Even as a relatively young nation, the United States offers a rich tradition of folk remedies passed down through the generations. The immigrant history of the nation created a melting pot of cultures that certainly included the medicino-cultural traditions emigres brought from their homelands.
Likewise, the frontier tradition that shaped the nation forced an enormous level of self-reliance in caring for the sick and injured as in all aspects of life for farmers and adventurers at the edge of the country's expansion. Of course, those travelers were expanding against existing Native American nations with deep knowledge of alternative and holistic treatments specific to the regional herbs and other natural therapeutics as well.
In these days, grandparents especially seem to have a few clever home remedies to pass along when grandchildren are sick and in pain. Earth Clinic won't let that ancestral knowledge pass away. Won't you help us collect and share America's folk medicine tradition?
An (La, Ca) on 05/04/2013
1947hoppy (Winamac, Indiana) on 03/10/2013
Elizabeth (Seattle, WA) on 01/22/2013
To break a fever, you try to stay in a very warm bath as long as you could stand it. Immediately following the bath, wring out a thin cotton sheet in warm water to which has been added apple cider vineger, to make it acid. Wrap the body in the sheet and and pin it. Then, the most important part, one should cover the wet cloth with dry blankets and also pin them, using several layers so that the damp from the sheet does not come through. Best to sleep like this, gives the body a chance to realign the charcras with the electricity from the water mixture.
For a muscle strain or sprain (excellent for bursitis or arthritic knees), follow the same instructions except use a dish towel or two which are thin. Pin and wrap the affected area with several dry towels.
Linda (Eugene, Oregon) on 01/18/2013
Take two hankerchiefs or just two small light weight pieces of cloth and put them in a bowl of ice water. Wring them out and lay one on the victim's chest and one on the back. Next, put on a sweat shirt, and then put on a heavy WOOL, (and this must be pure wool) sweater or a wool blanket or anything that is pure wool on top. Both layers must be tightly fitting. In my case, because I was so small, they used safety pins to bind them.
Then the victim, er, patient was put to bed and after a few hours the fever and chest cold was gone. I used it on my daughter back in the 60's and it worked like a charm, but there was a lot of yelling about those ice cold handkerchiefs.
Linda (Eugene, Oregon) on 01/18/2013
