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Nature’s Medicine Cabinet: Cold & Flu Remedy 12/10/2009

You’ve come home from work feeling lousy; you’re tired and chilled to the bone and you think you might have caught that “cold” or “flu” that’s been going around the office. But, you don’t want to pass it on to your family. What do you do?

You have some options:

You can opt for the traditional cold remedies from the drug store, the ones you, your family and your friends have used in the past. You know from experience that this method will take anywhere from 8-10 days before you are finally over your symptoms. However, there is no guarantee that your family won’t contract your illness.
You could try something natural; something recommended by the herbalist at your local natural foods store; HENRY’S, JIMBOS, MOTHER’S,SPROUTS , etc.
You can try recommended products from your Chiropractor, Acupuncturist, Chinese Herbalists and other naturopathic practitioners. These will do the trick, after a while. But, to get the full advantage of natural medicines you will need to cleanse your body of all previous traditional medications.

Unfortunately, this time around, you may not be able to keep your family from coming down with your symptoms while you investigate options. But you can do something quick, easy and natural right now that will cut the length of time you are ill in half.

Here is a tried and true, natural “Cold and Flu” remedy I’ve used; recommended to me by Dr. Linda L. Miller, a friend in the alternative healthcare field:

You’ll need a large 7-10 qt. Stainless soup pot, with tight fitting lid, for this recipe.

Take four (4) grapefruit (pink is sweeter than white, generally) and scrub well.
Cut grapefruit into quarters, skin and all and place into soup pot. Cover with water to top of pot.
Cook on MEDIUM and LOW heat only. Do not use high heat for this as it will kill the nutrients. Bring water to a bubble on medium heat then turn down to LOW and cook COVERED, for 45 minutes. Remove from heat and gently mash the soft grapefruit in the water to release juice in the fruit. Let cool then remove skins from the mix. Decant the juice into storage container or pitcher and refrigerate.
Drink one 8 oz. Glass of juice every two hours till symptoms subside, then reduce to every four hours.

I like the juice hot or warm, but it’s great cold, too. For those of you who do not like the taste of grapefruit, I’m sorry. I suggest that you hold your nose/ your breath while you drink the juice. I recommend that you get past “flavor/taste” issue any way you can. It really works!

CAUTION: For those of you on some blood pressure medications and drugs likeCumadin, you may not able to have grapefruit. Check with your doctor to see if there might be a drug interaction problem you need to be aware of.

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You Want A Cream For That…? 04/18/2009

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Have you ever felt like you just weren’t getting the help you needed from your doctor? Not that you wouldn’t get relief from your symptoms for a week or so, but the problem would come back, and you were tired of taking all those antibiotics? Yeah…Me too.

I was traveling back from Boston, having attended a friend’s wedding, when the slight scratchy throat I woke up with cranked up the heat. By the time my plane landed in San Diego some five hours later, my scratchy throat had become full-blown tonsillitis. I spent the weekend wishing I could die and just be done with all.

I stumbled into my doctor’s office the following Monday and received the first of several doses of antibiotics. It began with the left tonsil, moved over to the right tonsil, then changed it’s appearance to hives before moving on to yet another symptom. At the end of three months I had a head to toe body rash and a borderline urinary track infection from all the medications. At that point the doctor’s threw up their hands, not knowing what else to do. Would I like a cream for the rash?

I was frustrated, for clearly I was not getting anywhere with traditional medicine. I decided to see what therapies alternative medicine might have to offer.

I already was using fresh and dried herbs, with success, as teas to alleviate my early menopause symptoms. I knew that my basic immune system was in chaos. I thought that if I could locate the underlying cause, then with the proper herbs I might be able to stem the tide.

Recently, a friend had introduced me to an alternative medicine book entitled Prescription for Nutritional Healing by Phyllis A. Balch and James F. Balch, he being a doctor of traditional medicine and she a practitioner in alternative medicines. I now turned to this reference as one would turn to their Bible – for a miracle.

Using the premise that I was facing a systemic condition, meaning that my problem was now everywhere in my body, I determined that I might have an overdose of yeast, known as Candida. Turning to the pages on Candida, I began following the recommendations in the book, supplementing my body with the much needed vitamins and minerals and eliminating those foods from my diet that were known creators of Candida. By providing my body with the proper nutrients it needed to combat the problem at the cellular level, my body was now able to heal. Within one week of starting this regimen I was rash free and felt better than I had in the last three months!

Alternative medicine had worked its miracles for me.

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I’m an artist and a teacher by training. I backed into the alternative health field contending with the health issues of aging parents and a few of my own. After my 94-year-old Dad over-medicated himself with an over-the-counter chocolate-flavored laxative, I began to research alternative and natural solutions.

Since then I have experienced many alternative healthcare practices including Acupuncture, Chakra Balancing, Chiropractic, Crystal Therapy, Energy Balancing, various forms of Massage Therapy and even Remote Healing.

But it is nature’s own pharmacopeia that fascinates me – the never-ending uses of herbs, flowers and foods as medicines, antibiotics and digestive aids, as well as their restorative and healing powers.

Living and Eating Healthy be a magnet for abundant health

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