wheezing, not opening her eyes, and not moving, and I explained to her that I was giving her a life saving medicine. My doggie is thpecial and understands English; she and I frequently have debates on whether or not that rabies tincture was a placebo or not. Woof.

I believe in them, and often rely on them.