💊 Doctor's Orders 1915

Colds

Half a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda to ward off a cold, and up to a pound of it in the bath.

From: Book of Valuable Recipes
Published: 1915
Yikes Scale: Yikes

Exactly as printed, 1915

A half-teaspoonful of ARM & HAMMER BRAND BICARBONATE OF SODA in a glass of water, and repeated if necessary in one or two hours will often ward off a cold in its early stages.

ARM & HAMMER BRAND SODA IN THE BATH.-GIVE IT A FAIR TRIAL AND NOTE ITS EFFECT. A most delightful bath may be taken by filling the bathtub with water as hot as can be comfortably borne and then thoroughly dissolving in it from one-half to one pound of ARM & HAMMER BRAND BICARBONATE OF SODA. It makes the water pleasant. It is perfectly harmless and there is no danger of using too much. In fact, the more used the more agreeable will be the effect.

FOR COLDS, RHEUMATISM, LUMBAGO, and ills of like nature, this is a most excellent remedy.

When the patient is FEVERISH wash in warm water and The Great Arm & Hammer Soda.

GRUELS AND MILK are kept sweet in the sick-room by the addition of a generous pinch of The Great Arm & Hammer Soda.

Book of Valuable Recipes, 1915. Public domain; transcription unaltered.

So what happens if I make it?

It is a brand pamphlet, and the claims are advertising. Bicarbonate does nothing to a cold, which is a viral infection that resolves on its own — which is also why the claim was so easy to make.

Repeated oral bicarbonate is not entirely benign. It is a sodium load, and in quantity it can disturb electrolyte balance, particularly in anyone with heart or kidney trouble.

Notes from the 21st century

The bath is harmless. A pound of bicarbonate in hot water does nothing much either, but a hot bath genuinely eases aching, so the testimonials wrote themselves.
Brand books were a whole genre. Free recipe booklets from Arm & Hammer, Crisco, Calumet and others. The recipes were real; the medical claims were marketing.
Bicarbonate does work for heartburn. It is an antacid, and that use is legitimate. The cold cure is not.

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