Listen To Your Nana:

Health Advice From Our Grandparents And Yours

Source: Huffington Post

While most of us have medical doctors from the time we're born, grandma and grandpa often play an important role as "health consultants" -- passing down folk wisdom, common sense and advice.

And while the suggestions range from research-based (aloe gel for burns; ginger ale for an upset stomach) to pretty out there (we're not naming names), they are all said with the astounding, over-the-top love that only a grandparent can give. Read on for the greatest hits from the progenitors of HuffPost staffers and then add your own!

My maternal grandmother always said that if you have a goose egg of some kind (I fell down a lot as a child so I had my fair share of goose eggs...) that you should put salt on it to reduce the swelling. Worked every time!

My German grandmother had a cold remedy. Freshly-squeezed onion juice.

I did in fact drink it once, and it does make you feel better -- only because you can't possible feel any worse when drinking it!

Carmelita Massara told me to get enough sleep and don't worry too much about anything. (She never takes her own advice, though!)

My grandma didn't so much tell me this as she just led by example, but she was an exercise fiend. I remember sleeping over when I was about six or seven and she'd wake up at 5 a.m. to make sure she could do her exercises before I woke up. When I was older, I remember struggling to keep up with her fast pace as she walked the halls of her apartment complex. She could do 10-minute miles into her 70s!

"If you sit on a cold floor, you will become barren."

When my grandpa's knees hurt, he put WD-40 on them. SERIOUSLY! That was his logic to a T: "Squeaky hinge? WD-40. Squeaky knee? WD-40."

Walk everywhere you can if it's possible. Americans drive too much -- even short distances. Europeans walk and therefore live longer!

My grandmother is almost 91, but her mental acuity is as sharp as ever. She credits her decades-long habits of playing bridge and spending a little time each day working on the New York Times crossword puzzle with protecting her from dementia. I doubt these activities are the sole factors at play, but she's probably on to something.

My grandmother advised me (circa age 8) that I should always keep meat tenderizer handy in case I got a bee sting. I wonder if there are a lot of Michigan third-graders who keep meat tenderizer handy...

My grandmother was a nurse, and whenever we had stomachaches, she would take a can of ginger ale out of the fridge, leave it on the kitchen counter until it was warm, and then make us drink it. Works like a charm.

Eat almonds for a healthier brain.

Matzoh ball soup will soothe the soul (and cure a cold, disease, virus...)

Find a good bra. (This is very important for Italian women, apparently.)