In Favor of Herbal Medicine
Big business is out to make money, and often that means that the consumer buys at his own risk. Big Pharma is no different from any of the other businesses. This means we have to take care of ourselves.
As middle class Americans, we find more and more that our health insurance simply does not offer the protection we need. It will not cover pre-existing conditions, and there are limits to the amount of coverage one can get for a chronic illness. Thus, many of us are turning to alternative medicine, holistic health care, and of course, the herbal remedies our grandparents and great grandparents knew about. These are the sorts of remedies people scoffed at back in the 1950s, when penicillin was first produced for general use. At that time it was so effective that doctors were able to use it to treat appendicitis without having to resort to surgery. Such a thing is unheard of now.
Since then penicillin and other antibiotics have been used so much that large numbers of bacteria are immune to them, and those third and fourth generation antibiotics carry so many side-effects that many of us wouldn’t want to treat a sick dog with them, let alone ourselves and our children.
So, the old herbal remedies are making a comeback. They aren’t magic, but they can augment the healing process and they cause no harm, as long as one recognizes that certain infections and conditions do need more than a few herbs to help them heal.
Earaches are an example of this. Sometimes they are chronic, and do need the help of an antibiotic to clear up. However, I have heard a medical doctor extol the virtues of homeopathic medicines to help his small children through those earaches that often accompany their colds. So at the time, I felt the remedy I had used when my children complained of earache was not so bad. It consisted of baking a whole, un-peeled onion in a 350-degree oven until it was tender. Then, I wrapped the hot onion in a few layers of towel, and placed that under the offending ear, like a pillow, when my children went to bed. The heat and the oils from the onion soothed away the pain, and may have helped draw out any swelling.
Incidentally, I always baked several onions that way, as they are delicious peeled and served with a little butter and salt. What more could you ask for from a home remedy?
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