Natural remedies you've seen work

[JamieCatheryn]

What herbal (etc) remedies have you personally used and watched correct a problem in yourself, your family, or whoever? I just think it's amazing to watch these kind of things work when much of the world tells us the real effective cures are all prescribed. Plus maybe the anecdotes will help give each other leads if similar things come up.

This past week my husband started getting bad indigestion, nausea and acidic kind of pain in his stomach except when he just ate. He quit coffee and soda those made it worse. After a few days of his tums and pepto barely helping symptoms and him overall feeling worse and worse, I realized it was likely an ulcer. He was going to get a dr. appt but couldn't schedule it til next week anyway so I got him licorice (DGL since he has high bp) and aloe juice and that fixed him up in a couple days.

We've chased off many almost colds and flus with vitamins and echanacia.

I used garlic oil for a likely ear infection in my 3 year old DS (symptoms were gone the next morning).

Arnica infusion brought down some bad swelling impeding 2nd stage when DS2 was born.

What about you? I'd love to hear your stories of natural healing.

[subtlycrunchy]

For indigestion, here are some great DIY herbal remedies... that work! Herbs for healing digestive imbalance I have found lemon balm to be extremely useful for gassiness (mine )

[bird_verde]

oh, I would love to see some more posts here...

for us, arnica gel/cream/ointment clears up bruises and swelling from injuries all the time.  It is amazing!  I only found out about it when dd1 was 2yo and I felt so cheated that I didn't know of a remedy for my baby's learning-to-walk bruises sooner.  There is nothing else like it. 

Calms Forte is another homeopathic remedy that was a real help when we traveled a lot (by car and plane) to get dd to calm down and rest.  It really works and I recommend it to everyone with kids.

[Panserbjorne]

homeopathic medicine, biochemics, herbs and flower essences all work beautifully when used correctly.  I've watched all of them in many different applications (acute illness, chronic illness and trauma/first aid) work amazingly well.

Home remedies like onion juice and garlic oil for ears are fabulous.  mustard packs for pneumonia are brilliant.  garlic poultices for fevers are excellent and coconut oil/honey have a gazillion applications as well.  Essential oils can also bring dramatic relief from colds/flus/burns/insect bites.  ACV or lemon juice can dramatically improve digestion.  Clay is about the best substance out there for just about anything you can think of-lol.

Honestly I've been using natural medicine for about 15 years and am consistently impressed with the power *when you are using the correct application.*

[SuburbanHippie]

Ferrum phos cell salts worked great to help my gums to stop throbbing after a vigorous cleaning at the dentist's office.

Breast milk in the ear for ear infections works great.  It's also amazing for eye infections.  I've also used garlic oil successfully for ear pain.

Echinecea tea is great for when I start to feel run down. 

Vitamin D3 in massive quantities (50,000 IUs for 3 days) wards off almost any illness/flu/etc.

Castor oil packs for kidney stones.

[Panserbjorne]

ah yes, never forget castor oil packs!

[SandyMom]

My natural remedies are probably in 3 categories: Food, Homeopathy & Herbs.

Foods:

Garlic experience w/ kicking colds & flus, even tooth infections.

Ginger soothes upset tummies for me and kidlets.

Lemon my dh drinks juice of 1 lemon every morn and has lowered his high liver enzymes.

Homeopathy:

Nux Vomica very effective  for us for stopping nausea.

Arnica reduced swelling pp and has helped w/ bruising & sprains for kids.

Arsenicum helps alleviate my seasonal allergies (grass pollen)

Herbs:

Olive Leaf If I could only have 1 herb/remedy this would be it! We use it to clear infections of all sorts. My kids are 10 yo & 14 yo and have never had antibiotics. Nor have I since discovering this wonderful herb. It doesn't destroy intestinal flora either.

Calendula I grow and infuse in oil for making salves, along with..

Comfrey both are wonderful for scrapes, burns, rashes, etc.

Mint settles tummies in our house.

There are more, but these are the main ones we've had demonstrable success with.

[janneyk]

My good friend started taking Valerian Root in order to fall asleep faster. She would lay in bed for sometimes up to 5 hours before she could fall asleep. After taking Valerian Root for a couple weeks, it seemed to help.