Living and Eating Healthy be a magnet for abundant health

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.

Pain – Blessing or Curse? 05/23/2009

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Have you ever wondered what it would feel like to be totally free of pain? I’ve questioned myself on this subject for many years and I can’t come up with a definitive answer.

I think, like many of you, that a pain-free life would be wonderful. To be able to walk, run, jump, even sleep without one twinge of pain, now that would be Heaven!

But, physical pain actually has a place in a healthy lifestyle. Let’s think about this for a moment…Pain, simple twinges, are a warning from our physical bodies that something we just did was not done properly. We know from personal experience that continuing the previous movement and ignoring the pain ultimately results in a far more serious injury. So, pain – as a warning- is good! It let’s us know that we are still alive.

On the flip side, there are cases studies of individuals who were born without the ability to sense pain. But, lack of pain is a two edged sword. What does that mean? It means that they have no sense of touch; that they can never feel a gentle caress, the brush of a pet against their leg. Without pain receptors they do not know the difference between a simple stubbed toe or a broken bone.

Imagine going through life without the gift of touch; what would you miss if you had this affliction?

I may not like the constant pain(s) in my body but I am wise enough to know that without the pain I would not be aware and therefore unable to repair the situation. It’s my choice to ignore or choose to pay attention to many signals from my body. I do not always make the right decision. But I do learn from my choices.

What are your thoughts on this subject?

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.

How I lost 80 pounds… 01/10/2009

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I have always been slightly overweight. In the eighth grade, I was taller and outweighed everyone in my class. The end of high school I blossomed into a woman’s body, weighing in at 150 pounds. At 5′7” I looked pretty good, but I did not look like the other teens around me. (Here I am at one of my heaviest weights wearing Woman's size 18.)

In my family we all have what we call “thunder thighs”; even my brother was blessed with this genetic trait, much to his chagrin. I, however, was also blessed with an extra dollop of “boobs”. So, I have this hourglass shape – large on the top and bottom, yet small at the middle.

By the time I was 29, the first of my major “blooming” experiences occurred when I injured my lower back. Then menopause hit me at the young age of 40, due to a sub-active thyroid. I was able to get my thyroid back up to snuff, but could do nothing about the menopause. So, my waist thickened, my boobs got even bigger (go figure!) and my thunder thighs thundered up some more.

I began a walking regimen; joined the area walkers walking for MS, Leukemia, breast cancer, etc., and got up to five miles a day. But when I pushed myself to go ten miles my knees gave out. So, there went my walking regimen.

But the worst was yet to come; in August of 2000 I had a work accident and broke three ribs in my upper back on the right side. The injury threw my spine out of alignment so I couldn’t stand or walk or even sit for any amount of time. Cooking for myself was not only painful but exhausting. I went from full-time work to part-time, to having to quit all together within a six month period. My body bloomed some more from the in-activity.

By the time I found Dr. D’Adamo’s Eat Right For Your Blood Type I was up to 240 pounds! I had tried other “diet” approaches and with each one I would lose some but gain twice as much back. This approach meant a LIFESTYLE change, but it looked to be one I could easily make, so I gave it a try.

What I noticed first was the return of energy –

I just wasn’t that tired anymore. Then my clothes began to bag on me and I began dropping dress sizes long before any significant weight was registered on the scale. This was wonderful! I looked better, I felt better, I held my head up higher… I knew that I had found the one approach that truly works for me.

In just under 3 years I have managed to slim down from a size 22 to a size 10. And, this is permanent weight loss! Do I still have “thunder thighs”? You bet! I still have that hour glass shape but my middle isn’t as small as it once was.

Author

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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