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Folk Medicine

Folk or traditional medicine originated from primitive man’s reactions or attitudes

to natural events. Magic and witchcraft played an important role here. In these
societies, where witchcraft and religious beliefs were of great importance, disease
and health were explained by external factors penetrating and harming the body.
People’s efforts to find solutions to these diseases set up the basis of folk
medicine. Consequently, in traditional societies opinions on disease and health
were born as a part of folk culture. For this reason, practices related to this
issue are the realm of anthropology, ethnology and sociology, while technical
analysis falls under the disciplines of medicine and pharmacology.

Folk medicine is different rather then to modern medicine. Traditional medicine

lives among the people as a part of their culture. In traditional societies, any
information about a disease is shared by others. This information is passed through
the generations. People learn popular medicine in the same way and they learn other
cultural components.

Popular medicine perfectly harmonizes with cultural components. In most cases, the
patient either recovers or dies. If he gets well, it is believed that the method of
treatment used was a valid one, and this method becomes permanent. However, the
death of the patient does not mean that the method of treatment method was
unsuitable, only that the patient was beyond its scope.

The main difference between modern medicine and traditional medicine is the causes
of disease. While modern medicine tries to explain the causes of disease by germ
theory, traditional medicine, which also accepts the existence of germs, explains
disease by magical and supernatural events.
The traditional medicine still present today is the sum of diagnosis and treatment
which people have recourse to in underdeveloped or developing countries where
modern medical facilities do not exist or because of their religious beliefs. The
main reason for traditional medicine's acceptability can be explained by the fact
that beliefs change very slowly. In Turkey, especially in conservative communities,
we still can see examples of traditional medicine, although fewer than formerly.
People who have methods of treatment of their own are known as ''old women'' in
Turkey, and are in fact traditional physicians. Their medicines (known as old
woman's medicine) sometimes have a positive efffect on disease and sometimes don't.
These experienced people learn treatment methods from their parents, and try to
cure diseases by using their own drugs based on animal, vegetable and mineral
products. Most of them apply treatment in their own homes, while others treat
patients in laces which can be considered ''folk hospitals.'' Folk physicians use
plants for their drugs. These medicinal plants and herbs are commonly used in
Turkey. Some of these are very popular among people and are often used in homes,
while others can only be recognized and used by folk physicians. There has been
considerable research into these medicianal plants and drugs, and large numbers of
publications about them issued by faculties of pharmacology.

Forms and lengths of treatment in folk and modern medicine are sometimes quite
similar. For example asprin used as a painkiller appeared as a development of
quinine and cocaine, which had been used by folk medicine for a long time. In the
same way, research has proved that some herbs used in folk medicine were really
effective in curing disease.

In general, we can say that modern and folk medicine interact with each other.
While focusing on the causes of disease, modern medicine benefits from folk
medicine in order to improve the range of treatments available. Also, folk medicine
uses every opportunity to benefit from developments in modern medicine. Within this
framework, in some cases folk medicine has given way to pharmacological drugs.
However, some people do not trust modern medicine in cases like the evil eye or
when someone is under the influence of an evil spirit. Both folk and modern
medicine are used in some diseases, like asthma or to deal with heart problems.
Cancer and other diseases which requires a surgeon are totally left to modern
medicine.

As a result, in conservative regions, the attitudes of residents towards disease

are shaped by cultural factors. Research shows that not only educational levels but
also peoples’ economic situation influences this attitude. Contacts with big
cities, and the availability of transport also enhance the tendency towards modern
medicine. This tendency is most commonly seen in the young. Whether educated or
not, rich or poor, some people still use folk medicine for specific diseases, and
visits to shrines and folk methods of dealing with fractures or dislocations can
still be observed.

In spite of this, researchers point out that there is a general movement in the
direction of modern medicine, and this tendency may be slow or fast depending on
the region’s socio-cultural and economic profile.

FOLK TREATMENTS

Bee Stings

a) Ice is put on the sting. If ice is not available, the wound is washed with cold
water or mud is smeared on it.

b) A bunch of parsley is wrapped around the affected area.

c) The victim rubs garlic on the sting.

High Temperatures

a) A towel is moistened with vinegar and pressed onto the brow, neck, hands, feet
and the whole body. This operation is repeated untill the patient’s temperature
gone down.

b) An aspirin is dissolved in lemon juice and rubbed on the patient’s body,

beginning with the forehead.

c) A mixture of grain alcohol, aspirin and few drops of olive oil is rubbed on the
articular parts of the body.

Asthma

A pigeon egg is consumed every morning for 40 days as the first meal of the day.

Aches

a) The leaf of a black cabbage is heated and placed on the affected area. This
operation is repeated frequently.
b) A mixture of boiled and mashed linen seeds, henna and naphtha oil is rubbed on
aching parts of the body. This operation continues a few times a day.

c) A cream is made from dry tobacco and raki. The affected areas covered with this
cream.

d) Thin sand is roasted, a few olives are added and the affected areas are covered
with this mixture while it is still warm or hot. This operation goes on for three
or four days.

Sore Feet

Unrefined salt is dissolved in hot water, and the feet are washed in this solution
for ten minutes.

Sprains

An onion is mashed with either salt or olives and placed on the sprained area.

Headaches

a) A potato is cut into slices and coffee sprinkled on them. These slices are
placed on the forehead.

b) Round lemon slices are placed on the forehead.

c) The patient covers his head with the gall of an animal, mixed with henna, for a
few hours.

Bronchitis

a) Linen seeds are mashed with sugar and eaten.

b) A piece of bread is roasted, moistened with vinegar and placed on the chest.

Tonsilitis

The throat is covered with a piece of cotton with pepper and grain alcohol.

Kidney Stones

a) Medlar leaves are boiled and drunk as tea. This continues until the stone is
ejected.

b) Water with parsley or yogurt is drunk every morning.

Nosebleeds

The shell of an egg is burned till it becomes ash. The victims breaths in this ash
when his or her nose starts to bleed.
Haemorrhoids

a) Garlic is rubbed on every morning.

b) The middle parts of wild roses are boiled and drunk as tea.

Dolman
Okra is cooked in milk and placed on the finger.

Flu

Mint and dried linden flowers are boiled with lemon and drunk as tea.

Sty

Garlic is rubbed on the sty.

Diarrhea

a) Diarrhea will end if a glass of soda pop with an asprin inside is drunk.

b) A spoonful of coffee is mixed with lemon juice and eaten.

c) A small cup of yogurt is mixed with a similar cup of baking soda and eaten.

Cancer

In summer fresh and in winter dry stinging nettles are boiled and drunk as tea
every morning before breakfast.

Parotitis

The patient eats red halvah (a sweet prepared with sesame oil, various cereals and
syrup) and fat is rubbed on the ears.

Swollen stomach

A mixture of vinegar and bran is heated, and the stomach covered with the mixture.

Calcification

The patient uses fish oil for calcified areas.

Earache

A little leek water is poured into the ear.

Dog Bites

The bite is covered with a bread poultice.

Stomachache

a) The patient drinks milk with honey.

b) Inula is boiled and drunk as tea.
c) The patient eats sesame oil as the first meal of the day.
d) Verruca flower leaves are chewed and swallowed.

Eczema

a) Eggplant is cooked in hot ashes and mixed with powdered henna. The ointment is
placed on the affected area and covered with a clean towel.
b) Peach leaves are boiled and drunk as tea for ten days.
c) The patient eats hedgehog meat.
d) The patient swallows the seeds of the elderberry plant.
Shortness of Breath

a) Stingling nettle tea is drunk every day.

b) Black radish is hollowed out and filled with honey. A small hole is opened in
the radish and a cup put under it. The patient eats the honey that flows out after
waiting for a night.
c) Cones are boiled and drunk as tea.

Coughs

a) The patient drinks a spoonful of honey mixed with a spoonful of lemon juice
every morning for a few days.
b) Apple and lemon peel and linden flowers are together boiled and drunk every
morning.
c) The patient eats raw parsley.

Heat Rash

Dry cat tail is heated and the ashes rubbed onto the affected parts of the body.

Rheumatism

a) The patient eats a mixture of mashed chestnuts and sugar.

b) A pot of barley is boiled in a large cauldron of water. Once the temparature of
the water has gone down to an appropriate level, the patient climbs inside the
cauldron and waits for an hour. This application is repeated for a few days.
c) A bunch of the herb sultan is put in a cauldron full of water and boiled. The
patient climbs inside the cauldron and remains in it for an hour. He repeats this
procedure for a few days.
d) The patient is buried up to his neck in animal faeces and stays there for an
hour.
e) The patient drinks one cup of grated celery root.

Hair
For healthy hair and to avoid baldness, vine stems are chopped in the spring time.
The liquid that drips from these stems is collected in a bottle and the hair washed
with it.

Jaundice
The patient's forehead or chest is scratched with a razor blade.

Backache

a) A strong massage is applied using a cup.

b) Honey and pepper are rubbed on the affected areas. This is covered with a
perforated newspaper and a towel, and the patient spends the night like this. The
operation is frequently repeated.

Malaria

A small herb with pink flowers known as "malaria weed" is boiled and drunk as tea.

Cuts and Boils

a) The wound or boil is covered with poaceae, if this is not not available, cabbage
leaves or tomatoes may also be used.
b) Soap and a small pinch of salammoniac (ammonia) are together cooked with an
onion and applied to the boil when the ointment is warm.
Bites by Poisonous Animals
The head of a match is scraped and this is rubbed on the affected part.
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Note: These are not to replace any medication prescribed by a physician.
And, I make no claims that they work!

Brownielocks and The 3 Bears

Present

Here are some old time cures from the past

that today we find amusing. I noticed a common
ingredient in a lot of these so-called remedies:
onions, kerosene, turpentine, urine and cow manure!

There were hundreds to choose from.

Many cures were various kinds of teas.
Others were rather involved processes or recipes, which I didn't want to get into.
So, rather than repeat what many homeopathic sites list,
I choose those that were more ....interesting and entertaining to hear about.
Maybe some of them were even used in your family years ago?

Problem or Condition

Remedies, Cures or Actions

(There isn't always one remedy. So, I've numbered the various cures per problem.)

ACNE or pimples

1. Mix wheat-flour with honey and vinegar (proportions were not given) and put on
the pimples at night before going to bed.

2. Eat two apples the first thing in the morning for six weeks.
ARTHRITIS (or Rheumatism)

1. Have a cat sit on your knees whenever you have arthritic pain.

2. Mix turpentine with either vegetable oil, an egg or animal fat and rub on skin.

3. Put two horse chestnuts in your pants pockets.

4. One large thimble of gunpowder, mix in a spoonful of milk. After taking that.
Drink a good half-pint of milk separately. Then go to bed with a lot of warm
blankets and sweat a lot.

BAD DREAMS

1. Rub garlic on the soles of the child's feet.

BED WETTING

1. Have the child chew on a cinnamon stick throughout the day, especially right
before bed.

BLACK EYE
1. Rub it with a cold tallow candle as soon as you can.

BLEEDING

1. Put a spider web on the cut.

BOILS or CARBUNCLES

1. Put a small bottle in a pan and boil it for a few minutes. With a pot-holder
or tongs, pick it up and dump the water out. Then place the neck of the bottle
over the boil. The suction pops it!

BRONCHITIS

1. Wear a piece of brown paper, pierced with holes, around your neck at night in
bed.

2. Wear the sock you wore all day around your neck at night to bed, with the foot
part near the throat.
BURNS

1. Take a clean piece of paper from a brown paper bag, dip it in white vinegar and
apply to burn.

2. Put mushroom slices on the burn.

CANKER SORES

1. Take the kernels off an ear of corn. Then cut the bare cob into pieces and burn
them one at a time. Apply the cob ashes to the canker sore 3 to 5 times a day.

2. Keep a glob of blackstrap molasses in your mouth on the canker sore several
times throughout the day.

CAVITY PREVENTION
1. Eat a piece of cheddar, Monterey Jack or Swiss cheese after eating anything
that's sugary or cavity-causing. (The cheese reduces bacterial acid production.)

CHOKING: Fish bones or Hair

1. Swallow a raw egg.

COLD FEET

1. Sprinkle some cayenne pepper in your socks.

COMMON COLD

1. Eat a roasted Spanish onion before bedtime.

COOLER (Switzel)
This drink is said to cool the body down and prevent heat cramps when you've been
working outside in the heat:

3 tablespoons ginger
1 cup vinegar
1 gallon water
2 cups sugar (white or brown) or molasses, maple syrup or honey
(Some included oatmeal. Some didn't put in the vinegar.)

CORNS

1. Take one genuine mother-of-pearl button in a saucer. Squeeze lemon juice over
the button in the morning and in the evening for a week. The button turns into a
paste. Then spread this paste over the corn and cover with a bandage. Repeat
daily till corn is gone.

COUGH

1. 1 spoonful of a mixture of chopped raw onions and honey.

DRUNKENNESS

1. Eat coleslaw before you drink and you won't get drunk.
2. Eat 10 raw almonds on an empty stomach.

DYSPEPSIA

1. Eat oysters
"Oysters are out of season, when there is no R in the month."
Mrs. Theo P. Winning, The Australian Household Manual 1899

EPILEPSY

1. (This was referred to as 'the falling sickness' )

Hang coral around the neck. Or rub coral on your gums.

EYE - Something in it?

1. Flush it out with a few drops of warm milk.

FEVER

1. Chop up raw onions and put them into a linen cloth. Tie this to the child's
feet. In the morning the fever should be gone.

FRECKLES

1. Freckles can't be removed. But, the old tradition was that the more refined
sugar you ate, the darker your freckles got.

HAIR: SHINE & GRAY PREVENTION

1. While standing on your head, massage your scalp.

HEADACHE
1. Put slices of raw onions on your forehead. Then over them, wrap a cloth soaked
in rubbing alcohol around your head securely.

2. Pick up a knife and make a cross in front of you with it. Then throw the knife
on the floor!

3. Apply very hot water to the back of the neck with a folded towel at the same
time putting your feet in hot water.

4. Grind really fine the charcoal from your fire and mix it with a teaspoon of
water. Drink it.

HANGOVER CURE

1. When you're done drinking and are ready for bed, in a glass of orange juice stir
in 1 tablespoon sugar and drink it down.

2. When you wake up in the morning, take a quarter of a lemon and rub the juicy
side on each armpit.

HICCUPS
1. Hold a penny between any two toes of one foot and transfer the penny to any two
toes of the other foot, being careful not to touch the floor.

2. Wear nutmeg around your neck.

3. Take something cold that's also made of metal such as a spoon. Tie this on a
string and lower it down the hiccupping person's back.

INGROWN TOENAIL

1. See-saw a piece of wool yarn under the corner of the toenail (basically like
flossing). Get the yarn as deep and far down as you can. Snip off the ends and
leave it in. This makes the corner of the nail grow upwards instead of down into
your skin.

LASHES - longer & thicker

1. Mix 3 tablespoons of castor oil with 1 tablespoon of dark rum and dab this on
your lashes every night.

LEG CRAMPS
1. Take a silver spoon (or stainless steel) and put it on the cramp.

LUMBAGO

1. Place strips of dried seaweed inside your mattress.

MEMORY Problems

1. Drink sage tea.

NAILPOLISH Primer

1. Wipe unpolished fingers with vinegar to clean and prime before polishing.

NAUSEA (Outdoors)

1. You need a black and white newspaper page. Then sniff the ink.
NOSEBLEEDS

1. Roll up a square piece of brown paper (white paper won't work) and place it
between your teeth and upper lip.

2. Pack a spiderweb into your nose.

POISON IVY

Note: To test a plant to see if it is poison ivy, grab the plant with a piece of
white paper and crush the leaves. If it is poison ivy, the juice on the paper will
turn black in 5 minutes.

1. Take a slice of watermelon (rind and meat) and glide it over the rash-ridden
body part(s). Let dry naturally. Within a day, the rash should improve.

FOR A PERSON'S SICK ROOM

1. Hang a cloth soaked in lime water. This will keep the air very pure.

SINUS PROBLEMS

1. Put garlic and a little chicken fat in a silk stocking. Then wrap that stocking
around your neck.

SMALL POX

1. One teaspoon of cream of tartar per half-pint of hot water.

2. Eat fried mice. (Ewww!)

SOBER UP

1. Slowly eat a small grapefruit.

2. A Siberian recommendation -- Have the inebriated person lay on their back.

Place the palms of your hands on his ears. Then, rub both ears briskly and
strongly in a circulation motion. Within minutes he should come around.
SORE THROAT

1. Wrap a dirty sock around your neck.

2. Take a piece of bacon fat (raw) and tie a length of strong cotton around it.
Hold the cotton while you swallow the bacon fat. Then pull up the bacon fat using
the cotton thread. Then swallow again. Do this half a dozen times. Then take a
black cashmere stocking that has been worn for a week, sprinkle the sole with
eucalyptus and place that part against the throat. Wrap the rest of the stocking
around the neck and pin securely. Go to bed. You will wake up with no sore
throat. (Ewww!)

SUNBURN

1. Put slices of raw potato over the burn. (The starch in the potatoes comes out on
your skin and leaves a whitish color.)
Feels cool and gives a drawing sensation.

2. Wash with sage tea.

SUNSTROKE (Prevention)
1. Put a cool, wet cabbage leaf inside the crown of your hat.

TOOTHACHE

1. Dip a small piece of brown paper in whiskey. Then sprinkle it with pepper. Put
this where the pain is. Then cover with a flannel bandage.

WOUNDS or CUTS

1. A bruised geranium leaf applied to the cut asap heals it.

2. Powdered rice sprinkled on a cut stops the bleeding at once.

3. A cut that is festered, put on turpentine.

You may also be interested in:

History of Folklore
Folk Sayings
Food Folklore
Paul Bunyan Trivia

Sources:
"More Chicken Soup & Other Folk Remedies" by Joan Wilen and Lydia Wilen
Ballentine Books © 1986

"Live and Be Well..New Age and Old Age Folk Remedies" by Joan Wilen and Lydia Wilen
HarperCollins Publishers © 1992

"Country Folk Medicine - Tales of Skunk Oil, Sassafras Tea & Other Old-time
Remedies" by Elizabeth Janos
Galahad Books © 1990
"Bill Wannan's Folk Medicine" (Australia and The British Isles) by Bill Wannan
Hill of Content Publishing Company © 1970

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