Growing Your Family’s Pharmacy
Dec 5th, 2011 | By Sarah | Category: Alternative Health, Health | Print This Article
Today many families are looking for a different approach to dealing with the illnesses and injuries that afflict them. How can you achieve your goals for a more natural lifestyle? You can add a medicine garden bed to your family garden. Long before we had men of science and medicine, we had the knowledge of which plants were beneficial for our families’ ailments and hurts. Also, there were people in our communities who were knowledgeable in the herbs of the local area. With a little research, you can become one of these people.
To begin this project, I would suggest purchasing one or two good reference books on herbal and natural health treatments. You may also want to consider taking a course to learn more about being an amateur herbalist. Some high schools and colleges even offer adult education courses on herbs.
Though I have never taken a course on herbs, I have several great books that I use to assist me in my herbal knowledge. The first is Back To Eden, by Jethro Kloss: “The classical guide to herbal medicine, natural foods and home remedies.” I have used it as my primary herb book since I first became interested in the subject. This is a great reference, but its downside is that it has no pictures of the herbs for identification purposes, nor does it give you planting and growing instructions. Rodale’s Illustrated Encyclopedia of Herbs, by Rodale Press of Emmaus, Pennsylvania, has beautiful full-color pictures as well as illustrations of the herbs. It has chapters for the different uses of herbs, not just for their medicinal purposes. However, it only has 140 herbs listed and may not have those for the conditions you are trying to treat. Sunset Western Garden Book is great as a gardening primer. It gives basic planting and care instructions for hundreds of plants and tells you which zones they are compatible to. It has descriptions of the plants with illustrations. It is also helpful with landscaping and other gardening needs. I have used this book for many years to help me with most of my gardening work.
After getting your herbal education, you will need to find the best herbs for your medical needs and your climate. You will need references to find the herbs for your family’s needs. You may use those I have listed above, find other books that deal with your health issues and the herbs needed to treat them, or research online. I find myself using my books as well as the Internet – and just about equally, if I might add.
A great example of an herb that works for me is mint. Mint is great for stomach ailments, excess gas, bad breath, and other ailments. Mint will grow in all zones. I grow mint in a container in my backyard garden, as it will over run your garden if planted in a bed. I pick and dry it. Later on I use the dried leaves to make tea and capsules, and it can be stored in glass jars on my shelf or in Ziploc bags in the freezer.
Note: The zone assignments noted in this chart come from the Sunset Western Garden Book.
Always remember, before changing from prescription medications to herbal treatments it is best to seek the advice of your doctor or other healthcare provider.
©2013 Off The Grid News
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Everyone needs to learn to grow & use natural, GOD made medicines, and stop relying on Big Pharma and running to the doctors office. These natural herbs/plants don’t require a lot of work, or anything special. Just be sure they get the right amount of water, natural fertilizer (horse poop) and allow GOD to do the rest.
Read up on how to make tinctures, decoctions, salves, etc. It’s not hard!!!! If I can learn to do it, anyone can!!
Use the cheapest scotch whiskey/vodka you can buy to make your tinctures. Save all your old brown glass medicine bottles with the glass droppers.
Good Luck….
I am a former pharmaceutical chemist. I DO NOT take medicines, as I KNOW what is in “it”. When people get sick, go to the doctor, and the doctor finds 14 different things wrong with them, then the doctor prescripts 2 different drugs for each ailment. Most of the health issues that people have come from the MEDICINES that are prescribed for them. If they only knew! I worked for one generic pharmaceutical company that was caught falsifying the contents of their drug! Yes, the FDA shut them down, but not before years of selling this drug with NO active ingredient in it! When the patient was not getting better, the doctor would just up the dosage, many times threatening the life of the patient. It is so scary what people are just willing to open their mouths and place in their body. Never have we had such cases of cancer, diabetes, autism, etc. We all should get back to the basics, the God given remedies for what ails us. We are all going to die, sooner or later, and have to accept that. We are meant to die. But these small comforts in the form of herbs make our lives better.
I have been looking for a simple list. This is wonderful.
I grew up in the medical community–my father was a medical doctor who had a unique view– diet and exercise before drugs. He didn’t like the numbers of drugs his patients had to take and prefered they take care of themselves first. And there were plenty of other MDs who prescribed at the drop of a hat. Most of the drugs now manufactured were based on early herbal remedies, then tweaked and twisted into the barely helpful, mostly harmful drugs they are now. You can’t patent an herb–although they are now trying to do just that.
I am actually going to be growing many of these this year–and many years to come– to dry and put into hot/cold packs for our chiropractic patients. We can use them to educate our patients in a more healthy lifestyle.
I have lived in the city most of my adult life. I have worked for 20 yrs as an athlete. I am now retired and due to a trigger and severe abuse of an ex. I have begun to remember and relive the extreme torture I endured as a child from both my ‘parents’. I am now (as the Dr’s say deep in PTSD, and anxiety disorder and something about the fight or flight that my body is shooting far too much adrenaline into my system every min of every day. I cannot stand to be touched or be around people and my startle response is out of control, I actually scream and without deliberation fly across the room sometimes knocking over the TV and such. I even made my daughter cry because she said hi to me when I didn’t know she was there. I have what they tell me is sleep psychosis as I refuse to allow myself to sleep because the nightmares are too much for me to handle. Of course I was made to see a physiatrist and put on 8 different meds. I also live in pain on a scale of 8 every min of my life and they told me it was the PTSD and all in my mind and left it at that without one test.
I have now found out I have extremely advanced osteoarthritis and ostiophites in my spine and was hospitalized. I have started to slowly quit all the CRAP the Dr’s have given me and have been going through withdrawal here and there however I now have to live the rest of my life on morphine and a small dose of clonazapam (as needed). I am moving to a cabin in the mountains and am determined to allow Mother Nature and I heal me and I to wish to grow my own herbs. I am also working at a horse sanctuary to heal them and that in turn will heal me. I am going to learn every plant that grows in my area and from what I read here and, from the other posts I am so glad I am getting rid of the meds one more will go my next appointment and I am dropping 25mg on another. Is there a herb that can help me with this anxiety and with the clonazapam of which they have had me on 5mg a day for 3yrs.
Any advice would help me
Thank you all for writing; it has given me the courage to write this.
Deborah.
Hi Deborah
I think your comment was wonderful and I just want you to know that and to apologize for the error I made in clicking on the report comment. I didn’t know how to withdraw it so I posted a comment explaining my error. This is the comment. I’m sorry, I thought that the reply/report comment at the bottom of Deborah’s post was a reply from someone and I clicked on it wanting to read it but it was a report the comment. Please withdraw that click as I didn’t want to report it. I think Deborah is wonderful for taking the steps she has to give up medication and gain control of her life. I gave up antidepressants because I felt they made me feel worse and I use meditation and natural foods and herbal remedies instead but still have much to learn.
Anyway, sorry Deborah for clicking on the wrong thing at the bottom of your comment.
I’m sorry, I thought that the reply/report comment at the bottom of Deborah’s post was a reply from someone and I clicked on it wanting to read it but it was a report the comment. Please withdraw that click as I didn’t want to report it. I think Deborah is wonderful for taking the steps she has to give up medication and gain control of her life. I gave up antidepressants because I felt they made me feel worse and I use meditation and natural foods and herbal remedies instead but still have much to learn.
Anyway, sorry Deborah for clicking on the wrong thing at the bottom of your comment.
I discovered that Aloe Vera was also good for pain on small cuts. It works instantly.