Saturday, 21 August 2021

Simple folk remedies: 05 (swelling / inflammation)

An ex-student’s mother (from Shandong province) has used salt water as an antiseptic.

Her father had sustained a leg injury (don’t know how), but not told her about it.  The wound then got so bad that he was hobbling, which was how she found out — when she spotted his strange gait: it was one huge, angry-looking red swelling.


She boiled some water (to sterilise it), added salt to it, let it cool down, sat him down, and applied the salt water with a cotton wool to the affected area: gently swabbing the outermost area to start with.  She said the redness and swelling started to go down within a few minutes.


An ex-colleague from the pub, of Iranian parentage, said his father rinses his mouth with salt water every night before bedtime.  


I had an attack of gingivitis a few weeks ago, and tried to go to the dentist.  He’s always been off-hand / unsympathetic about my dental issues, telling me a tooth was “doomed!”, which doesn’t help if you’ve always had dental problems and are terrified of needles and such medical traumas.  Found a sign on his front door saying not to enter without an appointment, and to make an appointment online.  With this reprieve, I thought I’d explore alternatives for reducing the pain at least.  Tried the salt water treatment, and it has helped.

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