Introduction
The soothing aroma of lavender, the immune-boosting effects of elderberry syrup, the anti-inflammatory properties of turmeric, or the refreshing benefits of peppermint tea. Home remedies, steeped in the traditions of rural living, are trusted, generational healing practices. Due to the complexity, expense, and injustice that plague the healthcare system and impede access to quality healthcare, rural residents resort to alternative care, fostering solace in the absence of standard biomedical treatments. Within the umbrella of alternative care, home remedies are the most common form of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) in rural regions, with “recipes” of traditional herbal medicine passed down through generations of families for healing. A vital component of healthcare in rural North Carolina, home remedies provide effective and accessible treatments for a myriad of ailments. This essay recognizes home remedies as a steadfast source of support for rural residents, delving into the various examples of home remedies used in rural North Carolinian households, differences in narratives that adopt home remedies, stories of using home remedies as health self-management, and integration of home remedies into standard biomedicine. While home remedies serve as a response to rural health disparities, they are also community-building and sustaining practices, honoring traditions from families that embrace the generational usage of herbal medicine as healthcare.
In exploring the influence of home remedies on rural residents, it is essential to highlight the narratives of those who adopt these practices through the Stories to Save Lives archive and outside research. By valuing the knowledge of rural healers and community members, we can create a more inclusive and holistic healthcare system that reflects the realities of rural life.
Home Remedies as Healthcare
Paying homage to the belief that our bodies have the innate ability to heal, home remedies supplement this process with simple, accessible treatments that serve as time-honored, reliable sources of healthcare for many rural residents. While myriad CAM practices are employed in rural North Carolina, including herbal medicines and other modalities (chiropractic, homeopathy, etc.), the most prevalent are home remedies with “45.7% of the adult population using any home remedy” (Thomas A. Arcury et al. 96). Although this cross-sectional survey study has a limited sample capacity that does not reveal the totality of rural residents that use traditional remedies, it illuminates the importance of traditional remedies adopted by North Carolinians as a result of limited access to biomedical healthcare.
Digging deeper into the extensive assortment of herbal medicines used by rural North Carolinians interviewees, the most ubiquitous home remedies are castor oil and cod liver oil for general sickness, yellow root or ginger tea for gastrointestinal problems, catnip tea for calmness, and many more. Similarly, Arcury et al. denote that North Carolina CAM use in rural communities largely relies on plant-derived medicine, such as “lemon, aloe, castor oil, turpentine, tobacco, and garlic” (94). Reinforcing the dependence on home remedies among North Carolinians, Ebony Talley-Brame, a business owner in Warrenton, NC, further exemplifies this trend by recounting her family’s traditional remedies for treating colds:
“I find myself drinking that—they had like a lemon and honey and this—I don’t know if it’s more—I want to say corn liquor, but it wasn’t that…And drinking it, it helps us go through this deep sweat, so to speak, and gets all the cold out of you” (0:10:18-0:10:53).
While narrating her experience in resorting to home remedies to heal her sicknesses, Tally-Brame acknowledges the CAM practices that served as accessible, feasible, and comforting means of healthcare. Her usage of home remedies reflects the intersection of family and culture in healing, honoring the traditional healthcare practices passed along generations within her family.
Home Remedies Honor Family and Community
The significance of home remedies in rural North Carolina goes beyond compensating for shortcomings in the healthcare system; rather, it reflects a profound sense of connection, tradition, and community-building, where generations of families and communities have relied on their alternative healing practices to support themselves and one another.
Traditional remedies passed along families and communities propel rural residents to take charge of their health self-management to lead healthier, more fulfilling lives. This notion is further explored in “Traditional and Commercial Herb Use in Health Self-Management among Rural Multiethnic Older Adults,” concluding that traditional and commercial herbs play a pivotal role in the health self-management of the elderly (Altizer et al. 2013). The study confirms the realities of the interviewees, denoting that traditional herbs are generally used to treat acute symptoms such as those experienced by Thomas McLaughlin, Jr— a service coordinator for HIV-positive patients at CommWell Health. Throughout his youth, the McLaughlin family had adopted tried-and-true home remedies, passed from generation to generation:
“We would use a lot of home remedies…But my other brothers and sisters, when they got sick and stuff, we used home remedies. We had something like sassafras tea. My mother would go out and get sassafras tea and boil it, put some sugar in it, and give to us” (McLaughlin 0:16:55-0:17:22).
From toothaches to bedwetting, the McLaughlin family’s reliance on home remedies to ameliorate their acute conditions is a testament to the power harnessed by home remedies. This story demonstrates how traditional remedies have significance beyond their healing properties; rather, they honor family, culture, religion, and community with each ingredient from the garden or kitchen. They also embolden rural residents to take ownership of their health self-management.
Similarly, Eleanor— a National Caucus & Center on Black Aging (NCBA) employee— discusses how her family’s financial instability forced her to embrace home remedies as healthcare, using recipes of herbal medicine passed along generations. Castor oil and cod liver oil to “clean out” sickness, sweet oil drops for earache, or spider webs for cuts, Eleanor’s family demonstrates the resilience and ingenuity of rural residents to adapt and adopt home remedies as healing practices.
Furthermore, growing up in regions with limited access to standard biomedical care, rural residents take advantage of local knowledge from their tight-knit communities as an alternative form of healthcare— as is the case for PositiveLife program director, Lisa McKeithan:
“I know that back then, we’re in the South, we’re in a rural community, we grew up in an African American community, and we grew up with very strong religious convictions—when my mother got sick, it was a home remedy. I heard her talk about stories of cod liver oil, that they took every day, or that they took castor oil” (0:56:03-0:57:53).
Lisa McKeithan’s narrative of her mother’s experience with healthcare in the sixties and seventies elucidates how doctors seldom treated black men or women in rural communities. Therefore, rural African American communities empowered each other with home remedies, unifying in the face of adversity to support their fellow members. Even though the healthcare system failed McKeithan’s mother, her community came together to offer comfort and healing through recipes of traditional remedies. This is a powerful reflection of the strength, resilience, and connection that proliferates within rural communities, honoring their rich cultural heritage and preserving these healing practices to support the health of generations to come.
Integrative Healing
The notion of incorporating home remedies with standard biomedicine should be promoted throughout rural regions, emphasizing that there is ample space and necessity for both.
Conducting a survey to determine how this hybrid approach is being practiced across the US, Bonnie Horrigan et al. emphasize that medical centers should make strides in integrating modern biomedical care with ancient healing wisdom to prioritize patient-centered care (51). This practice is also addressed in Lisa McKeithan’s narrative. A determined advocate for integrative medicine, she preaches about spirituality (a form of complementary medicine that she embraces along with home remedies), recounting that “[she’s] going to pray, but [she’s] also going to the doctor so he can give [her] the proper diagnosis and medication to fight off this disease” (McKeithan 0:40:00-0:40:42).
The stark difference in healthcare outlooks between McKeithan, who strives to coalesce standard biomedicine with supplemental CAM practices, and her mother, who solely relies on CAM principles, reinforces the trajectory of the rural NC healthcare system, shifting from an era of dismissing the doctor for home remedies to complementing biomedicine with herbal medicine.
Herbal medicine is self-care just as much as it is healthcare, emphasizing the notion that CAM should be used in conjunction with standard biomedicine, rather than as an alternative or substitute. Remedies themselves cultivate a sense of empowerment as individuals embracing natural remedies take ownership of their health and establish themselves as active participants in their own healing process. Dissecting the intersecting nature of home remedies—between family, culture, religion, tradition, and community— provides valuable insight into how complementary and alternative medicine should reflect the very essence of its name: complement.
References
Altizer, Kathryn P et al. “Traditional and Commercial Herb Use in Health Self-Management among Rural Multiethnic Older Adults.” Journal of Applied Gerontology : the Official Journal of the Southern Gerontological Society, vol. 32, no. 4, 2013, pp. 387-407, PubMed Central, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4076146/
Arcury, Thomas A., et al. “Complementary and Alternative Medicine use among Rural Residents in Western North Carolina.” Complementary Health Practice Review, vol. 9, no. 2, 2004, pp. 93-102, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1076167503253433.
Horrigan, Bonnie et al. “Integrative Medicine in America—How Integrative Medicine Is Being Practiced in Clinical Centers Across the United States.” Global Advances in Health and Medicine, vol. 1, no. 3, 2012, pp. 18-94, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.7453/gahmj.2012.1.3.006
Eleanor. Interview with Madeline Katz. 30 July 2019 (Y-0111). Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007), Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
McKeithan, Lisa. Interview with Maddy Kameny. 29 June 2018 (Y-0038). Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007), Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
McLaughlin, Thomas Jr. Interview with Maddy Kameny. 28 June 2018 (Y-0040). Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007), Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Talley-Brame, Ebony. Interview with Darius Scott. 22 June 2018 (Y-0054). Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007), Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.