Editors at Readers Digest - Readers Digest Kitchen Cures: Homemade Remedies for Your Health

A READERS DIGEST BOOK

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ISBN 13: 978-1-62145-386-4 (hardcover)

978-1-62145-477-9 (paperback)

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NOTE TO READERS

The information in this book should not be substituted for, or used to alter, medical therapy without your doctors advice. For a specific health problem, consult your physician for guidance. The mention of any products, retail businesses, or websites in this book does not imply or constitute an endorsement by the authors or by Trusted Media Brands, Inc.

The proof is in! Home remedies often rival or even exceed the healing power of drugstore medicines. Recent studies have shown that

Aloe gel improves psoriasis better than prescription cream

Baking soda slows the progress of chronic kidney disease

Clove oil is a powerful fungus killer

Green tea can help you lose weight

Chamomile is not just a soothing tea

Honey truly does enhance wound healing

Smelling lavender and rosemary oil reduces anxiety

And thats just a taste! Kitchen Cures is your comprehensive guide to natural healing at home. Here are hundreds of remedies for the most common health ailments and conditions. Save money, save time, heal faster and safer just turn the page!

Welcome to a whole new world of natural home rememdies

When grandparents reminisce about the good ol days, they probably dont talk much about how clever they were at remedying things like colds, scrapes, or toothaches. But for thousands of years, the majority of healing was pretty much a do-it-yourself enterprise. Except for serious emergencies, everyone needed to have at least a smattering of healing ability to preserve and protect their familys health.

That meant learning to heal with whatever staples they had on hand. And, strange as some of those old cures sound today (imagine plastering your chest with mustard paste), it turns out that our forebears knew what they were doing. Home remedies really did work, and still do.

So why are they used so infrequently today? Over time, as researchers discovered effective new drugs, treatments and procedures for remedying diseases and injuries, we lost the needand the know-how and confidencefor using home remedies to treat common health problems. Instead, weve come to rely much more heavily on pills, doctors, and store-bought cures for all that ails us.

But times are changing again. In laboratories around the world, researchers in recent years have explored and confirmed the healing power of many of our favorite pantry items. In these costly and complicated times, its just good common sense to rediscover time-honored home remedies for treating simple but annoying woesbefore you pay for an expensive doctors visit.

This book provides hundreds of ways to cure yourself and your family safely and inexpensively. Got athletes foot? Instead of losing half a day seeing a doctor, and then writing a check for an expensive antifungal lotion, you can try a homemade tea-tree oil remedy for just pennies. Got a hacking cough? A tea made from your supply of dried thyme may clear it up in a day or two, without the need for a prescription drug or an over-the-counter cough syrupwhich research has recently shown, doesnt work very well, if at all.

That said, not every remedy in this book will work for everyone. Thats true for store-bought medicine, and its true for homemade remedies. But unlike some prescription drugs, these simple, natural recipes are less likely to cost you significant money or to have unpleasant side effects.

Consider the satisfaction youll derive from learning how to make delicious, soothing teas from herbs and spices you probably already have in your pantry. Youll discover healing creams and ointments you can whip up from ingredients like olive oil and honey, and digestive aids that require nothing more than a little baking soda, a bit of ginger, or a dash of hot sauce. No matter what minor ills or accidents befall your family members, just turn to the index where youll find a cheap, effective, easy-to-make remedy to fix them right up.

In compiling this collection, we reached back through time to find the most effective, time-tested home remedies we could get our hands on. We discovered herbal recipes from traditional Chinese and Indian medicine. We unearthed healing wisdom, born of necessity, that Native Americans and North American pioneers handed down from generation to generation. We sorted through books on regional folk medicine from all over Europe, South America, and beyond. Our search for these remedies carried us through history, from the era of Hippocrates to the battlefields of World War I to the backyard gardens of 21st century herbal healers.

Though we cast a wide net, our final criteria for the best home remedies were determined using a highly selective process.

First, remedies had to come from common ingredients found in kitchen pantries. Occasionally, we stretched our notion of pantry a bit to accommodate a few refrigerated items (eggs and yogurt, for example) or the aloe plant, which you can grow on a windowsill.

Second, remedies had to be simple to whip up and easy to use. And naturally, they all had to be safe. We put the remedies to a test: Is this something we might actually use ourselves? Or would recommend to a loved one? Or use on our own children? They made the cut when we could answer, Yes, these are remedies we would absolutely use.

Third, the remedies had to stand the test of time. For example, when we saw an herb that was used to treat nervous conditions from the time of the Romans to the 19th century, we knew we were on to something. We then searched the scientific literature to make sure that there was a medical rationale for its effectiveness and safety.

One thing home remedies have going for them is that they harness the power of ritualin itself a potent healing tool. The very act of making a remedy from scratch, applying it with love, and believing that it will help your loved one get better has healing powers that may enhance or even trump ingredients in the cure. So weve often included time-tested remedies that combine safe, gentle, healing ingredients and a soothing application, even if they havent been scientifically proven.