Simple remedies for Common Ailments

• Honey is a rare gift in the treatment of any illness. For a com-mon cold mix a teaspoonful of limejuice with half a cup of boiling water. Add enough honey to sweeten it. Drink it hot and take rest. The effect is almost immediate.

• For a sore throat, mix honey and lime and smear it over the depression below the Adam’s apple on the throat.

• Indigestion and pain in the stomach are due to overeating or taking improper food. One can free oneself from these ailments in the following manner.Mash a raw piece of ginger and squeeze out the juice by adding some hot water. Add honey to the juice and drink it warm.Keep some powdered dry ginger in an air-tight bottle. For this you must dry the ginger, pound it and strain through a piece of muslin. Take a teaspoonful of this powder, mix it with a few drops of honey and eat it. It is better not to drink water immediately after taking this. This takes away all feeling of sickness and creates desire for food.

• In case any insect gets into ear put a few drops of salt solution in the ear. Immediately the insect dies or comes out.

• For any throat infection you can gargle with a teaspoonful of salt solution in a glass of warm water.

• Salt fermentation is useful when pricked by a thorn or when one has stepped over a sharp stone. Take a clean piece of cloth and tie some common salt within it.Heat some gingili oil, dip the bundle of salt in it and foment the afflicted part. Repeat the treatment till the pain disappears completely.

• In the kitchen, salt water is an unfailing aid for burns and scalds. At once apply salt water to prevent thin bubbles on the skin and other complications.

• Neem oil can be used in cases or rheumatism, arthritis, chest infections and especially in fits. The whole body should be massaged with warm neem oil.

• Severe earache is relieved by dropping few drops of warm neem oil. A few pods of garlic should be added while heating. A fresh piece of garlic should then be put in the ear to block the hole.

• Garlic roasted in the fire without removing the outer skin and then peeled and eaten gives relief for heart burn and gas trouble.

• After confinement a halva is made with milk and garlic. This is given to pregnant mothers as a special nourishment.

• Take a few cloves of garlic and rub them over a stone adding a few drops of water. Heat the paste in a spoon and smear it over the forehead with bearable warmth. Dry ginger may also be ground to a paste, heated and applied in the same manner. This treatment will give some relief to a person having headache.

• A decoction made out of pepper and jaggery or honey is a check on influenza.

• A piece of camphor placed on some coconut oil kept in a saucer and lighted gives a good medicinal oil to cure a sick person. When rubbed over the chest it relieves congestion. It is very useful in the case of small babies.

• Strong tea without milk or sugar is a treatment for dysentery.

• For insect bites and stings a half cut onion rubbed over the offending spot takes away the poison immediately. Lime is also good. When smeared on the particular spot reduces swelling and relieves pain.