Medicinal Whiskey

When I was a little boy, I would see my grandpa, when he was feeling under the weather, reach for the top of cabinet he kept in the kitchen and pull down an old bottle of whiskey. He'd pour a glass and drink it down, not for the enjoyment of old whiskey, but for the curative properties he believed it had. He told me once that whiskey was the best medicine for a cold he'd ever tried.

Now that I'm an adult, I've developed a bit of my own whiskey tincture. I don't know if whiskey really has any medicinal benefit or not. I've never found a modern scientific source that touts whiskey as a wonder drug. What I've used for evidence is stories from the frontier. Stories of pioneer life, where every first aid kit contained a bottle of whiskey. Pioneers used whiskey for everything from stopping coughs to cleaning wounds. They used it to help numb the pain when a leg needed sawing off.

During Prohibition, the only way you could legally get your hands on a bottle of whiskey was if it was prescribed to you, and then only if it was a certain designated variety of medicinal whiskey. I've always thought, "If it was good enough for them, it's good enough for me."

Maybe it's a placebo effect, but I really feel that my whiskey tincture helps me fight off a cold, especially if I hit it early on. Placebo effect or not, I don't care. It seems to work, and although everyone around me seems to think I'm a fool, I additionally do not care and will continue to use my tincture.

So, you may be wondering what my tincture is. Well, it's really simple. I pour about two fingers of whiskey into a cup and then I add approximately 5-10 drops of Oreganol oregano oil*. I have been known to add a little lemon and even to heat the drink. But generally, it's just whiskey and oregano oil.

Those of you out there who think I derive any sort of enjoyment from this drink have obviously never had oregano oil. This is purely a restorative endeavor.


*I've also had a lot of success with oregano oil in keep mosquitoes away in the summer. 2-3 drops of oregano oil in my morning V-8 every morning, and the mosquitoes don't like the taste of your blood any more. At least that's my guess. I've been using this trick for a few years, and I can't remember the last time I was bitten by a mosquito.