Best prescription from the “People’s Pharmacy”? Listen to grandma.

Joe Graedon knows about frightening illnesses and hypochondria, home remedies and breakthrough drugs. He marvels at the promise of immunotherapy and keeps a chronicle of the unique uses of Vicks VapoRub.

Graedon is not a doctor. He has a master’s degree in pharmacology, but is careful to discuss treatments generally, not for individuals. Still, few doctors have reached more people seeking to know about medical treatments or how to stay healthy.

Graedon, 73, launched his career in 1976 with a No. 1 New York Times bestselling book, “The People’s Pharmacy.” The book led to health commentaries on National Public Radio — the first being what to do about heartburn after Thanksgiving dinner — and the commentaries led to a People’s Pharmacy column nationally syndicated by King Features that still runs in The News & Observer.

The first of those columns — on mouthwash and eliminating “dragon’s breath” — was published 40 years ago this week. It’s a health column that has outlived many of its early readers.

At the start, King Features wanted Graedon to sign a five-year contract. He refused, but signed for a shorter term. “I didn’t think I could do this past six months,” he said in an interview last week. “And now here we are 40 years later.”

“We” are Graedon and his wife of 49 years, Terry, an anthropologist, who has been the co-author of the column almost since the beginning. The couple came to Durham in 1975 from Michigan when Terry got a job as the lone anthropologist at Duke’s School of Nursing. From the Bull City for the past four decades, the Graedons have discussed health needs and treatments with a national, and more recently, by podcast, international audience.

Joe has focused on the effectiveness of certain drugs and Terry has opened the discussion to alternative medicine and home remedies. From the latter, Joe Graedon learned about the benefit of applying soy sauce to burns, that a spoonful of mustard stops leg cramps and that a key run down the back of the neck can stop a nosebleed.

He’s also heard of some misadventures, especially the case of a Durham Herald-Sun columnist, John Welter, who wrote in 2001 about watching Greadon discuss the versatility of VapoRub on TV. Thus inspired, Welter tried applying the potent menthol-based goop to his hemorrhoids.

Welter wrote that the treatment made him feel like “I was a jet fighter with afterburners.” He added, “This is supposed to be a home remedy but it obviously has military applications.”

For all the health talk by the Graedons and others, are we getting any healthier? Graedon, both sadly and sheepishly, said we aren’t. When he goes to an airport or any large public gathering, he looks at the shape of people and wonders whether all he and Terry have written and said — along with the internet-driven explosion of health news and medical advice — has had any effect.

“I would say that we are not healthier in that we are overweight,” he said. “We had diabetes in 1976, but it’s far worse now. High blood pressure is a huge issue. Cancer is heading toward becoming the number one killer in America.”

He added, “I won’t say it’s a losing battle, but there are a lot of chronic conditions that are the result of our lifestyle.”

In the end, the health whisperer said there isn’t much new about staying healthy. Mostly, he said it’s what grandma said: Eat your vegetables, go out and play (exercise), get a good night’s sleep and visit your grandma (social interaction).

He said, “Ultimately, the things grandma recommended for generations, that’s the wisdom we like to share.”

And about that cure for post-Thanksgiving indigestion? Joe recommend baking soda and water 40 years ago. Now he adds a caveat: Don’t use it when your stomach is very full because of the pressure caused as the baking soda creates carbon dioxide. He has read about a man who tried some baking soda after a very big meal blew a hole in his stomach.

At 40, the People’s Pharmacy column isn’t just older. It’s wiser.