These are Canadien Old Wives Tales -
My Grandmother told me to rub a diamond on a sty to heal it. I only know it works because she once did it to herself and it worked!
Also, my mom taught me to use saliva to quell an itchy insect bite -this has served me well. My six year old son has become a hero at school for instructing his fellow classmates to spit on their bites!

The quote "starve a fever, feed a cold" reminded me of a fun book I read not too long ago: "Survival of the Sickest". Not only very entertaining, but it helps the reader understand why we inherit some threatening medical conditions.

our family said that salt water and white vinegar works best on jelly fish stings and i got to try it 2 weeks ago when my 5 year old, penelope got stung!it works!

our family said that salt water and white vinegar works best on jelly fish stings and i got to try it 2 weeks ago when my 5 year old, penelope got stung!it works!

my family always beleived the one about the ravens. ya know,every # of ravens stands for some thing!

my family always beleived the one about the ravens. ya know,every # of ravens stands for some thing!

I don't think that this is an old wives' tale however cranberry juice works wonders for my bladder! Some people do not agree, perhaps because it does not work for them which is understandable. I checked out some sci. research though and they believe that the cranberry juice helps kill bacteria by breaking down the flagella (bacteria's many arms/legs) which they use to hold on to surfaces such as your bladder.

I have never tried out breaking the ganglion cyst in my wrist with a bible though. OUCH! I head that one very often.

I'm not sure if it is an old wives' tale, but when my kids were little and had colds, my pediatrician told me to mix a glass of one part honey, one part water and one part bourbon (or scotch, etc.). Give the sick child a tablespoon of the mixture and drink the rest myself.

It certainly worked.

Some are true and some are lies to make us eat our vegies but they work which is good!!!!

I write in response to your article on eating spinach for strong muscle. You give me the impression that meat is the only protein source. Sure it has lots of protein, also lots of fat, growth hormones, and antibiotics. Don't show so healthy to me. Their are other healthy protein sources such as soy-based anolog meats, tvp, quinoa(complete protein, like soy), and mycoprotein(fungus/mushrooms). I don't eat meat because of the way the food animals are treated with so much unhealthy drugs. Not to even begin to bring up their living conditions. So you can get all the protein for non meat sources needed for your daily intake. In the future give all the options and not just a narrow view.

Actually, I am a dematologist and have recently read the October 2007 issue regarding acne and fried foods and chocolate. I have to say that the most recent evidence suggests there may be a link between milk intake and acne. Nothing so far, suggests fried foods and chocolate and acne. However, I have several patients that swear that when they decrease their intake of soda their acne improves. Who am I to say that is wrong? We are all unique individuals and who knows: maybe foods do aggravate some people with regards to their acne and don't aggravate other people. I generally tell patients: "If you see a correlation between a certain food and acne then decrease your consumption of that food." Now, back to the milk issue. With all the steroids and antibiotics that are put into our foods why couldn't food (meats and milk) increase acne. We know hat exogenous steroids can cause acne. We also know that excessive antibiotics can kill off our good bacteria destroying our delicate balance of commensals. Why couldn't this increase the risk of worsening acne? If my patients with bad acne try standard regimens and they aren't working I take a quick dietary intake and see if we can't change some things (like switch to soy milk or organically derived milk, etc.). People are all unique and we can NEVER say that something does not or does affect us all. Just my thoughts!!!!

Some of the old folklore is hard to understand now because of language drift. I read somewhere that when it became a common saying, "Feed a cold, etc." meant, in modern terms, nourish someone who is moderately ill and by so doing, keep the condition from getting worse.

While some may be bunk, old wives' tales do represent a tradition of woman-to-woman wisdom, and I honor that. My grandmother always took us to the beach to soak cuts and scrapes in the salt water, and now I do the same for my children. It seems to speed the healing.

Whenever I have a cold, sore throat, or fever, I make sure I consume honey. Within a day ot two it goes away!