Blog on the Lillypad
Sunday, December 07, 2003
 | Another great cure!
I started a sore throat on the last day of the Doctor Who convention, and it blossomed into roaring pain on the two-day trip home. Once I got back to North Carolina, I went to the Harris Teeter where my Chinese grocery clerk dispenses home remedies as well as tips on the freshest produce. I asked him how to cure a severe sore throat, and he told me to take a good-sized piece of fresh ginger (two and a half inches or maybe three inches), peel it, pound it out with a hammer, then put it in a saucepan and cover it with two cups of water. Simmer it for a while. Then drain off the liquid and drink it. |
I refined this a bit further by thinly slicing the ginger rather than pounding it (too tired to pound), and I added freshly squeezed lemon juice to it after I poured it off into a mug Woooooo-Weeeeeee! It was like drinking fire, but it took a lot of the soreness right out. For my second serving, I let the ginger simmer for several hours in a couple cups of water. This increased the potency. Again, it seemed to help my body fight what had been a really bad sore throat.
By the third day after I'd started the ginger, the sore throat was cleared up, although the infection had moved high up into my glands and sinuses as it worked its way out of my system. I was really congested. Today I felt better yet, and I expect to be just about well by tomorrow. But now that I've had to give up coffee (owing to this stress thing), I've become accustomed to steaming, flaming ginger tea with lemon in the mornings.
