Home Remedies

This morning I read a Reuters article titled

Glucosamine and chondroitin
don't slow arthritis
.

It reminded me of when I was first diagnosed with osteoarthritis in my wrists and ankles about 10 years ago. On the advice of an orthopedic surgeon I tried these glucosamine and chondroitin horse-size pills for about six months and got absolutely no relief and saw no improvement.

This spring, on the recommendation of a doctor friend, I tried a daily vitamin regimen of a product called Vemma.. this nasty tasting stuff.. after taking it for 5 months... also did not produce the advertised results.

I have been battling a cold and congestion for few weeks now. All of these 'natural' cures remind me of the old saying:

If you take care of yourself and drink plenty of liquids you can beat a cold in about 2 weeks. If you do nothing the cold will hang on for 14 days.
So I am wondering if any of you all have gotten any real help from home remedies.

Please share with us a bit of your wisdom.. everything from chicken soup to health food.. from one-a-day vitamins to mega-fish-oil pills. Please feel free to share about things that didn't work as well.

8 comments:

  1. Hi Bob,

    Well as a recently diagnosed diabetic, I've been trying various supplementals in the effort to bring my blood sugar down. Chromium and Cinnamon were recommended by fellow diabetics, but I haven't seen much in the way of results from either. Now I'm trying oat bran and chamomile tea (saw the tea suggestion on wedmd.com) and have seen a small, but significant drop. However yesterday my doctor started me on a second drug to bring down my sugar levels from the 150s to 110.

    In three months I've gone from using an occasional OTC pain reliever to taking four different prescribed medications and a low dose aspirin daily. It's been quite an adjustment, but I'm hanging in there and God's obviously hangin' onto me. :)

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  2. I found my way from Locusts & Honey and this post caught my eye. I have been taking glucosamine/condrotin for about a year, I thought it was doing nothing for my joint trouble. Now that I read this I may quit taking the nasty things. =) thanks!

    As for home remedies, the only one I know that is tried and true is this: For warts, rub a cut potato on the wart before bed every night for a week. The wart will disapper. Not sure why this works, but it does. And its lots cheaper than compound W

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  3. My 4 youngest kids have never had ear infections or anti-biotics, or any medicine for that matter that I can think of. We give them Vitamin C and a multi-vitamin. When they get sick, we give them an extra Vit C and Garlic. My wife and I take Vit C and Garlic when we feel symptoms and that helps. My oldest son had a clogged lower tear duct, causing his eye for the first 18 months to have green muccus in it until surgery. As long as my wife took Garlic while nursing, he didn't have a problem. I knew if she didn't take the garlic based on his eye. My oldest daughter never gets sick. I just doesn't happen.
    I believe in Vit C, Garlic, diet(we limit sweets, no soda, processed foods, and exercise.

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  4. Wow, great question and interesting comments, I hope you get a lot more I am curious.

    I've tried a lot of different things and have never noticed a big difference except for Zinc and Vit C really did seem to help hold off getting a cold, or make if less severe. I think chicken soup is great for a cold, it just makes you feel better!

    I think some of us are just more susceptible than others and it probably has something to do with genetics and something to do with how we care for ourselves.

    I love your rock widget!

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  5. My mum was a spoonful of treacle lady for all us kids .. not sure what it cured though ... but she reckoned it cured heaps of things!!!!

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  6. Great comments all!!

    I looked up Traecle Mork and this is what I uncovered at the wiki:

    Treacle is a thick, dark sugar syrup produced during raw sugarcane refining, used chiefly in cooking as a form of sweetener. It has a distinctively strong flavour, slightly bitter, and a richer colour than Golden syrup, yet not as dark as molasses.

    Historically, the term was used by herbalists and apothecaries to describe a medicine - also called theriac or theriaca - composed of many ingredients, or one used as a treatment for poisons, snakebites or various ailments. In this time wells or springs believed to contain curative water were known as "treacle wells".

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  7. Well, I once used Listerine to get lice out of my roomate's hair, does that count? We thought it worked, then again, we weren't really sure she had lice!

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  8. At least your roomate's hair smelled fresh Cheryl :)

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