This week, Joe and Terry Graedon welcome your calls about your favorite home remedies. Which ones really work to solve common health problems? You can share your experience at 888-472-3366 between 7 and 8 am EDT. We also invite you to send your comments in beforehand to [email protected].

You could listen through your local public radio station or get the live stream at 7 am EDT on your computer or smart phone (wunc.org). Here is a link so you can find which stations carry our broadcast. If you can’t listen to the broadcast, you may wish to hear the podcast later. You can subscribe through your favorite podcast provider, download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of the page, or listen to the stream on this post starting on Aug. 19, 2024.

Hiccups are a common experience, usually more annoying than dangerous. If they don’t go away by themselves, people try an amazing array of home remedies. One person is clear that a distracting or confusing question can stop hiccups quickly.

Most hiccup remedies seem to activate the vagus nerve that connects the brain and the digestive tract. We suspect that is how swallowing a spoonful of white sugar works. It probably also explains the effectiveness of swallowing a spoonful of peanut butter. (Don’t choke!)

Other remedies that work to stop hiccups involve variations on drinking water, either from the far side of the cup, with the ear flaps held closed or with the arms held out to the sides. One person reported that a gulp of Gewurztraminer, a spicy German wine, can banish hiccups. Others go for a small sip of pickle or olive brine or a taste of lemon with Angostura bitters. Perhaps you find hiccup remedies as interesting as we do. Very few have been subjected to scientific scrutiny, but one study suggests a breathing technique to stimulate the phrenic and vagus nerves (Cureus, Jan. 27, 2024).

Like hiccups, warts are rarely serious, but they can be distressing. Whether they are bumpy or flat, on the elbow or the sole of the foot, warts are caused by human papillomavirus. They are also extremely susceptible to suggestion. That probably explains why some people report that “selling” their wart to a healer for a tiny sum made it disappear. We really don’t know how that might work, but we imagine it has to do with the influence of the mind on the immune system.

Some other wart remedies may also work through activation of the immune system. We have heard from people who were able to get rid of their warts by taking oral cimetidine (Tagamet). This heartburn remedy was certainly not designed to overcome warts, yet the few studies that have been conducted indicate that it sometimes works.

Topical treatment with castor oil, duct tape or even sap from milkweed or fig trees has proven successful for some people. So far as we know, no single treatment works in every case. That is true even for the fancy therapies that dermatologists have at their disposal.

If you have ever been awakened by a Charlie horse that has your calf muscle contracted tight, you know how painful it can be. Occasionally, it is enough to stretch the toes toward the knee to make the cramp release. But in our experience, more vigorous efforts are often needed.

The scientific understanding of muscle cramps has changed greatly in the last decade. Understanding the effect of transient receptor potential (TRP) channels helps explain how swallowing a spoonful of yellow mustard could stop a cramp in minutes. But physiologists didn’t begin to study TRP channels in humans until the turn of the 21st century. We still don’t have a perfect understanding, but activating these TRP channels on nerve cell membranes with certain strong flavors can help to reverse nerves causing inappropriate muscle cramping.

We welcome your successful remedies for hiccups, warts, leg cramps or other problems. Please share your inquiries and anecdotes. You can email us: [email protected] or call 888-472-3366 between 7:00 and 7:50 am EDT on Saturday, August 17, 2024.

The podcast of this program will be available Monday, August 19, 2024, after broadcast on August 17. You can stream the show from this site and download the podcast for free.

Download the mp3.