It works! It really works!

So, I have a very dear friend, Clair, who's very into herbal and dietary remedies and, more especially, prevention.  I'm not too smart about these things, but I'm smart enough to listen to her.  :)  Today, I tried curing an earache with onions.  IT WORKS!  It really works.  Since I figure I'll forget someday, and since most of my friends and family have small children and probably are curious how to save a couple of bucks AND save their children from pain, I thought I'd write it down.  For you and for me.  :)

I had a sort of sinusy-pressure kind of earache, not a full out ear infection.  I think that's important, but maybe it isn't, or maybe not to you, at least.  Anyway, first I took Clair's advice and cut an onion in half, heated it up (in the microwave, I was antsy) 'til it was steaming, let the halves cool until they weren't too hot to handle, and held them up to my ears. It felt SO GOOD. Kept them there for 15 minutes. AMAZING. BUT, when I took them away my ears started to hurt again within a few minutes. So then I squeezed the warm, squishy onion 'til the juice came out, mixed it with a little olive oil, and made ear drops out of it. That really did the trick. I did the drops twice within 20 minutes, massaging the ear as the liquid went in and then again to get some of it out.  I'd had an ear ache buliding up for two days, and finally tried it--it "cured" the pain within an hour, and it has lasted all day.  Only now, after lots of sinus pressure all day, has it started to come back, and even then it's NOTHING like it was this morning--I won't even tell you what I'd been considering trying before this!  Anyway, I'm a believer!  At least in the power of onions.  :)

Funny enough, when I told Paul about this and explained what I'd researched about the amazing anti-inflammatory nature of onions, he said, "Oh, THAT'S why my dad always put onions on my ankle when I sprained it!"  :) 

It's funny, all this wisdom that the older generations have, home remedies, that sort of thing, and they usually work pretty dang well!  And yet either they don't pass it on to us, or we don't listen.  Well, I'm going to listen a little bit more carefully from now on.  Why be dependent on doctors and drugs when (sometimes) everyday foods can do the trick just as well?  Of course, I still take Excedrin for my migraines and I plan on using the doctors and drugs when I need to...I'm just beginning to learn how to take care of MYSELF and my family when I can.

Also, today I made ginger tea with lime and honey.  YUMMY.  But I made it a little too strong for Paul's sore throat and it burned all the way down.  :(  But I'm sure it'll be good for him and his perpetual cold, anyway.  And I discovered that ginger and lime are AMAZING together.  That, naturally, led me to this.  Tell me that doesn't make your mouth water!  I'm going to have to make this VERY SOON...