Barbara O’Neill is an alternative health expert known for her healthy eating tips and natural home remedies. But what are some of the top home remedies she recommends using for different health issues?
In her early twenties Barbara O’Neill began her home remedy journey. After four courses of antibiotics failed to cure her young daughter’s earache, she discovered that a cooked onion compress was the answer. She then went out and bought a book which had sections titled A, B, C and so on for each letter of the alphabet. Over the years, this would become the handbook for her natural home remedies which have become famous around the world.
In this article, we’ll look at the top four home remedies that Barbara O’Neill recommends to ease and potentially heal a range of health issues.
Onion
The first home remedy Barbara O’Neill discovered was using an onion compress to cure earache. She learnt the remedy from her next-door neighbour who was 85. This followed a doctor prescribing four different courses of antibiotics to try and solve her young daughter’s earache without success. In desperation she went round to her elderly neighbour’s house and asked what her mother used if she had an earache when she was a child. This is when she discovered the healing power of onion.
Remedy for:
- Earache
- Boils
- Sore throats
Barbara O’Neill says: “The cooked onion can be used on an earache and can be used for a boil. Once you’ve used the onion you must discard it because it does draw poisons into it, so it needs to be thrown out.”
Barbara O’Neill says: “I’ve since learnt that you can steam it and squeeze it. If you squeeze it you’ll get a few drops of juice out, this is when it’s hot and it’ll be boiling hot, but when the hot juice hits the spoon it’ll go a nice temperature and you can pour that in the ear.”
The health expert also recommends using a heated onion to get rid of boils. She explains: “What the heat does is it draws it to a head, and the onion’s drawing it to a head and then it all comes out."
She continues: “There’s a couple of places you can use the raw onion and one is for a sore throat.”
O’Neill also recommends applying a raw onion compress to the bottom of your feet to help another part of your body. She explains: “We put onions on the bottom of the feet because the feet are a reflex for the chest and we’re going to put onions on the bottom of the feet if someone has a cough in the night.”
To relieve bad coughs, you can also make an onion cough mixture.
How to Use:
For earache: Slice an onion in half and gently boil it until warm but not too hot. Wrap the warm half of the onion in a clean cloth or cheesecloth, then hold it over the affected ear for around 10-15 minutes. The warmth can soothe pain, and onions are believed to have anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial properties that might help reduce discomfort.
For boils: Cut an onion in half and boil one half. Wrap it in a cloth and hold over the boil for 5-10 minutes.
For sore throats: Slice a raw onion into a handful of large slices. Wrap it in a clean cloth and then place it over your throat. Wrap a scarf around your neck and throat to hold the compress in place. Barbara O’Neill recommends going to sleep wearing the compress to bring relief to the throat. Ensure the compress and scarf isn’t tied too tightly.
For coughs: Slice up a raw onion and put it in a starch bag. If you don’t have any starch bags place the onion in a cloth and put it in a plastic bag. Put you foot on top of the bag. Twist the bag around your foot then put a sock on your foot so the bag of raw onion is compressed against the bottom of your foot.
Alternatively, you can make an onion cough mixture by slicing up an onion and mixing it in a glass jar with honey. Place around half an inch of sliced onion into the jar. Then add a teaspoon of onion. Add another half inch of onion, then another teaspoon of honey. Repeat until there is four layers of onion and four layers of honey. After 24 hours strain the onion out and you are left with your natural cough syrup and you keep it in the fridge.
Castor Oil
Castor Oil is a natural home remedy that can relieve and heal a number of health issues. It penetrates deeper than any other oil and wherever it penetrates it can break up lumps, bumps and adhesions.
Barbara O’Neill says: “It’s great for cysts in the breast, for breast cancer, great for irritable bowel, great for constipation, it’s very good at breaking up stones in the gall bladder, kidney stones, bone spurs.”
Remedy for:
- Cysts
- Breast Cancer
- Irritable Bowel Syndrome
- Constipation
- Kidney Stones
- Bone Spurs
How to Use:
Create a compress out of a cotton incontinence pad or something similar that is highly absorbent. Pour a generous amount of Castor Oil onto your new compress and apply the pad to the area of your body you wish to heal.
Ginger
Barbara O’ Neill recommends using ginger both internally and externally. Grated ginger can be drunk as a herbal tea to help relieve colds and flu and it can also ease feelings of sickness. Externally it can be used as a compress to ease joint pain.
She says: “Ginger can be used internally and can be used externally. Internally it’s an anti-inflammatory but it’s probably mostly known for its anti-nausea effect. If you buy car sickness products – it’s compressed ginger.”
The health aficionado continues: “The easiest way to take this is grate it and put it in a little teapot and boil it. I love it like that but if it’s too strong just water it down a little bit.”
O’Neill also suggests using ginger externally in a compress to relieve joint pain, arthritis and symptoms of gout. A compress can also be used for a sore back.
She explains: “If you apply a ginger poultice to anywhere there’s inflammation the ginger pulls the inflammation out of the joint to the skin.”
Remedy for:
- Colds
- Flu
- Anti-Nausea
- People with a chill
- Joint Pain
- Arthritis
- Gout
- Back Pain
How to Use:
As a drink: Grate a piece of ginger until you have a teaspoon grated. Then add it to a mug with boiled water and mix it into the water.
As a compress: Grate a piece of ginger onto a clean cloth. Fold the cloth into a package. Apply it to the necessary area.
Potato
According to Barbara O’Neill, a potato compress can be used to relieve tissue inflammation along with other ailments.
She says: “Ginger is for joints. Potato is for tissue. Potato is very gentle…it’s very cooling so it’s great for all tissue inflammation.”
Remedy for:
- Tissue inflammation
- Sore Eyes
- Conjunctivitis
- Ingrown Toenails
- Sprained Ankle
How to Use:
Create a compress by grating a potato into a clean cloth and folding the cloth up.
If you decide to try a home remedy, the great lady herself says: “Little by little the body heals – so be patient.”
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