DIY Cold and Flu Remedies

Forget the over0the-counter nostrums; these cold and flu remedies have stood the test of time, says Tess Pennington.

With fall setting in, cold and flu season can’t be far behind. As miserable as a cold or flu might be now, with the pharmacy shelves bursting with over the counter remedies, one day relief might not be that close at hand.

Most of our prep kits have a stash of OTC medications but in a long-term disaster situation it will be important to make those last as long as possible. You might be surprised to discover that your kitchen cupboards may hold the key to curing your stuffy nose, scratchy throat, cough and chills.

Turning toward natural remedies now will give you the knowledge and skills you need to keep your family well during the onset of a disaster or extended disaster. Consider learning ways to make homemade lozenges to soothe sore throats, or possessing basic knowledge on which herbs may be used to treat cold/flu symptoms. Further, knowing how to combine these together to make cold/flu syrups will only better your family’s chances at beating the cold/flu season when OTC medicines aren’t as readily available.

Listed below are some other homeopathic ways to care for yourself and your family when you are ill. Read more

20th Century Musical Geniuses Who Loved Homeopathy

Homeopathy is a form of alternative medicine that treats patients with heavily diluted preparations which are thought to cause effects similar to the symptoms presented. Though derided by conventional medical practitioners (in face, the American Medical Association was formed specifically to combat homeopathy), homeopathic medicine is still widely available. Homeopathic practitioner Dana Ullman lists the 20th century musical geniuses who loved homeopathy.

20th Century Musical Geniuses...

Sir Yehudi Menuhin (1916-1999) was a Jewish American-born violinist, violist, and conductor who spent most of his adult life in the United Kingdom. He began playing the violin at age three, and his first public performance, with the San Francisco Symphony, occurred when he was only seven. During World War II, he performed more than 500 concerts for the Armed Forces, which earned him the French Legion of Honor and Croix de Lorraine, the Belgium Order of the Crown and Order of Leopold, the Order of Merit from West Germany, and the Order of the Phoenix from Greece. He also received more than fifty additional honors, including an honorary knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II (England's highest honor for a non-British subject).

Due to ailments he experienced from the strain of performing and traveling, he began practicing yoga and meditation and using homeopathic medicines. He became the honorary president of the Hahnemann Society, a leading British homeopathic organization.

In early 1988, I sent him a copy of a book I had written on homeopathy. He responded: Read more

Homeopathy: Nanopharmacology at Its Best

Homeopathy is a 200-year-old medical system whose theories conflict with those of regular medicine. Patients are treated with tinctures that carry an "energetic imprint" of substances that provoke the very symptoms they're suffering from. The rising profile of homeopathy has produced something of a dilemma in the world of medicine: how does homeopathic medicine work?

It is commonly assumed that homeopathic medicines are composed of extremely small doses of medicinal substances. And yet, does anyone refer to an atomic bomb as an extremely small dose of a bomb? In actual fact, there is a power, a very real power, in having atoms smash against each other.

Homeopathic medicines are made through a specific pharmacological process of dilution and vigorous shaking. However, when skeptics say that there is nothing but water in homeopathic medicine, they are proving their ignorance, despite the incredible arrogance in which they make these assertions. Dr. Martin Chaplin, a respected British professor who is one of the world's experts on water, has verified that "homeopathic water" and "regular water" are not the same, and his review of almost 2,000 references to the scientific literature on water (!) confirm this fact (Chaplin, 2009). Read more