Croup and Pneumonia Salve

Hack: Use it a salve for pneumonia

Lunsford Richardson, the original pharmacist in North Carolina, created and sold 21 home remedies under the “Vicks” name in the 1890s. Of those remedies, the best-selling version was by far the Vicks Croup and Pneumonia Salve. The salve’s ingredients included menthol, which was a new and lesser-known Japanese ingredient.

People didn’t realize that just by rubbing it onto a person’s chest, body heat vaporizes the menthol, releasing soothing, medicated vapors. FYI: Pneumonia is more common than you think. The infection causes more than a million hospitalizations and sadly, more than 50,000 deaths every year. It’s an infection in one or both of your lungs, which leads to inflammation and fluid build-up. It may cause problems with oxygen exchange.