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Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Cures You Can Grow At Home

Original Article

I like plants and am one of the few cubicles at my workplace with plants in it. At home we have a veritable jungle of easy-care hanging plants. And plants can be more just pretty and freshen the air, they can also be useful as described in Organic Gardening's (OG)  9 Food Cures You Can Grow At Home.
  1. Aloe Vera is easy to grow with light and water once a week. You can break off a leaf and apply the gel that oozes out to soothe your skin from damage like sunburn.
  2. Basil - this grew like mad in pots we hung outside our window. Pull off the white flowers to keep the herb from going bitter. Can be used in cooking, pesto or "rub crushed leaves on your temples to relieve headaches. Pour boiling water over basil leaves for a pain-relieving footbath."
  3. Lavender - has a great smell and can be soothing if you have trouble sleeping. OG says, "Crush a handful of the heads and add to a bowl of boiling water to use as a steam bath for your face."
  4. Lemon Balm (keep it in pots!) Used for "healing cold sores."  Also, "rub leaves directly onto skin as a natural insect repellent or to soothe bites."
  5. Mint (also keep limited to pots).  OG says, "Sip tea made with fresh peppermint leaves to soothe stomach cramps, nausea, and flatulence." But I've also read that mint is a stomach irritant and to be avoided if you have GERD.  OG also recommends using it in a steam bath for decongestion. 
  6. Parsley - also grows well for us. Eat daily as an immune-system booster. Also good for bad breath?
  7. Rosemary - is said to lift spirits when used in a tea by people with SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder).
  8. Sage - gargle with a sage broth for sore throat (boil 1/4 cup of leaves and let it cool)
  9. Thyme - OG recommends, "drink a tea made from lemon thyme to treat colds before bed. Warning: don’t use thyme when pregnant."
Bottom Line

The article 9 Food Cures You Can Grow At Home also has links to growing advice. I'll have to try some of the "cures" suggested. The only one I have personal experience is aloe vera applied to skin, though I've grown and used others just for cooking.




5 comments:

  1. The problem with these so-called "cures" is they are "cures" for things most of us simply ignore because they aren't really health problems. In a SHTF situation these things will be useless for any real health issue. Then of course there is the whole voodoo hocus pocus aspect of it all. I mean, seriously, does anyone really believe lavender is going to cure anything by it's smell???

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  2. I disagree with the first poster. I think herbs and other "old world" cures would be very important in a long term disaster situation. If you can't get modern Antibiotics or have already used them all up what other options do you have?

    You don't need a perscription to grow herbs and people used cures like this for a longtime before modern medacine came along.

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  3. I am not trying to be disagreeable or arguementative but I think it is important to understand that 99% of these old wives tales and magic potions are pure BS. There "may" have been some real natural "cures" but for the most paret these things have been incorporated into science based medicine and all that is left is the snake oil and quackery. "people used cures like this for a longtime before modern medacine came along" and died young. Prior to modern medicine 5 out of 10 children died before age 5 and half of those still alive died before age 18 and mostly from disease and infection. What you are advocating is going back to the bad old days out of ignorance of how bad it was. Herbs are NOT antibiotics. The problem with the bizarre theory that herbs and magic potions can cure you is that people shoose to use them instead of seeking real medical help and viable treatments. It is easy to get caught up in this belief system because the carpet baggers and charlatans who write about this and advocate it are very sly and convincing. They are mostly daastardly liars with a heavy following of pure ignorant fools. If you want to do something meaningful to prepare for a disaster learn to recognize liars and hucksters and do not listen to them and walk away from them.

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  4. If you read enough you'll see that most of the antibiotics and the remedies are in did extracts from plants. Second: the quimicals they use nowadays are destructive to us all because they use GMO plants. What I think most of the people should do is understand and learn what kind of plants suets you better. The one thing that most people believe it's true is that pharmaceuticals are helping us by making those mixtures, but the sad news is when they extract and synthetise the agent their're in fact killing us because our body parts can't accept that much pure agent. I make my point!

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  5. The GMO derangement syndrome is common among those who failed biology in school. It is a testament to our failing education system. The threat from GMO is that someday we may inadvertently create something harmful or that cannot be reversed. That hasn't happened yet and may never happen. But that does not stop the perpetually panicked who cannot help themselves from spreading fear and loathing. We all eat GMO foods and have for decades. So far absolutely no harm from GMO foods unless you count the scare tactics as harm.

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