In recent years there’s been a huge surge in the interest of curing ailments naturally. It’s almost as if we’re looking for a magic formula from centuries ago that’s long been forgotten. So, who says natural remedies don’t work?
Many people believe we’re told that natural remedies don’t work because the pharmaceutical companies want to protect their huge profits. There’s probably some truth in that, but it’s not the whole story.
I’ve written this article after reading many comments on social media from owners of small websites promoting natural health products or remedies who believe they’ve been hit by the latest Google algorithm update. They say their websites have ‘tanked’ in the search engine’s rankings and think it’s because the mighty Google is demoting this type of content.
They may well have been hit, but is it due to inferior content or is it really a purge on sites that promote these products because they’re not part of the recognised establishment? I even read one comment from a website owner who said that Google and the pharma industry were working together to get rid of these sites. Really?
Do Natural Remedies Work?
I would say that natural remedies do work because I have experienced it myself. I’ll get to that shortly, but first let’s look at some facts. It’s been proved that some work and some don’t, therefore it isn’t possible to give a definitive yes or no to whether they work or not.
So, who says natural remedies don’t work then? It’s mainly experts from the medical profession who work only on facts and what has been proved and what hasn’t. They do this for good reason which is based on the development of medicine.
To understand this, we should mention the Scottish physician, James Lind. He was a ship’s surgeon in the 1700’s who is thought to have conducted the first, what we’d now call, clinical trials on sailors suffering from scurvy.
Today, no medicines get approved without stringent tests and clinical trials. Many natural remedies have not been subject to these tests and trials, so they can’t be rated. That doesn’t mean they don’t work or that they do. It just means they can’t be endorsed.
An article in The Washington Post explained it well when it said that there’s no such thing as alternative medicine. If clinical trials show that a therapy works, it’s good medicine. And if a therapy doesn’t work, then it’s not an alternative.
This is all very well, but what about the medicines or therapies that never get tested and are therefore dismissed out of hand? Perhaps we come back to the theory that there’s some protection of a multi-billion-dollar industry going on here? I would hope that’s not the case, but who knows?
My First Experience with Natural Remedies
I’m certainly not someone who asks, who says natural remedies don’t work, because I know some of them do. My first encounter was when I was very young, I can remember my grandmother used to visit an herbalist called Miss King, for all sorts of ailments.
She would take home a yellow medicine which tasted lovely and was a “cure-all” potion, so she said. On one occasion when we were away on holiday, I got ill, I felt I was coming down with flu or something similar.
I must have been around 10 or 11 years old and was given a swig from the bottle of the “magic” potion. These days an adult would get locked up for doing that! Anyway, I went to bed for a couple of hours and when I woke up, felt much better.
Was it the herbal remedy that helped to cure my oncoming illness? I really don’t know, but I think, probably not. It could have been a placebo effect, perhaps I was a little tired and the sleep helped me, or maybe it was indeed a “magical” cure. What it did do though, even at that young age, was to spark an interest into alternative or natural remedies.
My Second Experience with Natural Remedies
This happened just over 30 years ago and was important to me because I had a problem with a recurring sore throat. I didn’t get it often, but when I did, I completely lost my voice for a few days. My doctor gave me antibiotics which helped but didn’t stop the problem happening again.
As a broadcaster at the time, my job relied on my voice working properly, so you can see my dilemma (some might say it was a blessing!!). I was looking for an alternative to antibiotics when I happened to be recommended an herbalist who lived not too far away from me. She was well-respected in her field and is now a respected author on the subject too.
I made an appointment and went for a consultation. She examined me and explained that because my voice is important to my career, I feared losing it and that’s why infections tended affect it. A very holistic approach, I thought.
The prescription was for a bottle of medicine, although not the yellow potion I’d been given all those years before! It was dark, tasty and it worked, it really did. I had a couple of bouts a few months after that and had more of the medicine, but the problem went away.
Of course, I get the odd sore throat now and then like everyone does, but nothing like I used to. There may have been some psychology involved here, but I’m absolutely convinced the medicine did the trick. Although that was an eyeopener to me, it wasn’t as big as my third experience with natural remedies.
The Story Behind My Next Experience with Natural Remedies
Now this one blew me away because it left me in no doubt that there is a place for natural remedies to make a difference to our lives. A couple of years ago I felt, what I thought was a spot coming up on my forehead just above the hairline, so it wasn’t visible.
I thought it was a bit of an inconvenience, but at least it couldn’t be seen, and it would be gone in a few days. To my horror, over the next few days it grew quickly bigger and developed into what looked like a wart.
It didn’t matter that it wasn’t really visible unless you looked closely at my head, I knew it was there and I wanted it gone. I bought an over-the-counter wart cream which said it cleared them in one to two weeks.
At the end of the two weeks it hadn’t diminished at all, which made me a little worried about it, so I booked an appointment with my doctor. She took one look at it and told me it was a non-viral wart, and unlike viral warts, there is no treatment other than scraping them away to get rid of them.
She offered to arrange for me to come in to the surgery to have it scraped off because that was the only option other than leaving it because it wasn’t harmful and couldn’t be passed on to anyone else. I asked again about a cream and was told that there is nothing that could be prescribed that would get rid of it.
Knowing that If I had this minor procedure I’d probably end up with a scar for life, I decided to “think about it for a while” before deciding to go ahead. Thank goodness I did!
My Third Experience with Natural Remedies
Having much respect for my doctor, I came home from my appointment feeling a bit down after being told my only option to rid myself of this non-viral wart was to have it scraped off. Although medics advise against doing so, I decided to do some online research on the matter. Again, thank goodness I did!
There were lots of recommendations that suggested apple cider vinegar might do the trick. I decided to try it, after all, I’d nothing to lose. My next trip to the local supermarket included buying a cheap bottle of this, hopefully, magical cure.
I started dabbing a little undiluted apple cider vinegar onto the wart three times a day. After a few days I thought the lump was perhaps a bit smaller, although I wasn’t sure. In less than three weeks, the wart was completely gone with no trace whatsoever that it had been there.
To say I was relieved would be an understatement, but I was so glad and a little annoyed at the same time. The annoyance came because my doctor hadn’t mentioned that there might be an alternative and I could have ended up with a scar on my head because of her proposed treatment.
Of course, I understand why she wasn’t in a position to recommend anything other than approved methods. That’s what helps to keep us safe, but on the other hand, it made me realise that official answers might not be the only true ones.
In my mind, beyond any doubt, apple cider vinegar destroyed my non-viral wart, didn’t leave me with any visible scar and, to this day, the monster has not returned! It’s a relatively harmless liquid, so why wouldn’t anyone recommend you give it a try?
Why Apple Cider Vinegar?
It’s certainly a natural product which is made from apples, sugar and yeast. You’d think it would be perfectly safe, but that’s not necessarily the case. It contains acetic acid, which in concentrated form, can be corrosive to the skin, causing blisters or burns.
If it gets inhaled for too long, it can cause irritation to the eyes, nose and throat. Perhaps these properties are why it can eradicate non-viral warts.
It’s been used as a folk remedy for centuries, although as mentioned earlier, there is no proven medical evidence to support any benefits. In fact, it’s thought it may be harmful if taken during pregnancy or in large amounts.
There have been studies which suggest there may be some benefits from apple cider vinegar. For example, the American Diabetes Association found that taking two tablespoons of it at bedtime may favourably impact waking glucose concentrations in type 2 diabetes.
A study in Japan concluded it might help obese people by reducing visceral fat, body weight and BMI. The results were encouraging although inconclusive, but it has created an interest that apple cider vinegar may help with weight loss.
When it comes to warts, particularly non-viral ones, it’s difficult to find any evidence at all. It’s known that some bacteria can be destroyed by using vinegar, but it hasn’t been tested with apple cider vinegar. As far as I’m concerned, it absolutely did the job for me.
There are plenty of healthy lifestyle tips around, but who says natural remedies don’t work? Not me, I’ve tried three of them over the years and am very happy with the results thank you very much!