The Wisdom of Amish Folk Medicine

by Patrick Quillin, A. Gordon Reynolds (Foreword)

Learn the centuries-old secrets that keep the Amish people healthy and robust well into their senior years. Here is everything you need to tap into the wisdom of Amish folk medicine. You will discover how easy it is to use certain foods, herbs, and other non-toxic inexpensive remedies to speed healing and relieve suffering.

Genres: Health

115 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Patrick Quillin, PhD, RD, CNS, is a bestselling author, internationally recognized nutrition expert, and lifelong student of the remarkable ways people respond to adversity and change. He has written more than twenty books, including the acclaimed Beating Cancer with Nutrition, and his books have sold more than two million copies worldwide.

After decades of writing about health, resilience, hope, and the human capacity for renewal, Patrick brings those themes to life through fiction in The Reluctant Tourists.

Blending adventure, suspense, humor, history, and heartfelt human connection, the novel follows ordinary people swept into an extraordinary journey they never intended to take. Through unexpected detours, unlikely friendships, dangerous encounters, and second chances, Patrick explores a timeless idea: the road we resist may sometimes become the road that transforms us.

Patrick lives and writes in Southern California, where he continues to explore the connections between meaningful living, personal resilience, and the possibilities hidden within life’s unexpected turns.

Reviews

[Debbie Wentworth Wilson]

A friend and I read Amish Folk Medicine together. This book incorporates different approaches to a healthy lifestyle. Then it directs the reader to various illnesses and the methods the Amish deal with those illnesses, including some plain good advice, such as "Temperance is the best prevention and cure (for obesity). Eat less food and less often." (p. 82) Other suggested treatments include herbs I've never heard of: "Take capsules containing the following combination: cedar berries, uva ursi, licorice root, mullein, cayenned, and golden seal root." (p. 60) This was for diabetes.

Quillen has several appendices, one on lifestyle, another on sources, and another on references.

The writing is easy to follow. The diseases are listed in alphabetical order. Most contain several possible treatments.

I hope to use the book as a reference for some of my writing.

[Annamaria]

I think it has a lot of wonderful remedies that work, but, I found myself wanting 2 things more. I wanted to understand why certain herbs can cure certain diseases/ailments (what properties in a particular plant make it possible). And, second, I wanted more specific names of plants or herbs suggested so that when I go to buy it, I know I'm getting the correct species and variety. I am planning my herb garden or shall I say herb yard right now, and it would be really helpful to know which varieties of plants and seeds to purchase.

[Thomas Schulte]

Drawing on The Old Testament and Amish folk medicine, this is a guide recommending vigorous, clean living with a disdain for modern medicine. I was surprised to read of Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) as it seemed to spring up on grocery store shelves just a few years ago... I hope these traditional approaches to acne, bad breath, age spots, etc. work for that that try them ... but if you find yourself needing the "bone knitter" poultice, I hope you'll try a hospital first!