Mama's Home Remedies: Discover Time-Tested Secrets of Good Health and the Pleasures of Natural Living (12 page)

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R 61. Grate a medium-size onion and mix with one pint of scalded milk. Steep 20 minutes in a warm place. Take “Onion Milk” hot before bed. If you cannot drink the whole pint of this medicinal drink, take half in the evening and the second half in the morning. Keep it refrigerated and heat before use the next day.

“Onion! Any disease is treated in your arms,’” says an Asian proverb. A Russian proverb salutes the vegetable with “Onion is a healer of seven diseases.”

In the Middle Ages doctors already had a strong opinion that even the
smell of an onion can help prevent any disease. This is true because an
onion contains volatile substances: a high percent of phytoncides acts
ruinously against putrefactive pathogenic microbes. Do you know that it
is enough to chew a piece of an onion for three minutes and all bacteria
will be killed in the mouth? As a first aid remedy, onion is effective in
many different health problems. For example, if you cut a fresh slice of
onion and put it on insect stings or you apply it on the area affected by
nettle rash caused by food allergies, you will get fast relief. The onion is
rich with vitamins C, B, and PP and in carotene, glucose, protein, and
essential oils.

Hard-working Egyptian farmers cultivated

onions, but priests declared the onion a sacred

plant and did not use it for food because the modest onion was a symbol of the moon and eternity. The lower classes, however, revered the onion as a

wonderful addition to their food. It was recognized

as a remarkable stimulant for increasing efficiency

and energy.

Four thousand years ago construction workers who built the largest pyramid in Egypt, known as the Cheops pyramid, were given onions to eat

every day by order of the Pharaoh. It is said that

when an ancient Egyptian man had an argument or litigation, he would put in front of him several onions and swear a solemn oath. Grief, despair, and the title of “perjurer” awaited the ignorant man who ate the onion he swore on. Stop Sneezes and Sniffles and Stifle a Cold @ 71

In ancient Greece a beautifully shaped onion was considered a gift to the gods. Roman soldiers were obliged to eat onions every day to enhance their strength and bravery. Scientists in ancient times would cut the onion in two halves to illustrate to their students the structure of the universe, as it was told in the old world, of several spheres surrounding the earth. In the Middle Ages it was believed that the onion had miraculous powers as a shield from arrows and swords and to ward off the plague. Knights wore an onion on their chests under the armor as a talisman. The onion’s flower, attached to the knight’s helmet, stood as a symbol to his rivals of defiance to the last breath. I hope you will be successful in using the sacred onion to help fight diseases and infections. It is sure to bring you increased energy for continued healing. As you know, if you have flu, a cough will likely follow eventually. Get rough with the cough and choke it away! Here’s how.

R 62. Make organic chicken broth and cook an onion in it. When the onion is tender, eat it at once. Add a pinch of salt for better taste. This cooked onion works magic in treating a cough. Repeat for three to five days.

Our family always lovingly teased my grandfather who used this simple folk remedy whenever he had a cough. But guess what? He was always successful in ridding himself of the cough. He strongly believed that the onion would always stop a cough and would even prolong life.

A virus of flu or colds gets into the human body through the respiratory system, takes root in the mucous membranes, and propagates itself very fast. The incubation period is from several hours to several days. The first symptom we usually see during the first few hours is intoxication with a strong headache, fever, and rheumatic pain throughout the body. Flu/colds often develop complications, such as bronchitis, inflammation of the sinuses, otitis, and pneumonia.

R 63. At the onset of symptoms of a flu/cold, take 100 mg vitamin C with a hot green tea and take a hot shower to warm yourself. While taking a shower, massage your chest, face, and neck with a soapy sponge.

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R 64. If you are sure that your blood vessels and heart are healthy, take a hot Don’t take antibiotics

bath with chamomile or calendula

without a doctor’s

or add one pint of red wine or

prescription because they

apple cider vinegar to the bath

don’t affect the flu virus.

water. Go to bed, but after two

Bacteria in the body get

hours change your pajamas or

accustomed to antibiotics

nightgown. Take a bath or shower

and these drugs will

every day. The pores of your skin

not then be useful in

wil open, and infection and toxins

the treatment of more

wil be released from your body.

complicated diseases.

R 65. Take two capsules of vitamin C

(1,000 mg) in the morning and in the evening, and one capsule of Complex Super vitamin B.

R 66. Inhalation therapy. Combine one teaspoon of baking soda with boiling water in a cup. Mix it and breathe in the steam for several minutes.

R 67. Combine one tablespoon linden

Remember:

flowers and one tablespoon rose

hips with two cups of boiling water

Flu/cold virus perishes in

and boil 10 minutes. Filter and

an alkaline medium.

add several drops of fresh squeezed

Baking soda is alkaline.

lemon juice. Drink one to two hot

cups of this herbal tea before bedtime.

R 68. Combine one tablespoon senna as a laxative, one tablespoon German golden locks, and one tablespoon St. John’s Wort. Mix these herbs and bring slowly to a boil in an enamel pot with 24

ounces of water. Boil one minute, filter, and drink three to four times daily, 20 minutes before a meal.

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R 69. Combine one tablespoon buckthorn bark with one tablespoon black elder flowers, which is regarded in folk medicine as a “complete green medical pharmacy.” Black elder herb is useful in such conditions as excessive mucus and phlegm. From the seventeenth century it has been one of folk medicine’s favorite remedies for

“cleansing phlegm,” acting as an expectorant, diuretic, and antiinflammatory and boosting the respiratory system. R 70. Make a medicinal drink that our family caled Romance, in honor of the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, “The Elf of the Rose,” written as a romantic story in 1839. Crush dried berries of rose hips. Place three tablespoons rose hips berries and two tablespoons chamomile flowers in an enamel pot with one quart cold water. Boil 10 minutes, cover, and wrap in a thick towel and let steep in a warm place for eight hours. Filter and drink one cup every two to three hours. You may add brown sugar, honey, or jel y to sweeten. If you fast the day that you drink Romance, you wil feel much better the next day.

“The Elf of the Rose”

I n the midst of a garden grew a rosebush in full

blossom. In the prettiest of all the roses lived an

elf. He was such a wee thing that no human eye could see

him. Behind each leaf of the rose, he had a sleeping chamber. He was as well formed and as beautiful as a little child could be. He had wings that reached from his shoulders to his feet.

Oh, what sweet fragrance there was in his chambers! And how clean and beautiful were the walls! For they were the blushing eyes of the rose. During the whole day he enjoyed himself in the warm sunshine, flew from flower to flower, and danced on the wings of the flying butterflies. Then he took it into his head to measure how many steps he would have 74 ^ Mama’s Home Remedies

to take to traverse the roads and crossroads that are on the leaf of a linden tree. What we call the veins on a leaf, he took for roads; ay, and very long roads they were for him; for before he had half finished his task, the sun went down—he had commenced his work too late.

It became very cold, the dew fell, and the wind blew, so the elf thought the best thing he could do would be to return home. He made himself as small as he could, but he found the roses closed and he could not get in. Not a single rose stood open. The poor little elf was very much frightened. He had never before been out at night but had always slumbered secretly behind the warm rose leaves.

Oh, this would certainly be his death. At the other end of the garden he knew there was an arbor, overgrown with beautiful honeysuckles. The blossoms looked like large painted horns, and he thought he would go and sleep in one of these till the morning.

He flew thither . . . but hush! two people were in the arbor—a handsome man and a beautiful lady. They sat side by side and wished that they might never be obliged to part. They loved each other much more than the best child can love its father and mother.

“But we must part,” said the young man. “Your brother does not like our engagement, and therefore he sends me so far away on business, over mountains and seas. Farewell, my sweet bride, for so you are to me.”

And then they kissed each other, and the girl wept and gave him a rose, but before she did so, she pressed a kiss upon it so fervently that the flower opened.

Then the little elf flew in and leaned his head on the delicate, fragrant walls. Here he could plainly hear them say,

“Farewell, farewell,” and he felt that the rose had been placed on the young man’s breast. Oh, how his heart did beat!

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Your heart will beat happily and with great health as you continue your natural treatments.

R 71. Grate garlic and add one tablespoon of honey. Ratio: 1:1. Take one tablespoon of this medicinal kasha and drink one cup of natural spring water. Mince five tablespoons rose hips berries and combine with one quart cold water in an enamel pot. Bring to boiling and boil 10 minutes. Cover and steep in a warm place, wrapped in a towel for 8–10 hours. Add honey, sugar, or fruit preserves. Drink one cup in the morning and every two to three hours for two days. Gargle with warm water to prevent tooth damage from excess acid.

R 72. Make the medicinal drink “Trio” as we named it in our family. It includes chamomile, sage, and wood betony. (Wood betony is not commonly used in the United States. It may be hard to track down. Consult the listing of herbal resources in this book.) The root of this herb is bitter and useful in liver treatment with a gentle laxative action. In ancient Europe wood betony (flowers and stems) was used to treat about 30 diseases, including headaches and digestive problems and as a stimulant and cleanser for the system, with a mild diuretic action. In the Middle Ages, this herb was a popular amulet to ward off il nesses or evil. My grandmother knew about it from her old books and used to give it to us when we had colds.

Mince and mix three teaspoons each of chamomile, sage, and wood betony. Combine one tablespoon of the mixture with one pint of boiling water in a glass jar. Cover with a lid, wrap with warm fabric, and let steep for 30–40 minutes. Then filter, add one teaspoon honey, and drink one cup of hot Trio during the day. Also drink one cup of this herbal tea hot before bedtime. R 73. If you have cold or flu together with headache, add peppermint leaves to the herbs in remedy #72. The method of preparation is the same.

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R 74. If you feel cold as a result of flu, add black elder to the herbal composition: wood betony, chamomile, sage, and peppermint (#72). The method of preparation is the same.

R 75. Combine equal portions of fresh raspberries, linden flowers, coltsfoot leaves, anise seeds, and wil ow bark. Combine one tablespoon of the mixture with boiling water, steep covered for 20 minutes, filter, and drink one cup of this tea hot before bedtime as an anti-inflammatory, analgesic, and antiseptic. Use this natural remedy to help reduce fever and relieve a cold’s headache and inflammatory conditions.

White willow bark is a valuable ingredient in this remedy. It was used traditionally in people’s medicine for fevers. In the nineteenth century many scientists in Europe

scientifically investigated this herb, but only

one French chemist successfully extracted

the active constituent and named it

“salicine.” This first plant-derived

natural “drug” was duplicated

later, in 1852, by a chemical in

synthetic form as a substance

called acetylsalicylic acid. At

the end of the nineteenth

century it was produced

and brought to the world

market as aspirin.

One year after this scientific discovery (we wonder if it was coincidence?) Hans Christian Andersen

wrote in 1853 a fairy tale,

“Under the Wil ow Tree.” See

sidebar for an excerpt.

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“Under the Willow Tree”

H“e was walking one evening through the public roads, the country around him was flatter, with fields and meadows, the air had a frosty feeling. A willow-tree grew by the roadside, everything reminded him of home.

“He felt very tired; so he sat down under the tree, and very soon began to nod, then his eyes closed in sleep. Yet still he seemed conscious that the willow-tree was stretching its branches over him; in his dreaming state the tree appeared like a strong, old man—the “willow father” himself, who had taken his tired son up in his arms to carry him back to the land of home, to the garden of his childhood, on the bleak open shores of Kjoge.

“And then he dreamed that it was really the willow-tree itself from Kjoge, which had traveled out in the world to seek him, and now had found him and carried him back into the little garden on the banks of the streamlet. And there stood Joanna, in all her splendor, with the golden crown on her head, as he had last seen her, to welcome him back.