In recent years we have seen an increase in peoples interest and use of natural herbal remedies, we can see this in the growth in popularity of aromatherapy as an alternative therapy. The increasing number of herbalists and shops providing herbal remedies, and many people are now paying more attention to what they eat and the effect various foods can have on their bodies health and wellbeing.
This rise in popularity is partly attributable to our suspicion that manufactured drugs may have side effects which are causing unknown damage to our bodies but traditional herbal remedies we feel comfortable with, after all they have been used for hundreds of years.
An example of this begins with the common cold, which most of us seem to suffer from each year. Tired of going to the doctor to receive the advice “tough it out” or “take some paracetomal”, many people turn to tried and tested remedies that they feel they have always known. When we had colds as children our mother often suggested we could relieve the effects by inhaling the vapor from a bowl of hot water containing a few drops of eucalyptus oil, peppermint oil and lavender. Sitting with a towel draped over our heads in this mini steam-room we are using a remedy that has been known in our families for years and we will pass on as part of our rich oral tradition.
Toothache can be relieved (whilst waiting for your dentist appointment) by rubbing a mixture of clove oil and sweet almond oil into the gum surrounding the painful tooth.
Many plants we can grow in our gardens have healing properties that have been known for years and as a result they often have other names that indicate their use, a good example is comfrey also known as knitbone, boneset, consolida, consormol, consound.
These are just a few examples of the vast amount of information about herbal medicines available, whether it is something you and your family have always known, but need confirming, or in the knowledge of trained experts like herbalists and aromatherapists and even in books or on the internet. So if you think that using herbal medicines is something you would like to explore – get researching.
It is also worth bearing in mind that many pharmaceutical companies spend vast amounts of money researching these “old remedies” and the healing power of herbs and plants in an attempt to mass-produce their properties in the laboratory.
Finally, as a child it was a commonly held belief that if you picked dandelions you would “wet the bed”, it was only years later that I discovered that the leaves of dandelions did in fact contain a diuretic (in France they are called “pissenlit”) which seems to sum up that many manufactured drugs have common and natural alternatives.
Tags: alternative therapy, aromatherapy, healing, health, herbal, herbal medicine, herbal medicines, herbal remedies, herbs, medicine, medicines, natural herbal remedies, remedies, therapy