General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThis 105-Year-Old Beat Covid. She Credits Gin-Soaked Raisins.
Prayer. Prayer. Prayer, she offers. One step at a time. No junk food.
But surviving the coronavirus, she said, also may have had something to do with another staple: the nine gin-soaked golden raisins she has eaten each morning for most of her life.
Fill a jar, she explained. Nine raisins a day after it sits for nine days.
Her children and grandchildren recall the ritual as just one of Ms. DeClercks endearing lifelong habits, like drinking aloe juice straight from the container and brushing her teeth with baking soda. (That worked, too: She did not have a cavity until she was 99, relatives said.)
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/23/nyregion/new-jersey-lucia-declerck-covid.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytimes
I'm off to go buy a bottle of gin and a box of raisins.
tanyev
(42,540 posts)Dream Girl
(5,111 posts)tanyev
(42,540 posts)Midnightwalk
(3,131 posts)Throck
(2,520 posts)The next shortage. I can see the lines forming already.
jpak
(41,757 posts)iemitsu
(3,888 posts)95 year old woman I know, who survived Covid, is gin soaked too.
Vinca
(50,248 posts)Warpy
(111,222 posts)The dad had survived the 1918 flu as a child.
Neither was arrogant enough to claim they had the secret to longevity or surviving deadly disease.
Some people are just hard to kill.
Demovictory9
(32,443 posts)FakeNoose
(32,610 posts)The gin ... not so much.
nuxvomica
(12,418 posts)That's what gets her out of bed each morning. And I bet the no-junk-food diet helped her longevity even more.
Initech
(100,054 posts)StClone
(11,683 posts)Health experts say raisins (dried grapes) are natural pain relievers. And the gin is flavored with juniper berries-- which have anti-inflammatory properties.
liberaltrucker
(9,129 posts)Delphinus
(11,829 posts)I had forgotten about this remedy.
I did it more than a decade ago.
dhill926
(16,333 posts)been unaware of this miracle cure. Gin I got, I'll have to go get the raisins...
hvn_nbr_2
(6,486 posts)It's a common folk remedy for joint problems. They must be golden raisins, although nobody knows why. The instructions always involve a specific number of raisins, but I don't remember if it was commonly 9 or some other number. Instructions also vary as to whether to drain off the gin after the initial soak or just leave it on the raisins.
My experience was that it worked for me at the time. I also found that some brands of gin just didn't work, but I have no idea why.
That was about twenty years ago. Since then I gradually developed a set of exercises that work better. At 73, my back and joints are better than they were at 50, and no need for gin or raisins now.
TomSlick
(11,096 posts)[link:https://www.verywellhealth.com/can-gin-soaked-raisins-help-arthritis-189147|
I am less enthusiastic after learning the raisins are soaked in an open container which would allow the alcohol to evaporate.