PLEASE NOTE: I am not a doctor. These home remedies are not medical advice. Please consult your physician before embarking on any new course of treatment or use of any natural remedy.
What’s old is new again, it seems, and some of the natural remedies that date back hundreds of years — if not more — seem to be in favor again. That’s because many times they work. And they are natural, not a pharmaceutical.
So I thought I’d ask around and collect some of the favorite home remedies of people I know on line. There’s something for everyone and maybe you’ll even find a blog or two you’d like to follow.
This idea began when my doctor told me to ice a small swelling I had beneath my eye. She said it was a “sty.” Nothing happened, so she suggested a hot compress. Nope, it stayed the same. But then, she said this:
This is not what I expected my Stanford internist to suggest. But guess what? It worked. It was hot enough. It STAYED hot enough. And its size was perfect. No medication needed.
So, I wondered, what other home remedies might I want in my arsenal? I put out a call to women I know.
Garlic
These tiny cloves of garlic have long had healing properties.
Varda Steinhardt says that garlic kills plantars warts. Here’s her story — a great testimonial:
Garlic kills plantar warts fast and painlessly, unlike freezing them off at the doctors which was painful. This has worked for me many times in my life, and for my kids who both had a horrific bout of plantars warts after one vacation where they must have picked it up in the pool changing room. What you do is take a fresh clove of garlic, cut it in half and then rub the oil from the fresh cut on the wart. Do this twice a day for a week and the warts will be gone. A few days for the tiny ones, maybe two weeks for big bruisers. I learned this when I was in college (a zillion years ago). I had some nasty warts on my feet and went to the health center to have them frozen off. It took months, was painful and then after a month they grew back and I was frustrated. A friend told me about the garlic and it worked like a charm.
I told my roommate about it who had a horrible deep plantars wart she’d been trying to get rid of for years. She was going to have to have surgery on it over the summer, and it was possible that was going to leave nerve damage. But one month of garlic and it was gone.
Want to know more about Varda? Visit “The Squashed Bologna: a slice of life in the family generation.”
I’m always impressed by what garlic can do for us. Especially since the meals in my Sicilian family always included plenty of it.
Eczema lotion
Mindy Klapper Trotta swears by her homemade body lotion that she concocted herself to fight a bad case of eczema. None of the cortisone creams worked, but this home remedy did. She’s a little-of-this and a-little-of-that kind of chemist, but she was nice enough to figure it out for the rest of us.
1 cup coconut oil at room temperature
1 TBSP honey
¼ cup JR Watkins Coconut Milk & Honey Body Lotion.
Whip it all up in an electric mixer bowl. It is pretty greasy, she says, but absorbs into the skin really quickly. She writes Relocation: The Blog.
In her case, necessity really was the mother of invention. I think that’s how a lot of home remedies came to be, back in the day, too. In remote areas without modern medicines, people were left to fend for themselves.
Mustard plasters
Lori Holden from LavenderLuz.com made me laugh, when she wrote: “My grandmother’s remedy for EVERY ailment was a mustard plaster. Though I can’t remember her ever treating with one, it was always a threat if we didn’t just GET BETTER ALREADY.” Check out the previous link for how to make a mustard plaster, which I’ve read of as a remedy for backaches and chest/lung infections since I was a child. Period literature was full of references to mustard plasters.
I’ve never seen one except in movies, so the link’s interesting. Apparently, the dosage for kids or adults depends on the ratio of mustard to flour. And just like prescription meds today, there are a number of warnings for safe use. Common sense warnings, really. These remedies were the work of moms, who were clearly very busy back in the day. We think we’re busy today, with all our modern conveniences. But when I think about not having them? I think of making my mustard plaster instead of going to the drug store to buy Vicks Vapo-Rub. Which, by the way, apparently clears up toenail fungus, according to something I just read. But I’m digressing.
Lori Holden blogs at Lavender Luz.
Mustard’s good for something else, too — a soothing foot soak for tired feet. Stir 2 tbsp of mustard powder into 2 or 3 quarts of hot tap water and soak for up to 10 minutes. Mustard reduces inflammation in your tootises and stimulates blood flow.
Mama Pam’s Chicken Soup! A Secret Soup to Get you Over Illness
Fashion maven Pam Luttrell has a special chicken soup that is good for flu and colds and whatever ails you. It’s a twist on the usual recipe, and here it is, in her own words:
Place a whole chicken in a crock pot. Salt it well. Also throw in one onion (I use the sweet yellow ones) cut up; two cloves of garlic; and a couple of stalks of celery. Cover with water. Allow it to cook on LOW either all night or all day.
After it is cooked, take out all of the chicken and veggies. Make sure you use a spoon with holes and get any chicken bones which fall into the broth.
Take all of the meat off of the bones. Shred it into small pieces. You will use a couple of handfuls of the meat in the soup. A whole chicken will give you enough meat for the soup and for a chicken salad for another meal. You can even freeze the extra meat and use it for chicken salad or tacos later in the week.
Cut into small pieces one onion; a half a cup of carrot and celery. Place the onion in a skillet with some olive oil and mince a garlic clove on top. Cook until onion is clear. Add one can of chopped tomatoes (I like the HEB Tomato blend with tomatoes and chilies but DelMonte has a similar blend); the carrots; and the celery to the skillet. Cook this mixture for about 15 minutes and then add it to the chicken broth, along with your meat.
Finally, stir in ¼ packet of Taco Seasoning for the Mexican Flavor. Serve your soup over Corn Tortilla Chips and if you like some shredded cheese on top. This is an excellent Chicken Tortilla Soup and will help keep you healthy! It is also very inexpensive and you will get at least 3-4 meals out of it!!
I don’t know about you, but I’m trying this! I read lots of blogs each day but Pam’s blog, Over 50, Feeling 40 is my first stop of the day. Every day. Click that link to find out why.
Burn relief
Lois Alter Mark has a home remedy that’s a total shocker. Here’s her note to me:
When my daughter burned her hand, my mother told her to stick it in a bowl of flour. We laughed but it was amazing! It got better so fast without blistering or anything. We weren’t sure if it was a fluke but I recommended it to a friend when he posted that he spilled hot coffee on his arm. He thanked me and was so shocked that it actually worked!”That’s a remedy you simply wouldn’t think of on your own. I did a little research and Snopes says this is FALSE. But if we have real life testimony here, as we do, I wonder where Snopes is coming from. In any case, this is not a recommendation, just a description of what worked for some people. Try it only at your own risk. Same with potato peels, honey, baking soda, vinegar+water and other burn home remedies.
Lois blogs at Midlife at the Oasis. Drop by!
Heartburn remedy
Shelley Zurek has GERD — acid reflux or heartburn. It’s a common ailment for which there are many over-the-counter proton pump inhibitors. She swears by a daily dose of apple cider vinegar to ease her heartburn and described her experience on her blog, Still Blonde After All These Years. And warns that you MUST consult your doctor before trying this to be sure it doesn’t conflict with any other meds you are taken.
If you’ve got some home remedies of your own, share in the comments below so everyone has a chance to benefit. Thanks!
Remember: check with your medical provider before you try anything. You never know what might react with a home remedy. And if you’ve got a home remedy you swear by, please share in “Comments” below!
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