Home Remedies Can Be Useful for Some Conditions, Experts Say Marlene Cimons - The Washington Post
go to original January 5, 2022

Maralyn Fisher, 76, a retired boutique owner who lives in Manhattan, suffers periodic bouts of nausea. Whenever she feels the queasiness coming on, she pops a ginger mint into her mouth and waits for it to ebb. It almost always does. “I don’t like taking a lot of standard medicines,” says Fisher, who keeps the candies in her purse and at her bedside. “I believe in it because it works.”

Fisher is among millions of Americans who use what are known as home remedies, a description frequently used interchangeably with “complementary” or “alternative” medicines to distinguish them from Western practices, which often rely on doctor visits and conventional drugs.

Pandemic fears have made them even more attractive. A recent survey conducted by the health technology company DrFirst found that consumers are increasingly turning to at-home treatments to avoid going to a hospital emergency room.

“They are easy to get, many people believe natural is safer, and they feel comfortable using them,” says D. Craig Hopp, deputy director of the division of extramural research at the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH), part of the National Institutes of Health. “They are very popular. People take these things thinking they will work, and many of them do.”

While home remedies and other nontraditional approaches are not typically regarded as mainstream, natural plant-based therapies have long been dominant in many developing countries and enjoyed heavy use historically, especially during earlier pandemics.

While experts agree that many home remedies are valuable, they warn there are times when they shouldn’t replace conventional care.

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