Monday, January 30, 2012

Natural Treatments

By Owen Jones


Lots of people think that we are taking too many pharmaceutical products and it certainly is the case that we are taking more than we ever have done before in history. Our generation has forgotten many of the natural treatments that our grandparents (or even further back) took for granted

On the other hand, lots of the pharmaceutical remedies on the market are manufactured from natural items such as plants, but are more highly concentrated. A pharmacist also has access to plants from other continents and can mix plant extracts to improve the efficacy of the final product.

Notwithstanding all that, lots of people still feel that we have gone too far and should attempt to redress the balance at least a little. I live in Thailand now and a day does not pass that my wife says something like: 'Old people eat this for medicine. Old style remedy for good blood' - or good heart or beautiful skin.

I have no medical training so I am not qualified to say whether these old style remedies are any good or not, but I have collected a couple of them in this article out of interest and if you find them worthy of note too, you can do some more research yourself.

You can buy most of these ingredients and ask for more information from health food shops and if you like the effects, you could attempt to cultivate them in your backyard.

Zinc or at least products containing zinc are thought to cure colds. Zinc is easily obtained from good chocolate, watermelon seeds and sesame seeds, so next time you feel like a snack, try these instead.

Cranberries are famous for helping sort out urinary tract infections (UTI's). Women suffer more from UTI's than men, so it would be worth having a bag or dried cranberries in the cabinet or a litre of unsweetened cranberry juice in the fridge.

Aloe Vera is commonly known to cure skin issues and dried aloe vera is said to make a tea that lowers blood pressure. If the climate is right, everybody should have a plant or two in the backyard.

Garlic is known to help clean the blood and cut down on the danger of heart problems. I know many people who eat two or three raw small, hazelnut-sized bulbs of garlic a day.

St. John's Wort is thought to cure depression, although you would have to research how the plant is prepared.

Citrus fruits such as oranges, lemons, limes and grapefruit are useful for curing the common cold, something that the pharmaceutical industry admits by having almost all of its cold cures taste of lemon.

White vinegar will alleviate feet soaked in it of foot rot, toe fungus, athletes' foot and such like.

Cinnamon is an old, traditional cure for high blood pressure and is simple to take on cakes and puddings. Cinnamon tea is delicious too.

Grape seeds are said to be a cure for prostate problems, although not prostate cancer.

Ginger tea is an old help to digestion and gets rid of wind.

The list goes on and it only;y takes a little research to find more traditional treatments.




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