Homeopathic Home Remedies

With kids growing up it seems that Dr Mom is always needed to treat some physical or mental "owie". Dr Mom should always have something that can heal cuts and scrapes and even if the kids came home with plague she might have made some kind of bubbling potion that could cure it. Here are some remedies to tuck away in your first aid kit.

Tea with Lemon:
The first thing they will tell you to do when you get a cold is to drink tea with lemon. This will usually relieve some of the symptoms and give you temporary relief. The reason this works is simple. The hot water from the tea helps open up your respiratory system, and the lemon is full of vitamin C which is good for your immune system. Taking vitamin C everyday can help you avoid catching a cold before it even starts.

Antiseptic Soup:
The name Antiseptic soup does not sound appealing, but the soup is made from garlic. The soup helps open the respiratory system. The soup also helps kill the germs already in the body causing the cold, and by adding a tablespoon of onion juice you can help remove toxins from your body to help speed the body's recovery time.

Ginger:
Ginger is a wonderful remedy to lower a fever. It is prepared by cutting up about ¼ of an ounce of ginger and then boiling it in water. Then strain the brew into a glass and add some sugar. A tastier but less effective way is to just cut up or mince a few small pieces of ginger and putting them in a glass. You then pour boiling water into the glass and then put a tea bag into the water. Ginger should be used twice a day to lower the fever, then once a day till the cold is gone.

Okra:
Okra is a green vegetable, that kind of looks like a cross of a pepper and zucchini. The vegetable is filled with mucilage, which is a sort of gel and is great for soothing sore throats. Cut about 10 grams of Okra and boil them in about 1 liter of water. After the water boils you can inhale the steam and drink the water. The water will look oily. This oil sooths your sore throat.

Seeds and Nuts:
After the fever goes down it is permissible for the patient to resume eating solid foods, but it is best to stick with fruits, vegetables seeds and nuts, and avoid things like dairy and meats for the first day or two.

Go for the Source:
All of the remedies so far have been ways to relieve the effects of the cold, but this remedy is aimed at treating the entire cold. The Bitter Gourd Root is made into a paste and mixed with homey. For every 1 teaspoon of Bitter Gourd Root add 1 teaspoon of honey. Take a tablespoon of the mixture every night for 30 days to rid yourself of the cold germs and to help rebuild your immune system.

Turmeric Root:
This remedy will treat everything that ails you. (And it improves mental acuity and brain function - makes you smarter and less forgetful) It will rid you of all the suffering from sore throats congestion and runny nose. For this remedy you want to buy the turmeric root in a powder form. Pour half a teaspoon of the turmeric root powder into a pot with 1 cup of milk and bring to a boil. When the mixture begins to boil, deeply inhale the steam. Then allow the milk to cool slightly and drink this twice a day. In just a few days you will feel better.

These are just a small example of all the home remedies that are out there. Try several of these methods, and see how effective they can be.

Related articles

• Immune-Boosting (and Flavor-Boosting!) Carrot Cashew Soup (leanonlife.com)


• Home Remedies: Check Your Pantry Before You Head to the Pharmacy (mint.com)


• The Science Behind Your Favorite Childhood Remedies (everydayfamily.com)

Flat, Toned Abs in Just Ten Minutes a Day

Summer, and swimsuit season, is just around the corner. That means it’s time to start working on those flat abs you want so badly. Don’t have time to work out for hours every day? Not to worry, with a little planning and ten minutes a day, you can have the flat, toned abs you want.

Step #1 Pay attention to your fuel. Track what you eat and what you burn each day. Abdominal fat is just that, fat. If you want to see the muscles underneath and get rid of the bulge you’re going to have to consume fewer calories than you burn.

There are wonderful, free, and easy to use programs and iPod/iPhone applications that will help you track what you eat and what you burn each day. Use them to stay on track. One pound of fat is 3500 calories. That means that by simply burning 500 more calories a day than you eat you can lose a pound in 7 days.

Tracking what you eat will also help you see what foods fill you up longer and what foods burn quickly. Quick burning foods mean you’re hungry soon after you eat them. Aim for lean protein, lots of fiber and fruits and veggies.

Step #2 Get moving!  Move your body; it wasn’t designed to sit on a couch or at a desk all day. Take the stairs, take a walk around the block, move your body and find a way to take at least 10,000 steps a day. Studies have shown that people who take 10,000 steps a day lose weight faster and keep it off. They’re healthier and thinner. You can be too!

Step #3 Okay, now you have pounds melting off just by tracking your intake and moving your body. The next step is to work your core muscles, and you can do that in just ten minutes a day. The best fitness activities are ones that focus on your entire core, your back and stomach. Sit-ups are great but they only work specific muscles in your abdominals.

Instead of sit-ups, spend ten minutes working through a low rep workout. Do full crunches where your legs also come off of the ground, bridge, single leg abdominal press, plank pose, and side plank. Move through each repetition slowly so you get the full benefit of the movement and hold the exercise for a few seconds before releasing it. You’ll build muscle and burn more fat. Repeat each exercise 8-10 times then move onto the next exercise.

The good thing about these core exercises is that you don’t need any fancy equipment to do them. All you need is ten minutes. Get down on the floor during your favorite television show or do them right when you get up in the morning before your shower.

With commitment, a plan of action and a little bit of willpower you can have those flat abs you want. Watch what you eat, get moving and find ten minutes each day to work your core muscles. You’ll have that beach body in no time.

Acid Reflux and Adjustable Beds

Gravity plays an incredibly large part in controlling acid reflux, so it is no surprise that acid reflux is at its worst at night when the body is in a prone position. It is also at night that acid reflux can cause the most damage. This is because swallowing helps to bring the acid reflux back down to the stomach, but at night you do not swallow frequently, so the acid reflux stays in the esophagus for greater periods of time. Continual clearing the throat, and coughing may weaken the esophageal muscles and make matters worse. This is where the advantage of owning an adjustable bed comes in. By sleeping with your upper body slightly elevated acid reflux can often be controlled, and when this is combined with some of the medicines available for acid reflux, it provides a powerful means of preventing and controlling acid reflux.

An adjustable bed is a bed that allows for the head and foot sections to be raised and lowered. Modern adjustable beds use electrical motors to control movement, and often include extras such as heat and massage. Adjustable beds have in some shape or form been available for many years. They have their roots in the hospital industry, which long ago discovered the many advantages of adjustable beds. It was not until the 1960's that these devices became popular for the general consumer, and since the price has dropped while the quality has risen.

There are many medicinal advantages that are associated with adjustable beds. Adjustable beds have been shown to improve circulation, help to ease lower back pain and tension, improve breathing conditions, help with acid reflux, and have many other benefits. Many of these advantages come from the ability to easily put yourself in the semi-fowler position. The semi-fowler position is when the head is elevated to 30 - 45 degrees, and is largely accepted in the hospital industry as providing many advantages for patients who have undergone surgery.

Of all the medical benefits associated with adjustable beds, perhaps the most intriguing is its help with combating acid reflux. Acid Reflux, or gastroesophageal reflux disease, is a common medical condition wherein acids from the stomach are regurgitated into the esophagus. It is incredibly common and by some estimates affects over 40 million Americans each year. Small amounts of acid reflux, or heartburn, are normal, but chronic cases will result in damage an inflammation of the esophagus. Over a long period of time acid reflux will result in hoarseness, chronic cough, throat and chest pain, and feeling like there is always a lump in your throat.

Adjustable beds offer many other advantages that revolve around individual comfort and usability. They make it much easier to watch TV or to read books in bed. It is also much more ergonomic and practical to eat in bed with an adjustable bed. Whether you are purchasing your adjustable bed for one of the many of the medical reasons, to get a better nights rest, or for any of the other advantages associated with them, you will be amazed at the luxurious feelings associated with these beds.

7 Reasons to grow your own organic vegetable garden

 

During the last decades there has been a change towards mechanization and homogenization of farming, which uses pesticides, additives, herbicides, synthetic fertilizers and mass-production techniques. All this is clearly affecting mankind's health, and new diseases are spreading rapidly amongst humans and animals.

The World Health Organization produces reports to show how the use of chemicals and other products on food, coupled with the manufacturing processes involved, are actually a threat for our health.

If you have space for a few pots or even a small piece of land, it is a wise decision to grow your own organic vegetable garden. Today I'm presenting you with seven reasons for doing this:

1. You will have no additives in your vegetables. Research by organic food associations has shown that additives in our food can cause heart diseases, osteoporosis, migraines and hyperactivity.

2. There will be no pesticides or synthetic fertilizers used. These chemical products are applied to obtain crops all the time regardless plagues or weather conditions, and affect the quality of the vegetables. Besides, pesticides are usually poisonous to humans.

3. Your vegetables will not be genetically modified (GM). Antibiotics, drugs and hormones are used on vegetables to grow more and larger ones. One of the consequences of this practice are vegetables which look all the same and are usually tasteless. Besides, we end up consuming the hormones that have been used on the vegetables, with the potential risks for our health.

4. Eating your own organic vegetables will be much more healthy for you. They will not contain any of the products or chemicals named above, and they will be much more natural than any ones you would find at the supermarket. Your health will not be at risk because you will then know that nothing has been added to your vegetables.

5. Your own organic vegetables will be much more tasty. The use of pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, hormones and antibiotics make vegetables grow unnaturally and take the taste away from them. With organic vegetables, your cooking will be enhanced as their flavour will show fully.

6. Organic farming is friendly to the environment. Because you won't use pesticides or other equally harming products on your vegetables, you will not damage the soil or the air with the chemical components.

7. When you grow your own organic vegetables you are contributing to your own self-sustainability and the sustainability of the planet. Small communities have been founded where members exchange products that they grow naturally, thus contributing to create a friendly and better place for us all.

In the end, eating organic products only means that we do not add anything else to them than they would naturally have. As you can guess, additives, fertilizers, pesticides or hormones are not components of naturally grown food. To better care for your health, grown your own organic vegetables -and a few pots is all you need.

The Food Theme Diet

This is a very interesting diet concept that I think may work for many people. It is known as the “food theme” diet and allows you to eat the foods you like, while losing a good amount of weight naturally. The diet is centered on eating less overall rather than eating the healthiest and natural foods you can find, although this does help as well.

The basic concept of the diet is to choose a theme of food and to stick to that particular theme for a day. For example if you choose a theme of lemon, you should only eat foods with lemon in them for that day. Why? The concept behind this new diet is actually quite simple. Many people eat a lot because they are not completely full, even if they are not hungry. The body naturally likes to eat many different types of foods. This is one of the main causes of overeating. Even though you have eaten enough of a certain type of food and are no longer hungry, you still want to eat more of a different type of food. This new diet forces you to stick to a certain group of foods so that you cannot eat different types of foods and thus, you eat less and lose weight. This diet has been tried in many scientific case studies and has proven to be effective.

Now, if you choose this diet, just because you eat less, you still have to be aware of what you are eating and keep track of the amount of calories you are consuming daily. If you choose food categories such as “chocolate” or “cake”, this diet is obviously not going to be effective.

The Bottom Line of this Diet : Choose healthy foods that you like to eat as your daily “food theme” and make sure that you alternate your theme daily to get some variety in your diet. If you choose the same food group day after day, the diet will get very bland and mundane, and chances are you will not continue with it and it will not help you lose weight. Also, every now and then, you may want to take a break from your diet to eat some desert or a somewhat unhealthy food, but still try to make it correlate with your theme for the day. For example, on a day when you want to eat pizza, make your food theme “tomatoes”.

7 Reasons Why You Should Be Using Coconut Oil

Summary:

It is a common misconception that coconut oil is bad for you. People all over the world are experiencing the healthy benefits of using coconut oil. It is actually one of the healthiest oils you can consume. Here are the top seven reasons why you should use coconut oil as an alternative to other common cooking oils.

It is a common misconception that coconut oil is bad for you. People all over the world are experiencing the healthy benefits of using coconut oil. It is actually one of the healthiest oils you can consume. Here are the top seven reasons why you should use coconut oil as an alternative to other common cooking oils.

1. Coconut oil doesn't turn to fat in your body.

Unlike many other common oils, like soy (vegetable) and corn, coconut oil won't make you fat. Coconut oil contains medium-chain triglycerides (MCT), which are an easy fuel for the body to burn, without turning to fat. Most other cooking oils and fats contain long-chain triglycerides (LCT). LCT's are usually stored as fat. Since coconut oil is a MCT, it is more easily absorbed and converted to energy quicker.

People in the tropics have relied on coconuts as a traditional staple in their diet for centuries. They consume large amounts of coconut oil every day. Instead of getting fatter, it helps them stay healthy, lean and trim. When they switch from coconut oil to our modern oils, they develop obesity and the health problems that our modern society faces.

Some other people who have known this truth for a long time are people who are in the animal feed business. When livestock are fed vegetable oils, they put on weight and produce more fatty meat. When they are fed coconut oil, they become very lean.

2. Coconut oil increases your metabolism.

Not only does coconut oil convert to energy quicker in your body, it increases your metabolism, which promotes weight loss. Because it boosts your metabolism, it helps your body burn fat more effectively.

Coconut oil may triple your calorie burn. Since coconut oil is a MCT, it is converted to energy so quickly that it creates a lot of heat. In a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, MCT's burn three times more calories for six hours after a meal than LCT's.

The February 15, 2005 issue of Woman's World magazine stated that coconut oil is the "underground high-metabolism secret."

This is great news for people who have thyroid problems, since coconut oil improves sluggish thyroids by stimulating the production of extra thyroid hormones. Most other common oils, like vegetable (soy) and corn have been shown to inhibit thyroid function.

3. Coconut oil has omega 3 fatty acids.

Most cooking oils contain omega 6 fatty acids, something we get way too much of in the United States. Our omega 6 to omega 3 ratio should be 1:1 but it is more like 50:1. We need to drastically cut back our omega 6 oils and consume much more omega 3 oils to be healthy. And coconut oil is filled with these healthy omega 3 fatty acids.

4. Coconut oil gives you energy.

Because of the healthy omega 3 fatty acids and the fact that it increases the metabolism, most people that switch to coconut oil feel a burst of added energy in their daily life.

This is because coconut oil is nature's richest source of medium-chain triglycerides (MCT's), which increase metabolic rates and lead to weight loss. MCT's promote thermogenesis, which increases the body's metabolism, producing energy.

This is because coconut oil is nature's richest source of medium-chain triglycerides (MCT's), which increase metabolic rates and lead to weight loss. MCT's promote thermogenesis, which increases the body's metabolism, producing energy. Many people with chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia have found that adding coconut and coconut oil to their diet was helpful to them.

5. One of the best things you can use on your skin and hair is coconut oil.

Coconut oil one of the best things you can apply directly on your skin and hair. It gives temporary relief to skin problems like rashes. It aids in healing and restoring skin to a younger appearance. It has also been known to help with people who suffer from yeast infections in the skin, as well as many other skin problems.

Not only does is soften and smooth your skin, coconut oil has antioxidant properties that protect the skin from free radical damage. Coconut oil makes excellent massage oil too.

6. Coconut oil has healthy benefits that most other oils do not.

Evidence is mounting that coconut oil has anti-fungal, anti-bacterial and anti-viral effects when both consumed and used topically on the skin.

Most oils oxidize and turn rancid very quickly causing free radical damage in our bodies. Coconut oil is not easily oxidized and does not cause harmful free radical damage like polyunsaturated vegetable oils. Free radical damage is thought to be responsible for many ailments in our body from arthritis to increased susceptibility to cancers.

Coconut oil also helps our bodies absorb other nutrients more effectively, such as Vitamin E.

7. Coconut oil is one of the best oils you can use for cooking.

It has a higher smoke point than olive oil, which means it can take higher temperatures better. There are several healthy omega 3 oils we can choose to consume, such as flax and olive oil, but they don't do well under the high heat we use for cooking. Coconut oil can be used in higher cooking temperatures.

It is harder for coconut oil to go rancid, unlike other cooking oils, which are usually rancid long before you even bring them home. Rancid oils cause free radical damage in the body, which is a leading cause of cancer. Coconut oil is stable for over a year at room temperature.

Because of the misinformation we have been given for years, we have lost out on the healthy benefits that coconut oil has given the people of the tropics for centuries. But now it has been rediscovered! Coconut oil is so effective, it won't be long before we see coconut oil supplements promoted, but you can get the jump on the popular crowd and start consuming and cooking with coconut oil today!