As if the pandemic wasn’t bad enough on its own, we are currently seeing the onset of the influenza season. The problem is, when your child starts running a temperature, you can’t go rushing to the doctor like you used to – because there’s a contagious virus out there. That’s why many parents have no alternative but to resort to self-medication… like using paracetamol to fight the fever.
But ancient India had its own set of quaint home remedies that grandma would use to shoo the flu away – and the only reason they have been around for hundreds of years is that they work.
Here’s one such home remedy that is widely used in north India. Take five or six garlic cloves, peel them and grind them into a paste. Heat two tablespoons of cold-pressed Mustard Oil, add the garlic paste and let the mixture cool down to room temperature. Then apply the mixture to the child’s back and chest and on the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet. Gently massage it in. Do this just before the child goes to sleep at night.
There will be some amount of sweating when the mixture is applied. This opens the pores of the skin and helps in flushing toxins out of the body. This not only brings the fever down, it also alleviates body aches that may accompany the fever.
While this home remedy has often been used when children have fever, it works just as well on adults. And since both cold-pressed Mustard Oil and garlic are completely natural, there are no side effects whatsoever.
So if the seasonal flu gets you down, fight back with this completely natural homemade formulation – tried and tested across hundreds of years.