By Ruel S. De Vera, Associate Editor
Sunday Inquirer Magazine
BOY, some of those home-brewed cures can be scary. The ones I like are those that make a weird kind of sense, and are a combination of the modern and the mythical. Take for example that great idea if you have a bad cold or fever. Get hold of that immortal Vicks VapoRub (in the little blue jar, for tradition’s sake), spread it all over the bottoms of your feet and cover with socks. It sounds awesome and I have heard people swear by this.
But my favorite cure has to do with that dreaded scourge of the mouth — cold sores or singaw! Singaw can be excruciatingly painful. Every bite, every sip can be torture. There’s no telling how long it will last, and in the summer it can be interminable.
But the cure makes sense. Take a bottle of authentic Tabasco sauce (not one of those watered-down substitutes) and pour a couple of drops straight into the sore. Now, it is going to hurt like crazy and you’ll feel your eyes rolling back in your head with the world turning white. But the right amount right on the money will burn that sore into submission. One imagines that a stronger sauce (like those scary Mexican and Asian condiments) would be even more effective but also exponentially more painful. Besides, it’s an improvement over pouring poison into your mouth. At least if any of the sauce drips into your tongue, it will remind you of tacos, not the dentist’s office.
For more cures — natural, bottled or mythical — check out the Sunday Inquirer Magazine’s Going Natural issue on May 25.
