Kitchen Medicine...Part II

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Sage, red clover or peppermint tea, fresh orange juice, lemon juice and honey or all of these in turn can be sipped by the patient, who should then sleep. The orange and lemon juice supply live vitamin C and both remedies make the person feel better and help fight the infection.

FEVER: Under 102° F: Eat chilled custard, jello, applesauce and small amounts of lean beef. Drink apricot juice, lemonade, fresh or reconstituted frozen orange juice or chilled rose-hip or pink mint tea with 1,000 milligrams of vitamin C every two hours. Keep warm and out of drafts.

Over 102°: Sip cool liquids reinforced with about 1/2 teaspoon of powdered ascorbic acid or dissolved vitamin C tablets, 1,000 milligrams per cupful. Stay in bed. Lightly wash the face, hands, arms and neck with a cool, wet cloth continually recooled in a basin of cold water. Consult a doctor if sore throat, vomiting, abdominal pain or chest congestion are also present.

A person who is recovering from a fever should stay indoors—and preferably in bed—until his or her temperature has been normal for 12 hours, or the fever may return.

HOARSENESS OR LARYNGITIS: Eat chicken gizzards (see the recipe under SWOLLEN GLANDS) and sunflower seeds. Chew cloves, or use them in tea. Drink hot alfalfa-mint, violet or hyssop tea with lemon and honey. Keep your throat warm. Don't talk. If you stay in bed when you have just plain laryngitis, you can sometimes prevent a bad sore throat or cold.

COUGH : Mix 1 tablespoon lemon juice with 1 tablespoon honey and take a teaspoonful as often as needed. Or sip crime de menthe. Or drink anise seed tea, and chew up a few of the seeds.

CROUP is a strangling cough that won't stop long enough to let the victim catch a breath. It usually strikes a child or an old person who has had a cold for a long time.

Instantly slap a cold, wet washcloth around the throat. The shock will stop the cough for a few breaths. Turn on the shower and have the patient breathe the hot, steamy air, but without getting wet. Then boil water, put a teaspoon of camphor oil into it, make a blanket tent and let the sufferer inhale the moist fumes. If you have no camphor, use a few drops of peppermint extract or a handful of peppermint leaves, dried or crushed, with the boiling water poured over them.

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