Old Wives cures.

My DM used to give me Parrish's Food, supposedly a tonic. All can remember is that I had to drink it through a straw as it made the teeth black! I shudder to think what it was made of - iron filings?

A spoonful of peanut butter stops hiccups & a paste made of water & porridge oats gets rid of chicken pox spots REALLY quickly(squeeze the mixture through muslin or a pair of clean tights & use the 'goo' that comes out). Both tried &tested.

I'm English but live in Ireland. When I had shingles I visited a young man for 'the cure' which had been passed down to him through generations. He gave me a small pot of cream (no idea what it was) and my shingles went over the next few days. You pay what you want (€10). Perhaps it was just coincidence but who cares!

Oh yes, I remember the kaolin poultice, spread onto a muslin square and tied on. We also had home made cough mixture made from vinegar and black currant jam. Can't remember if either worked.

I miss the Wright Coal Tar burners they were fab, I think the fluid was poisonous and they became obsolete...........

I find a bag of hula Hoops helps with nausea, travel sick kids etc not sure why...........

Does anyone remember the Wrights candle treatment for bronchitis? A metal container with a stone block on which you poured a fluid with a nightlight underneath. I managed to get one when my son was small and it did the trick. I now use an oil burner with water and eucalyptus in the top and a nightlight underneath. That works too.
Very interested in the Nose and hand pressure points. I will mention it to my podiatrist who is also studying acupuncture.

Mum used to put a cloth soaked in vinegar on my forehead if I was in bed ill and had a bad headache. She also put me in a bath with a packet of mustard powder "to bring out the spots" when I was sickening for chicken pox. Then there was the kaolin poultice on the chest for bronchitis and Fennings Fever Cure just to bring down the fever. Don't know if it did but it felt as if it had taken the enamel of my teeth!

Misread this and thought we were contributing some "old wives' curses "
phoenix - where are you? ]

a spoonful of sugar stops hiccups

I used to get crippling migraines but I read about an acupressure technique, you massage the webbed part of skin between your thumb and first finger. I find that sometimes one side works and sometimes the other hand.

Perhaps 80% of the time it clears the pain enough to sleep it off.

If we had a stye coming, DM would take off her wedding ring and gently stroke the stye with it. The stye would be gone by the next day. I did this a few times for pupils when I was a teacher ( probably a H and S rule somewhere forbidding it) It worked then too. Not sure why it worked, but. It had to be a wedding ring!

That acupuncture pressure point at the base of the nose is useful for a lot of things. I suffered dizziness after a car accident and used it. I learned it from a Russian acupuncturist when she used it on me, when I felt faint during treatment.
The pressure has to be really hard and obviously it controls a lot of things. Or perhaps it turns the brain off for a few seconds. We will never know.....
There is point between thumb and first finger but I shall have to look that one up.

Magic sugar. As children we were told that if you bite your tongue and it bleeds eat a spoonful of magic(ordinary) sugar and the bleeding will stop.

As an adult I know about blood clotting and I'm sure the sudden sweet taste takes their minds off the pain/blood but it certainly works. The child calms down and the bleeding stops. Ergo it's definitely magic lol.

My daughter in law is Irish, and her mammy knows people who have " the cure" for various ailments. Now I don't know what the exact procedure is, but I think you contact the " curer", and all is then well.

Another one that has a long way to go before it gets to the action site!

Yes! The only thing I have found that stops bad coughing at night is Vicks on the soles of the feet then covered by socks.