onion

Here is some advice that could very well have come from my grandma…  “If you have the flu, go to bed”, is one of them – common sense, people, use common sense !

Via: canada.com

For years, common wisdom for a cold was to take a pill. But scan pharmacy shelves these days – not to mention bookstores – and the message is changing.

While over-the-counter cold and flu medications have lost favour in light of studies that show the only worthwhile ingredient is the painkiller, natural remedies are gaining ground.

In fact, around 20 per cent of Canadians – about 5.4 million – use alternative remedies and treatments, according to a recent Statistics Canada report.

“Consumers are becoming more wary and are thinking more cautiously about everything we put into our mouths,” says Toronto-area pharmacist Sherry Torkos, author of The Canadian Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine (Wiley).

“With over-the-counter medications, for example, they might mitigate symptoms, but there are side-effects for people with asthma, diabetes and heart disease, all of which are on the rise,” says Torkos. “Overall, along with an increase in people turning to natural alternatives, there are more questions being asked: Are there side-effects? Are there benefits? What are the risks?”

It’s a state of affairs that doesn’t surprise Michele Boisvert, a Montreal pharmacist and Canada’s first female homeopath who recently launched her book Healthy…Naturally: A Guide to Homeopathy. Boisvert says interest in natural therapies is increasing, particularly during the cold and flu season. “There are other ways to deal with those ailments that are safe and gentle,” she says.

For a cold

Wash your hands frequently.
A recent survey by the Health and Hygiene Council Canada found that 90 per cent of Canadians know hand-washing helps avoid contracting the flu or colds, but only 37 per cent of children and 44 per cent of adults soap up before eating. “Wash your hands, especially during winter when we spend more time inside with each other,” advises Boisvert. “Don’t touch your eyes, nose or mouth unless you have just washed. And think about the tissue you used to blow your nose. Put it in your pocket and you’ve stored 1,500 germs right there.”

Increase your allicin.
You might call it garlic- or onion-breath, but the active compound in those vegetables is both antibacterial and antifungal. Animal studies published since 1995 show that allicin does more than ward off the sniffles. It can reduce atherosclerosis, balance lipoprotein, lower blood pressure and act as an anti-inflammatory. Torkos recommends taking products like Kyolic regularly to support immune function.

Get lots of sleep.
“It seems simple, but when we’re tired, exhaustion impairs immune system function and makes us more vulnerable,” says Torkos, who suggests relaxing activities and avoiding caffeine or rigorous exercise before bedtime. If sleep still evades you, try melatonin, a hormone naturally secreted by the brain that affects diurnal rhythms. Otherwise, she recommends Bach Flower Rescue Sleep, a mild distillation of relaxant flower essences like Star of Bethlehem, rock rose, cherry plum and impatiens.

Echinacea or not?
Is echinacea good for treating a cold or not? Torkos says studies have shown mixed results in its impact on cold severity, but not all research examined the same strain.

“I would say the majority of evidence has shown that one type, echinacea purpura, is good, not for prevention, but to shorten the duration of the cold.” As with all natural remedies, however, she advises talking to your doctor first. Echinacea should not be taken by anyone with an autoimmune disorder.

Drink green tea.
Best known for its weight-busting ingredient, epigallocatechin galeate, green tea also offers an immune function boost and L-theanine, a relaxing amino acid that has been shown to reduce the severity and duration of colds and flu. According to a 2007 peer-reviewed study in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition, researchers from the University of Florida and Harvard Medical School administered a form of L-theanine called Immune Guard to 120 participants. After three months, cold and flu incidence dropped by 32 per cent and the need for medical attention decreased by 58 per cent.

For the flu:

Go to bed.
The bad news is that if you have the flu, it can lead to more serious illnesses like bronchitis and pneumonia. The good news is that it won’t last more than 48 hours. “The flu comes and goes in a short period of time,” says Torkos. “Really, the best thing is to get rest. If you have a high fever, aches and pains, take Tylenol or ibuprofen.”

Drink fluids.
“You may not feel like eating, but you must stay hydrated,” says Torkos. However, avoid alcohol, coffee and colas since they can make dehydration worse.

Take Homeocoksinum (9doses) Brand: Homeocan
or Oscillococcinum Bonus Pack (12 doses total) – 12 – Dose
As with many homeopathic remedies, the medical fraternity sees little value in taking a dilution of a Barbary duck’s liver and heart (otherwise known as Anas Barbariae Hepatis et Cordis Extractum) to fight a flu. Nevertheless, Oscillococcinum sells briskly in 50 countries during flu season and has been produced in France for 65 years. “If you catch it in the first eight hours, there’s an 80 to 90 per cent chance you won’t get the flu,” Boisvert says. “If you’ve passed that stage, you’ll still get it, but it’ll reduce the duration of the flu by half.”

Well, I guess “not drinking beer” is the first “natural cure for summer ailments” and many other ailments too, but other than that flaw, I think this article is interesting and informative. Enjoy.

Via: The Daily Times

ADVICE FROM THE DOCTOR By Dr. Victor Gong • August 13, 2008 Thinking of summer joys: Sun tans, sand castles, beer and crabs on the boardwalk. You may also recall the health calamities of sunburn, mosquito bites and ear infections. Fortunately, you can minimize the season’s downside with natural treatments. You probably have most of them in your kitchen or medicine cabinet; the others are easy to find in health-food stores.

Bee stings. Slice an onion in half (it doesn’t matter what kind), and rub it over the bite. Onions contain an enzyme that breaks down prostaglandins, compounds that cause pain and inflammation.

Insect bites. Don’t scratch, try baking soda. Mix one tablespoon of baking soda with enough water to make a paste and apply it to the bites. Keep mosquitoes and other hungry pests away by dabbing lemon-scented citronella oil on your skin and clothing.

Motion sickness. Ginger, taken as tea or in capsules, relieves nausea in kids and adults. Unlike over-the-counter drugs for motion sickness, it doesn’t cause drowsiness. To make the tea, slice a two-inch piece of fresh ginger root. In a large covered pot, bring a quart of water to a boil. Add the ginger; simmer for l5 minutes. Sweeten the tea with sugar or honey, if desired. Drink one cup about a half-hour before you set off on your trip. Take the rest with you in a water bottle in case you need it. Prefer pills? Take two, 250-milligram ginger capsules before you leave, then two capsules every four hours if queasiness persists.

Athlete’s foot. The fungus that causes this condition thrives when feet are warm and sweaty. Kill the culprit and soothe the itch with tea-tree oil, derived from the leaves of a tree that grows only in Australia. Some people are allergic to this, so test your sensitivity. Put a drop of the oil on your forearm; if there’s no redness or inflammation after a few minutes, it’s safe to apply a small amount of the oil to the affected areas twice a day. Don’t use it if your skin is severely broken.

Poison ivy. Relax in an oatmeal bath. You can buy Aveeno, a special colloidal oatmeal, at the drugstore, but the rolled oats you have in your kitchen work just as well. One cup of uncooked oats in a pair of panty hose; knot the top. Add this to a bathtub filled with warm water; soak in the tub for 20 minutes.

Sunburn. Help skin heal with aloe vera. The best products contain l00 percent aloe; buy a gel or a cream with it at the top of the ingredient list. Mix it with the oil from a vitamin-E capsule, which eases inflammation and promotes healing. Don’t use anything on a blistering sunburn; it might make things worse.

Indigestion. If that hot dog you ate at the baseball game didn’t agree with you, drink one cup of chamomile or fennel tea to calm your stomach. Chamomile tea bags are widely available. To make fennel tea, steep one-half teaspoon of crushed funnel seed in one cup of boiled water for l0 minutes.

Swimmer’s ear. Prevent this painful bacterial infection by wearing earplugs when swimming. But if your ears do get wet, don’t fret. Place a few drops of diluted vinegar (one-part vinegar to one-part rubbing alcohol) in each ear. Keep your head tilted for a few seconds so the solution stays in the ear canal.

apple cider vinegar, chamomile, onion

• Apple cider vinegar is a great conditioner. Just rinse your hair with it after washing, using a spray bottle. If you rinse the hair afterwards, you won’t even smell like a pickle until the hair is dry.
• The following chamomile tea works great as a hair conditioner, especially for blond hair, making is shinier, and easier to comb too. The same tea makes for a wonderful face wash too, so don’t worry if ti runs over your face while you condition your hair with it: Bring a pint of water to a boil, remove from heat. Add 2 tsp of dried chamomile flowers and let steep for about 45 minutes. Strain. Use when luke warm to cold.
• Another great conditioner is a tea made from onion skin. This tea will also enhance the color of your hair and even soften some of the gray hair if used weekly: Collect the dry outside skin of golden or brown onions (not the moist inner skins) until you have about 2.5 cups of lightly packed skins. Put them in a pan and cover them with 1 quart of boiling water. Cover and let steep for 50 minutes, strain using a sieve. After shampooing your hair and rinsing, towel dry it and then rinse again with the onion tea several times. Finally, rinse again with water.

Both peppers and tomato are helpful in fighting fatigue. The following recipe – Peppers stuffed with savory Spanish rice, topped with a mild tomato sauce – includes both vegetables.

Stuffed Peppers (serves 6)

Ingredients:

• 6 green peppers, medium size
• 3 cups savory Spanish rice (see below)
• 1 cup tomato sauce (see below)

Wash peppers, core them. Chop the pepper seeds finely and mix them with the savory rice (unless you are saving the seeds for next year’s crop). Steam peppers for 20 minutes, then fill them with savory rice, half a cup per pepper. Place in a casserole, top with tomato sauce, and bake for 45 minutes, or until tender, at 350F.

Savory Spanish Rice

Ingredients:

• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 small green pepper, chopped
• 1/4 lb. lean ground round
• 1/2 cup raw brown rice
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 cups of tomato, chopped
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

Sautee onion and pepper, brown the beef and drain. Mix sauteed vegetables and beef, then add all other ingredients. Bring mixture to a boil, stir, reduce heat, then let simmer for 40-60 minutes or until the rice is tender. Stir often as it will stick otherwise, and remove the bay leaf before filling the rice into the peppers.

Mild Tomato Sauce

Ingredients:

• 1 cup canned or self made tomato sauce
• 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tbsp onion, finely diced
• 3/4 tbsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp garlic clove, finely diced

Mix all ingredients and bring sauce to a boil, then reduce heat and let it simmer for about 10 minutes. Top stuffed peppers with the sauce before baking.

garlic, onions, thyme, sage, and vitamin C

• It’s true: Hot chicken soup and lots of garlic help to reduce cold symptoms. Modern science now backs that up.
• And some studies suggest that virtually any way to inhale steam is beneficial. So, savoring a steaming cup of herbal tea may be a good idea.
• Other home remedies said to prevent colds in the first place are: garlic, onions, thyme, sage, and vitamin C, used regularly. Or, if you dare, a daily sandwich of whole wheat bread, raw yellow onion, a half-inch of horseradish, slice of meat, cheddar cheese, and brown mustard. According to old-timers, this really works!

All the following tips boil down to a change in diet.

tea, Brussels sprouts, garlic, onion, brown rice, tomato

• Drinking tea instead of coffee, be it green or dark tea, helps to cut cholesterol. Tea drinkers experience a lot less hardening of the arteries, generally speaking, than coffee drinkers do.
• Cabbage, especially Brussels sprouts, included into the diet regularly, can dramatically lower the so called “bad” cholesterol. The same counts for garlic and onion, which raise the level of “good” cholesterol in the blood and help wash out the bad cholesterol.
• Generous amounts of brown rice in your diet, along with steamed vegetables and baked potatoes, will help to keep arteries unclogged, and will also lower cholesterol considerably. The Pritikin Diet, which relies heavily on these, has proven to work well to clean arteries.
• Tomatoes, eaten when consuming (too much) animal fat like butter, cheese, eggs, beef and many deep fried foods, will help dissolve this fat, thus preventing hardening of the arteries.