I tend to use a combination of both natural and chemical medication.

I am ridiculously prone to colds. I can be in the vicinity of someone who has one and come down with it within just a few hours. However, I've found if I drink Gypsy Cold Care tea and add in something like Emergen-C or airborne, it minimizes the symptoms to enough of an extent that I can function quite well on Dayquil.

My mom's been into liquid herbs for years. I've been taking them off and on since I was probably 12. I've had blood sugar issues ever since I was a teen and in addition to tweaking what I'm eating to moderate the effects, I usually take a couple of different herbs to bring my blood sugar into a more stable range faster than just adapting my eating habits accomplish.

Arnica is a wonderful thing. I fell off the horse I was riding the other day and it's helped minimize the sore muscles and damage caused by the fall. I've taken ibuprophen too, but I try to rely more on the arnica in both gel and tablet form to take a more direct approach. I far prefer the arnica gel over something chemical. It doesn't smell as strongly.

Oooh, yay! Herbses!

My go-to for feeling sick is stinging nettle. I usually brew it like tea, but it isn't unusual for me to drink the leaves, too. I first started using it to help with anemia, but as I did more research on it, I found that it was an all-around helpful herb for lots of different things.

I've been focusing my research of late on being able to harvest and utilize local indigenous herbs, rather than purchasing processed stuff in pill forms. In Ireland, I had constant access to cheap fresh herbs, and I greatly enjoyed that, and I think it helped keep me healthy. Since I knew how to use them, already, I sort of became the herbalist for my house, and I think I would like to be able to better support the title than the teas I currently make.

One of my "favorite" helps when I had a cold (which I do right now, sniff) is ginger tea with honey and lemon. When I wake up in the morning with my throat sore from sinus drainage I frequently fix a cup of tea first thing. However ginger tea doesn't taste the greatest, in my opinion, so I sometimes just use the Gypsy Cold Care with honey.
I sing in the choir at my Church (soprano), and the only time I lose my voice is when I sing too much when I have a cold. If I'm doing a lot of singing out comes the ginger tea. This is the stuff pro's use, and it really does help.

To protect his voice and lubricate his throat while playing
Gollum, actor Andy Serkis drank lots of "Gollum juice," a
concoction of honey, lemon and ginger.

I've also seen this concoction (fancily and expensively bottled of course) used by broadway singers.

Oooh, I make a version of that--I just usually don't put in the ginger. I'll have to try adding it. I must say, though, that the honey and lemon works well, both hot and cold. It can act as an appetite suppresent, too, which I found out accidentally during a period when I was drinking about four cups a day, every day for two weeks.

Ginger tea is a great remedy for stomach aches. If you don't know how this works (much like myself) it's not too hard. Get a cheese grater and rub a ginger root against it into a small saucepan. Put in as much as you think you'll need. Boil it for a few minutes and put it in a good sized coffee mug and you're set. I usually add a touch of honey to it, and sometimes lemon juice. Only when I'm feeling nauseous though. I didn't know of this remedy till' my late sister Kathy got C, and it helped her through a great deal of the chemo-caused nausea. It really does work for relieving nausea, and frankly it tastes good to boot.

And of course a copious amount of honey in a mug of hot tea, along with a spritz of lemon juice, kills off sore throats like nobody's business. I do Earl Grey, but I guess any tea will do the job.

Since a lot of medicine is natural medicine (aspirin for example), for something to be classified as an alternative medicine, it means it hasn't been proved to work or hasn't been proved not to work. I like to stick to scientifically proved medication myself but what others do is no concern of mine.

Though things such as honey and tea for sore throats is usually good. Mymum has always gone on about curries killing off germs in ones thorat but she says a lot of stuff like that.....

My go-to for feeling sick is stinging nettle. I usually brew it like tea, but it isn't unusual for me to drink the leaves, too. I first started using it to help with anemia, but as I did more research on it, I found that it was an all-around helpful herb for lots of different things.

Oh wow, I never heard of using nettles as tea, that is very interesting! We just have tons of nettles growing in our back yard, so I would love to try to make some! Do you make tea just from the nettles, or do you mix it with other teaherbs?

One of my "favorite" helps when I had a cold (which I do right now, sniff) is ginger tea with honey and lemon. When I wake up in the morning with my throat sore from sinus drainage I frequently fix a cup of tea first thing. .

Yup ginger tea really does help! I live up north, and always catch a cold in the winter. And once it starts it tends to last for a month or so. I mean it's on and off, but I have to always keep it in check, and ginger tea really helps. Even though I really don't like the taste of ginger, I drink it like medicine; and I have to say, it really does work.

Very interesting Shadowlander, I never knew that ginger helps the stomach. I should try it sometime

I have heard that drinking a glass of water with a bit of lemon in it is very good for improving ones immune system and cleansing the kidneys. One of my sisters said that it really helped her wake up in the mornings Another sister that tried it said that her face cleared up and her skin became more smooth (yeah, I have a lot of older sisters ) I am still getting around to trying it, I keep forgetting though

Since a lot of medicine is natural medicine (aspirin for example), for something to be classified as an alternative medicine, it means it hasn't been proved to work or hasn't been proved not to work. I like to stick to scientifically proved medication myself but what others do is no concern of mine.

I typically feel the same way too. That said there is a lot of truth behind some of the older natural remedies, which is why they've hung on so strongly during the years.

Another one I used to use quite a bit when I was a younger guy...I don't know if any of you have ever had canker sores, but they're little ulcers inside your mouth, usually on the inside surface of your lips or cheeks. Mine always happened near my lower incisors and they hurt like crazy, especially if you're a pepper head like I am (I like hot sauce and spicy foods ). My mom used to have me put some alum on them which hurt like absolute crazy...felt like someone was sticking a hot soldering iron in the soft part of the inside part of your mouth for about 30 seconds, and then....numbness. Total, beautiful, complete numbness. A good hour's worth too, and sometimes more. In a pinch one can use table salt as well, which will do the trick, but nothing tops the alum, which for one minute of pain demolishes the canker sore. It goes away not long after, whereas ordinarily you'd have to wait 1 or 2 weeks for it to disappear.

Since a lot of medicine is natural medicine (aspirin for example), for something to be classified as an alternative medicine, it means it hasn't been proved to work or hasn't been proved not to work.

Actually, most pharmaceutical medications, while using nature as a beginning guide, have been "modified" so that companies can claim exclusive rights to produce them--because in many nations, you can patent compounds as long as they are manufactured and not found as-is in nature. Further, because everyone's go-to in these days is a bottle of medicine, most doctors will refer to herbal remedies as alternative medicine.

On the same note, anthropologists and nutritionists are hurrying to be able to record the natural remedies that still remain in lesser developed nations--but are quickly dying out. The Amazon alone has thousands of plants and plant compounds that treat diseases that modern medicine struggles to deal with, but all of this information is dying out as the language dies out. The indigenous names of the plants quite literally say what they are used for, and all of that goes away as the languages are lost. /end anthropological tirade

Oh, on the note of aspirin, its natural counterpart is willow bark, which you can brew as a tea. I've heard of people drying the bark, grinding it into powder, then adding it to honey and taking it that way, but I've never tried it myself. Using white willow, as opposed to aspirin, also does not have the side effect of thinning your blood.

Do you make tea just from the nettles, or do you mix it with other teaherbs?

I usually just use the nettles, but I'm not much of a tea person. I've heard of others mixing it. This site has some general care and processing info, and this one has some tea recipes.

I work in pharmacy and you are able to patent a medication for 10 years here in Australia before other companies can make the medication also(apo and other generic brands) but the original brand is usually more expensive after this time since some patients do not "trust" generic branding, though the active ingredient is of course the same. Hence you can get a pack of 100 generic branded paracetamol tablets for $2.95 aus but if you want panadol you will pay that for just 12.

I dislike it when a parent/s of a child opt to use alternative medicine(which of course has no scientific evidence) or medical treatment proven to be effective for serious conditions/illnesses. I have heard far too many cases ofthis and the child has died due to leaving the condition "untreated".

I can understand that, but a lot of us (from what I can tell, most of us) use some combination of both chemical and natural. This isn't a thread to talk about which one's better than the other, but to mention what we use and share opinions on how it works.

Back in my early 20s I was diagnosed with a thyroid problem. One that likely was the cause behind a major hormonal imbalance and a fairly substantial weight gain. I weighed 324lbs at one point. I'm down to 240. The doctor I went to wanted to put me on two medications. One to manage the side effects of the other. I opted to go a natural route because the side effect was fairly scary if I ever wanted to have kids. Also, my mom and I share similar reactions to chemical medication and she was a firm believer of her use of a similar medication was why she had some health complications when I was two. Now if the natural method hadn't worked, I would have gone straight back to a doctor regardless.

I use a supplement called Vitex after trying others and consulting with a doctor known as an osteopath. For those who may not know, it's someone who uses natural alternatives to supplement or in place of chemical medications.

Through the use of this, I began to figure out my body's responses to medication and to different levels of the supplement. At 324lbs, I needed a much higher dosage. As I've lost weight, I've been able to come down to a substantially lower dosage. It's actually now to the point, that if/when I can get and maintain my weight at 190-200lbs, I think I could come completely off of it.

My blood sugar's another rather flaky item in my health because of the thyroid/hormone issue. I'm basically a borderline hypoglycemic and diabetes runs in my family on my dad's side. I've been using a liquid herb called HYG-W for years to bring my blood sugar down from a high. It also has a nice long term effect of balancing it out overall. I wouldn't recommend replacing insulin with this for someone who is already a diabetic. And if I am ever diagnosed with diabetes, I'll consult a doctor and see if there's a way to balance a need for insulin with a natural remedy.

Has anyone ever gotten into the who natural oils thing? Like Thieves oil, peppermint, etc?

My sister-in-law is really into essential oils and they've helped her a lot. I've tried a few, but so far had really bad luck. Peppermint oil is supposed to help with headaches, but it made my skin itch, and I tried one that is supposed to prevent snoring but it made me cough and sneeze.

I use a combination of things to help with my various disorders. For example, I have to take both iron supplements and birth control to prevent my hemoglobin from dropping too low. Just eating iron-rich food doesn't work for me, and too many iron supplements are terrible for my digestive system.

I may have to try ginger tea the next time I'm feeling nauseous. Currently my go-to medicine of choice is ginger ale.

I've never had much luck with the whole essential oils things. Apparently that's one of those things that helps a portion of people, but does absolutely nothing good or bad for others.

I am, however, a fan of taking oil capsules--mainly oregano and evening primrose. Apparently there are two different types of oregano, and the one that is effective is the origanum vulgare. It helps the immune system, so I take it when I'm fighting something off, or when my allergies kick up (since sinus infections seem to trail around after my allergies like little siblings). The evening primrose oil I try to take more regularly, as doing so seems to help with certain girlish things

I haven't read through all the posts, so am not sure if this has been mentioned already, but one helpful tidbit I have found is pure cranberry juice. Yes, it's packed full of 'pucker-power' but staves off bladder infections, if you feel one coming on. I am not prone to these, but once in a long time the symptoms will arise and, honestly, even only a 1/2 cup of this pure juice will send the infection away. So much better than antibiotics!