HEALING STORIES FROM EDITORS

In addition to pinpointing popular remedies in their home countries, RD editors shared some of their memories about them.

Luis Eduardo Pineda Rosales, Mexico City

“I played basketball when I was a kid, and sometimes my fingers would get painfully bruised. My mother would rub them with arnica balm, and in a few days the bruising would be gone.”

Tanara Vieira, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

“When we were kids, if we had a cough, my grandmother would whip one egg yolk with sugar and, when it had whitened, combine the mixture with a cup of marcela tea.

It tasted so good that my sister, my cousins, and I used to pretend we were coughing so she would give it to us.”

Paul Robert, Amsterdam

“When I was a child, the best thing about having a cold was that I’d get a whole bag of dropjes. Once, I gave them to an American friend, who told me they tasted just as terrible as the raw herring and smoked eel I’d given her earlier!”

Bonnie Munday, Toronto

“When my husband got food poisoning while traveling in Malaysia, we didn’t have any medicine for tummy troubles, but our hotel manager advised eating ripe papaya. An hour or two after my husband ate it, he felt so much better.”