Home Remedies from the Kitchen

For those of you following me on twitter and Facebook you may have noticed we more doctor and dentist appointments than the last year combined. We were at the Urgent Care so often that they said “what now?” Suffice it to say we are all mostly doing well now, not great but okay.
While I am taking prescription medications to fight some serious infections I am also using home and natural remedies, All of these remedies were easily found in my kitchen.  Normally I would start with herbal and natural treatments and work my way up to prescription, but right now I have a less than optimal immune system.
Cabbage – Cabbage is such a wonder food, when I was suffering from swelling of my face, due to dental work and a staph infection on the face a La Leche League Leader friend of mine reminded me of the cabbage leaf trick. I simply placed the cabbage leaf on my cheek and took a cat nap. When I woke up the swelling was much diminished.Why did it work you may wonder?  Cabbage leaves h. Cabbage has natural sulfa in it. Sulfa was an early antibiotic. Not only is cabbage antibacterial in its properties it is anti-inflammatory. Back in my La Leche Leader Days cabbage leaves were often recommended as treatment for mastitis until you could get to a doctor’s office. Mastitis is caused by the same bacteria that causes staph.
Pineapple  Pineapple is full of bromelin. Bromelin is a great anti inflammatory. Bromelin is found in all parts of the pineapple. As luck would have it  they are on sale right now so I had one in the house. Because my face was swollen up like a rabid chipmunk, I chose to juice my pineapple. I am lucky to have a juicer (albeit an old one)  By  juicing it was able to use the skin which is normally thrown in the compost pile.  I knew that the anti-inflammatory properties of the bromelin would help but in doing research for this post I was happy to find that  research done in Germany bromelin helps with the absorption of antibiotics by the body.
Turmeric  I already knew that turmeric was an anti-inflammatory but when I was looking for remedies specific to staph I found that turmeric was recommended. It turns out that turmeric has a long history of use in India for skin conditions. Turmeric has been shown to fight inflammation as well. It is for this reason that I add it to my Overnight Crockpot Broth recipe. Be careful using it directly on your skin because it will stain, for this reason I opted to take it capsule form. Did you know you can buy empty capsules at most health food stores?
Cloves (and Clove Oil)  Cloves and clove oil are a specific cure for tooth ailments. for this reason I now keep some in the house. Clove oil has been used for dental emergencies for centuries. If you don’t have the oil you can chew on a couple of cloves to help with the pain. When I had a bone fragment in my jaw after a tooth extraction the clove oil did help to alleviate some of the pain. Clove oil happens to also be antiseptic, which is the reason why  the dentist who removed the bone fragment  packed my tooth socket with clove oil.

It never ceases to amaze me that the things we have in our own houses can be used to heal our bodies. What are some of your favorite homemade remedies?



this post is linked up to Green and Natural Moms Bloghop, Your Green Resource, Simple Lives Thursday, Frugal Ways Sustainable Days, Wild Crafting Wednesday

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