of cabbages and kings

The past week and a half has been crazy around here.  Jim, who was laid off in January, started a new job.  He is a small engine mechanic and has spent years working in unheated shops in the winter and in the summers he burned up.  Well, this new job is in sales - he has to dress up for work ( i LOVE it!) and he goes to work clean and comes home clean.  It's a novel experience for him.  The only fly in the ointment is his bout with gout.

He didn't want to go to the doctor, so my boss suggested using a cabbage leaf.  And last night, I parboiled a leaf, wrapped it in place around his foot and made him sleep with it on.  Oh, how he moaned (almost as much as when I used to make him dress up) about having to sleep with produce.  My daughter called.  She said, what's dad doing?  Oh, he's in bed with his cabbage.  She never paused - kept talking and I was thinking - doesn't she find that the least bit odd?

Well, when he woke this morning he could tell a difference in his foot.  He asked me if we had another leaf for tonight.  One more should do it! he said.  How neat.

I did a little research and learned that cabbage leaf poultices work for a lot of ailments, like post surgical hematomas and breast engorgement.  And yes - gout!  

I had the flu the past week and feel like a new person today.  I know the misery has to run its course, but when my throat was on fire, I remembered my boss saying something about garlic.  Well, it was too late for pills, so I pulled open the garlic box, cut off a clove and ate the darned thing.  Man, did that burn - but in minutes, my sore throat was soothed.  ALL DAY!  And so I continued to eat garlic (no self-respecting virus will hang around the odor, apparently) and drank ginger tea and lots of water.  And when I ran out of cough syrup, I recalled the onion cure.  I put sugar on a diced onion and stored it in the fridge overnight, drank a few teaspoons of the syrup that resulted and son-of-a-gun, it worked.

A little research later, I had learned that garlic is a potential treatment for MRSA.  I also learned that the allicin in garlic can be used to treat upper respiratory infections, certain wounds...of course, you should always consult your physician before taking matters into the realm of homeopathy.  But I can tell you - the garlic, onion syrup and ginger tea really helped.

Used to be, every time my boss came up with a new herbal cure to use on everybody, I cringed and thought she was a bit cracked.  But from now on, I will listen to her.  It appears she DOES know what she's talking about.