Abby Quillen

Freelance Content Marketing Writer and Editor

Herbs

Do-It-Yourself Health Care

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My family has watched our health insurance deductible go from $100 per person two years ago to $1500 per person this year. We pay more out-of -pocket each month and get less coverage than we used to. I know we’re not alone. Forty-six million Americans have no health insurance at all, and at least 25 million more are reportedly underinsured.

The reality is that for many of us in the U.S., going to the doctor is something we can increasingly do only when absolutely necessary. That makes having a knowledge of common illnesses and effective home remedies a necessity.

Of course, serious ailments are best left to the professionals – heart attacks, bone breaks, and strokes to name a few. But the good news is – for most minor ailments, home care is usually gentler, less toxic, and as effective as the treatments a doctor would prescribe. I’m continuously amazed at the body’s ability to stay healthy with the basics – clean water, healthy food, adequate rest, time outdoors, etc. – and to heal itself with the help of simple, inexpensive treatments.

I have stacks of books about diagnosing and treating common conditions and using medicinal herbs, which I flip through often. (Recently I’ve been using Smart Medicine for a Healthier Child by Janet Zand quite a bit.) But I have a secret resource that’s better than all of my books combined – my mom. She’s an almanac of everyday ailments and simple treatments, and I’ve learned so much from her, especially about being curious and resourceful.

Recently I had the opportunity to discover (or rediscover) these simple, effective remedies:

  • Pink eye (infection of the membrane lining the eyelids) – Hold hot compress on eye for 15-20 minutes several times a day. Wipe contact lens solution on affected eyelid.
  • Wasp stings – Apply a paste of baking soda and water.
  • Joint pain or arthritis – Take Yucca root extract and/or fish oil.
  • Wounds – Soak in salt water.
  • Bruises – Treat with a witch hazel or caster oil compress
  • Burns – Soak in ice cold water, then in soy sauce.
  • Veterinary care – Animal Apawthecary tinctures. (I’ve given these to our cats for various ailments over the years and found them to be amazingly effective and safe. In many cases, they worked better than the drugs our vet prescribed, with none of the side effects.)

I hope health care becomes more accessible and affordable for all Americans soon. But even if it does, I’ll use home remedies – because they work.

Looking for more on do-it-yourself health care? Check out these posts:

Have you discovered home remedies that are safe and effective? I’d love to hear about them.

Simplify Your Medicine Cabinet

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So maybe you read this post and simplified your personal care? Now how about your medicine cabinet?

The other day I realized that I haven’t taken any kind of medication in three years, because I was pregnant and then breastfeeding. I’ve had a few mild illnesses during that time. But I was able to treat all of them with simple home remedies.

I like treatments that are safe, effective, and require ingredients that most of us already have in or around our homes. (Of course, this probably goes without saying, but it’s usually wise to talk to a health care provider about more serious ailments or symptoms that don’t improve with home care.)

Here are a few of my favorite simple remedies:

Sore Throat or Gums

  • Mix a cup of warm water with a teaspoon of salt, and gargle and swish it around your mouth
  • Mix 3/4 cup warm water with 1/4 cup hydrogen peroxide and gargle and swish it around your mouth.

Nasal or Chest Congestion

  • Use a Neti Pot. Never heard of one? You can find out where to get one and how to use it here.
  • Do an herbal steam. Boil a large pot of water with a handful of Eucalyptus, Thyme, or Rosemary Leaf, or all three. Pour the water into a bowl, and put it on a table. Sit with your face about a foot away from the water and drape a towel over your head. Relax and breathe for about 10 to 15 minutes.

The Common Cold or Influenza

  • Drink Hot Ginger Garlic Lemonade.
  • Take Elderberry Syrup.
  • Go out in the sun, if possible. (If it’s not sunny, you might try taking a Vitamin D supplement. You can read more about the connection between Vitamin D and colds and flu here.)

Nausea

  • Sip on Ginger Root Tea.
  • Sip on Peppermint Tea.
  • Stimulate the acupressure point on the inside of your wrist. You can learn how to do that here.

Bug Bites or Bee Stings

  • Make a poultice of Plantain Leaf. (Plantain is a common weed that’s probably growing in your lawn or somewhere nearby. You can find out more about it and how to identify it here.)
  • Apply Aloe Vera Gel.

Muscle Aches or Joint Pain

  • Apply St. John’s Wort Oil.
  • Apply Arnica Oil. (Both St. John’s Wort Oil and Arnica Oil can be found in the health and beauty section of most health food stores, often in combination.)
  • Cook with Turmeric

Acne

  • Mix Turmeric with Honey and apply to outbreak overnight (will temporarily stain the skin yellow).
  • Cook with Turmeric.
  • Drink Dandelion Leaf or Root Tea .

Teething

  • Give baby a cup of Catnip Tea.
  • Let baby chew on a frozen carrot or refrigerated apple.

I’ve always been fascinated by the ways we can stay healthy and treat everyday illnesses at home, and I’ve collected a number of references on herbs and other remedies over the years. A few of my favorites are:

  • Smart Medicine for a Healthier Child by Zand, Walton, and Rountree
  • Rosemary Gladstar’s Family Herbal.
  • Folk Remedies That Work by Joan and Lydia Wilen

What’s your favorite home remedy?

Simplify Your Personal Care

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Do you have cleansers, creams, lotions, serums, sprays, perfumes, deodorants, and cosmetics packed in your bathroom drawers and cabinets? If so, you’re not alone. A 2004 Environmental Working Group (EWG) survey found that the average adult uses nine personal care products, containing 126 unique chemical ingredients, each day.

These products are expensive. More alarmingly, according to the EWG, many of them contain toxic substances like mercury, lead, pthalates, parabens, and petroleum byproducts.

But the best reason to ditch them? The vast majority are completely unnecessary.

That might sound crazy. Millions of advertising dollars are spent convincing us we need an arsenal of products to maintain proper hygiene and make us look younger and more attractive.

However, in the last five years, I’ve pared down and sought out pure, natural alternatives. And I’ve been shocked to discover that in almost every case, the simple non-toxic replacements work better. And trust me, you don’t have to be a chemist to make these.

Here are some easy substitutions to try if you’d like to simplify your personal care:

  • Instead of under-arm deodorant

Try brushing on:

1/2 cup baking soda mixed with 1/2 cup corn starch

Or for a product closer to what you buy in the store, mix the baking soda, corn starch mixture with coconut oil and a few drops of essential oil, and put it in a recycled deodorant dispenser. (Coconut oil melts at 76 degrees. So in the summer, you’ll want to keep it in the refrigerator.)

  • Instead of mouthwash

Try gargling with hydrogen peroxide. (Bonus: it whitens your teeth.)

Or a salt water solution.

Or a mint herbal infusion. (Steep 1 oz. dried herb in 4 cups boiling water. Refrigerate. Lasts several days.)

  • Instead of shampoo and conditioner

Try using baking soda and apple cider vinegar. This combination works much better than the most expensive natural shampoos and conditioners I used to buy. I wrote about it here.

  • Instead of dandruff shampoo

Try an infusion or decoction of aloe, burdock, cloves, lemongrass, nettle leaf and root, peppermint, rosemary, or willow.

(You can read more about natural herbal hair rinses in this Herb Companion article. It includes more herbs to try for dandruff, as well as herbs for dry scalp and oily scalp issues, and a how-to for making infusions, decoctions, and vinegar extracts.)

  • Instead of hair dye

Try henna.

Or to darken hair, try a sage infusion.

Or to lighten hair, try a chamomile or calendula infusion.

(You can read more about natural hair dyes in this Mother Earth News article.)

  • Instead of lotion

Try olive, almond, or coconut oil.

(Tip: It’s usually cheaper to buy oils in the food section of the grocery store than in the health and beauty section.)

  • Instead of facial moisturizer

Try jojoba oil.

Or aloe vera.

  • Instead of facial cleanser

Try castile soap.

Or a mixture of castor oil and jojoba or olive oil. You can find information about the oil cleansing method here.

Or Rosemary Gladstar’s “miracle grains”:

  • 1 Cup finely ground Oats
  • 2 Cups White Clay
  • 1/4 Cup finely ground Almonds
  • 1/8 Cup finely ground Lavender
  • 1/8 Cup finely ground Roses

I haven’t sworn off all store-bought personal care products. But when I buy them, I look for a short list of ingredients that I’m familiar with. For example, the Badger Nutmeg and Shea body moisturizer my friend gave me for my birthday contains Organic Shea butter, Beeswax, Castor oil, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Nutmeg, Seabuckthorn berry, Rosehip, and Rosemary. Those are the kinds of ingredients I look for.

Do you have a favorite personal-care recipe? Have you discovered a simple, non-toxic alternative that works?

Winter Wellness Recipes

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If you read Stay Well: 5 Winter Immunity Boosters and stocked up on garlic, lemons, ginger, elderberry, and miso, you might be looking for some recipes. Here are 4 of my favorites for the cold and flu season.

garlic

Lemon and Garlic Quinoa Salad

(Adapted from Feeding the Whole Family by Cynthia Lair.)

Salad

1 c. dry quinoa
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1 and 3/4 c. water
1/2 c. chopped carrots
1/3 c. minced parsley
1/4 c. sunflower seeds

Dressing

4 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 c. freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/4 c. extra virgin olive oil
1 to 2 tbl. tamari or shoyu

Rinse quinoa and drain. Place rinsed quinoa, salt, and water in a pot. Bring to boil, reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 15 to 20 minutes until all the water is absorbed. Let stand for 5 to 10 minutes uncovered, then fluff with a fork. Place quinoa in a large bowl. Add carrots, parsley, and sunflower seeds. Mix. Combine dressing ingredients and pour over quinoa. Toss. Serve at room temperature or chilled.

Hot Ginger Garlic Lemonaid

2 cloves garlic
1 tbs. grated ginger root
Juice of one freshly-squeezed lemon
Honey, to taste
Hot water

Put ginger root in a tea ball or tea bag. Place garlic, lemon juice, honey, and tea ball or bag in your favorite coffee mug. Pour hot water in. Cover and steep. Drink very hot.

Miso

(Very loosely adapted from Feeding the Whole Family by Cynthia Lair.)

3 inch piece wakame
4 c. water
4 tbs. light or mellow unpasteurized miso.
2 scallions, thinly sliced, for garnish

Any or all of the following

1 potato
1 carrot
1/2 c. chopped bok choy
5 sliced shitake mushrooms
1/4 lb. firm tofu, cut into cubes
A handful of immune boosting herbs – astragalus, echinacea root, dandelion root, or burdock root.

Soak wakame in small bowl of cold water for 5 minutes. Put herbs in a large tea ball or bag.

Put water (and potato, carrot, and herbs if using) into a pot and bring to a boil.

Tear wakame into pieces, removing the spine. Add wakame to soup. Lower heat, cover pot, and simmer 15 to 20 minutes, until vegetables are tender. Near the end of the cooking time, add mushrooms, bok choy, and tofu cubes if using, and let simmer a few minutes more.

Remove soup from stove. Dissolve miso in a little warm water. Remove tea ball or bag. Add miso to broth. Stir well. Ladle into bowl and add scallions for garnish.

Elderberry Syrup

(From Rosemary Gladstar’s Family Herbal.*)

1 c. fresh or 1/2 c. dried blue elderberries*
3 c. water
1 c. honey

Place berries in a pan and cover with water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 30 to 45 minutes. Smash berries. Strain mixture through a fine-mesh strainer and add 1 c. honey, or adjust to taste. Bottle the syrup and store in the refrigerator. It keeps for 2 to 3 months.

*Make sure you use blue elderberries, not red ones. Never eat elderberries that have not been cooked first.

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Stay Well: 5 Winter Immunity Boosters

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Lemons_b

If you’ve turned on a radio or television, picked up a newspaper, or logged onto the Internet in the last month, you know it’s flu season. Like many Americans you might be trying to decide whether you and/or your kids should get vaccinated against the H1N1 and seasonal flu this year. If you’re looking for some antidotes to the widespread fear circulating this season with the coughs, sneezing, and sniffles, go here, here, or here.

Whether you decide to get vaccinated or not, boosting your immunity is always a good idea as the weather gets colder. After all, the influenza viruses are hardly the only bugs out there. Shannon Brownlee and Jeanne Lenzer write in “Does the Vaccine Matter” in the Atlantic this week:

We think we have the flu anytime we fall ill with an ailment that brings on headache, malaise, fever, coughing, sneezing, and that achy feeling as if we’ve been sleeping on a bed of rocks, but researchers have found that at most half, and perhaps as few as 7 or 8 percent, of such cases are actually caused by an influenza virus in any given year. More than 200 known viruses and other pathogens can cause the suite of symptoms known as “influenza-like illness”; respiratory syncytial virus, bocavirus, coronavirus, and rhinovirus are just a few of the bugs that can make a person feel rotten. And depending on the season, in up to two-thirds of the cases of flu-like illness, no cause at all can be found.

Most adults catch between two and four colds a year and the average infant or child catches from six to ten colds a year. That means, in our lifetimes, most of us will have a cold or flu for between two and three years. That’s a lot of Kleenex.

The good news is, nature offers us some powerful immune-boosters. You may want to have these on hand this winter.

1. Garlic

Garlic has antibacterial, antibiotic, and antifungal properties. Allicin is garlic’s defense mechanism against pest attacks, and in clinical tests, it also prevents the common cold. In one study, volunteers were randomized to receive a placebo or an allicin-containing garlic supplement every day between November and February. The garlic group reported 24 colds compared to 65 in the placebo group. The volunteers in the garlic group also recovered significantly faster if they did get infected.

You don’t have to buy a supplement. The tastiest way to take garlic is to eat it. Raw is best. But garlic’s active ingredients are also present in cooked food.

2. Lemons

Lemons are loaded with vitamin C. One lemon contains anywhere from 50% to 80% of the vitamin C you need in a day.

And if you do come down with a cold, one study confirmed that hot lemonaid (or another hot fruit beverage) relieves runny nose, cough, sneezing, sore throat, chilliness and tiredness.

3. Elderberry

Elderberry is a popular herbal cold remedy in Europe. It’s getting a lot of press this flu season, because in clinical tests its flavonoids compare favorably with the antiviral Tamiflu in treating the H1N1 flu . You can buy over-the-counter elderberry syrup at most health food stores. Or you can harvest your own elderberries or buy them in the bulk section of your local health food store and make your own syrup. (I’ll include the recipe in an upcoming post of favorite winter wellness recipes.)

4. Ginger

Ginger increases circulation and brings warmth to the body. It excels at quelling nausea, motion sickness, and dizziness. Many people also insist it can knock out the common cold.

5. Chicken Soup or Miso

Chicken soup and miso are full of vitamins and minerals. At least one study (Chest 2000) confirmed that chicken soup mitigates the symptoms of upper respiratory infections, possibly by reducing inflammation. Plus, the taste, smell, and warmth of these nourishing soups just make us feel good.

Herbalist Rosemary Gladstar recommends adding any or all of the following immunity herbs to the broth for a bigger boost of vitality:

  • Astragalus
  • Dandelion root
  • Burdock root
  • Echinacea root

Of course, winter wellness isn’t just what we ingest. When I look back at the winters where I came down with one cold after another, there were some glaring imbalances in my life. (Why are these so much easier to see in retrospect?) Either I’d signed up for too many college courses, I was miserable at my job, or my family had over-scheduled our days. Rosemary Gladstar sums it up nicely in her Family Herbal when she writes that wellness comes from:

Finding your joy in life. Exploring your passions. Getting up from your chair and moving your body. Wiggling. Eating good food. Playing.

Those are probably the best immunity boosters. But it never hurts to have a little chicken soup on hand just in case.

What are your tricks to staying well when the weather gets colder?

Stay tuned for  an upcoming post of my favorite winter wellness recipes, including lemon garlic quinoa salad, miso, hot garlic lemonaid, and elderberry syrup.

Herbs Made Easy

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My mom was no stranger to home remedies. She treated my sore throats with hydrogen peroxide and salt-water rinses, soothed my burns with ice packs, and she had a PhD in when to pop an acetaminophen or decongestant. But slathering aloe vera on my sunburns was about the extent of her herbal know-how. Likewise, in all my years of going to doctors, exactly one of them advised I take an herb. Dr. Dave wrote me a “prescription” for slippery elm tea for a sore throat when I was nineteen. At that point, I had no idea what a rarity Dr. Dave was. If herbs weren’t part of your mom or physician’s medicine cabinets either, dabbling with botanicals can be intimidating.

When you turn to herbal reference books or encyclopedias, herbs can be even more daunting. There are all those Latin names – urtica dioica, lippia citriodora, valeriana officinalis, scutellaria laterifolia. And they look so much alike. It’s hard to fathom you’d be able to tell licorice from indigo in the wild, let alone skullcap from its toxic look-alike germander or wild parsley from its poisonous doppelganger hemlock. Plus, there are so many of them – expectorants and demulcents, antibiotics and antiseptics, relaxants and stimulants, adaptogens and alteratives. Then there are all the scary warnings, like these from The New Age Herbalist by Richard Mabey:

  • Pasque flower: “CAUTION: This plant should only be used as prescribed by a qualified herbal practitioner.”
  • Black Cohosh: “CAUTION: A powerful remedy only to be used by those experienced in herbal medicine.”
  • Peony: “CAUTION: This plant is poisonous.”

It may be tempting to write medicinal herbs off as too complex and scary, or imagine that if medicinal herbs really worked, doctors would prescribe them instead of synthetic pills, some of which barely outperform placebos or have lists of known side effects.

But here’s the bottom line:

  • Medicinal herbs have been powerful allies for health and healing for as long as humans have lived.
  • Even the gentlest herbs can be extremely effective remedies, as anyone who has drunk a glass of ginger or peppermint tea for a stomachache can attest.
  • Herbs are often inexpensive, safe alternatives to drugs.
  • Adding medicinal herbs to your health arsenal – along with good nutrition, exercise, relaxation, and conventional medicine and pharmaceutical drugs when necessary – just makes good sense.

Herbs Made Easy #health #alternativemedicine

Herbs should not be treated simply as replacements for drugs.

Even when drugs are developed from plants, one ingredient is isolated to make the effect and dosage predictable. However, herbalists believe it’s better to take plants whole in most cases, because the herb’s different phytochemicals interact to enhance the therapeutic effects and dilute toxicity.

Consider the case of the herb meadowsweet and Aspirin. Aspirin was originally made by isolating the salicylates from meadowsweet. But while Aspirin can cause stomach irritation and gastric bleeding, meadowsweet does not. The tannins and mucilages in the herb buffer against the adverse effects of the salicylates. The effects of meadowsweet might not be as predictable, but the herb is effective and much safer.

So why isn’t my doctor recommending herbs?

Most American doctors don’t learn much about botanical medicine in their university training. Moreover, medical research is funded by big pharmaceutical companies, and large studies don’t tend to be done on herbal remedies. Pharmaceutical companies also have big bucks to market their products to physicians and directly to patients. But it’s hard for anyone to make big profits off the fragrant, healing plants in our backyard – some of which, like dandelions, grow whether we want them to or not – and the medical system in the U.S. is profit-driven.

In Europe, where medical systems are socialized, herbal medicine is more mainstream. The German government formed Commission E, a body of scientists, toxicologists, doctors, and pharmacists, to study herbs for safety and effectiveness in 1978. The result? German doctors regularly prescribe herbs like Valerian for anxiety, St. John’s Wort for depression, Vitex (chasteberry) for menstrual irregularities, and saw palmetto for enlarged prostrates.

Are medicinal herbs safe?

Ingesting herbs, like any food or medication, is not risk-free. It’s always a good idea to be cautious about what you’re putting in your body, especially when it comes to over-the-counter herbal supplements, because vitamin and herbal supplement manufacturers aren’t well-regulated in the U.S. Here are some good rules of thumb:

  • Read widely about the herbs you want to take. Seek out books or websites written by reputable herbalists. I have a library of herbal reference books, and I consult all of them before I ingest anything.
  • Buy herbs (in any form) only from trusted sources.
  • If you’re taking any pharmaceutical medicines, consult with your physician before taking an herb to make sure its not contraindicated. Keep in mind that your doctor might not know much about herbs, and bring along some of your own research to discuss.
  • Stop taking an herb if you’re not getting results.
  • Periodically stop a treatment once your condition has improved to make sure you need to continue taking it.
  • Don’t self-treat complex conditions.
  • Take a small amount of a new herb, and be alert to undesired side-effects or allergic reactions. (In the very rare event that you experience trouble breathing within 30 minutes of taking anything – herb, drug, or food – call 911.)

While caution is a good idea, don’t overestimate the dangers from taking medicinal herbs. According to Dr. James A. Duke, a leading botanist and expert on medicinal plants, “herbs (usually through abuse or exceeding recommended dosage) are killing fewer than 100” people a year. (That’s less than one in a million of the people taking herbs regularly in the U.S.) Compare that with the Archive of Internal Medicine’s estimate of 90,000 serious injuries and deaths caused by prescription drugs in the U.S. each year. And a study conducted at the University of Toronto and reported in the Journal of American Medicine in April of 1998 estimated the number of deaths from pharmaceutical medications even higher at 106,000 a year.

Medicinal herbs don’t have to be complicated.

Where’s a beginner to start?

Many herbalists, including Susan Weed and Michael Tierra, recommend that you get to know plants one at a time. Pick one and use it in teas, salves, tinctures, and poultices. Build a basic foundation of knowledge about it, then move on to another. Herbalism used to be called “the art of simpling,” because  most herbs are so versatile that any herb can heal you if you follow some basic principles.

In one of my favorite books about herbs, The Herbal Home Remedy Book, Joyce Wardwell lays out the four elements of simpling as follows:

  1. Use mild herbs. These plants are commonly used as foods. They’re safe for small children and the elderly, and they enhance the body’s capacity for healing.
  2. Use these mild herbs in large doses. Brew strong infusions, and drink them several times a day for days, weeks, and sometimes months.
  3. Use the herbs that grow near you. The herbs that grown in your climate are the best adapted for the stresses the climate puts on your body.
  4. Be patient. You’ll probably see some effects within three days or so, but sometimes it takes longer. If you use an herb for more than a week, take a rest one or two days a week to give your body a chance to restore equilibrium.

When you approach herbs as healing food-like beverages full of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients, they are also excellent additions to a healthy diet and lifestyle.[clickToTweet tweet=”Herbal medicine can be overwhelming. Here’s a safe, easy way to benefit from herbs. #health” quote=”Herbal medicine can be overwhelming. Here’s a safe, easy way to benefit from herbs.” theme=”style1″]

Ready to make a simple herbal remedy? Check out my article Simple Herbal Tonics: Brews for Beginners.

You may also enjoy these related posts:

Do you already use medicinal herbs? Leave a comment. I’d love to hear what you sip on and why.

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