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Tag: allergies

Clear Lungs and Sinus Naturally with a Nebulizer

Got a lingering cough that just won’t go away? Can’t breathe through your nose? Or even a wet, croupy cough with episodes of violent coughing that you can’t seem to stop? Try using a nebulizer and witness the healing magic of steam.

I have become a huge fan of my little nebulizer and am not sure how I survived without it. Use with a vial of hypertonic saline 7%, turn it on, and breathe. It’s that simple.

Hypertonic saline is salt water clean and pure enough to be safe for inhalation. Don’t use tap water or even bottled water in a nebulizer. Other things I like to use in my nebulizer are 3% hydrogen peroxide (the normal kind sold in any drugstore) for it’s anti-viral and anti-bacterial properties (yes, this is safe to do!), and sometimes a drop or two of essential oils of eucalyptus or frankensense. Eucalyptus has amazing lung-clearing powers and I often like to add a few drops to a hot bath, a vaporizer, or a diffuser.

Today I ran into someone with the lingering cough of long-haul syndrome, and a nebulizer was top on my list of recommendations! I think it is an essential item for the medicine cabinet in every home, and especially in homes with children. Using a nebulizer can replace medicinal cough syrups with questionable ingredients for sick kids without any risk of side effects. It is a safe way to help older adults clear fluids from their lungs at home as salt water (saline) draws excess fluid out of tissues gently.

Excellent for clearing cold and flu symptoms, surviving seasonal allergies, or even for shaking away brain fog, you may use a nebulizer multiple times daily or as needed. I have clients who use it every day after waking to help themselves breathe easily all day long without taking pharmaceuticals to suppress allergies.

You can order a nebulizer from my store here, or find one yourself. I recommend getting one that can charge through a USB cord rather than have to rely on batteries.

Have you tried using a nebulizer? Let me know in the comments below!

The Perfectly Whole Foods Diet: A path to health.

The Stoll Foundation for Holistic Health offers today’s guest post by Kam Tecaya on The Perfectly Whole Foods Diet. I love sharing this with you because it explains an eating philosophy I wholeheartedly believe in and strive to follow as much as possible. Much gratitude to Dr. Walt Stoll for helping us along on to our journey toward health.

Eating fewer refined foods and more natural, whole foods greatly improves health.  It’s not a new concept, but unfortunately our fast-paced, convenience-oriented, adulterated-taste-bud society requires that we need to be taught how to eat healthful foods.  Many people, especially in the west, do not understand that the foods they eat harm them.

Nature designs foods a certain way on purpose.  Whole foods contain numerous nutrients that work synergistically with each other to create a nutritive, healing affect in our bodies.  When we consume refined foods for several years, we deplete the natural stores of micronutrients in our bodies, and eventually symptoms develop.  However, restoring health can be easy, delicious, and inexpensive.

A whole food is one that has nothing removed.  When you peel a carrot, remove a potato skin, or remove bran from wheat, these foods become refined.  A limited amount of processing can take place, like grinding, mashing, or drying — as long as nothing is removed.  Carbohydrates are the most commonly altered foods and also the most offensive to our bodies when they are so altered.

The Perfectly Whole Foods Diet (PWFD) is one where all refined carbohydrates are avoided completely.  For the quickest and greatest results for any health issue, use the PWFD.  It is not hard to follow the PWFD and the advantages are huge.

The benefits of eating a whole foods diet, especially the Perfectly Whole Foods Diet, are wide ranging and can be dramatically positive.  Everything from physical illness to mental illness can be alleviated.  Chronic pain, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, gastrointestinal disorders, acid reflux, obesity, and allergies are just a few of the many physical ailments that will likely be aided, and possibly totally eliminated, by eating a whole foods diet.  Also, it is too seldom remembered that our mental health is directly linked to our physical health.  Research has shown that changes in diet have huge impact on ADD, autism, depression, PMS, and even serious mental illnesses like schizophrenia and bi-polar disorder.

The Stoll Foundation for Holistic Health is a non-profit organization that aims to reach people seeking alternatives to drugs and surgery to improve their health.  We improve the lives of people we connect with through health education, offering inexpensive solutions for disease reversal, and providing support for a healthy lifestyle.  To learn more, and if you or someone you know could use extra support in taking charge of their own health, please see our website at www.stollfoundation.org or email  info@stollfoundation.org.  We have compiled a list of resources covering everything from self-help wellness programs to resources for the uninsured.  We are here to help you help yourself to feel better.

Natural Remedies for Hay fever

It’s spring and that means hay fever season.

I used to only suffer from pollen-related allergies in the fall, when the weeds and grasses are at their peak. But, in my early twenties I lived in Santa Fe, New Mexico for a time, and when the yellow chamisa bloomed in the spring, my nose would turn into a faucett.

Runny nose, frequent and unstoppable sneezing fits, red and itchy eyes… those are just the most obvious symptoms that I’m suffering. The most annoying ones include the irritating itching on the roof of my mouth, right on the palate, and how the skin on my face constantly tickles, begging to be scratched at a deeper level at risk of permanent scarring or at least visible damage. With my body in histamine overdrive it’s no wonder hay fever makes me feel like I’m interacting with the world through a thick pillow and leaves me wiped out by mid-afternoon.

For years I seasonally took prescription anti-histamines like Zyrtec and Claritin. They took away the itching, sure, but left me dehydrated, wired, and chemically-dependent. Now, I try to manage the hayfever with natural remedies instead of drugs.

Locally-collected bee pollen
Locally-collected bee pollen

My first line of offense is the locally collected bee pollen I find in the refrigerated section of my local Vitamin Cottage. (Check with your local health food store, or look for bee pollen collected in your area online.) An 8-oz. baggie runs me about $3.20 and may last me almost the entire season. I start each season slowly, with just about 1/8 teaspoon of pollen dissolved into a few ounces of juice or lemonade. Since bee pollen is like concentrated honey, it makes a sweet drink and I start to breathe easier quickly.

Once I’m sure I tolerate the pollen again this year, I gradually increase the dosage up to an entire teaspoon, if needed, as frequently as required. True confession: I don’t always wait for the pollen beads to fully dissolve before drinking them down. What can I say, allergies make me desperate!

This year, my homeopath also recommended a homeopathic remedy for hay fever that seems to be effective as well: Sabadilla. With homeopathy, you take a dose in an empty mouth and see what happens. If it works and the symptos abate for a while then return, take another dose. Discontinue when symptoms disappear or are not affected at all (which indicates you’re using the wrong remedy). While you can get a good selection of homeopathic remedies at a good health store, this one is hard to find and may be best ordered online.

Another homeopathic remedy for histamine reactions that may not necessarily be from hay fever is Histaminum. This was the only thing that worked to end my two-year old’s lifelong runny nose problem.

Natural Remedies for Spring Itching and Allergies

Aaahhh… springtime. The crocuses are peeking out, robins are building nests, and the trees are heavily laden with cherry blossoms. Spring has come… as if I didn’t notice. Oh, I noticed alright. For me, “spring” is synonomous with “itching”.

Yeah, I said it. Itching. As in, just about everything starts itching this time of year. From hayfever/pollen allergies to dry, itchy skin to dry, flaking scalp… they always seems to hit right around tax time. Coincidence?

More likely my hyper-histamined state is due to airborne pollens from those lovely flowering trees. The ultra-dry air from our winter-that-wasn’t is probably the culprit behind my relentlessly itchy scalp and knuckles, as well as my daughter’s eczema patches.

Which means it’s a good time to talk about some natural remedies for these problems that I’ve found that may work for you, too. Watch for the next few posts as I go through a number of remedies for itchy problems from constant sneezing to dandruff to hives.