Old home remedies, modern medicine often are combined
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - In a carniceria on Franklin Boulevard, Valentin Curiel often stands off in a corner near the meat counter, waiting for customers who need his help - the mothers whose babies have colic, the insomniacs, the people with skin infections.
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Curiel, who's in his 60s, grew up in Mexico when most families did not visit the doctor if they got sick. Instead, they relied on herbs, minerals and botanicals - and the advice of elders on how to use them.
Residents of South Sacramento, Calif. - many of them Mexican immigrants who've heard of Curiel from friends or relatives - tell him about their ailments and get his suggestions for cures.
"Some of the home remedies I know about really work," Curiel said.
Manzanilla, or chamomile, can sooth stomachache or insomnia when consumed as tea, he tells them. If the manzanilla doesn't work, he recommends hierba buena, or mint tea.
Dr. Hillary Campbell of Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, Sacramento, said she found a survey from the World Health Organization while researching alternative medicine. It suggested that 80 percent of developing countries use herbal medicine.
"And now most people using alternative medicine in Western society are those who have immigrated from developing countries," she said.
Many combine the home remedies with modern medicine, working with doctors who teach them to avoid bad combinations or overuse of alternative treatments.
Like Curiel, Rebecca Gonzalez's grandmother was known in her town in Mexico as the woman with the remedies and knowledge. Gonzalez said that back then, in the rural town, even if people wanted to go to a doctor it was impossible to find one.
"So part of it may have been necessity, but part of it may have been a way of life," she said.
Gonzalez said she still relies on teas to help with a sore throat or insomnia before she'll go to a doctor or take a pill. And in the winter, to avoid getting sick, she said, she always has cinnamon or mint tea brewing.
But the Sacramento woman said she doesn't use all the handed-down remedies, among them softening the pain of tonsillitis by swallowing an egg yolk sprinkled with sugar. Or warming a banana peel and placi
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