J. J. Virgin

A natural cures approach to life doesn’t mean you should never take treatment for ailments. Antibiotics are necessary for treating severe bacterial infections, but they’re often overused and frequently cause more harm than good: Antibiotics don’t just target the bad bacteria. They also wipe out many of the beneficial bacteria that improve digestion and produce nutrients, such as B vitamins, that your body needs to survive.

Eating junk foods isn’t simply a matter of “garbage in, garbage out.” The natural cures approach encourages you to think about the effect this food has on your body. Junk food is bad for your body and your health because of the long-term and possibly irreversible damage it can do to your body as it passes through your system.

Vitamins are organic compounds or groups of organic compounds that your body needs but either can’t make or may not make in sufficient quantities. So, you need to consume them. The table below presents the essential vitamins, along with a couple other key compounds, that play a role similar to that of vitamins.

Homeopathy is based on the law of familiars or treating like with like — using a substance that causes certain symptoms in a healthy person to alleviate those same symptoms in someone who’s ill. For example, coffee keeps most people awake, but for some people who have trouble sleeping, a homeopathic preparation of coffee helps them sleep.

The natural cures approach to healing and wellness relies primarily on nutrition, nutritional supplements, and herbs to give the body what it needs to achieve optimal health and to prevent and fight illness. This cheat sheet brings you up to speed on the fundamentals of natural medicine, recommends which foods to eliminate and add to your diet, and provides protocols you can follow to maintain healthy digestion, prevent or cure leaky gut syndrome, and fight off infection.

Dermatitis is an inflammation of the skin, which typically causes the skin to be red, dry, and itchy. There are several forms of dermatitis, including contact dermatitis (for example, poison ivy), atopic dermatitis (such as eczema), and seborrheic dermatitis. The first step in treating dermatitis is to identify and remove whatever’s causing it.

Rosacea is a chronic inflammatory condition characterized by facial redness most prevalent on the cheeks, nose, forehead, and around the eyes. It affects women three times more than men. Although rosacea appears on the surface of the body, its causes usually run deeper: food allergies or intolerances; leaky gut; foods that contain high levels of histamine; small‐intestine bacterial overgrowth (SIBO); and alcohol, spicy foods, and hot beverages.

Natural cures can help with lots of different ailments. Leaky gut syndrome is a condition in which the small intestine becomes more porous and permeable than normal, allowing irritants, such as toxins, undigested food particles, waste products, and microbes, to leak into surrounding areas where these substances shouldn’t be.

Natural cures can help fight infections. Conventional treatments for the common cold and other infections target symptoms and tend to impair the body’s own defense mechanisms. These mechanisms are designed to purge the viruses or bacteria from the body. Although you may need to alleviate symptoms to make it through the day at work or school, you can speed your recovery by giving your immune system a boost.