Home Remedies - Part Ten

Whether it's grandpa's secret recipe for a hot toddy, or Uncle Bob's sure fire cure for the hiccups, home remedies have been around for a long time. Between the rising cost of medicine and the length of the lines in the waiting rooms, more and more people are turning to home remedies for their minor illnesses. This series is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to home remedies. It should go without saying that the remedies in this series are for entertainment purposes only.

Earaches

Texas Remedies:
* Urinate on your finger and stick the finger in your ear.
* Fill ear with mud made from bird droppings.
* Hold a baby over a hogpen to cure its earache.

Put into the ear a clove of garlic or a small fig toasted and bathe the feet in warm water at bedtime, taking care to stop the ears with undressed wool and to keep the head very warm at night. – The Housekeeper’s Almanac, 1842

Take some licorice and warm it slightly in ghee. Prepare a pasty mixture of the two. Then apply this mixture externally around the ear. After some minutes, relief from the earache is ensured.

Pluck some leaves of the castor plant. Introduce this in some warm sesame oil and dab the oil around the ears. Apply it as though you are giving light fomentation with the oil.

Take a piece of lean mutton, the size of a large walnut, put it into the fire and burn it for some time till it is reduced almost to a cinder; then put it into a clean rag, and squeeze it until some moisture is expressed which must be dropped into the ear as hot as a patient can stand it. – Dr. Chase’s Recipes, 1880

Put a few drops of olive oil or mineral oil in the sore ear; the oil will act as a lubricant and may help to eliminate dry, itchy symptoms of the ear infection. Warm the oil up like you would a baby's bottle, under the hot tap water for a few minutes. Make sure you test the temperature of the warmed oil before using it in your ear. The warm oil should be at body temperature. Apply it with an ear dropper and only use enough oil to coat the inner lining of the ear.

Puncture a piece of garlic, squeeze the juice out of it, and pour the juice in the ear that hurts. Garlic is known to have a natural antibiotic in it, and using the garlic juice may help the antibiotics to fight the infection.

Easy method for attracting earwigs from the ear: A person lately having an earwig creep into his ear, and knowing the particular fondness that insect has for apples, immediately apply a piece of apple to the ear, which entices the creature out, and thereby prevents the alarming conequences which might otherwise ensue. – The Family Magazine, 1741

Take a large onion and cut it into slices; put a slice of onion, then a leaf of strong tobacco, then a slice of onion again, then tobacco, until the onion is all laid up, then wrap in a wet cloth and cover in hot embers until the onion is cooked; press out the juice with heavy pressure and drop into the ear. It gives instant relief. – The Farmer’s Advocate, 1876

Hold a hair dryer set on the warm setting a little ways from your ear to allow the warm air to blow in. Do not use the hot setting because you may burn yourself. You may also apply heat to your ear using a heating pad: turn it on warm and lay the side where the earache is on the heating pad. The warm air from the hair dryer and the warm heat from the heating pad will ease the pain. Do not use the blow dryer for more than 3 to 5 minutes.

Wrap a hot water bottle in a towel. Use the towel-wrapped hot water bottle as a pillow by laying the sore ear on it. The heat from the hot water bottle will ease the pain from the sore ear.

Warm up an oven-safe plate, wrap it in a towel, and rest your aching ear right on it. The plate should be warm and comforting, not hot.

Soak the feet in warn water; roast an onion and put the heart of it into the ear as warm as it can be borne; heat a brick and wrap it up and apply to the side of the head. When the feet are taken from the water, bind roasted onions on them. Lard or sweet oil, dropped into the ear, as warm as it can be borne, is good. – Brockville Almanac, 1866

Mixture of equal parts of chloroform and laudanum, a little being introduced on a piece of cotton. The first effect is a sensation of cold, then numbness, followed by scarcely perceptible pain and refreshing sleep. – The Canadian Farm, 1864

If your ears hurt when the pressure changes, especially during descent and landing during an airplane flight, chew gum or suck on candy. The chewing or sucking will activate the muscles that send air to your inner ears, when you hear your ears "pop," you'll feel better.

If you are flying at 32,000 feet when your ears begin to ache, there's help, according to the American Academy of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery. Pinch your nostrils shut. Take a mouthful of air and then, using your cheek and throat muscles, force the air into the back of your nose as if you were trying to blow your fingers off the end of your nose. A pop will tell you when you have equalized the pressure inside and outside your ear.

Don't sleep during an airplane descent. If you must doze off while flying, close your eyes at the beginning, not the end of the trip. You don't swallow as often when you're asleep, so your ears won't keep up with pressure changes during descent and they may hurt.