This inexpensive and eco friendly home remedy is in your kitchen

Added June 30, 2010, Under: Diseases, Environment, Health, Skin Conditions

Image via Wikipedia

There is a simple product that everyone has in their kitchen which can be used as a home remedy for many different health conditions. This is white vinegar.

White vinegar has been used for hundreds of years for a variety of ailments: everything from soothing sunburn, to getting rid of freckles and brown spots, to cleaning cuts and scrapes and relieving itchy dry skin. It can kill infections as well – particularly fungal-based infections.

White vinegar is good for both the inside and outside of your body:

• Soothe your sunburn. Fill a clean spray bottle with distilled white vinegar. Then spray it on your sunburn as needed. The coldness of the vinegar will help to soothe your burn, and it can prevent your sunburn from blistering and peeling.

• Clean Cuts and Scrapes. Because it is acidic, white vinegar works well as an antiseptic cleanser for cuts and scrapes. Dip a cotton ball or a swab in distilled white vinegar, then dab it on the cut or scrape. If you’re applying it to a child, tell him that it’s going to sting for a moment.

• Cure Toenail Fungus. White vinegar changes the pH level of the skin from a base to an acid, and this environment kills the toenail fungus. Put your feet in a pan filled with enough distilled white vinegar to cover them. Sit for about 10 minutes and then dry off.

• Prevent yeast infections. Douche with one tablespoon white vinegar to one-quart warm water to adjust the pH balance in the vagina.

• Relieve itchy dry skin. Fill a bathtub with warm water and add 1/2 cup of distilled white vinegar. Soap the dry, itchy parts of your body. The vinegar will not only relieve the itch but it will soften your skin. It will also help keep the bath clean!

• Fade your freckles and brown spots. Grate an onion onto a piece of clean cheesecloth, squeeze the cloth until you have about 1 tbsp. of onion juice, and mix the onion juice with 2 tbsp. of distilled white vinegar. Dip a cotton ball or swab in the mixture and apply it to your freckles or brown spots twice a day. Over time your freckles will disappear.

• Stop mosquito and other insect stings and bites from itching by dabbing them with a cotton ball saturated with undiluted white distilled vinegar.

• Get rid of foot odor by washing feet well with antiseptic soap daily, then soaking them in undiluted cider vinegar for 10 minutes or so. Cotton socks aid odor control more effectively than wool ones.

• Rashes and itching caused by commercial aftershaves. Try using undiluted white distilled vinegar as an aftershave lotion.

• Eliminate bad breath and whiten your teeth by brushing them once or twice a week with white distilled vinegar.

Some of the home remedies for health conditions work better with apple cider vinegar rather than white vinegar. Here are some suggestions:

• Relieve a cold. Mix one-quarter cup apple cider vinegar with ¼ cup honey. Take one tablespoon 6-8 times daily.

• Relieve a cough. Mix 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar, 1/2 cup water, 1 tsp cayenne pepper with 4 tsps honey. Take 1 tablespoon when cough acts up. Take another tablespoon at bedtime.

• Dissolve warts. Mix 1 part apple cider vinegar to 1 part glycerine into a lotion and apply daily to warts until they dissolve.

• Relieve arthritis. Before each meal, drink a glass of water containing 2 tsps apple cider vinegar. Give this folk remedy for at least 3 weeks to notice an improvement.

• Remove corns. Make a poultice of one crumbled piece of bread soaked in 1/4 cup vinegar. Let poultice sit for 1/2 hour, then apply to the corn and tape in place overnight. If corn does not peel, continue treatment.

• Cure an upset stomach. Drink two tps apple cider vinegar in 1 cup water to soothe an upset stomach.

• Cure the hiccups. Mix 1 tsp apple cider vinegar in one cup of warm water, and drink.

White vinegar not only provides a home remedy for so many conditions but also enhances food taste, can be used to clean cars and clothes and even protects your pets

The Ancient Babylonians, Greeks and Romans used vinegar as a preservative. Some nations, including the Chinese, believed that vinegar was a tonic that would give them strength and vitality, as well as bestow healing properties.

Vinegar’s magic ingredient is acetic acid, which comprises about 5% of the finished produce. There are many different types of vinegar out there, all produced by the oxidization of alcohol into acetic acid, but white vinegar is the most useful and the most versatile by far.

White vinegar is green too. It is enjoying a newfound popularity as many people are trying to avoid toxic or harsh cleaning chemicals, as well as save money by making their own cleansers. Remember that vinegar is cheap, versatile, and doesn’t cause allergies.