Simple Home Remedies Class by Kathy Crocker

We had another successful and a very educational class today. The topic was "Simple Home Remedies" taught by Kathy Crocker. Kathy is a mother of seven, stepmother of four, and grandmother of sixteen. Her youngest son is the reason for learning Alternative Medicines, Herbs, Essential Oils, Vitamins, and Minerals. When her youngest son came down with C-dif, a contagious and sometimes deadly infection, which is caused by the destruction of the good bacteria in the intestines, she was told by the pediatrician she was not to give him any medicine. Her son being very young at the time, thoughts of childhood illnesses ran through her mind. She began to
study alternative medicine in an effort to help her son through inevitable illnesses he would face in his life.

Kathy began by explaining the "why" of alternative medicine by relating to a few examples. She explained that the research and development for new antibiotics is not being fast enough, and on top of that, some companies are abandoning the antibiotics research and development. Last year, Pfizer, the world's largest drug company, closed its Conneticut antibiotics research center while laying off 1200 workers in the process. Pfizer said it is moving the operation to Shanghai. However, the struggle to open its Chinese facility has caused Pfizer to largely abandon its antibiotics

Last year, Pfizer, the world’s biggest drug company, closed its Connecticut antibiotics research center, laying off 1,200 workers. The company said it was moving the operation to Shanghai. But Shlaes said Pfizer is struggling to open the Chinese facility and has largely abandoned antibiotics.

So then one might find himself/herself ask, "what do you do?" What if the day comes when we can't get a hold of medicines we need? What if the medicine doesn't work? What do you do?

Kathy provided some pointers on how to find information on alternative medicine. The following are a few books she mentioned in her class. She recommends having printed books rather than e-books as they will be available even when you lose power.

Here are some of the things she suggested in class.

Start with good books, read a lot, and even take notes. Compile your own notebook.
Learn to use what you have read. Start simple. Use already prepared compounds, essential oils, or other commercially prepared items for illnesses. Remember, herbs are gentle and taking care of an illness right away, works wonders.
Learn to make vinegars, tinctures, salves, syrups, infusions, poultices, decoctions, drops (hard candy lozenges type), etc. Refer to www.readynutrition.com for information.
Grow your own herbs. If you garden, you probably are already growing some. Such as, onions, garlic, sage, thyme, lemon balm, yarrow, mints, horehound, chamomile, comfrey, elecampane, echinacea, California poppies, catnip, hyssops, and others.
Learn to dry and store herbs, their seeds, stems, roots or leaves.
Take a walk around your neighborhood or your yard. Look for plants that can be used for medicinal purposes When looking for a book on wild edibles, one with color pictures can be very helpful.

I attended this class with the intent to take pictures to share with our online audience, however, i found myself sucked into the discussion as she provided some very interesting information. I was never a believer in the natural herbs and essential oils as well as other alternative medicine, but the lecture got me thinking about it enough to want to study. They say knowledge is power. When the disaster strikes and the power is out, knowledge is the power that will save us.