When @naturalmedicine put out their new challenge to add to the Natural Medicine cornucopia by sharing your favorite home remedy, I was in!
See the intro to the challenge here: @naturalmedicine/a-cornucopia-of-goodness-natural-medicine-s-challenge-now-open
I was having a hard time trying to figure out what was my favorite home remedy. Then it hit me -
My favorite home remedy is the remedy that is giving me relief for what ever ails me right now!
That being said I'm going to share with you three home remedies that have served us well.
The first uses garlic.
My husband was going through a stressful situation and had developed high blood pressure. Our family doctor put him on high blood pressure medication. My husband and I are not the kind of people who turn ourselves over to the medical profession and knowing the side effects of the medication and the fact the fact that he was told he would have to be on it for life, set us into research mode.
We had cleaned up our diet ( my husband had been eating a lot of camp food when he worked up north.)
We looked into herbs to heal his high blood pressure and clean up his arteries.
###Garlic
Garlic possesses the ability to lower blood pressure, blood cholesterol levels and generally improve the health of the cardio-vascular system and was the herb for us.
Being that my husband was still up working and living and eating in a camp, he first turned to a herbal remedy - Strauss Heart Drops. The first ingredients in that remedy was garlic. It contained other herbs know for heart and circulatory system health including Hawthorn, Mistletoe, Motherwort , Cayenne pepper, Bilberry and White Willow.
Using this he was able to get off his medication.
Once he was done working away from home, we did our own garlic treatment and dropped the heart drops.
We knew to get the medicinal benefits it was recommended to take two medium sized raw garlic bulbs per week.
We added extra garlic to our pesto, hummus and other dips. We added it to our salad dressings and sauces, in butter and if we hadn't consumed enough we just added some minced garlic to some coconut oil for a spread on crackers or to put on our veggies.
The dried, powdered garlic has no medicinal qualities so we did away with that convenience.
My husband had gone for regular check ups with our family doctor and his blood pressure was normal. He tried to talk to the doctor about herbal remedies, but the doctor was old school and didn't want to hear anything about it so we just kept on doing what we were doing and my husbands blood pressure remained normal.
Tip: Chew some fresh parsley or anise seed to mask the garlic odor in your breath.
The next home remedy I have used a lot was a tincture of Valerian root.
For those of you who may not know, Valium, is made from Valerian.
Known for it's calming effect, I would take the fresh roots of the Valerian (best harvested in the fall when it is full of medicinal constituents),
- clean them and chop them into 1/4 inch pieces
- fill about 1/2 of a pint jar with them
- fill the jar with vodka (use the highest proof vodka you can get)
- put a lid on and shake it
- place it in a dark, warm spot
- shake it daily for about 2 weeks
- when ready, strain it through a cheese cloth and squeeze out as much liquid as possible.
- keep it in a sealed glass jar in the dark and it will last for years.
*Note: You can make a tea with the roots, but it will not keep as long and water does not draw out the beneficial compounds as well.
I would keep this tincture in my medicine cabinet and if I was having trouble sleeping, I would get up and have a swig (about 1 Tbsp.) and it would relax me and I would fall asleep.
This Valerian tincture is on of the gentlest herbal sleeping remedies I know of.
*Extra Tip: Although Valerian root has a very calming effect on humans, it acts like catnip with cats. I harvest some roots of the Valerian and dry them to keep my cats entertained for the winter!
##JJ rolling on the Valerian root
The last home remedy I want to share with you uses the Plantain Herb.
I use the juice from the crushed leaves to take away the sting from nettles, the itch from mosquitoes bites and I make a poultice to draw out slivers and bee stings.
For sting from nettles and misquito bites I just rub the juice of the leaves on it.
To take out slivers and the stinger from a bee sting, I make a poultice with the crushed leaves and hold it place with gauze wrap.
I make a poultice from the leaves by crushing or bruising them and putting them over the affected area or if I want to have it on for a longer period of time, I hold it in place with gauze wrap.
There you have three of my commonly used home remedies. I hope they can provide you some relief from what ails you!
