Home Remedies

[Steve Kroll]

I've had joint pain for about 10 years now, but it's gotten progressively worse since I turned 50 a few years ago. Mostly I get it in my shoulders, knees, and ankles. A lot of it stems back to old sport injuries and things that just never healed quite right.

I used to take ibuprofen to help with the pain, but it was something I didn't really like taking. Then, about two years ago, a friend of mine who is going through the same thing told me that he drinks juice with ginger extract to help relieve the pain. At first I thought it was a lot of hooey, but he swore by it.

So I decided to give it a try. Every morning I would use the juicer to make a concoction of apples, carrots, beets, lemon, and a knob of ginger. I found that it helped tremendously. The swelling in my joints was noticeably improved and I could go 8-10 hours without much pain.

These days, I make a brew in the morning of 2 cups of water to which I add about an inch of ginger root, very thinly sliced. I then boil it for 15 minutes, and strain the liquid into a mug. To this I add a green tea bag and some honey.

This simple home remedy provides much better relief then I ever got from taking pills.

So this got me to thinking, are there other home remedies that DCers swear by?

 

[PrincessFiona60]

I'm about to go steep some chamomile tea bags for my night time brew before bed. My left ear is feeling stuffy so I will let the tea bags chill a bit and put over my ear to help it drain. Have not had an ear infection since I started doing this, I was used to having them at least two or three times a year.

 

[CWS4322]

I swear by a "tea" of tomato juice (from tomatoes from my garden), garlic, lemon juice, and chopped up fresh cayenne pepper when I'm getting a cold. It seems to knock the cold on its butt if I start drinking this concoction when I first notice I'm feeling under the weather.

For bruises, I apply witch hazel topically. Horse people do that with horses that "bang" their chests against their stalls and develop hematomas. A friend who is an ortho nurse told me that they apply witch hazel to the bruises ortho patients have following surgery and it works. (She also owns horses...). When my mother broke her hip, she had a rather large hematoma. The home-care nurse said it would probably spread and cover her whole leg. I applied witch hazel a couple of times / day to the site. The following week when the home-care nurse returned, she was amazed that the hematoma was almost gone and hadn't spread down my mother's leg.

 

[Hoot]

While modern medicine has made wonderful strides in aiding the human condition, sometimes the old ways are still very beneficial. Seems like every time I turn around, there is a new pill for this ailment or that problem. There are generally numerous and sundry side effects that, in my mind, usually have the potential of being worse than the ailment. Another thing that disturbs me is the seeming lack of communication between doctors when a person is being treated by more than one physician. My mother was taking more than 23 different medications from four doctors from Greenville to Va Beach before she left us. I feel certain that some of the issues she was experiencing stemmed from the interactions of some of these medications.
Thankfully, despite a few aches and pains from growing older, I have little need of medications. Sometimes more is not better, it's just more. As always this is just MHO.

 

[Andy M.]

Hoot you make some good points. Just because modern medicine has made great strides that doesn't mean older remedies don't work.

To look at the other side of the coin. I am confounded by people who are suffering and/or risk their long term health because they don't want to be dependent on pills.

 

[Steve Kroll]

Hoot, I'm always a little concerned when I see drug ads stating "possible side effects include death".

But really, I'm just looking for home remedies that DCers have tried.

 

[Andy M.]

a strong ginger tea is good for nausea.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

Peppermint tea for stomach upset, add in thyme for a head cold.

 

[Hoot]

My great Aunt ( grandmother's sister) suffered from occasional bouts of gout. She swore that cherries helped.

 

[Steve Kroll]

My great Aunt ( grandmother's sister) suffered from occasional bouts of gout. She swore that cherries helped.

My BIL says the same thing. In fact, a few years back I made a batch of Cherry wine, some of which I sent to him labeled as "Uncle Dougie's Gout Medicine".

 

[jabbur]

I've heard folks get arthritis relief from gin soaked raisins. Never tried it myself. My "arthritis" is still in the acute phase. Only notice it from overuse. It's not a daily pain yet.

 

[pacanis]

"concoction of apples, carrots, beets, lemon, and a knob of ginger"

I'll stick to a pill, lol.

 

[Andy M.]

My BIL says the same thing. In fact, a few years back I made a batch of Cherry wine, some of which I sent to him labeled as "Uncle Dougie's Gout Medicine".

Cherries worked for my neighbor as well.

 

[Zhizara]

Peppermint tea for stomach upset, add in thyme for a head cold.

Thyme tea is also great for coughs and brochial problems.

I take a lot of herbal medicines for high blood pressure (Valerian and Hawthorne berry capsules , as well as red hibiscus flower tea, which is a beautiful dark red and tastes like citrus).

 

[taxlady]

I'm about to go steep some chamomile tea bags for my night time brew before bed. My left ear is feeling stuffy so I will let the tea bags chill a bit and put over my ear to help it drain. Have not had an ear infection since I started doing this, I was used to having them at least two or three times a year.

Chamomile is good for sore eyes and eye infections too. First the cold teabag, and then cotton balls dipped in the cooled tea.

 

[Aunt Bea]

Bay leaves fresh or dried on you or in you are supposed to be good for all sorts of things from relieving joint pain to relieving congestion when you have a cold.

I also believe that many of the spices we use in winter baking are good for us.

Ground ginger is supposed the relieve nausea and also help with colds.

Cloves to relieve a toothache.

Nutmeg for pain relief, sleeping, digestion.

I think we have lost touch with many of these things as we have moved away from being a rural/agricultural society. Many of these things were common knowledge to grade school kids years ago.

 

[Steve Kroll]

"concoction of apples, carrots, beets, lemon, and a knob of ginger"

I'll stick to a pill, lol.

It's actually a lot tastier than it sounds. Even my wife, a card-carrying beet hater loves that drink. I just got a little burnt out on it after drinking it for 6 months straight.

 

[Zhizara]

Wow, Aunt Bea!

It sounds like a nightly tea of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger in a Peppermint tea wound be a great daily nightcap would be perfect for me. I'll try that tonight, I've got all the ingredients on hand. Thanks for the idea! XOX

 

[PrincessFiona60]

It's actually a lot tastier than it sounds. Even my wife, a card-carrying beet hater loves that drink. I just got a little burnt out on it after drinking it for 6 months straight.

Do you have a recipe with amounts, Steve? Sounds like something I could switch out with my morning V-8.

 

[Steve Kroll]

Do you have a recipe with amounts, Steve? Sounds like something I could switch out with my morning V-8.

Yes, the amounts can vary but the basic recipe goes something like this:

• 3 good sized carrots
• 2 apples
• 1 lemon
• 1/2 red beet, peeled
• 1-inch knob of ginger, peeled

It so happens that I like a lot of ginger, so sometimes I'll double up the amount.