Read & Listen: Home Remedies
OVERVIEW
On this page, you will read about folk remedies.
- First, read the text.
- Then, listen to audio of the text.
READ & LISTEN
Image Links to an external site. by **RCB**, CC BY 2.0 Links to an external site.
Read:
What Would Your Grandmother Do?
Today, most people get prescriptions from their doctors. They get the medicine from a pharmacy. Before modern medicine, people had to take care of themselves. They could not go to a pharmacist, clinic, emergency room, or hospital when they were sick. People developed folk medicine. Folk medicine is a cultural and traditional treatment for illness.
Folk remedies are often based on local plants and herbs. Sometimes a folk remedy is a special way of treating someone who is sick. For example, in the United States people used to believe that you "feed a cold and starve a fever". If someone had a cold, they were encouraged to eat. But if they had a fever, they were encouraged not to eat. Another folk remedy was chicken soup for a cold.
Not all folk remedies are helpful. "Feed a cold and starve a fever" is not good advice. Modern advice is that you should eat healthy foods when you have a cold. You should also eat healthy food and drink lots of liquids when you have a fever.
However, sometimes folk remedies are good advice. Doctors now believe that chicken soup really is good for someone who has a cold. So if you have a cold or a fever, hot chicken soup just might be the best treatment for you!