Easiest Natural Remedies for Infections

*Disclaimer: Any remedies detailed here are based on personal experience and do not replace the advice of a qualified doctor.

**Note: For any doses stated here, I'm a 50kg female. If you are bigger, the required dose is likely to be higher.

Sore Throat and Tonsillitis

Garlic is a known natural antibiotic. I believe it can be used to combat any infection in our bodies since its antibiotic travels through the blood to wherever the infection is (like pharmaceutical antibiotics). Many years ago, I had bad tonsillitis and I ended up in the hospital. After the usual treatments, it healed, but it wasn't long after I began to feel the symptoms again. My throat felt sore and one of my tonsils was swollen. I had this infection every three to four months for about four years. For every time I used the garlic remedy, like all the ones I will list here, is cheap and simple. I would take two to three cloves of garlic a day and would reduce the dose as the symptoms disappeared. How to take it: this is the difficult part. It needs to be raw so the antibiotic ingredient is intact. I cannot comment on effectiveness of cooked or dried garlic. I chop it in small pieces and take them, I chew them, as I cannot swallow without chewing, but it may work if you swallow the bits as if they were tablets. To help with the taste and spiciness I will drink sips of milk in between. Do make sure you have food in your stomach or you can get pretty bad nausea, but don't worry, if you do get nausea, read the next remedy.

Nausea

I remember one day I felt very bad nausea. I didn't know why I felt that way, but I wanted to put an end to it, so I researched and found the following remedy useful every time I feel nausea. It's so short that it is a bit embarrassing; it's just plain salt. It doesn't matter if it's rock, Himalayan, sea, or the cheapest table salt. All I do is to get some salt on my finger, put it on my tongue, and let it dissolve. It's an instant relief. If you get car sick, this will help, too. I always like to nick those little salt packets in the fast food restaurants to have them in my wallet for whenever I may need them. If you don't happen to have salt at reach but you do have some savoury snacks like crisps or salted nuts, these will do the trick.

Urine Infection

I was not diagnosed with this one, but I did feel symptoms (mainly burning sensation when urinating) and wanted to give it a go to sort it out myself...so I must have been at the very earliest stages of it. So all I did was, after some research, buy some cranberry juice (it needs to be juice, not juice drink, if you can't get hold of any then try fresh cranberries) and apply a mix of half water and half vinegar (I don't remember which type. I'm sure any will work) on the area of concern, and in a couple of days, I was as good as new. I can't remember how much juice I drank a day, but I only remember buying one litre, so I guess two glasses a day. If you are at more advanced stages, you may want to combine it with the garlic remedy. They also sell those cranberry tablets, but I have no experience using them.

Colds and Mild Chest Infections

I'm sure the garlic remedy can be applied here, but whenever possible, I try to avoid it, as I find it so unpleasant...Here, what has helped me is echinacea; they sell it in all shapes and forms. What I've taken are tablets containing 146mg of dry extract three times a day at the beginning, going down to two a day as the symptoms improve, then to one on the final days. It won't probably work right away—most of remedies to treat infections, even chemical antibiotics, take a couple of days to improve the condition, so do try them for three days before giving up.

Yeast Infections

My experience here is with vaginal yeast infections, but I'm sure it will provide relief to other yeast infections. In this case, I did end up going to a qualified doctor, not because the remedy did not work but because I asked for the appointment before starting with the remedy, and by the time I realised it provided some relief, I thought I may as well just use my appointment...Anyway, easy and cheap, as usual: half vinegar, half water, or, if you are brave enough, all vinegar. It will always be more effective, but rather painful. I dip my fingers and apply the vinegar on the area of discomfort and (I hope this is not too much information for anyone), with a wet finger, apply it into the internal area. I felt an instant relief from that itchiness that was driving me crazy, but as I said, I continued the treatment with more conventional methods, so I cannot comment on whether I could have recovered completely only using this vinegar remedy.