Hoffman Matthew - 1,801 home remedies : doctor-approved treatments for everyday health problems, including coconut oil to relieve sore gums, catnip to soothe anxiety, tennis balls to stop snoring, and vitamin C to

Copyright 2004, 2014 by The Readers Digest Association, Inc.

All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction, in any manner, is prohibited.

Readers Digest is a registered trademark of The Readers Digest Association, Inc.

ISBN 978-1-62145-214-0

The Library of Congress has catalogued the original edition of this book as follows:

1,801 home remedies: trustworthy treatments for everyday health

problems / Readers Digest.-- 1st ed.

p. cm.

ISBN 0-7621-0488-0 (hardcover)

ISBN 978-0-7621-0602-8 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-6214-5219-5 (eBook)

1.Therapeutics--Popular works. 2. Self-care, Health. I. Title: One

thousand eight hundred and one home remedies. II. Readers Digest

Association.

RM122.5.A15 2003

616.024--dc22

2003020949

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Note to Readers

The information in this book should not be substituted for, or used to alter, any medical treatment or therapy without your doctors advice.

Contributors

Bookside Press

Editors Edward B. Claflin, E. A. Tremblay

Writers Matthew Hoffman, Eric Metcalf

Researchers Janel Bogert, Elizabeth Shimer

Project Editor Marianne Wait

Copy Editor Jeanette Gingold

Indexer Ellen Brennan

Illustrators Harry Bates, Inkgraved Illustration; Cindy Jeftovic

Designer Richard Kershner

Medical Advisors

Carolyn Dean, M.D., N.D. Consultant, Integrative Medicine, City Island, New York

Mitchell A. Fleisher, M.D. Clinical Instructor, University of Virginia Health Sciences Center and the Medical College of Virginia; Family Physician, Private Practice, Nellysford, Virginia

Larrian Gillespie, M.D. Retired Assistant Clinical Professor of Urology and Urogynecology, Beverly Hills, California

Chris Kammer, D.D.S. Center for Cosmetic Dentistry, Madison, Wisconsin

Chris Meletis, N.D. Chief Medical Officer and Director of Education Affairs, Pearl Clinic Professor of Natural Pharmacology, National College of Naturopathic Medicine, Portland, Oregon

Lylas G. Mogk, M.D. Henry Ford Visual Rehabilitation & Research Center, Grosse Pointe and Livonia, Michigan

Zorba Paster, M.D. Professor of Family Medicine, Dean Medical Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Ricki Pollycove, M.D., M.H.S. Clinical Faculty, University of California School of Medicine; Private Practice of Gynecology, San Francisco, California

David B. Posner, M.D. Chief of Gastroenterology,

Mercy Medical Center, Baltimore, Maryland; Assistant Professor of Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine

Adrienne Rencic, M.D., Ph.D. Attending Dermatologist, Mercy Medical Center, Baltimore, Maryland; Clinical Instructor, University of Maryland Medical System

Kevin R. Stone, M.D. Orthopedic Surgeon and Founder and Chairman of The Stone Foundation for Sports Medicine and Arthritis Research and the Stone Clinic, San Francisco, California

Cathryn Tobin, M.D. Pediatrician, Private Practice, Markham, Ontario

B Y C AROLYN D EAN , M.D., N.D.

W hen I was a young girl growing up in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, my mother was known locally as the Queen of Common Sense. A trained nurse, she was renowned throughout the neighborhood for her compassion and down-to-earth advice. And she was much called upon. There were no doctors around, and people tended to fend for themselves. Everybody knew they could come to my mother with their ills. Whenever anyone with a cut or wound would come in, my mum would patch him up. She always knew what to do.

I have my mothers medical genes and also some from my fathers mother, who had a nurses training and was, in addition, a homeopath and an herbalist. When my grandfather moved his family from Boston to the northern part of Newfoundland, Nanna immediately started an herb garden. And she kept vials of homeopathic preparationswhich can be stored for decadessafely tucked away in her medicine cabinet. I grew up hearing incredible stories of her curing the most frightening conditions. Poultices were her particular favorites. She used them to remedy just about anything, from tonsillitis to badly infected wounds.

But if I came by my absolute love of home remedies through my family, that passion grew even stronger when I pursued medical training. An important part of medicine, I believe, is helping people take care of themselves. That has become even more evident in recent years. As medical doctors become busier, with many more patients and less time to spend with each one, the responsibility for taking care of our own small health problems falls increasingly on each one of us.

Theres a great deal that we can do, as youll quickly discover as you turn the pages of 1,801 Home Remedies . This is the kind of practical knowledge that comes in handy all the time. Years ago my nephew Erik was rough-housing, and sure enough, he ended up with a black eye. With some ice and application of homeopathic arnica (for pain, swelling, and bruising), his mother was amazed that the black-and-blue was completely gone by the next morning. Being a kid of ten, Erik was actually annoyed because he wanted to show off his black eye at school. Or take another recent incident, when one of my family members got a 21/4-inch splinter in his back. It took a whole week of repeated poultice applications before the splinter came out, but with patience, it finally emerged nicely, without surgical probing and with no sign of infection.

I love the big benefits of using little home remedies. Not only do they work, they allow you to take control of your health. They save you money, if you can come up with the simplest, commonsense solution (like ice and arnica for a black eye). And even more important, they can often nip illness in the bud and sometimes prevent the grave consequences of dealing with a health condition thats allowed to get worse.

I am occasionally asked whether home remedies are really a collection of old wives tales. Well, some of them are. But, remember, some of those old wives were the healers and midwives of the past who held considerable clout in the community and were consulted by everyone. My own mother and grandmother were shining examples for me. It was their training in commonsense healing that inspired me and motivated me to get my degree as a medical doctor and my advanced training in naturopathic medicine.

Today I even tell people that it is their patriotic duty to learn about home remedies. If there is a time when we have to deal with an epidemic or other medical emergency in our community, those who study 1,801 Home Remedies will be the ones who are able to deal with minor ailments at home and not overburden the health care system. It is up to us to learn these cures because doctors today are even less available and busier than ever.

Were at a turning point in medicine. At the same time that doctors are demanding scientific medicine, many are relying on research where only one drug is studied at a time, usually on a group of otherwise-healthy individuals. But there are no studies in which people take a handful of prescription medications together, which is unfortunately a much more common scenario for many people. Thats just one of the reasons why so many people are looking for simpler alternatives, and why those alternatives are ever more readily available.

I hope that by using 1,801 Home Remedies you may awaken your inner healer as you take charge of your own health and that of your family. The 100-plus health conditions that were selected for this book are absolutely appropriate for you and your family members to treat with home remedies, either by themselves or alongside conventional medical treatment. Much like my own practice, 1,801 Home Remedies is not just about herbs or supplementsnot just homeopathy, nutrition, or over-the-counter productsbut a selection from all that we know about healing approaches from many different traditions. And all the tips have you, the reader, in mind. They focus, therefore, on things that are practical, convenient, and ultimately doable.