I’m always heartened to see when the mainstream medical profession embraces non-drug-related remedies for health issues. Did you catch Dr. Tedd Mitchell’s HealthSmart column in the March 21 issue of USA Weekend where he wrote about alleviating allergies by using sinus rinse systems?
I’m a big fan of using Sinus Rinse to help manage my hayfever when it hits in late summer. Sinus Rinse plus a homeopathic spray concocted specifically for my region along with Sinusin (formerly Euphorbium) all work together to get me through the season comfortably, without resorting to antihistimines.
Thanks, doc, for your stamp of approval to this natural remedy!
Just wanted to be sure everyone who needs to know has heard about the possible link between the asthma drug Singulair and suicide.
Asthma can often be an effect of hidden food allergies: an elimination diet with gradual reintroduction of foods can often show where the culprits lie.
Sometimes the allergy is to vapors or other airborne pollution. If I had an asthmatic family member I would be strict about keeping a green home, only using scent-free and environmentally-friendly cleaning products, laundry soap, and skin care products. The more I could offer purely organic foods, the better it would be for that highly sensitive asthmatic.
Asthma and other allergic reactions (hives, eczema, sinus problems…) are a sign that the body has crossed over its tolerance threshold. Unfortunately, once you cross over that threshold to a great enough extent, it is incredibly difficult to dip back underneath it.
Every person has a different biologic threshold for toxins, chemicals, and other irritants, and you could cross that tolerance threshold at any time, without warning, although it often follows a period of intense exposure to a man-made substance.
I know: I hived daily for three years before I was able to clean out my system and my environment enough to duck back underneath that threshold. Now I’m thankful every day that I wake up without hives. If this has ever happened to you, you must know exactly how I feel!
One of my friends raved to me about a certain national brand of lotion a couple years ago. “You should try it,” she gushed. When I pointed out to her that it contained a petroleum product and I didn’t use petroleum products on my skin, her response was, “What’s so bad about using petroleum products?”
Well, for starters, our bodies didn’t evolve to handle us slathering on stuff we have to drill hundreds of feet into the earth to get, stuff that didn’t exist as few as 200 years ago. Think about it. Mineral Oil, Paraffin, and Petrolatum are by-products of the modern age: a way for the oil companies to collect money from the waste that results from refining oil by marketing it to the public as skin care ingredients.
Dr. Mercola goes into detail about the dangerous petroleum-based and other synthetic ingredients commonly used in lotions, make-up, fragrances, and other skin-care products. He has his own brand he recommends, but his is not the only natural answer to dry skin. Read the labels on lotions at the health food store and look for those that contain pronounceable, familiar ingredients and no suspicious petroleum derivatives.
I’ve watched in horror as new mothers followed misguided advice and slathered petroleum jelly over their newborns’ bottoms as a way to prevent diaper rash. Did they realize that they were exposing that pure, sensitive skin to a wash of chemicals and toxins that leave residues? Not to mention clogging pores and interfering with cellular respiration?
Over our lifetimes, our bodies become a respository of the collection of chemicals, heavy metals, and toxins we expose them to every day in this world. Even in unindustrialized, remote locations, these poisons are carried in by acid rainfall, contaminated rivers, and polluted fish. The less we conscously add to this toxic load, the better.
“If you can’t put it in you mouth, you shouldn’t put it on your skin,” recommends John Replogle, CEO of Burt’s Bees (said while tasting the company’s Burts Bees Avocado Butter Hair Treatment).
I firmly believe in the connection between what you eat and how you feel. It just makes sense that you can help your body function more efficiently and effectively if you give it the nutrition it needs.
Ann Sawyer and Judith Bachrach agree with me. Their new book, The MS Recovery Diet, details how they each made amazing recoveries from severe debilitation from Multiple Sclerosis simply by changing what they ate.
I’m thrilled to see this book come out as I, too, have managed and controlled my MS by focusing my diet on whole foods, doing elimination diets to discover hidden food allergies, and in general trying to keep my body as clean and free of toxins and chemicals as possible by using only natural body-care and house-cleaning products. I only wish more MS doctors would appreciate the effect these efforts can have on the course of MS. As Ann and Judith witnessed, making changes like this can even REVERSE some of the distressing effects of MS.
There is hope for those of us with MS, and I believe changing your diet is an essential step.
function more efficiently and effectively if you give it the nutrition it needs.