Folk Remedies for Fever

Fever can't actually be cured, as it's not really a condition. Rather it's a sign of a condition. Something is attacking your body, and your body is fighting back, which creates the fever. Nevertheless, a fever can be uncomfortable. People have been trying to ease this discomfort since the dawn of history, using various types of remedies. Some of the most popular are listed below.

Water

• Many folk remedies for fever concentrate on cooling the overheated skin. Water is one of the most popular folk remedies for a cold. Cold baths are an easy way to reduce a fever. Cold, wet washcloths are also easy to use if there is no access to a bathtub or shower. Ice cubes held to the forehead or other hot parts of the body became popular with the advent of freezers. Rubbing alcohol might also be rubbed on the skin, as it evaporates more quickly than water.

Medication

• Before there were 24-hour pharmacies, herbal teas have been used as a fever reducer, not only to help the patient avoid dehydration and to provoke sweating but also because some herbs have fever-reducing properties. For example, people made tea out of willow bark or black elder for fever patients. These types of bark contain the same type of chemical as aspirin. Linden tea was also used for its sweat-inducing properties, as was yarrow tea--the yarrow would be mixed with elderflower and peppermint.

Sweating

• Sweating is a long-held folk cure for a fever, but it can be dangerous. The body naturally produces sweat to cool down the fever-ridden body; as the sweat evaporates, the skin cools off. This is one of the reasons that a fever patient needs to drink lots of liquid, as otherwise sweat production can be too low and dehydration can kick in.