When you think of folk medicine, what do you think of? Do you think of weird incantations and bubbling pots?
Good guess, but actually folk medicine is a mix of...well a lot of things. Ranging from completely stupid, all the way to actually helpful.
But before I share a few kinds of folk medicine with you, I am going to give you a little bit of background.
Folk Medicine started back before we knew what we know now about medicines and the way the human body works. Don’t get me wrong, there are natural remedies that have worked and still do work, but there are also some that not only didn’t help but made things worse.
Folk Medicine is among the people as part of their culture. And while there are many differences between modern and folk medicine, the main difference is the cause of disease.
Before we were able to get a closer look and better understanding of the way that the human body works, the causes of disease were unknown.
Like in the Medieval times, when people would do something called bloodletting, where they would cut themselves and purposefully drain some of their blood. They did this to get rid of the “bad blood” that they thought was causing the sickness.
Now, we know that germs cause sickness. Before, we really didn’t have a clue what caused it.
Now that I have given you some background, let’s get to the fun part. Here are a few harmless folk medicine remedies that are harmless to try:
Wearing crystals or gems around your neck (like a necklace)
This is one of the unreasonable folk medicines that were formed mainly around superstition. People believed that different gems had different healing abilities and wore them around their necks to keep away sickness (I would take this as a good excuse to buy a new necklace ;)
Natural Freckle Fader
This one isn’t quite as unreasonable and is actually more of a garden remedy. It started in Ireland, a country full of fair-skinned people who freckle. So obviously they would look for a solution, right? Yes, this remedy only takes a handful of honeysuckle flowers and leaves, and some water.
Take the honeysuckle leaves and flowers and soak them in in water overnight
Splash the resulting mixture on your face and see if anything happens
And finally The Penny Hiccup remedy
This one is not as crazy as it sounds. All you have to do, it take a penny between two toes and transfer it to two toes on your other foot. It is funny and can distract you from your hiccups :)
So as you can see, medicine has changed a lot. Folk medicine had parts that were simply unreasonable, and some parts that were not so unreasonable. And although we know a lot more now, there are always things worth learning from our past.
Happy Learning!
Pure Discovery