Do Old Tales tell all?
- Hannah Darnell
- Sep 25
- 2 min read
Updated: Sep 30
When you think of old wives’ tales, what comes to mind?
Catch a cold while out in the cold.
Spread room-temperature butter on burns.
Starve yourself during a fever.
Eat up for a typical cold.
My personal favorite is ice baths to cool body temperature. With high fever (it’s a brutal burr)
Let’s dig a little deeper with these old-time stories and uncover the truth. Join me like a sleuth.
Research to date has discredited many alternative medicinal folklores. Some examples include:
Run inside or you’ll catch a cold. Truthfully, catching the common cold is unrelated to being in cold weather, but rather to spending more time indoors. (1)
Placing a slab of butter on your burn, while easing the cooking process, is like applying it to a juicy steak. (2) Butter may also contain germs, adding more insult to injury. The best course of action is to run cool water over the burn, similar to how you would stop the cooking process of boiled eggs or spaghetti noodles by placing them in cool water. (2)
Starving a fever has a ring of truth, but it's not Lord of ALL the Rings. Your body, lacking nutrients, will indeed lower your temperature. (More research is needed to consider whether belly growling will elevate or de-escalate temperature.) But your immune system cannot fight infection without protein. (1)
I’m ready for that cold so I can eat my way out of it, if only! Feeding a cold may be appropriate for the body’s immunity’s sake, but most importantly, fluid intake is a must. Dehydration is a common side effect of fevers and colds. It’s no fun drinking bland water when you have a sore throat, but it’s what you need to stabilize your internal fluid balance. (3)
Ahh, we’ve reached my favorite tale of all tales, ice baths to reduce fevers. This may seem like common sense, but nowadays we have learned that moderation is key in everything. Ice baths are uncomfortable and unnecessary to rid fevers. (3) Tepid or warm baths are acceptable. The problem with ice baths is the shock your body absorbs from the sudden change in temperature to an extremely low level. While it may be relieving to see you or your child shivering, the body is actually working overtime to compensate for the sudden cold shock, which ironically, elevates fevers even more.
Conclusion
Remedies are interesting in the essence of oral storytelling. Many cultures, races, and socio-economic groups have differing ideas about treating ailments. (1) Traditions include oral stories that have survived decades, as one familial generation imparted them to another. We now realize that while some remedies have a smidgen of truth, most are hyperbolized.
13 August 2025
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