Cure for Colds--Home Remedies Amish-style

Once when I was up in Amish country, I picked up a little book called Home Remedies From Amish Country. It's a great book of old-fashioned health aids out of your kitchen cabinet. Here's a few:

--Use honey on burns. (It's the best thing I've ever found!)
--Rub vinegar on forehead, temples, palms, and bottoms of feet to reduce fever. (I use Apple Cider Vinegar)
--Use clove oil directly on a tooth to numb tooth pain. (They even say you can put a whole clove in a cavity--haven't tried that one.)

In fact the Amish Home Remedy book is the first place I discovered the Apple Cider Vinegar Tonic and the Master Cleanse. The Apple Cider Vinegar lists SO many things it's useful for: bruises, food poisoning, colds, and avoiding symptoms of "aging" to mention a few.

So, how does this fit into staying healthy. Again, diet, avoiding chemicals/toxins, and washing hands are how we stay healthy. But these home remedies are great for simple problems. They are not as strong as other natural medicines, but that's b/c they are not really medicine, but rather food. "Let you food be your medicine, and your medicine be your food."

And they are cheap and usually available. Like the time I sloshed hot water on my hand at a restaurant. I just got some honey from the counter and put a small piece of napkin over it and I was all fixed up. The book is not really well organized as it just lists all the ideas that various people sent in. But I really like the solutions I've found and the book was well worth it. I even gave them out for Christmas one year.

If your really interested in the book, you have to order it by mail--these are Amish people!

Abana books ltd, 6523 Township Rd, 346 Millersburg, OH 44654.
Send check or money order for $10 plus 7% tax if you live in OH.
(And no, I don't make any money off this!)

Cure for Colds and Ailments--Homeopathic

The best way to fight a cold is avoid it. Nutrition and cleanliness play a key part in this. Do you know the Bible tells us to wash our hands, get rid of things with mold, and that we are dirty if we do things like touch something dead? Only in recent history has hygiene been understood.

But sometimes we get sick or injured or need help with chronic problems from the years before we understood about good nutrition. I've found that it's helpful to have multiple tools in my tool box. Today, I'll start with homeopathic, b/c it's the one I used today!

Here's my over-simplified, unprofessional explanation of what homeopathy is. Homeopathics work on principles of energy. A small particle of a substance is shaken and then diluted and shaken and diluted again. Somehow, in this shaking, the substance's energy affects the water. And when we take this small amount of substance, it is completely safe. And the energy works with our body to heal. However, the trick is that only the right remedy works. And the remedies are based on lots of very specific symptoms that should all match (like cold hands, small pupils, fearful, etc.)

Now, how do you start? Well, I never really knew what to do with it until I found a great book: Easy Homeopathy which makes it simple. It gives you an introduction to homeopathy, detailed information about the 7 most commonly used homeopathic remedies, and lists the possible remedies for basic problems. So, we bought the 7 remedies from our health food store and I love it. When one of the kids is really sick, one of them usually fits their symptoms and their symptoms are usually less in 30 min and gone in less than 24 hours. If you use the wrong remedy it doesn't help. And occasionally nothing will fit, but that's a good reason to have multiple tools in your toolbox!

Now, what I used today. I happened to be reading something today about fibromyalgia and how arnica montana (one of the homeopathics) is good for the bruised feeling. I did have a spot on my back that was hurting and felt very bruised. I'd had it for a couple days and tried 2 different things on the spot that normal work great, but with no real help. (I often get awful knots in my upper back and shoulders from Lyme disease.) We have this remedy in pill form, but also have arnica massage oil, so I opted for the oil. Within 15 min., the bruised feeling was gone and has not returned even half a day later! That's a solution I won't soon forget! When homeopathics work, they don't work halfway!

Homemade Health Tonic...set those germs on fire!

Well, I recently tried a homemade "cure-all" medicine. When it called for peppers, we left the seeds in and boy is it hot! (I like salsa, but go for the mild, so some might not agree.) Next, time I'll leave out the seeds. Anyway, I wanted to share it with you. In the winter, it's great to have something for when you start to come down with a cold. And it's made out of food, so no side effects. I'm taking it once or twice a day right now b/c I have a bacteria (Borelia burgdorforia) and a virus (Epstein-Barr) I'd like to kill. My husband is taking it to keep from coming down with a cold that he started to get a couple days ago--so far so good!

It's the Master Tonic and is a natural antibiotic. Here's the link: http://www.annieappleseedproject.org/nattonfromri.html

It does take about a week to make and I don't actually gargle like it says (since my germs aren't likely in my throat and well it's too hot for me.)

The Chicken Soup Cure

One of my favorite healing meals is a soup made from homemade Chicken Broth. In fact, today I was starting to feel a cold coming on b/c of the cold, lack of sleep, and general busyness. So, I started out lunch with Chicken Broth and added Tamari (for saltiness--RealSalt would work too), a dash of cayenne and a small clove of fresh garlic (both for health and added right before eating). Now it was pretty strong with the garlic and cayenne, but it really did the trick.

Now how I made the Broth:

Take a whole Chicken (organic or at least natural--you can afford it if you are buying the whole chicken) and cut the wings off and cut them up. Put it all in a large crockpot and cover with water. (If your ambitious you can take off the skin, but that's too hard for me.) Add a few Tablespoons of Raw Apple Cider Vinegar. Add a few vegetables, like Carrots and Onions. Add some spices, like Basil, Oregano. Ideally fresh, but I never have those! Cook for 12-24 hours. The vinegar makes the calcium come right out of the bones, into the broth, and into you! The bones will be extremely brittle.

Take the chicken out (use for whatever). Strain out the vegetables and bones. Refrigerate until the fat is solid on top (I usually wait about a day.) Take the fat (and all the toxins in it) off. Freeze some of the broth in 1-2 c. portions to use in cooking.

Make the rest into a soup. Sometimes I just add the vegetables and the small bits of chicken back in along with some cooked rice and tomato sauce and spice it to taste. I just love these soups and fill so satisfied. I've learn that I am most satisfied with my food when it's healthy like this.

Now you know why your grandma said eat Chicken Noodle Soup for a cold. Unfortunately, the store bought stuff is not made this way, so you probably didn't think her advice worked. But now you know!