Alternative Cures

Herbs have been used for thousands of years to heal ailments, soothe wounds, scalds and burns, relieve the pain of insect bites and even keep the insects away. They are also very useful in the kitchen, but that is only a small part of their collective worth.

Living in a hot climate like southern Spain, I’ve found that one of the most versatile healing balms has to be aloe vera. This is a plant that I grow in abundance and use regularly for all manner of skin related problems, from relieving sunburn to healing cuts, abrasions and scalds. It make a great soothing aftershave and helps with dry skin and itching insect bites.

Camomile grows wild in the countryside in spring and I always gather a good supply of the flowers to dry and keep for making the soothing tea throughout the year,

Rosemary, thyme and sage are my favourite of the culinary herbs that have multiple uses, such as treating sore throats, coughs and colds as well as making a really refreshing tonic tea.

Ginger is another great treatment for colds and sinus problems as it opens up the airways every bit as well as propriety sprays and decongestants and is considerably better for you.

Garlic is the blood cleanser and purifier king and also boosts the immune system to help fight off colds and flu. It’s a natural anti-viral and anti-bacterial agent and is much better than taking antibiotics anything other than infections. Even then, personally I’d use aloe vera to deal with any infected wound.

Basil is a great culinary companion to the tomato, but how many peope know it make a good insect repellent? Keep a big pot of basil by open door and windows and it’ll keep all but the most persistent flies out of your house!

Lavender is another great insect repellent. Crush and rub leaves and/or flowers onto your skin in the evening and you won’t be bothered by mosquitoes!

Ok, that’s just a basic appetite whetter as to the incredible and often underrated abilities of common herbs and a lead in to a great squidoo lens that I also author on this very subject, called Plants For Health.

Please visit and if you like it, leave a comment and shower it with stars and help it to grow in popularity as it grows in information-rich content.

Anyway, thanks for calling in!

Terry Didcott
Alternative Cures

                                     

I’ve added another lens to my squidoo menagerie that deals with food additives and their dangers. This one will start with some of the nastiest additives the food industry could have ever unleashed on an unsuspecting public, namely Monosodium Glutamate and Aspartame.

If you thought these additives were safe, you’d better head over to that lens of mine and read some of the evidence to the contrary. Here’s the link:

What’s In Your Food

I truly believe that consuming an excess of Monosodium Glutamate in his last years were the cause of the death of my father from stomach cancer nearly 4 years ago. This is not a common cancer in the West, yet, but is quite common in the far East, especially Thailand and China, so if you like Chinese and Thai food - make sure you demand that the restaurant can prove they DO NOT use monosodium glutamate in their food. I bet you end up walking out of a lot of them, because they nearly ALL use this so-called flavour enhancer in their cooking… and in bucket loads.

You have been warned!

The above lens will give you much more information on this and that other modern scourge of our times, aspartame. If you’re letting your kids eat sugar free food and drink sugar free drinks, chances are you are feeding them an unhealthy future potentially ruined by this chemical sweetener.

Ok, this is not a happy blog post, in fact it’s bordering on a rant, so I think it’s time to stop and go do something else…

See you again soon (if you haven’t been scared away by the tone of this one…!)

Terry Didcott
Alternative Cures