While this may be a short dairy, I'm hoping the comments will encyclopedic. I have a couple of home remedies that are insanely inexpensive, natural and very effective for age old problems. I'm certain that this community has many more.
Melatonin: I'm in my mid fifties and started having problems falling asleep and staying asleep for more than 4 hours or so. Then I came across the sleep benefits of melatonin, a supplement that I used to take when I was very active in the gym. But it's a naturally occurring hormone in the body that assists with the body's circadian rhythm and we produce less of it as we grow older. For example, I take two 3mg pills to sleep and my wife,12 yrs my junior (he-he...bragging) only needs one.
The affects seem to diminish with prolonged us so I take a break over the week-ends to keep my body's response to it fresh. Dreams can be vivid and WICKED. Reduce the dosage oif dreaming is too active. According to WebMD there may be other benefits:
Reduces chronic cluster headaches. It may be that melatonin, when taken as a supplement, can stop or slow the spread of cancer, make the immune system stronger, or slow down the aging process. But these areas need more research.
I can't remember the last cold I had and I can now imagine why. And. It's.Cheap.
http://www.webmd.com/...
Borax: I grew up watching Ronald Reagan introduce Death Valley Days on TV and the Twenty Mule Team Borax commercial always preceded it. Little did I know that I was going to become one of it biggest fans.
One constant living in Florida is the everlasting battle one wages against bug infestation. Whether it be the famous and prehistoric roach or ants or fleas...the list goes on and on and on.... It just no longer takes very much time or money.
Regardless of how clean you keep your home down here...the jungle is always attempting to encroach and reclaim the land. The most obvious of this was the roaches and ants that seemed to love my storage boxes in the garage. Spreading some borax around the floor of the garage quickly got rid of them all and leaving a light dusting close to entry points, around the edges, behind the appliances and under the stairs keeps them away. Dusting the dog beds helps control the flea & tick problem as well. No more expensive and concentrated solution applications that tend to make them sick. The remarkable property that makes borax so effective is that the insect bodies absorb it and it dehydrates them. It's also safe to use in your yard.
Safe, Effective, Natural and Cheap (did I mention Cheap?), borax has many other uses as well: http://en.wikipedia.org/...
It also makes your laundry detergent more effective.
So those are my secrets...what are yours?