Food & Drink Remedies
Thousands of years ago, Hippocrates said Let food be your medicine. Foods and beverages provide relief from an amazing number of common ailments.
Overcoming Stubborn Adult Acne by Changing Your …
Many people think of acne as a particularly adolescent affliction. While it is true that many teenagers suffer with the zits and blemishes of acne vulgaris, grown-ups are not immune to this condition.…
Can Restricting Eating Time Help Control Blood S…
People at risk of developing type 2 diabetes may be able to reverse this process by restricting eating time to a nine-hour period every day. Other approaches that seem to rely on the same body process…
Will Cherry Juice or Melatonin Ease Arthritis Pa…
Whoever said "Growing older isn't for sissies!" probably had arthritis. Although it sometimes strikes younger people, the constant ache in knees and hips can make it hard for older adults to keep movi…
How Can a Man Tell if He Needs More Testosterone…
Historically, the FDA has been quite clear that it does not approve routine prescribing of testosterone, even if men have low levels of this hormone. Here was the official word from the feds: "None of…
Why Grandma Was Right About Vegetables
Your grandmother may have told you to eat your vegetables. Ours certainly urged us to do so. If she did, she was right. Vegetables and fruits are good sources of flavanols, plant compounds that appear…
Will Bromelain from Pineapple Ease Aching Joints…
What can you do for the aching joints of arthritis or the sore muscles and soft tissue of fibromyalgia? Many sufferers are caught in a difficult dilemma: without relief for the pain, they have trouble…
What Are the Health Benefits of Coffee and Choco…
Americans have a puritanical streak. This way of thinking suggests that if something hurts or tastes bad, it must be good for you. Conversely, if it tastes good, you might conclude it's bad for you. T…
Will Apple Cider Vinegar Cure Your Heartburn?
Do you get uncomfortable after a big meal? A burning sensation under the breastbone after eating is common. If you have ever suffered from this type of indigestion, you may want to know how to cure yo…
Chocolate and Beets Lower Blood Pressure
Doctors love scientific explanations for how things work. That is why they are quick to prescribe medications for a variety of conditions. FDA approval provides reassuring evidence of effectiveness. U…
Will Extra Vegetables Protect You Against Breast…
Nutrition experts have been urging us for decades to eat more fruits and vegetables. Your mother may have told you that, too. If she took her own advice and consumed extra vegetables, she was lowering…
Don’t Smear Molasses on Hemorrhoids!
Hemorrhoids (also known inelegantly as piles) are swollen veins in or near the anus. They are rather like varicose veins, although their awkward location can cause trouble. They may bleed during bowel…
Home Remedies to Combat Frustrating Drug-Induced…
How often has your healthcare provider warned you about side effects of a medication he or she is prescribing? They might mention a serious side effect, but a symptom like drug-induced constipation is…
Coconut Oil for Getting Rid Of Lice
Parents dread the call from school that they must pick up their child now because the youngster has lice. At that point, the question of getting rid of lice suddenly becomes urgent. Kindergarten Teach…
10 Favorite Wart Remedies That Work!
Warts are mysterious. They raise more questions than answers. We do know that warts are caused by a virus (human papilloma virus or HPV). How that virus penetrates the skin on fingers, hands or knees …
Can You Ease Sinus Woes Without Decongestants?
Hay fever and other seasonal allergies can cause a lot of discomfort. The congestion such allergic reactions cause can lead to sinus woes that seem to last a long time. Usually, medication choices are…
Best Diet for People with Diabetes Is Low in Car…
Diabetes experts have been arguing about the best diet for patients with type 2 diabetes for decades. Past and present studies now show that a diet low in carbs can help people with type 2 diabetes lo…
Can You Lower Your Blood Pressure with Food?
When the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association collaborated on new blood pressure guidelines in 2017, the cut-off numbers for hypertension got lower. That means a lot more …
Make Sure Your Vegetarian Diet Is High Quality
A vegetarian diet can be beneficial, but the quality of the diet matters. Last year, a meta-analysis of 25 randomized controlled trials covering more than 3.5 million participants found that there can…
Can a Nordic Diet Prevent Dementia?
The Mediterranean diet gets all the headlines. It is supposed to be good for your heart, your brain and just about everything else that ails you. Ask almost any health professional about the healthies…
Will Coconut Macaroons Overcome Bad Diarrhea?
We rarely know the source of home remedies, but we have tracked one carefully. The late Donald Agar wrote to us from Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in 1998 to report a serendipitous discovery. He had foun…
How to Control Your Blood Sugar Without Drugs
How is your blood sugar? According to the CDC, 115 million American adults have prediabetes, a condition in which blood sugar is elevated but doesn't reach the threshold for a diagnosis of diabetes (1…
Does Junk Food in the Diet Affect Children’…
Children in North America eat a lot of junk food. A study notes that nearly half of the calories consumed by Canadian preschoolers come from ultraprocessed foods. The investigators wanted to know whet…
How to Mix Certo and Grape Juice for Arthritis
One of the oldest home remedies in the People’s Pharmacy pharmacopeia is a combination of Certo and grape juice for arthritis. Most people have never heard of Certo. That’s because home canning ha…
Old-Fashioned Sugar Remedy Heals Persistent Woun…
When wounds refuse to heal, both patients and caregivers struggle. They suffer frustration as well as pain, not to mention the fear of a serious infection setting in. Several readers have written abou…
Can You Prevent Migraines by Changing Your Diet?
Migraines are a pain. Even worse than the pain, though, is the life disruption. Some sufferers lose days every time a headache strikes hiding in a dark quiet room. They may feel horribly nauseated or …
Which Diets Boost Longevity?
If you have been wondering what you should eat to improve your chance at a long healthy life, you are not alone. Curious nutrition scientists analyzed dietary data from more than 103,000 UK Biobank pa…
How to Make Thyme Cough Medicine
Have you ever found yourself coughing in the middle of the night and reached for the cough medicine? If your household is like ours, once in a while that bottle was emptied two months ago and not yet …
Which Coffee Compounds Protect the Brain?
If you, like many people, can’t face the day without a hot cup of coffee, there’s good news. Your daily habit may well be helping protect the brain. This has been a recurrent finding, but the late…
Will Hot Peppers Improve Your Health and Help Yo…
That headline that seems far too good to be true, I admit. Full disclosure, I must confess that I (Joe G.) am a pepperhead, ie, someone who loves (actually craves) hot chili peppers. That said, there …
Will Certo and Grape Juice Help Your Sore Knees?
People with sore joints face a terrible dilemma. Pain interferes with quality of life. On the other hand, medications like diclofenac and other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) can make p…
Will a Mediterranean Diet Benefit Your Brain?
The Mediterranean diet has earned a reputation for promoting heart health, as we discuss below. A Harvard study suggested it might also be good for the brain, especially for people with type 2 diabete…
Coconut Defeats Daily Diarrhea
We were surprised back in 1998 when we got a letter from a reader about coconut. Donald Agar of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, had suffered with Crohn's disease for 40 years. He discovered through serendi…
Home Remedies That Work When Modern Medicine Fal…
Modern medicine has come a long way from bloodletting and lobotomies. The Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) movement got its start in Canada when physicians at McMaster University began asking tough quest…
The Cookie Cure: How Coconut Macaroons Became a …
Some home remedies refuse to fade away — not because anyone is promoting them, but because people keep writing to say, “This actually helped.” One of the most enduring examples we’ve encounter…
Show 1420: The Cooking Oil Controversy Spotlight…
This week, we dig into the cooking oil controversy. For decades, we’ve heard that we should be using vegetable oils rather than butter, lard or other fats (possibly even olive oil). Oils from corn, …
Can You Use Oil of Oregano with Confidence?
For years, readers have been telling us that they use oil of oregano as an antifungal or antimicrobial agent. Scientists have found data to support this use. For example, oregano oil applied topically…
Saturated Fat Reconsidered: New Research Challen…
Have you ever heard the saying "you can't teach an old dog new tricks"? It's not true. Many old dogs learn new tricks with the right training and motivation. It turns out that it could be a lot harder…
Does Dark Chocolate Provide Healthful Cocoa Flav…
Whenever a new study comes along to demonstrate that yes, chocolate does have health benefits (see one here), nutrition experts step forward to caution people not to start gobbling chocolate under th…
How to Brew Green Tea for Maximum Benefit
You can brew green tea simply by plopping a tea bag in a cup and pouring hot water over it. Or you can make it into a complex ritual such as a Japanese tea ceremony. When it comes to getting the most …
How to Eat for Better Blood Glucose Control
When public health experts point out that nearly one-third of American adults have prediabetes, we figure that we could all benefit from an appropriate diet for better blood glucose control. After all…