Healing Home Remedies

Nine folk favourites worth trying—and three you should avoid.

- Samantha Rideout

Every culture has its fair share of home remedies: simple, convenient fixes for everyday ailments. From fish oil for the winter blues to a steaming bowl of chicken soup for a cold, these time-honored folk rituals offer comfort and a sense of tradition.

What else do they do? Often it’s difficult to say for sure. Most home remedies haven’t yet been tested to see if they provide more relief than the placebo effect, the real and measurable improvement you might get from any treatment you expect will help.

The fact is, controlled trials comparing treatments to placebos are expensive. Drug companies have no reason to sponsor them for substances they aren’t able to patent. And although companies selling traditional medicines must show Health Canada that their products are rooted in long-standing custom, extensive scientific research isn’t required to support their health claims. “What’s really needed,” says Heather Boon, a professor at the University of Toronto’s Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, “is quality scientific research to help us understand what works, what doesn’t and what might interact with other medications.”

The following remedies meet two criteria: first, they’re unlikely to cause harm, which unfortunately can’t be said for everything “natural” or folkloric. Second, thanks to the curiosity of government and university researchers, there’s some peer-reviewed evidence backing them up. In other words, they may well be worth a shot!

GAMMA LINOLENIC ACID (GLA) FOR RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS

GLA is a specific type of omega-6 fatty acid with anti-inflammatory properties. It’s found in various plant-seed oils, including evening-primrose oil, borage-seed oil and blackcurrant-seed oil, any of which you can take by swallowing a spoonful of liquid—or capsules, if slick textures aren’t your thing.