8 Must-haves for African American Wellness — My Medicine Cabinet
Key takeaways:
Home health remedies that Shae Winters holds dear are based on time-tested methods passed down by her African American ancestors.
Plants and teas are among her first line of defense against nerves and pain.
Shae is passing down her herbal apothecary techniques to her sons.
Our Medicine Cabinet series explores what real people keep on hand and consider essential for their particular needs — even if a doctor didn’t prescribe it.
Onshalique “Shae” Winters’ bicycle tire got caught in a crack between the sidewalk and grass when she was 7 years old, and the fall that resulted scraped the skin off her face from eyebrow to chin.
Her grandmother came to the rescue of her bleeding face with a homemade salve of petroleum jelly and soothing ingredients. After her skin grew back, without a scar, Shae developed an interest and then expertise in her forebears’ medicinal folkways, which she continues to cultivate as she raises two sons in Lexington, Kentucky.
“It immediately felt soothing. She saved the whole right side of my face. The skin grew back without a scar or any change to my pigment,” says Shae, 38. “She nursed my face for weeks with whatever was in that stuff.”
The secret to that salve is lost to time. But Shae, a property manager and single mother, swears by her family’s arsenal of medicinal remedies, some of them homemade.
There are times when she reaches for over-the-counter medications, like anti-inflammatories for pain relief. But her lifestyle prioritizes the traditions and self-care she learned playing cards with her great grandmother, grandmother, aunts, and other relatives as a child in Detroit. Here are eight family-inspired homeopathic remedies Shae keeps on hand and how she uses them.
1. Homemade rice water for traditional, nontoxic hair and scalp care
Homemade fermented rice water is a hair treatment Shae’s family has used for generations. Rice water preparation begins with saving the milky liquid from washed rice and allowing it to ferment in the back of the refrigerator for 1 week or more. Packed with starch, the rice water strengthens hair and promotes smoothness. As such, it is a healthy antidote to harsh chemical relaxers and hair treatments, Shae says.
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To mask the odor of the fermented treatment, she combines it with coconut oil, rose water, and fresh mint in a spray bottle. Using rice water in the way her mother and grandmother did, she says, has helped heal her scalp from chronic irritation caused by mass-produced, chemical-based hair products. Rice water also has a long history of use in Asian cultures to promote healthy hair.
2. Ashwagandha calms nerves for sleep
Ashwagandha, or Withania somnifera, is a shrub traditionally used to relieve stress and anxiety. In recent years, this plant has become increasingly popular to consume in a sweet, chewable form.
“Whenever I am super, super anxious, I chew two of these when I sleep. I don’t get the nightmares like I did when I took melatonin,” Shae says.
3. Epsom salts ease muscle aches
Absorbed through the skin when dissolved in a hot bath, Epsom salts, also known as magnesium sulfate, are proven to promote relaxation and have been shown to ease neck muscles, for headache relief. Combined with a half cup of apple cider vinegar in the bath, a handful of Epsom salts is a time-tested method for easing her “sciatic nerve pain, bad cramps, and migraines,” Shae says.
4. Ginger root for pain relief
Consuming ginger root can ease bellyaches, promote immunity, and more. That is a lesson Shae says she learned when she was regularly given a raw stick of ginger root to chew on to ease menstrual pain.
“My grandmother gave me a Ziploc bag with sliced ginger root,” she says. “I would chew on it in school, and it would really help my cramps.”
5. Herbal tea soothes in sickness and health
As a mother of two young boys, Shae treats stomachaches and cold symptoms with a base of green tea, supplemented with some ginger and raw honey, and topped with boiling water. She likes Celestial Seasonings-brand teas, especially the elderberry flavor. Sometimes, she adds fresh lime or lemon.
“My boys don’t ask for cough medicine,” she says. “They ask first for tea.”
6. Mint promotes digestive health
A long recognized herbal remedy for stomachaches, fresh mint leaves are something Shae uses in a preventative way. She includes them in every smoothie she makes for her sons. And she also chews on them for fresh breath and to aid digestion, she says.
7. Turmeric fights inflammation
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Shae was diagnosed with a failing gallbladder. She says that before it was addressed by a successful surgery, she found relief by stepping up her consumption of turmeric. The bright-yellow root, a relative of ginger, helps fight inflammation and pain, among other health benefits. While she waited to get her gallbladder taken out, Shae says she found relief by including turmeric in hot Jamaican curry dishes, fruit smoothies, and tea.
8. Shea butter naturally shields the sun
Derived from the nut of the shea tree, a species native to the African continent, shea butter is a rich, luxuriant moisturizer used by Shae’s family to achieve smooth skin and as a balm for scrapes and rashes.
“What I use, I got from the older women in my family and the ones I never met. The women in my family were meticulous,” Shae says. “I am a self-proclaimed bush woman. I live off teas and herbs and vegetables, and I don’t have any health problems.”
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