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.

Acne is related more to what you put into your body than what you put on it. Therefore, the most effective approach to treating acne is to adjust your diet. Here are some suggestions: Lower the glycemic load in your diet by avoiding sugar, bread, rice, cereal, pasta, and all flour products. Stop drinking cow milk, because it has high levels of androgens, which have been linked to acne outbreaks.

The most effective approach to treating psoriasis generally focuses on diet and nutrition. Psoriasis is a chronic recurring autoimmune skin condition characterized by raised, inflamed lesions covered with silvery white scales. In psoriasis, skin cells replicate rapidly, giving the new cells no place to go, thus creating mounds of skin.

A rash is an outbreak on the skin characterized by discoloration and inflammation. Keeping the affected area clean and dry and exposing it to air as much as possible is usually sufficient for clearing up most rashes, but if that’s not enough, try one or more of the following treatments: Bentonite clay: Apply extra‐virgin, untreated bentonite clay over the affected area several times daily.

People generally don’t want to think about the critters living inside of them, feasting on their food and leaving toxic waste behind. The good news is that some of these microorganisms live symbiotically with your body, performing essential biological processes that keep you healthy. The bad news is that some of these microorganisms are parasites — living in you at the expense of your health.