Tuesday, January 29, 2013

My Home Remedies for Flu and Cold


Drinks/Hot Teas

  • Boil ½ cup water with ½ tsp turmeric, stick cinnamon, ½ tsp whole black pepper, crushed ginger and garlic.  Boil and reduce to ¼ cup liquid.  Add some honey to taste, 2 tbs brandy (optional), fresh basil.  Drink while hot.  This drink will raise body temperature.
  •  Make a tea with fresh ginger slices, cloves, cinnamon, fennel seeds –strain and drink with honey to soothe the throat.
  •  Drink lots of warm water, hot peppermint or thyme tea, room temperature citrus juices.

To calm hard coughs with pain and for a productive cough: 
Use extract of Mullein Leaf – about 30 drops to a glass of warm water – 2 to 3 times a day

To relieve congestion:
·                     Boil water, pour it in a bowl, add a few drops of Eucalyptus Oil to the water.  Bend over the bowl with a towel over your head and breathe in the warm scented steam.
·                     Place a warm towel or compress (add a few drops of eucalyptus) on your chest to relieve congestion

Chicken or Vegetable Soup:  
Make soup with extra fresh chopped garlic and ginger, and fresh herbs like thyme.  You can also add cayenne/chili, coriander and cumin powders.  Cayenne helps raise body temperature to kill infections and cleanse the body.  Cumin is an antiseptic and raises body temperature.  Coriander is calming to the body.  Ginger increases body heat.  Garlic is antibacterial.

These will boost your immune system.  Take 2 times a day.
Zicam Zinc Tablets
400 mg Echinacea
500 mg Vitamin C
EmergenC

Additionally:
Eat lots of citrus fruit
Keep yourself warm
Rest as much as you can

Of course, if your symptoms persist, please see a doctor.

Visit these links for Tips on fighting colds and Flu

May you be healthy and well this season!

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Gasping in the New Year


So I ushered in the New Year gasping – not in wonder and awe that we’d survived the world’s ending as predicted by some, but – for lungs full of air!  Some mysterious agent,  all the usual suspects were ruled out,  laid me out for close on two weeks.  The only thing I knew was that for the first time in memory, I had to get help to breathe. 
In the days leading up to the Urgent Care visit, I lay in bed acutely aware of my body’s struggle for oxygen.  The changes - physical, mental and emotional - brought about by this lack of oxygen were astounding.  
My face had shrunken and had become grey. I was weepy. Speaking was almost impossible (a nightmare for someone who started talking before her first birthday).  The times I did try speaking, my voice was weak and filled with huge ‘hollows’.  These hollows were only rivaled by the ever increasing dark circles and sink holes that were appearing around my eyes.  Each morning as I leaned over the sink to wash my face, I would straighten up to notice my eyes growing glassier as if a little light was receding far back into a darkened room.  The windows of my eyes were like foggy black glass at a smoggy dockyard.  Too fatigued and mentally incapable of forming a coherent thought, all I could do was lie in bed and watch what was happening in my body and mind, as it happened. 
The little air I could draw in to my body fought an uphill battle to get to my lungs.  It ran an audible obstacle course through mucus-filled bronchi; the air would bubble up and then a curious little ‘clicking’ sound would begin.  It would dissipate when I exhaled only to appear again on the inhalation. Because of the sound, I could track the oxygen as it made its arduous journey to my lungs.   
This struggle highlighted how free and easy breathing normally is, and how much I take it for granted.  Other insights came later – body and mind are intricately intertwined in the delicate dance of life.  Getting to know this balance or even just paying attention to it from time to time is well worth the effort.  We don’t have to wait for something to go wrong, or for the systems to begin malfunctioning before we appreciate what a wondrous thing breathing is.  Can we afford not to notice this ‘everyday miracle?’
After all, everything we do in life is by courtesy of breath.  So being mindful, even for a few minutes a day, is beneficial in so many ways.  Scientific Meditation research is showing that even spending 12 minutes a day meditating improves short term memory, increases attention, and decreases distractibility.  In as little as 8 weeks, Mindfulness meditation brings about structural changes to the brain: new neural pathways and connections develop, grey matter increases, and different parts of the brain are activated to respond to life situations.  And as the brain likes repetition, doing this everyday for a few minutes will make a big difference to our brains and how we negotiate life from moment to moment.  If you are interested in the brain changes brought about by mindfulness, check out the links to  "Your Brain on Mindfulness" and "The Neurobiology of Mindfulness" on my website.    

In this New Year, may you do some healthy gasping in awe of life’s wonders!