Something I’ve learned since my family has embraced healing real food and natural remedies is that people generally fall into two categories:
- The Curious
- The Skeptical
Which one are you?
When it comes to the skeptical, I get it. I know there were times (and still are) when I was skeptical of what types of healing could occur. It’s normal to feel that way, so don’t be ashamed if you do.
That’s exactly why I wanted to write this post. I want people to know what can happen when you embrace this lifestyle change. It can make a difference. It takes time, persistence, and patience.
This information should appeal to both types of people.
If you are the skeptic, you may remain skeptical. You may say to yourself, “She’s bluffing” or “But it won’t work for me.” But, how will you know if you don’t try?
And for the curious, hopefully this will lead you to research more of your own family’s ailments and struggles, and how they can be improved or even completely healed through eating real food and using natural remedies.
This is my family’s experience…
1.) Healing Heartburn and Indigestion
My husband has long suffered from terrible heartburn and indigestion. It was so bad at one point, he could not keep down food. It was at that point that we found out he had a terrible bacterial infection in his stomach leftover from an ulcer.
He was put on a month of very strong antibiotics. Looking back, this was obviously just a “quick fix” for a much bigger issue. This was before we knew the importance of healing your gut. Little did we know, we might have been fighting the bad bacteria, but we were making the problem worse in the long run.
Fast forward to 2012, my husband was again experiencing some pretty terrible symptoms. He was popping antacids daily, and having numerous other stomach problems.
This and other family health problems led us to try the GAPS healing diet and learn about the benefits of fermented foods.
We also began making the following fermented foods:
All of which had a huge impact on our entire family’s health.
Today, my husband is very different. We don’t even keep antacids in the house. I cannot even begin to explain what an improvement this is! My husband is healed of his chronic stomach problems, all because of real food.
2.) Healing Candida
In 2011, when our third son was a baby and still breastfeeding, we battled thrush. If you are a breastfeeding mother reading this, I don’t have to tell you how nasty this stuff is.
If you don’t know what thrush is, it’s a yeast infection of the mouth. When breastfeeding, this yeast infection often travels from baby’s mouth to mother’s breast. It’s a difficult cycle to break because both mother and baby need to be treated simultaneously until the yeast is long gone.
Trying to spare as many disgusting details as possible, we treated the yeast, but it seemed to spread from my son’s mouth to his diaper area. Even when his rash was gone, I still noticed a “yeasty” smell to his dirty diapers.
I knew that something was up with my son’s digestion. He needed more than just a surface area treatment for this yeast infection. This was another reason why we began the GAPS healing diet, along with kefir, yogurt, and kombucha.
We also started my son on some kid-friendly probiotics (chewables and dissolving packets)
It took a great deal of time to finally rid my son’s body of the yeast. Today, he is 3 and his favorite drink is “boocha juice” (his term for kombucha tea).
3.) Healing Fibromyalgia
In 2007 I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, which is what ultimately sent me on a quest to heal with real foods.This reality meant I either had to change the way we lived, or suffer excruciating pain for years to come.
I began by adding healthy fats to our diet (read about the healthiest cooking oils to use) and cooking most of our food at home from scratch. I believe the fat is the main thing that was lacking in my diet, and I slowly began feeling better.
I also noticed a huge improvement when we added strong probiotic foods to our diet.
Other factors that contribute to healing Fibromyalgia naturally:
- Removing chemicals from the home
- Bone broth (learn about the benefits of bone broth)
- Natural remedies in place of medications
4.) Healing Sinus Infections
Sinus infections are still a recurrent problem for me. The difference now is that I don’t have to go get antibiotics to fully fight the infection, and the infections do not last for weeks and weeks (like they used to.)
How to Heal a Sinus Infection Naturally
Sinus Rinse – There are several products that help you rinse your sinus cavities with a saline solution (I recommend this one). Do this twice a day until the sinus infection is gone.
Garlic Oil – Apply a small amount of homemade garlic oil to your sinuses to help fight the infection.
Essential Oils – Blends of essential oils can be used for aromatherapy or diluted and applied to the skin to help fight infection. I use a diluted blend of peppermint and eucalyptus essential oils.
Immune Support – Anything that you can do to boost your immune system will help your body fight the infection. Extra vitamins C, D, probiotics, prebiotics, etc., all help.
5.) Healing Ear Aches
Never again will I fear an ear ache or infection. The remedy is so simple that I feel a bit guilty for giving it it’s own section.
What’s the secret? Garlic oil.
If you haven’t made your own medicinal garlic oil yet, I think it’s time you did. It’s one of the simplest and most versatile natural remedies around.
What ailments has your family cured with real food and natural remedies?
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Vanessa integrates EMDR, sandtray, and attachment-focused approaches in her work and is completing credentials toward Registered Play Therapist and EMDRIA certification. With a background as a certified birth doula and a passion for making healing accessible, she writes and teaches on the intersection of trauma, neurodevelopment, and story-based therapy.
Great article! Great info! I made first batch of garlic oil last week. How long will it be good?
Tally, I keep mine in the fridge and it is good for a few months. I have heard to err on the side of caution, so if you have any doubts, throw it out. Thankfully it is also cheap to make!
We have used Garlic oil for 16 years! It takes care of the ear infection right away. I also experienced wonderful things by taking “junk” out of my diet. I follow the Paleo diet which I think is similar to Gaps. My heartburn, joint pain, migraines, acne, and “stomach problems” completely went away. I really like this post.
Charity, do you think the grain-free is what helped you most or just getting off junk food in general? I am really curious, because I personally didn’t see as much benefit going grain free, so we do eat grains now. It is so personal, and I do love the idea of the paleo diet. It definitely helps a lot of people. From from what I understand you can’t have dairy either. I would miss it terribly, haha.
As for GAPS, yes it is kind of like a very strict paleo diet, and we only did it for a few months to detox our bodies.
Great post! I just recently recovered from a bad sinus cold. With daily sinus rinses and doubling my Vitamin D, A and C I kicked it in a couple of days. I’ll look into garlic and essential oils for next time. Thanks for sharing!
Yay Lauren! I am always excited when these things work for other people. It’s amazing isn’t it? The remedies are really so simple.. yet I used to suffer for weeks and then go to great lengths to get meds to finally feel better. Now I just do my sinus rinse in the morning and evening, use my oils, and apply my garlic oil right before bed and the infection is gone quickly.
The garlic oil works so well for other things, too. I got rid of coughs and stuff settling in our chests (from a cold last week) by applying a small amount on our chests at night. Normally I would be coughing up stuff for weeks, but it was gone in a matter of days.
Very encouraging article. Sharing on Google Plus.