I got this via Email, interesting....

ONION

A friend of mine told me a story about how when he was a kid he was in the hospital & near dying. His Italian/African grandmother came to the hospital & told a family member to go buy her a large onion & a new pair of white cotton socks. She sliced the onion open then put a slice on the bottom of each of his feet & put the white cotton socks on him. In the morning when he awoke they removed the socks. The slices of onion were black & his fever was gone. The following story that someone sent to me might have some truth in it & we are going to try this this winter.

In 1919 when the flu killed 40 million people there was this Doctor that visited the many farmers to see if he could help them combat the flu. Many of the farmers and their family had contracted it and many died.

The doctor came upon this one farmer and to his surprise, everyone was very healthy. When the doctor asked what the farmer was doing that was different the wife replied that she had placed an unpeeled onion in a dish in the rooms of the home, (probably only two rooms back then). The doctor couldn't believe it and asked if he could have one of the onions and place it under the microscope. She gave him one and when he did this, he did find the flu virus in the onion. It obviously absorbed the bacteria, therefore, keeping the family healthy.



Now, I heard this story from my hairdresser in AZ. She said that several years ago many of her employees were coming down with the flu and so were many of her customers. The next year she placed several bowls with onions around in her shop. To her surprise, none of her staff got sick. It must work.. (And no, she is not in the onion business.)



The moral of the story is, buy some onions and place them in bowls around your home. If you work at a desk, place one or two in your office or under your desk or even on top somewhere. Try it and see what happens. We did it last year and we never got the flu.



If this helps you and your loved ones from getting sick, all the better. If you do get the flu, it just might be a mild case..



Whatever, what have you to lose? Just a few bucks on onions!!!!!! !!!!!!!!



Now there is a P. S. to this for I sent it to a friend in Oregon who regularly contributes material to me on health issues. She replied with this most interesting experience about onions:



Weldon,thanks for the reminder. I don't know about the farmers story...but, I do know that I contacted pneumonia and needless to say I was very ill...I came across an article that said to cut both ends off an onion put one end on a fork and then place the forked end into an empty jar...placing the jar next to the sick patient at night. It said the onion would be black in the morning from the germs...sure enough it happened just like that...the onion was a mess and I began to feel better.



Another thing I read in the article was that onions and garlic placed around the room saved many from the black plague years ago. They have powerful antibacterial, antiseptic properties.

Wow...very interesting BayLee. I know of a lot of older people, my fathe -in-law , for one, who would also just set and eat raw onions, usually soaked in vinegar. I can still him saying "will cure whats ails you"....maybe he was on to something.

With the treat of H1N1 upon us, tips like this are nice to know...Thanks.

I am seriously considering placing onions in all my rooms..... we eat them almost everyday, I try to put them in a recipe someway..

According to snopes.com this is false. This is an old belief, but not scientifically correct. Cold and flu viruses are spread through direct contact. They are not floating through the air to be trapped by the onion. The best way to avoid cold and flu is to wash hands frequently, avoid touching eyes, nose, mouth with your hands and avoid sick people (not an easy one to accomplish).

When i was young and we had colds / flu and coughs my mother would slice an onion, sprinkle suger over it and cover for a few hours then we had to drink the syrup it made, yuk !!! but it really worked well, Who cares if there is no scientific proof to these old wives tales they are interesting and some times nobody really knows why things work, after all Penecillin is really only a type of mould.

Holy crap Carol, I hope your mum gave you got a shot of rum to chase that concotion with

Your're right, Carol...these old remedies seem to work. I would think, though in the case of the onion/sugar juice one, that I might have been tempted to just make pretend that I felt better so I wouldn't have to take it again!!! LOL

Well Baylee...putting it to the test...my hubby went hunting 2 WEEKS AGO and took my stinky dog ... and my truck reeks of wet dog...it's been 2 weeks keeping windows down when I think of it and still to this day it smells...soooooooo...today I took a cup filled with onions and water and put it in my truck..will keep ya posted :cowboyhound.gi