ARE HOME REMEDIES RELEVANT IN TODAY’S FAST PACED WORLD

Well, to start with our world today has changed considerably and keeps changing more than we all expected. And one more thing which goes unsaid is that we also need to change with this changing world at the same time. We also need to make some modifications with our lifestyles, the way we live so as to cope with this changing e- and so called the modern world.

The price we pay for our current changing lifestyle is that there is more stress now than what was faced by our parents.

So in all this ‘noise and hala-gula’ is there any role of the grandma’s home remedies to treat some of the common health problems. Home remedies are basically well tested and tried out home formulas that are concotions of commonly found ingredients on the kitchen shelf or in the vegetable garden of a household. These remedies connect us with our beloved Nature as they are raw ingredients and not refined ones like you get in the conventional tablets.

Our ancestors used to believe that there is no remedy better in this world than home remedy. Even today in several households, the first try to solve a minor health problem is usually a home remedy.

However, slowly this art of easy and simple healing is dying a slow death. Like fast food, modern medications are easily available without prescription in many instances in our country. It is not unusual to find heaps of such medication in most households. Most Indians know the names of the common tablets for headache, cold or diarrhea.  Today not everyone has the patience to try out the simpler and perhaps the less harmful grandmas ‘nuskhas.’ If they o not know the name all they have to do is visit the nearest pharmacist and ask them and they will readily pull out a few tablets or a bottle for the condition.

In comparison to conventional allopathic medications, the homemade remedies are natural and generally have no side effects on the health of the individual. I personally know of cases where the patient started taking a particular medication for a particular health problem and landed up in another problem just because of the side effects.

Even today, I as a dietician would recommend first to try out the home remedies for simple health problems as they are well tested out over many generations and seldom fail.  “Believe in it, believe in the home remedies” should be the mantra.