10 people explain how certain 'old wives' tales are actually true and helpful in everyday lives

Old wives' tales are true!

Most of us hear about these old wives' tales from our parents or grandparents. They talk about some home remedies to fix minor health ailments like cough and cold, sometimes these tales are all about how natural phenomena affect our bodies. We might roll our eyes at them and refuse to believe that these tales have an ounce of truth in them but eventually, some of these claims of our elderlies are backed by science. These so-called urban legends which are passed down from one generation to another are sometimes deemed as facts but mostly they are considered fiction.

u/spiteful-hater666 asked the Reddit community to list down some of the old wives' true tales. People came up with more than three thousand comments sharing all of the old wives' tales that they have grown up hearing about and some of them are still legitimate. Here are a bunch of old wives' tales that people still believe in and they find it rational as well.

1. Undetected ailments

Doomed is the child who tastes salty when kissed on the forehead. He is cursed and will soon die. It’s cystic fibrosis. Nowadays, we know that cystic fibrosis is due to a non-functional protein that regulates salt transport; when that protein doesn’t work, you get thick, sticky mucus clogging up every membrane and a whole bunch of salt being pumped onto the skin. Many diseases existed for a long time before we had the framework to understand them. Still, our ancestors were paying attention and trying to understand these tragedies through the lenses that they had. And sometimes, that’s how you get an old wives’ tale right on the money! u/Adventurous-Onion589

2. Power of home remedies

I can't believe there are over 400 comments and nobody has mentioned one of the most valuable old wives' tales: That garlic had medicinal powers for a wide variety of ailments. u/MsTerious1. Ginger and turmeric in high doses behave as COX-1 inhibitors. NSAIDS (ibuprofen, Advil, aspirin, etc) are also COX-1 inhibitors. COX-1 is the enzyme involved with inflammation. So if you have higher doses of either, it has a similar effect. I'm allergic to NSAIDs and have an issue with any COX-1 inhibitors, so I had to learn this stuff for an advocacy group I helped run. We have to warn against a lot of special teas and shakes because they add ginger and turmeric often for the above reasons. u/OddlyOtter

3. Take care of your eyesight

Looking at something too close (like the TV) for too long will strain your eyes. You need to exercise your long-distance focusing muscles to prevent myopia. If you always look at things close up, you can develop them. Studies show that myopia is more often linked with behavior and environment rather than genetics. u/False_Ad3429. Mongolian herders live in the steppe regions of Mongolia, where there are basically no trees or large cover for miles and miles. Amazingly, very few Mongolian people living in those conditions need glasses. I do know my own vision started going down the drain when I started using a computer for work all day, every day. u/captcha_trampstamp

4. Stay away from frozen poles

You really don't want to touch that frozen metal pole with your tongue. u/jtbc. I never saw a Christmas story and didn't think it was real. I was in a high school parking lot with one friend around in the middle of the night and had to tear my tongue off the pole. For over a year it hurt to eat and drink until it healed. The next day I saw my tongue on the pole. I still feel stupid and I'm in my 30s." u/tequilamockingbird37. "My mom lived in Alaska for a bit when she was young, and told me a story about how the local kids showed her a piece of tongue permanently frozen to a pole beneath one of the stilted housing units. Just the second-hand account of it scared the shit out of me as a kid. u/Istoh

5. Redheads and their resistance

More of an old nurse's tale, but redheads need more anesthetic. Turns out that there is a linked gene to red hair that increases resistance or metabolism or something to the drug. At any rate, waking up in the middle of a full colonoscopy sucks. Hearing the doctor say, 'Ah, well, she's awake, give her another one.' And the nurse, all melodramatic as she pushes another syringe worth into your IV, saying to him, 'Are you SURE, Doctor??' as your eyes slowly close again is especially awesome. u/spentpatience. Similar experience. Had 4 fillings done when I was a teen. The dentist refused to believe I wasn’t numb. I avoided the dentist for years after that. I now know to warn them to give me a combo with epinephrine. I still often have a weird reaction but can get numb that way. I prefer to be sedated also. I’m not a redhead but my dad was. u/ArtistNo9841

6. Cautionary for pregnant women

Pregnant women should not be near cat litter. Source: am blind in one eye from toxoplasmosis acquired in utero. u/do-eye-dare. A friend of mine has relatives in Germany. We visited the family while stationed there in the Army. The family included an adult daughter who contracted toxoplasmosis in the womb during WWII and was blind and deaf. It was really sad, but she lived a long life and seemed happy. On the other hand, I was a vet tech in the Army, and before I went to my first duty station, the Army took blood to test for toxic. At the time I was negative. They also froze some of the blood from what we were told, in case we came down with some zoonotic disease, they could test our old blood to compare to the current condition. I often wonder if they still have it frozen somewhere. u/ILLforlife

7. Usage of ammonia

Ammonia on a mosquito bite. Dab a bit of ammonia on it, and don't touch it, count to 120 seconds, and the bite is 'gone' (inflammation, etc). When I first heard of it, I didn't believe it. Now, just a touch of kitchen ammonia and don't scratch and it's beyond gone. Completely. u/Mackheath1. During the medieval times in the Flandrian Gent (now Belgium) there used to be a very important job - the urine collector. Urine was later processed to create ammonia, which was, in turn, used to create saltpeter for making gunpowder. Every morning urine collectors would ride around the city with a huge barrel and pay money for urine. Some clever citizens emerged, who would dilute the product. u/stfleming1 

8. Rain and joint pains

When rain is coming, your joints hurt. I used to roll my eyes and laugh when Granny said her arthritis was acting up because it was going to rain. I was 10 years old.

I'm now 53 and not laughing. Granny 1, me 0. u/Money-Bear7166. So true. The scientific explanation is that it’s due to the low-pressure system associated with rain. The drop in barometric pressure (air’s weight), takes weight off our body and can cause muscle, tendons, and joints to swell, which causes pain. Even more so if you have scar tissue from a previous injury or arthritis. It can also trigger headaches. u/BosunSDog

9. Gathering herbs

Gathering herbs by the light of the moon. Some plants, pollinated by moths, have their most potent oils at night to attract night insects. So if you need it at its strongest, pick it up at night. u/ivylass. I bought Physica by Hildegard Van Bingen. I asked ChatGPT what book at the oldest ancient knowledge about natural medicine. Why? I am autistic with ADHD, I get hardcore into studying random things. Anyhow, I got high one night and researched the plant properties versus what she had to say about their usefulness. She was a nun and considered a Saint, which is good or she would have been considered a witch. Some of it is nonsense, but some of it is legitimate. I keep the book in my living room and research plants from time to time and it is so interesting to see the spiritual tales versus the science. u/Opandemonium

10. Gelatin helps too

Drinking gelatin to up amniotic fluid during pregnancy. They wanted to schedule a c-section at 32 weeks for my kid, due to low amniotic fluid. My friend's midwife told me to mix gelatin packets into apple juice and drink it before it started to thicken. 3x a day. Brought my levels up from a 3 to an 8 and managed to keep the kid baking for another 4 weeks and she was born at 36 weeks, weighing 4lbs 3oz so, the gods only know how tiny she would have been at 32 weeks. She was discharged with me three days later, at 4lbs 1oz perfectly healthy, besides being as tiny as a doll and she didn't wear clothes for four months because I was terrified of breaking her. But, yeah, I never thought it would work. u/sp0rkify