An ex-Amish reality TV star may have left the community behind, but that doesn’t mean he’s giving up his home remedies.
Milo, who was born and raised Amish and appeared in the most reason season of Discovery Channel’s “Naked and Afraid,” shared his recipe for “Amish amoxicillin” on TikTok, where he’s racked up over 2.1 million views.
“Normally the Amish will use home remedies before they will go to the doctor,” he explained.
And though he admitted that the concoction has “a little kick to it,” he insisted that it doesn’t taste “nasty.”
The mixture includes apple cider vinegar, pineapple, ginger, turmeric, garlic, onion, lemon, cayenne pepper, black pepper, and honey.
“What you’re gonna do is put all these ingredients in a blender, you’re gonna blend it up. If you don’t have a blender, you can actually cook it,” he said.
Then pour the mixture into a strainer and push it through with a wooden spoon until you’ve collected all the juice in the cup.
That juice is the “Amish amoxicillin,” which he said should be refrigerated and can last up to two weeks.
Milo said the remedy is “all natural,” and though it requires quite a few ingredients, it’s “worth every penny.”
The recipe’s ingredients overlap a bit with Australian alternative health care advocate Barbara O’Neill’s viral “flu bomb,” which is made with garlic, ginger, cayenne pepper, honey, water, and eucalyptus oil.
Garlic, which contains allicin, is a natural antibiotic that has been used to fight disease for thousands of years. One study found that people who took a garlic supplement for 12 weeks during cold season got fewer colds than those who didn’t — and their colds cleared up faster than those not taking garlic.
Apple cider vinegar is a natural antibiotic as well, though it’s only been studied against some infections.
Ginger is a natural expectorant and has antimicrobial and antioxidant properties, while the capsaicin in pepper has been found to relieve congestion and sneezing.
Pineapple has enzymes that can reduce inflammation, though it shouldn’t be eaten with real amoxicillin.
However, despite evidence of some potential benefits, some doctors warn against self-treatment with “natural” home remedies because they haven’t been thoroughly tested.
You may also be killing off too much of the good bacteria in your body.
“I’ve had patients who are new to me come in with stomach issues and it turns out they’ve been self-treating with oregano oil for many months or years and have killed off some of their beneficial bacteria (gut flora) in their gut,” integrative medicine physician Melissa Young, MD, told the Cleveland Clinic.
“When they’re not used properly, natural antimicrobials can impact not only the bad bacteria, but the beneficial bacteria, too.”
Amish amoxicillin ingredients:
- 2/3 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 cup fresh pineapple
- 2-inch piece of ginger
- 1 tablespoon of turmeric
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 1 medium onion
- 1 whole lemon
- 1 tbsp cayenne pepper
- 1 tsp crushed black pepper
- 1 tbsp honey
