I regularly get asked what is in my medicine cabinet. I assume people are hoping to know what they should get. Let me start by saying if you’d like to try your hand at natural healing, my medicine cabinet is not the place to start. When I get extra money, I buy natural remedies. I am kind of a natural remedy hoarder. There was a sale on Planetary Herbal’s Oil of Oregano caplets online the other day and I bought as much as they let me, which unfortunately was only three bottles.
At any rate, an inspection of my medicine cabinet would reveal lots of essential oils and herbs. I have a separate location for my homeopathy, because homeopathy should always be stored away from strong smelling products. Homeopathy is so delicate that exposure to the strong scents of essential oils like tea tree will make them less effective. So, I have a medicine cabinet of essential oils and herbs and then I also have a separate carrying box with all of my homeopathy in it. Most of it I’ve never had to use.
If you start to learn more about how useful and real these remedies are, perhaps one day you will become a remedy hoarder as well. For now though, I’d like to answer the question the way it was probably intended. Not what’s in my medicine cabinet, but rather what products do I make sure I never run out of.
# 1 Oil of Oregano (Planetary Herbals)
If you can only have one thing, this is it. This is my “must-have.” The reason to have this run the gamut, but the most important reason to have it is for its ability to fight viral and bacterial infection like a pro. When I say this, I don’t mean as “a general good health promoter.” I mean it like I wrote it. It is a powerful antibacterial and antiviral agent. Its major component is carvacrol. If you want to see the studies about carvacrol, go to www.pubmed.org (which is the National Institute of Health’s online index of medical studies) and search for carvacrol. The brand I have come to trust is Planetary Herbal. I don’t work for the company or anything, and I’m sure there’s other brands that are awesome, but it’s the one that I use… since so many people asked. I’ve indexed it for you so that you can buy it easily on Amazon here.
#2 Manuka Honey
Manuka Honey is a medical grade raw honey. It is used in hospitals in cases of gangrene, skin infections, abscesses and severe burns. There have been numerous studies on this that prove its effectiveness. It has saved lives and limbs on countless occasions. While I doubt that you would ever need it for saving your life, it should replace the neosporin in your first aid kit. It can be used on cuts, burns, acne, and boils. It can be eaten in cases of bacterial or viral infections in your throat. It helps with allergies. You can brush your teeth with it if you fight gingivitis. It can be applied to a tooth abscess. It is expensive and worth each and every penny. It only narrowly lost out to Oil of Oregano as the front runner.
It does a couple of things. It kills germs within a wound. It speeds up healing by cleaning the area of dead skin. This scared the crap out of my dad when it made a wound look all white from the rapid debridement process. It provides a moist sterile environment for the wound to heal as it lifts out lymph fluid through its strong osmotic effect. It lifts away dead tissue as it promotes new tissue growth at a rate that is unmatched by any other wound dressing. It draws out lymph fluid from wound tissues and reduces inflammation and pain.
#3 Hyland’s Arnica Tabs
Of all of the homeopathic remedies, Arnica is the most used and most widely accepted. You can find it in numerous combination remedies and products. It can be a life saver. It wouldn’t make my top three list just because it helps with pain and reduces bruising. That’s not crucial enough. In addition to its everyday uses, Arnica can be a life saver. When given after a bad injury or head trauma, it can reduce swelling and injury so much that it has saved many lives. In cases of a concussion or head injury, making sure you have a bottle of arnica in your purse at all times so that you can give 5 pellets every fifteen minutes on the trip to and in the waiting room of the Emergency Room can mean the difference between life and death. If it weren’t for the greater frequency of infection over injury in my house, Arnica would certainly be number one on my “must have” list.
So, there you have it. That’s what you need to own. The rest is really important as well, but these three products are absolutely imperative.
Have any of you experience healing with any of these products? We’d love to hear about it! Post your comments below!
