I can personally attest to this one. When I was a teenager, I had hay fever so bad that I required a doctors care and medication every year. I heard about raw local honey from an herb book, and I tried it for one season. It has been many years, and I have never had hay fever again. I will never know if it was the raw honey, or if I just 'grew out of it'.

I tried honey for seasonal allergies. Did not seem to have any real effect.

However, I have found relief from sinus issues of various type from chiropractic manipulation and sinus washing. Might be some kind of placebo but they work pretty well at relieving the symptoms and I have gotten to the point that I don't care why they work. I know other people have tried both for allergies with varying degrees of success. I have not used an antihistamine or decongestant in a decade or so now. In the past I seemed to almost live on them at certain times of the year.

Herbalism... one of my favorite topics. Here's a few things from my neck of the woods!

I agree with someone else who mentioned using tobacco as a poultice for bee stings.

Catnip, spearmint, or peppermint tea for cramps.

Ginger for upset stomach.

Lavender essential oil on the temples for mild headaches.

Tea tree oil- aside from medical uses, dilute in water to make a disinfectant cleaning spray (add orange or lemon oils to boost cleaning power and make it smell nice)

tobacco- steep and use in spray bottle to keep some pests away(not to be used around food, of course)

and my grandmother always drank a spoon of vinegar a day, she claimed it kept her healthy (i haven't the stomach for that, personally).

FYI, just listened to an interview with ethnobotanist James Wong who wrote the book "Grow Your Own Drugs: Easy Recipes for Natural Remedies and Beauty Fixes." Very interesting, especially what he had to say about garlic. May have to pick this one up. Here's an athletes foot treatment mentioned in the book. Gives new meaning to the term stinky feet.



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