The People's Pharmacy - Natural Remedies for Common Conditions

In this episode of Your Best Life, Karl interviews Joe and Terry Graedon, nationally syndicated newspaper columnists and authors of the People's Pharmacy books. Joe and Terry have made it their mission to demystify the often-confusing treatment options people are faced with on a daily basis. They share effective home remedies, and drug and treatment breakthroughs, as well as the side effects that aren't commonly known for prescription and over-the-counter medications. If you want to know how to make informed decisions about treating common and not so common conditions, then this episode of Your Best Life is for you.

Questions Asked:

• What is the People's Pharmacy all about?
• What surprises you most about the journey you've been on?
• How has Big Pharma changed people's expectations about healthcare?
• Could genetics play a role in the beneficial effect food, herbs, supplements, or drugs have?
• What do you want people to learn more than anything?
• Who is it in the health and wellness space that each of you look up to?
• How does a consumer sort through conflicting information online?

Key Lessons Learned:

• Some of the most important things you can do for your health have nothing to do with drugs.
• Diet, exercise, and getting a good night's sleep have a much more powerful impact on your health than medications.
• Eminence-based medicine is now becoming evidence-based medicine, available to everyone.
• Self care, connectedness, and networked patients are the future, with the ability to find out what condition they have, the benefits and risks of treatments, and viable treatment alternatives.

Medicine as a Business

• It used to be that medicine was a profession; now it's a business.
• The only motivation used to be helping people get better. Now profit is part of the picture.
• Pharmacists used to be the neighborhood resource. Today their 'technicians.'
• Big Pharma has had a profound effect on the practice of medicine, physicians and pharmacists.

Sample Natural Remedies

Household Burn

• i) Soy sauce
• ii) Yellow mustard (some people report they don't even get a blister)

Leg Cramps

• i) There is no approved medicine for leg cramps
• ii) Put a bar of soap underneath the bottom sheet near your feet
• iii) Works for more than 70% of people
• iv) Soap scented oil (ivory soap) can be applied directly to skin, and helps muscle cramps

Sleep Difficulties

• i) A lot of eye creams have caffeine to reduce wrinkling, and you can absorb that into your skin. As a result, it can keep you awake at night
• ii) Look for products without caffeine!

What You Can Do

• Take control, be involved, ask questions, and don't be a passive patient anymore.
• The engaged activated, involved, enlightened patient is going to be the successful patient.

The more questions you ask about your medications the better, such as:

• What are the benefits?
• How good is it really?
• What are the risks?
• What are common side effects and dangerous side effects?
• Are there any symptoms that are so serious that I need to go to the emergency room immediately?
• How long should I take this medication, and when should I stop taking it?
• What are the alternatives?
• What non-drug approaches might work for my condition?

Thank you for listening!

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Links to Resources Mentioned

The People's Pharmacy
The People's Pharmacy Quick and Handy Home Remedies (book)
Top Screwups Doctors Make and How To Avoid Them (book)

2 click to tweet links! (Thanks for helping spread the word!)

Want to demystify your medical treatment options? Join @PeoplesPharmacy on the Your Best Life Podcast! @wellnessgroup http://ctt.ec/817QD