Natural medicine
Journalist and broadcaster Wendyl Nissen shares her favourite remedies.
We are so accustomed to taking a pill and coming right the next day that we have lost our patience with the plant world, which is well equipped to heal us, and has done so for centuries.
ithink there’s something in all of us that just loves the idea of wandering into a meadow on a sunny afternoon with a wicker basket slung over our arm while we gather pretty herbs, roots and grasses with which to heal ourselves and our family. I blame my love of period dramas, which seem to all feature a similar scene with one of the main characters managing to save the life of some poor village child. That and my addiction to the early 1990s series
Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman.
I have always wanted to make natural remedies but never had the time to do a proper herbalist course, so instead I spend hours wading through old books, including ones about M¯aori medicine, and making up potions.
The only problem I have found is that natural medicine takes a while to work. We are so accustomed to taking a pill and coming right the next day that we have lost our patience with the plant world, which is well equipped to heal us, and has done so for centuries. The difference is that natural remedies support your body to heal itself, so it can take a little longer, whereas modern medicines tend to come in and obliterate any germs in your body, along with a whole lot of good ones.
If I get sick I will always first turn to natural remedies, especially those of the Chinese and Indian cultures because their drug trials have been going for hundreds of years, unlike many of the pharmaceuticals we are given today.
By now you have probably realised that drug trials occur only for drugs that will then make a drug company loads of money. No-one is going to fund a trial for dandelion tea, which might help with urinary tract infections or digestive issues, because we can all just stop mowing our lawns and there it is!
When researching natural remedies, you will often see the stern statement: There is no scientific evidence supporting the use of this herb for helping urinary tract infections, etc. I ignore that because I would rather take the evidence from hundreds of years of natural medicine than some heavily funded lab study whose results were probably adjusted anyway.
But I’m not an idiot. I went fishing one day and caught a big old snapper that weighed in just under 4kg (excuse the skite). I kept it in the fridge overnight before cleaning and filleting it the next day; chef Al Brown says the flavour of the fish is much better for it and they are easier to handle as the flesh is firmer. He is right on both counts. He also says never wash the flesh with fresh water and so I don’t do that either. In fact, I don’t wash them
No-one is going to fund a trial for dandelion tea, which might help with urinary tract infections or digestive issues, because we can all just stop mowing our lawns and there it is!