Nature’s Home Remedies: Make Your Own Self Care Kit for Everyday First Aid

by Sherry Dell, PhD, CN. Rev

Boo-boos happen.  Headaches happen.  Sore throats happen.  Bee stings happen.  Every so often, everyone has an owie that needs attention.  If you happen to have several people living under your roof, this might be a daily occurrence.

Look in the medicine cabinets in most households and you can find a wide variety of over-the-counter medicines that are designed to attend to these daily boo-boos.  While these medicines may do the job to some extent, sadly most of them have additional side effects.  Pain killers often slow metabolism resulting in constipation.  Antacids can give temporary relief to heartburn but can’t stop the heartburn from happening again and worse, and often contribute to making sure the heartburn happens again.  Bug repellents can help prevent mosquito bites but can also contribute significantly to the body’s toxic burden.  On and on.

The good news is that long before there was a counter for over-the-counter medicines to be sold from, there was a need for home care.  Of course, for most of human history, only home care existed, since there would have been no other place to go for care.

Much of what follows here is based on time-honored home remedies.  Coming from a long line of farmers myself, I was raised with a great deal of self sufficiency all around me.  I don’t recall going to a doctor even once during my childhood.  What I’ve added to these old home and farm remedies is based on my 20 years’ experience as a practicing holistic nutritionist and herbalist.  Today, everyone has wonderful access to remedies from the plant kingdom in many forms: herbal preparations, homeopathy, essential oils, etc.