The Effectiveness of Home Remedies Background of the Study Treating common ailments with natural ingredients available in the home is known as home remedies. It is a part of tradition, in which the active ingredients used are taken from kitchen, which includes spices, fruits, and vegetables. Many of the remedies are having years and years of history, which might have developed by trial and error method. Though home remedies and traditional medicines are two different aspect. Home remedies aren’t new: People have been relying on at-home therapies like vitamin C, zinc and elderberry for decades. "There’s been an increase in people using herbs and supplements to manage health conditions," says Andrea Smith, D.O., a family medicine specialist at Henry Ford Health. The use of home remedies for symptom management of minor health complaints is an area of health care that to date has not been extensively researched. Regarding existing literature a large amount of lay information can be found, but scientific literature is scarce. Home remedies are simple measures of symptom management for minor health complaints, examples can be teas, wet packs, foodstuffs, skin applications and baths. Information is often passed along from one generation to another, excluded are medicinal products such as dietary supplements, over-the-counter drugs as well as herbal therapy products, chinese teas, homeopathic globuli, Schuessler salts and Bach flower remedies and the like. Diseases such as nausea, belching, abdominal distention, ulcers, burns, cough, obesity, cosmetology etc. are the most common diseases which are treated by this small remedies as they can be managed without consulting a physician, but the other aspects of this have to be zoomed up on. Some examples of home remedies we are able to find just in our kitchen are ginger and garlic. Ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe, Zingiberaceae) is one of the most commonly consumed dietary condiments in the world (Surh et al. 1999). The oleoresin (i.e., oily resin) from the rhizomes (i.e., roots) of ginger contains many bioactive components, such as gingerol, which is the primary pungent ingredient that is believed to exert a variety of remarkable pharmacological and physiological activities. Ginger has been used for thousands of years for the treatment of numerous ailments, such as colds, nausea, arthritis, migraines, and hypertension. The medicinal, chemical, and pharmacological properties of ginger have been extensively reviewed (Surh, Lee, and Lee 1998; Ernst and Pittler 2000; Afzal et al. While as for garlic, it is traditionally used to treat colds and coughs. It’s also reported to boost the immune system and help ease asthma symptoms. Arab traditional medicine recommended garlic to help treat heart disease, high blood pressure, arthritis, toothache, constipation, and infections. Statement of the Problem This study seeks to determine or better understand the use of remedies at home and at what capacity is it able to help and be a replacement for certain medicines. Specifically, the study aims to answer the following questions 1. How do certain remedies assure to be a better medicine for someone’s sickness? 2. What other substitue can be used as remedies? 3. Why do some people rely on home remedies too much?
