Innate Self-Medication
Plant extract and essential oil reference book
Animals and Humans
About the book
Describes how animals and humans instinctively select plant compounds, nutrients, and minerals to restore balance via sensory intelligence.
Challenges clinical models, highlighting why standardised trials miss the individualised nature of self-medication.
Draws on decades of cross-species observation linking remedy choice to symptoms and emotional states.
Introduces self-medication mapping as a framework for analysing selection without removing agency.
Explores smell and taste as mechanisms for real-time regulation of dose and remedy.
Presents a concise Materia Medica integrating traditional use, science, and behavioural observation.
Outlines key biochemical mechanisms, including microbial modulation and neurophysiological effects.
Reframes animals as active agents in their own health and welfare.
Product details
Publication date : 25 Jun. 2026
Edition : First Edition
Language : English
Print length : 464 pages
ISBN-10 : 0952482789
ISBN-13 : 978-0952482789
Item weight : 1.7 (paperback). 1.97 kg (hardback)
Dimensions : 22 x 3.4 x 28.7 cm
Caroline Ingraham challenges conventional thinking about health, revealing that the ability to heal is not something we acquire - it is innate.
Drawing on decades of observational work with animals alongside emerging scientific insight, Ingraham introduces a compelling concept: that both humans and animals possess a hard-wired capacity to select plant compounds to support recovery, guided by smell and taste. She discusses how this innate process is activated in response to physiological or emotional imbalance.
At a time when chronic disease, antimicrobial resistance, and behavioural disorders are rising concerns, Innate Self-Medication offers a radically different perspective, one that places agency back into the hands (and noses) of the individual. Through powerful real-world case studies spanning domestic animals, wildlife, and humans, the book demonstrates how this instinctive intelligence operates across species.
Innate Self-Medication invites readers to reconsider the role of animals, not as passive recipients of care, but as active participants in their own wellbeing. It offers insight into how this awareness can reshape approaches to health, behaviour, and welfare across species.
Reviews
“You are a shining light to those of us who deeply care about animals. I sincerely hope it will help shape and inform wider society in the understanding and treatment of animals in our care.”
— Julia Cardy
“It seems too simple to call it a ‘book’ — I can feel all the many lives you've walked through while I'm reading it and so many of your experiences. It’s extraordinary.”
— Shelly Mosco
“Your journey, your storytelling, the way you bring us into your world... it is simply incredible. I can already tell it's going to be one I return to again and again.”
— Raoudha Mairos