We all choose to live more self-sufficiently for many different reasons. No matter your reason for wanting to live a more natural lifestyle, there’s a lot to be said about taking the steps to put your medical wellness in your own hands.
Throughout history, hospitals and doctors’ offices were a rare thing that few people took advantage in their daily lives. Though there’s no doubting that modern medicine has saved countless lives, one part of the reality of outsourcing your healthcare to experts is that you lose the knowledge of how to take care of yourself for routine, easily treatable problems like a cold or stomach ache.
It doesn’t have to be that way.
The truth is that individuals can do a lot to take care of their own health needs when given the proper tools to do so. When people used to get sick, they raided their herb and tincture supply first, and then went to the doctor if they needed extra help.
You too can take back control of your own healthcare. All it takes is setting up a home based apothecary supplied with the medicinal plants and oils you deem most useful. While a personal apothecary should never take the place of proper medical attention, you can certainly benefit from having supplies to set your stomach or soothe a cold.
The Benefits of Practicing Home-Based Medicine
Without conventional medicine, there’s a good chance that many of us would be dead. Intensive care for heart attacks, strokes and complications in childbirth save thousands of lives every year, and you would be silly to choose to go without it. However, conventional medicine has less of a stellar track record outside of life-or-death situations. The system is heavily focused on medications that alleviate symptoms, often without addressing the root causes of why you feel ill.
In contrast, home-based medicine is used less for emergency care and more as a routine way to cultivate overall wellness. Through the use of herbal remedies, essential oils, a whole foods diet and exercise, you can cure countless daily inconveniences like headaches, stomach pain, fevers, rashes, and minor aches and pains. There’s no reason to fear using natural plants to treat these concerns; in most cases the herbs you use are the active ingredients in products like aspirin and Tylenol anyways!
In many ways, home based medical care is all about living intentionally in connection with your body and understanding what your symptoms mean in any situation. By creating and using natural remedies right from home, you can create a more sustainable daily living experience, live more simply and closer to the roots of where medicine comes from, and restore your connection with the kinds of plants that help you feel better.
Resources For Starting Out
Keep in mind that it can be dangerous to administer herbs and oils you don’t fully understand. Make sure you have a working knowledge of what you’re doing by relying on resources like these.
- The People’s Pharmacy: Quick and Handy Home Remedies by Jon and Terry Graedon
- 1801 Home Remedies by Reader’s Digest
- The Doctor’s Book of Home Remedies by Prevention Magazine Editors
Starting an Apothecary
If you’re ready to start living a medical life closer to its natural roots, the best step to take is to start a home based apothecary. Coming from the Latin word ‘apotheca’, meaning storehouse, and apothecary is a storage place for medicinal objects, often at the scale of a home or small business. Your personal apothecary can be as simple as a certain shelf in your pantry closet or an entire room outfitted to suit your needs. The specifics are far less important than the mindset behind it; creating a simple space to store your tools for holistic wellness.
What to Stock In Your Apothecary
What you choose to put in your apothecary comes down to personal choice and the kinds of ailments you anticipate treating. If you are a tea drinker that enjoys innovative blends, stocking up on dried herbs is a good idea. If you prefer to delve into the power of aromatherapy it makes more sense to stock up on essential oils and sensual body butters. There’s no reason to limit yourself to what you store, but these tips should get you started.
1. Medicinal Herbs
One of the most valuable things you can keep in a home based apothecary is your own homegrown herbs and spices. Not only do homemade dried herbs taste far better than any variety from the store, they are so simple to dry that the process is almost effortless. In fact, most herbs have naturally low water content, meaning that it doesn’t take much time to dry them out. Best of all, you’ll save lots of money, as store bought herbs tend to be expensive.
There are dozens of uses for dried herbs once you store them in your apothecary. In truth, herbs make up the foundations of modern medicine. Useful for creating natural remedies and combating common ailments like aches and pains, there’s a lot you can do with dried herbs once you build up a supply.
Once your herbs are dry, they should last six months or more when stored properly in air tight containers.
How to Dry Herbs
There are several different methods for drying herbs. First, find yourself a good supply, as fresh and organic as possible. If you are harvesting them yourself, the best time to do so is in the early morning before the sun burns off the essential oils. Washing them shouldn’t be necessary so long as they are organic. Be sure to snip off any brown or rotting bits of herbs, because they have the potential to turn the rest of your dried plants bad.
Next decide on the method you want to use for drying. Many of the top options are explained below.
- Indoor Air Drying: To dry your herbs the old fashioned way, simply tie the stems into bundles and hang them upside down in a warm, dry spot. Within a few weeks, the herbs should be completely dry and ready to be stored.
- Solar Drying: This method works best when the weather is warm and dry, as close to 100 F tends to work best. Simply place your herbs on the windshield of a car or other reflective surface and allow them to sit for several hours until full dry.
- Using a dehydrator: There are a wide range of food dehydrators on the market that do a great job of drying herbs with ease. You can control the temperature depending on the moisture content of the herbs you are drying. In most cases, this is the easiest, most foolproof method for drying herbs.
- Oven Drying Herbs: Though using an oven to dry your herbs sounds easy, it’s actually the least energy efficient method you can use, so think twice before trying it. Nonetheless, if you don’t have other options, herbs can be dried on cookie sheets in an oven set to 100 F.
Storing Home-Dried Herbs
You will know that your herbs are done drying when they crumble easily in your hands- but don’t crumble them if you can help it! Whole leaves store essential oils better, so you’ll want to keep them as close to their natural form as possible. To store your herbs, put each variety in a glass jar and date and label them carefully. When you’re ready to use them, simply pull out the amount of an herb you need and grind it with a mortar and pestle.
2. Essential Oils
Essential oils contain a wide range of benefits for your body that make them well worth having in your home apothecary. No matter whether you are looking to dig deeper into aromatherapy or simply want to have some soothing scents on hand, it makes sense to stock up on essential oils for your home apothecary.
The types of oils you choose to keep depends on your personal choice, but some top oils like lavender, peppermint, rosemary, ginger and eucalyptus should get you started.
3. Carrier Oils
Because essential oils tend to evaporate quickly, it’s hard to put your essential oils to use without another solution to put them in. These are called carrier oils because they provide a smooth surface that essential oils can be added to in order to put them to use as body lotions, scented lotions and more. Some of the best carrier oils you should have in your apothecary are olive oil, coconut oil, shea butter and castor oil.
4. Extra Supplies For the Home Apothecary
Having ingredients for your apothecary is little use without supplies that make it simple to use them, which is why it’s important to stock up on some basic storage containers and mixtures. These are the home apothecary goods you simply can’t go without: large and small glass jars, mortar and pestle, beeswax, digital scale, and small eye droppers with bottles.
When it comes to storage, make sure to keep your apothecary in a place where it’s easily accessible while still staying safe. Make sure to keep your herbs in dark colored jars and away from sunlight, and store everything in airtight containers to prevent it from spoiling. Keep in mind that it’s perfectly okay if your apothecary quickly expands beyond the space you put aside for it- this usually means you’re putting it to good use!
Conclusion
Starting to take control of your own medicine right at home is incredibly rewarding. There’s no need to rush to the pharmacy to treat every ailment once you learn how much power you have to cure yourself right at home. By starting up a home-based apothecary and stocking it with herbs, essential oils and other essentials, you’ll be on your way to learning how to keep yourself healthy without outside help.