★★★★★
I was talking to a friend's mom, Nancy (80 years old), and she was telling me about how people treated the flu back in her day.
She said: My X-husband (in the 1960-70) and I would get sick with the flu. He would drink whiskey and had me rub athletic hot muscle rub all over him and wrapped himself in a flannel sheet and by morning, he was well. I wouldn't do it and I was still sick for a week or two.
Nancy does not remember the brand of muscle rub, only that it was hot, not cool. I am assuming it was a capsaicin based ointment. She said he was a body builder and had a lot of herbal supplements and it came in a tub.
“Cramer Red Hot Sports Ointment” or possibly “Watkins Red Liniment” has capsaicin and has been around sine 1900 and is still on the market so I'll assume it was a product like that.
Believe it or not, whiskey was considered a cure for the flu. Ever heard of a Hot Toddy? I've read nursing journals during the 1918 Spanish flu, where even the nurses mention sick people in quarantine camps drinking hard liquors and never getting sick with the Spanish flu. It's the alcohol! Alcohol is a disinfectant. It kills germs.
Cayenne (capsaicin) has warming properties, it also acts as a catalyst to the body, stimulating the immune and cardiovascular systems in particular. It has antiseptic properties and can help with congestion (Gladstar, 2008).
In old England, Cayenne was called “Ginnie pepper” since it was purchased from “Guinea, ” or the Indies. Being official in both the United States and British pharmacopeias (even until the 1950's), Cayenne was an ingredient in many of the cure-all remedies of the last century.
Gerard mentioned it as being cultivated in his time (Gri: 175). It is used in folk medicine in various parts of the world, notably Greece, Italy, and parts of Russia, where it is steeped in Vodka and drunk as a tonic in wine glassful doses (Hut:68). It is especially valued in the West Indies there for deadly fevers, especially yellow fever, of which the native people have no fear as long as they have a goodly supply of Capsicum (Ibid.).
