Rx: Good old-fashioned home remedies

I see my household help putting toothpaste on her pimple and true enough, in a day or two, her pimple disappears. One time, she had a cold and refused the Neozep I gave her. Instead, she asked permission to cook old-fashioned chicken soup and take a rest. In two days, her cold was gone. She said these are what she grew up with that her lola taught her. Are these just old wives’ tales, or is there a basis for these home remedies? – Susana

Do home remedies really work? Whether it’s toothpaste to treat a pimple or the household cleaner Windex to treat anything and everything from poison ivy to baldness, as seen in the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding, one thing is clear: Home remedies abound! I asked some specialists what they had to say about home remedies and here are some answers:

• Dermatologist Audrey Kunin says that Windex or any glass cleaner’s active ingredients including ammonium hydroxide and rubbing alcohol can help dry out poison ivy and prevent bacterial infections that can follow some rashes. "Overuse, however, could irritate or burn the skin," she says.

• Grandma was right! Chicken soup may be good for more than just your soul. "As a consequence of colds and flu, your body loses fluid and chicken soup has a lot of salt and other minerals to replace that lost fluid, and the salt helps retain water so you feel better," says Dr. Jim Jones of Medical Research Center in Denver. "You need calories to get better and produce the new proteins and antibodies that help you get over the infection. So stay home, have lots of chicken soup or other foods with salt and you could be feeling better in no time!"

• Summer is the season for sunburns but don’t spend your time or money on aloe or vitamin E to take the burn away, says Dr. Kunin. "Instead, apply plain old white, distilled vinegar to your sunburn," she says. "You may smell like a salad but the vinegar also serves as a topical non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug which reduces the inflammation, pain, and redness of a sunburn."

• A chunk of chocolates, peanuts and some high-carbo beverages can help curb PMS that wreaks havoc on your mood and body.

• Toothpaste does more than help you achieve a winning smile. When dabbed on a pimple, toothpaste can get rid of it by morning. It is drying and basically works like a clay mask, says a doctor. It dehydrates the pimple and absorbs the oil. "Toothpaste works best on a pimple that has come to a head, like a whitehead. But be careful not to use a whitening toothpaste because it tends to have high levels of hydrogen peroxide that irritate or burn the skin."

• Home remedies for headaches may just be lying on your kitchen counter or in your neighborhood coffee shop, says a doctor in Chicago’s Diamond Headache clinic. "Coffee constricts the blood vessels which reduces blood flow and eases pressure associated with certain headaches such as migraines and tension headaches. A recent study showed that caffeine is as good as ibuprofen at relieving headaches. In fact, caffeine is often added to pain relievers."

• A penny for your ... cyst? Many of us have developed harmless ganglion cysts on the top of the wrist, the underside of the wrist, the end of a finger or at the base of a finger. And the best way to get rid of it is to squish it with a penny, or a book or anything that will rupture it! That will save you a trip to the doctor and a minor surgery.

* * * Being Fashionably Late Is Not In

I have lived in three countries prior to being stationed back here and I noticed that the Filipino habit of coming late has worsened. It’s only in the Philippines that it’s so difficult to host a sit-down dinner and expect everyone who confirmed to appear. I’ve experienced inviting some people who confirmed and didn’t come with not even an explanation. Some people accept two or three cocktail party invitations before going to their sit-down dinner, and take it for granted that to arrive one hour late is fashionable. I think it is very ungracious and terribly impolite to arrive at a dinner an hour late, especially if it is a sit-down dinner where the host has counted you in and paid for your plate. Such is my predicament here in Manila that’s why I avoid hosting formal sit-down dinners. I’d rather just host informal buffets or cocktail receptions where one doesn’t really care who comes in late or not. A friend of mine came in one hour late to my dinner party and didn’t even bother to call that he was going to be late. So we started without him as most of the other guests were already starving. When he came after the soup and the salad, he sort of gave a wry expression, insinuating that I was impolite for starting without him. Wasn’t he the one who should have apologized instead of being so arrogant about it? – Frustrated

It is very impolite not to appear in a dinner party where one has confirmed to attend. It is not only a question of economics. It is also the fact that a host plans every seat on his table to be filled up as the success of a sit-down dinner party is the chemistry of the guests with one another. Usually, a host plans his guest list with the thought that his invited guests will enjoy each other’s company. And if you confirm and don’t appear, you are breaking his seating arrangement and making him pay for another plate that was not consumed. There is no such thing as being fashionably late to a sit-down dinner without advising the host. With the advent of technology, i.e. cell phones, it is the guests’ duty to call their host to advise of their late arrival so they have the option to wait or not to wait. With the traffic in Manila, it is expected that guests will come in a little late. (Fifteen to 20 minutes is forgivable.) That is why there is such a thing as pre-dinner drinks, to give allowance to the latecomers. But don’t keep your host guessing if you are coming or not. This is one time that a phone call is mandatory.

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For your questions, write to Mayenne Carmona, StarGate Media Inc., 6th floor, Jaka Bldg., Ayala Avenue, Makati City.