Here's a list of home remedies, some passed down from my family, some from Skywalker's, some I've discovered on my own.
For a cold/cough/sore throat:
1) Get a large, unmatched sock. (I know you've got a few of those lying around). Fill it with rice, put some cinnamon and cloves in and shake it all around and tie it off very securely. Heat in the oven for about 10 minutes at 350. Place it upon the chest/throat/wherever needs comfort. Really good for chest colds.
2) Peppermint essential oils. Take a couple of drops, rub it on the chest, throat, the tip of the nose, and if you have a sinus infection, do your forehead and below your cheekbones, too. Will make your eyes water. do NOT get it anywhere near your eyes, or it will really make your eyes water. I've found this to be a huge help with pain relief and with getting congestions loosened up.
3) Hot herbal tea. If you want, you can do echinacea tea and kill two birds with one stone, but personally I prefer something nice like blueberry or mandarin spice. A little honey soothes the throat, as well.
4) A long, hot bath/shower. If you're having trouble coughing during a chest cold, this will help. Add some Melaleuca (tea tree oil) to the bath water for extra help with decongesting.
5) If you don't have time for bath/shower, boil a saucepan of water and put five or so drops of tea tree oil in. When the steam starts rising, lean over it and inhale.
6) Lots and lots of vitamin c. 2000 mg. Will loosen up/reduce congestion and help your body fight off the invaders.
7) Echinacea is a homeopathic remedy, which means it aggravates the immune system to get it to act... take it with care, and take it mostly when you feel you're coming down with something (at the beginning of the illness). Do not take it when you're pregnant.
8) Olive leaf powder is a powerful antimicrobial herb. Take it carefully, only one or two capsules with some vitamin C, perhaps twice a day.
9) Young Living brand essential oil: Theives blend. Dilute it, a drop or two in several drops of olive oil. Put it on your chest/throat. There's a throat spray too, haven't tried it but I'm sure it works.
10) Colloidal silver. You can get it in spray form, it's great for throat infections; spray directly on the throat. It's also good for pinkeye, put drops/spray directly in eye.
11) Iodine. You can get a special kind in health food stores that comes in a little dropper bottle... put drops on the back of the tongue and swallow, right before bed. Don't eat or drink anything a while so that it can have its full effect.
12) Avoid the fruit juices. Drink some, yes, but make it mostly water. Sugars of any kind will feed the infection, especially if it's a bacterial infection.
13) Carrot Juice. Very soothing on the throat, and very, very good for the immune system.
14) Make sure you're getting enough protein, avoid the carbs. Carbs are sugars, essentially. Especially simple carbs (sweets, white breads, corn syrup in juices/sweeteners.) Eggs are good, but if your illness is in your lungs, be careful because eggs aren't good for the lungs. I hate to say this, but meats might be the option. Broths, specifically... beef or chicken broth. IN my vegetarian family, we do miso/bonita broth with lots and lots of onions.
15) speaking of onions... very, very good for the lungs. Make a broth out of them to fight off chest infections, especially.
16) Garlic/Cayenne capsules. Cayenne pepper is a really great way to get some vitamin c and to loosen stuff up. MAKE SURE YOU EAT SOMETHING WITH IT. and if you're prone to heartburn, you might want to do something else.
17) Garlic is great for ear infections. Garlic oil on a cotton swab inside the ear for a while, then take it out and lay with the infected ear downward for drainage.
Just to let you know... this time around, I'm also taking sudafed at night so I can sleep. I think it's good to avoid the meds as much as possible, but sometimes you gotta weigh this against your sanity. If you're a mom who will have to wake up to kids in the morning, make sure you get a full night's sleep.
The end!
Showing posts with label natural healing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label natural healing. Show all posts
Dec 18, 2007
Nov 17, 2006
Natural health for cold and flu season
To go along with my last post, I wanted to share some insights that I have gained in my (short) experience treating illness through natural means. Please, everyone add their two cents.
Colds-- lots of vitamin C. Lots of fluids, of course. And avoid those sugars and dairy like the devil.
Sinus infection-- Tea-tree and peppermint oil. I put the tea tree oil in a pot of water, boil it, and then breathe in the vapors. A towel over the head helps. You look silly, but when you're sick enough, how you look doesn't matter. I apply the peppermint oil to the areas of my forehead, cheekbones, jawline and hairline where I can feel sinus pressure. (be careful to avoid the eyes by a wide margin). I think that this works even better than pill-based decongestants-- and without the side effect of anxiety from long-term use.
Flu-- Emergen-C works as an electrolyte balancer in mild cases. But don't hesitate to seek medical help if you're becoming really dehydrated-- that's pretty dangerous, especially with kids.
Here's a recipe for the soup that I use in lieu of chicken noodle soup. It might sound yucky to some of you, but I think it has a rich, round flavor, and the steamed mung beans are very like noodles, and without the refined flours that will contribute to illness.
Mung-Bean Miso soup.
1/2 pound of Mung beans.
2/3 cup of thinly-shaved cabbage, purple or green (the purple will turn the soup dark blue, so look out.)
2 green onions, chopped.
1/2 package of Bonito fish flakes. (you can use the broth cubes, which are easily found in Asian stores, but almost all of them have MSG. I like the fish flakes because they do not have MSG added.)
Steam these all together in about 3 1/2-4 cups of water for 45 minutes, or until the vegetables feel really soft-- almost melting.
Let the soup cool a little (to bearable eating temperature,) and add 2/3 cup of red miso (easily found at discounted prices in Asian stores, or health food stores.)
VERY healthy, and very nice when you're sick.
If you want to do something fancy with this soup, add baby bok choy instead of the cabbage-- the texture of bok choi in soup is really nice.
Colds-- lots of vitamin C. Lots of fluids, of course. And avoid those sugars and dairy like the devil.
Sinus infection-- Tea-tree and peppermint oil. I put the tea tree oil in a pot of water, boil it, and then breathe in the vapors. A towel over the head helps. You look silly, but when you're sick enough, how you look doesn't matter. I apply the peppermint oil to the areas of my forehead, cheekbones, jawline and hairline where I can feel sinus pressure. (be careful to avoid the eyes by a wide margin). I think that this works even better than pill-based decongestants-- and without the side effect of anxiety from long-term use.
Flu-- Emergen-C works as an electrolyte balancer in mild cases. But don't hesitate to seek medical help if you're becoming really dehydrated-- that's pretty dangerous, especially with kids.
Here's a recipe for the soup that I use in lieu of chicken noodle soup. It might sound yucky to some of you, but I think it has a rich, round flavor, and the steamed mung beans are very like noodles, and without the refined flours that will contribute to illness.
Mung-Bean Miso soup.
1/2 pound of Mung beans.
2/3 cup of thinly-shaved cabbage, purple or green (the purple will turn the soup dark blue, so look out.)
2 green onions, chopped.
1/2 package of Bonito fish flakes. (you can use the broth cubes, which are easily found in Asian stores, but almost all of them have MSG. I like the fish flakes because they do not have MSG added.)
Steam these all together in about 3 1/2-4 cups of water for 45 minutes, or until the vegetables feel really soft-- almost melting.
Let the soup cool a little (to bearable eating temperature,) and add 2/3 cup of red miso (easily found at discounted prices in Asian stores, or health food stores.)
VERY healthy, and very nice when you're sick.
If you want to do something fancy with this soup, add baby bok choy instead of the cabbage-- the texture of bok choi in soup is really nice.
natural and allopathic healing
My mom is an LPN. The reason why she doesn't have her RN degree is because she quit the program, two weeks before completing it, because my little sister wasn't handling childcare very well. My mom is my hero for doing this. But that's another post.
Anyway, she is a very knowledgeable person when it comes to healing and medicine and various other nursing matters. I have always called her for advice whenever I have a baby sick.
Skywalker's mom is really into natural health. So is my mom. The difference between them (from what I can tell/know) is that Skywalker's Mom did all that she could to avoid having to take a little one to the Dr. My mom would wait until we seemed seriously in need of intervention, but if we were miserable enough to stay home from school, that warranted a Dr.'s visit. She combined things like essential oils and Echinacea with Allopathic stuff such as antibiotics.
Both moms have had some difficulty with vaccinations. Skywalker's Mom decided, after Skywalker went through his rounds of childhood shots, to not vaccinate any of the rest of her kids. I haven't asked her if she was inspired by a bad reaction in one of her babies, or not.
My little sister (the second of us) reacted badly to one of her 3-month shots. She screamed with a pained, high-pitched scream for hours and was feverish for a long time. This experience lead my mom to decide against vaccination for all the rest of her children, until they became teenagers. Or at least, older children.
At any rate, I'm trying to figure out what I believe as far as healing naturally vs allopathically is concerned.
My family just got over a bout of flu. Poor little Loli, who doesn't have much of a margin as far as weight loss is concerned, could not keep fluid down for several hours that first night. I realized that, with Loli especially, this is not something to be messing with. I headed straight over to the health food store. upon recommendation from the herbal consultant there, got Emergen-C, some Vitamin a capsules, and some chewable acidopholus vitamins.
Loli couldn't keep any of it down. Even at a teaspoon an hour, she was still throwing it up.
Time to see the Dr, in my opinion. Our doctor is a Naturopath and an MD, and so she's friendly to the idea of no vaccinations. (in fact, the first thing she said to me in the hospital when she came to examine Jaws was, "you refused the hep B, right?")
This is not intended to inspire a debate about vaccines. What I want to discuss is natural remedies for illness. By the time Loli made it into the Dr.'s office, she was so dehydrated that the Dr was borderline thinking about admitting her to the hospital for IV fluids. Finally, he decided to give us until 7 that night to see if she could keep a significant amount down.
I took Loli home and bought Pedialyte (not natural medicine, but by far better than Emergen-C for electrolyte re-balance), and she was able to take a little bit every fifteen minutes. By seven she was looking nice and pink again.
So in my opinion, there is a time and a season for everything, and a purpose under heaven. The time for Natural Medicine is mostly in preventing horrible illnesses, I think. If you keep your diet balanced and exercise regularly, you can usually ward off most viruses. I know this from experience-- since reforming my own eating habits, I have hardly ever been sick. Before, I was sick with every season change.
But sometimes you still get sick, no matter what sort of preventative measures you take. Especially, children get sick.
I think that it's important to be willing to go either route-- natural or allopathic, if it might mean the better health of a child (or adult.)
So here I am, as usual, willingly straddling the fence. I like fence-straddling. It's a nice, comfortable spot to sit and watch everyone on either side of the fence duke things out with one another.
Anyway, she is a very knowledgeable person when it comes to healing and medicine and various other nursing matters. I have always called her for advice whenever I have a baby sick.
Skywalker's mom is really into natural health. So is my mom. The difference between them (from what I can tell/know) is that Skywalker's Mom did all that she could to avoid having to take a little one to the Dr. My mom would wait until we seemed seriously in need of intervention, but if we were miserable enough to stay home from school, that warranted a Dr.'s visit. She combined things like essential oils and Echinacea with Allopathic stuff such as antibiotics.
Both moms have had some difficulty with vaccinations. Skywalker's Mom decided, after Skywalker went through his rounds of childhood shots, to not vaccinate any of the rest of her kids. I haven't asked her if she was inspired by a bad reaction in one of her babies, or not.
My little sister (the second of us) reacted badly to one of her 3-month shots. She screamed with a pained, high-pitched scream for hours and was feverish for a long time. This experience lead my mom to decide against vaccination for all the rest of her children, until they became teenagers. Or at least, older children.
At any rate, I'm trying to figure out what I believe as far as healing naturally vs allopathically is concerned.
My family just got over a bout of flu. Poor little Loli, who doesn't have much of a margin as far as weight loss is concerned, could not keep fluid down for several hours that first night. I realized that, with Loli especially, this is not something to be messing with. I headed straight over to the health food store. upon recommendation from the herbal consultant there, got Emergen-C, some Vitamin a capsules, and some chewable acidopholus vitamins.
Loli couldn't keep any of it down. Even at a teaspoon an hour, she was still throwing it up.
Time to see the Dr, in my opinion. Our doctor is a Naturopath and an MD, and so she's friendly to the idea of no vaccinations. (in fact, the first thing she said to me in the hospital when she came to examine Jaws was, "you refused the hep B, right?")
This is not intended to inspire a debate about vaccines. What I want to discuss is natural remedies for illness. By the time Loli made it into the Dr.'s office, she was so dehydrated that the Dr was borderline thinking about admitting her to the hospital for IV fluids. Finally, he decided to give us until 7 that night to see if she could keep a significant amount down.
I took Loli home and bought Pedialyte (not natural medicine, but by far better than Emergen-C for electrolyte re-balance), and she was able to take a little bit every fifteen minutes. By seven she was looking nice and pink again.
So in my opinion, there is a time and a season for everything, and a purpose under heaven. The time for Natural Medicine is mostly in preventing horrible illnesses, I think. If you keep your diet balanced and exercise regularly, you can usually ward off most viruses. I know this from experience-- since reforming my own eating habits, I have hardly ever been sick. Before, I was sick with every season change.
But sometimes you still get sick, no matter what sort of preventative measures you take. Especially, children get sick.
I think that it's important to be willing to go either route-- natural or allopathic, if it might mean the better health of a child (or adult.)
So here I am, as usual, willingly straddling the fence. I like fence-straddling. It's a nice, comfortable spot to sit and watch everyone on either side of the fence duke things out with one another.
Sep 20, 2006
Two things
I wanted to share two things today. The first is this:
Not my child, BTW. My mom sent this to me in an email.
The second is this. It's a summary of the findings of a study done at Weber State, on the comparative effectiveness of essential oils and antibiotics against the e coli bacteria:
The study also compared the effectiveness of two often used antibiotics,
Penicillin and Ampicillin, with 4 essential oils (two single oils and
two blends) against 2 bacteria with known high morbidity rates,
Escherichia coli (E-Coli) and Staphylococcus aureus. *The four essential
oils are Cinnamon, Oregano, Immupower and Purification.*
*The results clearly show all 4 oils superior to both Penicillin and
Ampicillin* in their ability to kill the microorganisms. In the case of
Penicillin, lysis (disintegration) of E-Coli did not occur. Apparently
this generation of bacteria strain is totally resistant to Penicillin.
Interestingly, the kill rate with essential oils went up dramatically as
more of the oil was added. This same effect, however, did not occur when
more of the antibiotics were added.
With National attention focused on E-Coli bacteria outbreaks, we want to
share a portion of another Weber State Study with you that deal with
this killer. To understand the numbers next to each oil below, it is
necessary to know something of how the study was conducted.
A small piece of paper infiltrated with essential oil was placed in a
petri dish infected with Escherichia coli. After a period of incubation,
examination revealed a dark shadow around the paper indicating Lysis
(disintegration) of the E-Coli. The diameter or size of the dark circle
is demonstrative of the kill ratio and referred to as the "Zone of
Inhibition" (Through replication, researchers know that E-Coli cannot
grow in this zone).
Measured in millimeters (mm), the Zone of Inhibition was noted for each
of 67 different oils tested. There were nine oils that's Zone of
Inhibition measured 25 mm or larger, meaning *these oils are most
effective against E-Coli*.
*They are:
*Rosewood 40 mm
Cinnamon Bark 32 mm
Peppermint 30 mm
Thyme 30 mm
Ravensara 30 mm
Oregano 30 mm
Mtn. Savory 30 mm
Lavender 25 mm
By mixing Peppermint and Rosewood with a ratio of 1 part Peppermint to 8 parts Rosewood, researchers discovered the Zone of Inhibition for E-Coli increased to 50 mm.
For the pubmed (in case you want to read the whole study, or would like the citation), here.
Not my child, BTW. My mom sent this to me in an email.
The second is this. It's a summary of the findings of a study done at Weber State, on the comparative effectiveness of essential oils and antibiotics against the e coli bacteria:
The study also compared the effectiveness of two often used antibiotics,
Penicillin and Ampicillin, with 4 essential oils (two single oils and
two blends) against 2 bacteria with known high morbidity rates,
Escherichia coli (E-Coli) and Staphylococcus aureus. *The four essential
oils are Cinnamon, Oregano, Immupower and Purification.*
*The results clearly show all 4 oils superior to both Penicillin and
Ampicillin* in their ability to kill the microorganisms. In the case of
Penicillin, lysis (disintegration) of E-Coli did not occur. Apparently
this generation of bacteria strain is totally resistant to Penicillin.
Interestingly, the kill rate with essential oils went up dramatically as
more of the oil was added. This same effect, however, did not occur when
more of the antibiotics were added.
With National attention focused on E-Coli bacteria outbreaks, we want to
share a portion of another Weber State Study with you that deal with
this killer. To understand the numbers next to each oil below, it is
necessary to know something of how the study was conducted.
A small piece of paper infiltrated with essential oil was placed in a
petri dish infected with Escherichia coli. After a period of incubation,
examination revealed a dark shadow around the paper indicating Lysis
(disintegration) of the E-Coli. The diameter or size of the dark circle
is demonstrative of the kill ratio and referred to as the "Zone of
Inhibition" (Through replication, researchers know that E-Coli cannot
grow in this zone).
Measured in millimeters (mm), the Zone of Inhibition was noted for each
of 67 different oils tested. There were nine oils that's Zone of
Inhibition measured 25 mm or larger, meaning *these oils are most
effective against E-Coli*.
*They are:
*Rosewood 40 mm
Cinnamon Bark 32 mm
Peppermint 30 mm
Thyme 30 mm
Ravensara 30 mm
Oregano 30 mm
Mtn. Savory 30 mm
Lavender 25 mm
By mixing Peppermint and Rosewood with a ratio of 1 part Peppermint to 8 parts Rosewood, researchers discovered the Zone of Inhibition for E-Coli increased to 50 mm.
For the pubmed (in case you want to read the whole study, or would like the citation), here.
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