Copyright 2005 by Doug Smith

Home Remedies - Facts or Quacks?

Myths and legends often have their basis in a grain of truth.
So I wondered if home remedies, alternative treatments, and
folklore cures might also be based on truth. First, let's
try to define the phrase home remedy.

There's No Place Like Home

The name itself proclaims that a home remedy is, well, a
remedy that's administered at home! Prescription drugs are
often given at home as remedies, so we need to dig a little
deeper. When you think of home remedy, don't you think of
some sort of cure or treatment that's outside mainstream
modern medicine? Me too. Let's take a look at some choices.

The Holistic View

The dictionary defined holistic medicine as an approach to
medical care that emphasizes the study of all aspects of a
person's health, including physical, psychological, social,
economic, and cultural factors. The holistic definition is
very broad and could apply to many medical approaches.

Peaches & Herbs?

Many people associate herbs with home remedies. The
definition for herbal remedy is a plant, or plant part,
or an extract or mixture of these used to prevent,
alleviate, or cure disease called also herbal medicine.
That sounds like a good definition, although home
remedies tend to encompass more than herbal remedies.
What's next?

Folk Medicine

Folk medicine is defined as traditional medicine especially
as practiced by people isolated from modern medical services,
and usually involving the use of plant-derived remedies on an
empirical basis. Now we're getting somewhere! The old-timers
practiced medicine not based entirely on plants when modern
medicine wasn't available. Let's dig a little deeper into
the dictionary.

Home At Last

Finally we find the dictionary's definition of home remedy:
a simply prepared medication or tonic often of unproven
effectiveness administered without prescription or pro-
fessional supervision. So - it is a remedy prepared outside
the realm of modern medicine, it's not limited to herbs, but
unproven effectiveness? I disagree. I can prove that some
of the simplest home remedies have led to some of our
greatest medical breakthroughs (but that's another article).

Is That Your Final Answer?

Based on the research above, let's agree to define a home
remedy as follows:

An experienced-based or even accidental remedy or cure
prepared by common folk from herbs, plants, or other
available ingredients when modern medical help was
unavailable (or hadn't been devised yet).

That's my answer, and I'm sticking to it!

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Doug Smith is a Chemical Engineer and the webmaster of
http://www.SuperHomeRemedies.com You get free & natural home
remedies for fungus, lice, acid reflux, cold sores, yeast & more
at Home Remedies
Stay up to date with our Home Remedy News Blog at Home Remedies News
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About the Author
Doug Smith is a Chemical Engineer and the webmaster of
http://www.SuperHomeRemedies.com You get free & natural home
remedies for fungus, lice, acid reflux, cold sores, yeast & more.