My great grandmother who while being a nurse, was a virtual walking encyclopedia of natural remedies and preferred them over pharmaceutical medications; she never took anything stronger than aspirin and only relied on the old-time natural remedies and lived to be 98 years old. You might say, that her sense of natural remedies is what we might now call holistic, homeopathic or alternative types of healing. It's unfortunate however, that neither my grandmother nor mother wrote any of my great grandmother's "remedies" down, however there is one I do remember very well: the mustard plaster.
The mustard plaster has been an old-time folklore remedy mainly used for both chest congestions and backaches. Growing up, I always remembered seeing a tin can of Colman's Dry Mustard, both in my great grandmother's home and in the home where I lived with my grandmother and mother. In other words, none of us were ever without it. While there may be other brands of dry mustard, the Colman's brand seemed to be the preferred choice.
How To Make A Mustard Plaster:
From reading different articles about the Mustard Plaster, I noticed there were many variations of just how to make them. However, from a very old tin of Colman's Dry Mustard that I still have, it gives the directions, and as a by the way, none of the newer tins have them. Here are the directions:
MUSTARD PLASTER or POULTICE (Adults)
"Take equal parts of flour and Coleman's Mustard and make into a pass with tepid water. Spread on cotton cloth and cover with a second piece. Apply and allow to remain as long as can be borne but not more than 20 minutes. For sensitive skin increase the amount of flour used to four parts flour to one part mustard."
For the cotton cloth part, one may use a washcloth, and spread the plaster onto half of the washcloth, then fold over. One can then place directly right on one's chest to clear chest congestion, or on one's back for helping backaches. Have I used the Mustard Plaster myself? Yes. Does it work?Most definitely! In the past, when I've had bad bouts of bronchitis to the point where I felt like an elephant was sitting on top of my chest, I would make up the plaster. However, in my case, I was often a little more daring and I dispensed with the cloth part, and would apply the plaster directly on my chest. I would then keep it on as long as I could tolerate it. Why? The plaster does make the area where it is applied on feel hot, also and I did notice that my skin would turn noticeably red.
Now unless you have a very good condiment section of your local supermarkets, which I don't have, Coleman's Dry Mustard may be hard to find. Wanting to have a tin of the mustard on hand as a just in case, I had to resort to buying it on-line, therefore you may also have to resort to buying on-line as well. One can find it via Amazon.com, eBay and a good number of other on-line websites and runs about $5.99 for one tin.
Other articles about Mustard Plaster:
http://thewellspring.org/mustard-plaster-for-stubborn-chest-congestion/
Mustard Plaster Chest Congestion
There's even a video on how to make a Mustard Plaster:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIw9Ay3zEJs Mustard Plaster Video
Image Source: ©Melanie Neer~Personal Photo of my tin of Colman's Dry Mustard
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