Tag: Good Belly

Are Probiotics Helpful for Kids?

March 25, 2013

In a word: Yes.

Goodbelly nondairy probiotic fruit drink. — One of my preferred methods of delivering probiotics is Good Belly probiotic juice drink, and Parents Magazine concurs.

Yes, yes, yes.

Probiotics can help with many, many issues for kids as well as adults, and should be de rigueur for everyone after completing a round of antibiotics, for starters.

Probiotics, in case you don’t know, are the “good” bacteria that live in our guts and help us digest our food. Each person, indeed, each mammal, is host to a unique colony of micro-bacteria that begins to develop in the womb and continues to populate throughout your life as you live and eat. Each person’s microbial biome is a unique as a fingerprint.

Antibiotics can wipe out entire colonies of good bacteria along with the bad, and the good bugs must be replenished through ingestion. Sickness, fever, viral infections, acidosis (when the body is too acidic), food poisoning, parasites, and other issues can also cause a deficiency of good bacteria in the gut, leading to incomplete digestion.

Incomplete or inefficient digestion can play a role in everything from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and Crohn’s disease to eczema, fatigue, constipation, or headaches in children and adults. Studies have shown that probiotics can help by improving digestion.

At least 80% of our health status is directly related to the health of our digestive tract. Probiotics and plant-based digestive enzymes can help get yours back on track. An Enzyme Urinalysis is a scientific analysis of your urine to see what is happening –or not happening– in your digestive system.

Natural Remedies to Recover From Surgery

June 8, 2012

pins in broken radius — Three pins were threaded into the ulna at the break to hold the bone together until it heals.

Today my 9-year old son underwent a surgical procedure to align the bones he broke falling off a zipline a week and a half ago. Both his radius and his ulna were broken and displaced in the fall, and we later discovered that a tendon had slipped between the bones. So today he had surgery to put everything back in place.

To assist in his recovery, I worked with our family homeopath to devise a protocol of homeopathic remedies to speed his healing.

1. Arnica Montana. Arnica is the first thing I reach for when there is swelling or bruising involved. I’ve seen it work wonders both topically and internally on inflammation from injury or trauma anywhere in the body.

2. Staphysagria. This remedy is good for wound healing. Since my son received a small incision with a few stitches, plus three pins placed to hold the bone together, this remedy will be helpful. During this post-surgical pain period, we will alternate these two remedies orally, offering one every hour until the pain has diminished.

3. Symphytum Officinale. Once the post-surgery pain has diminished and the swelling has gone down, he will get a dose of Symphytum to spur the knitting together of bone at the break. He will only get a single dose of this.

Need to know how to use homeopathic remedies?

To this regimen of homeopathic remedies, I am adding a teaspoon of Braggs apple cider vinegar 3x/day. Among its many other wondrous qualities, Braggs apple cider vinegar can speed healing from wounds and surgical interventions and also help erase the aftereffects of anesthesia. I’m also supplementing him with calcium, vitamin D, and vitamin C. The probiotics and minerals in Good Belly probiotic juice will keep his body strong, and he received an electrolyte replacement solution in his i.v. (I will also offer him some coconut water this week, to make sure he’s balanced internally).

Of course, he is getting pain killers, too! It’s not fun to have pins threaded through your bones and it will ache and throb for a few days. One of the nice things about homopathic remedies is that they can easily be used in conjunction with western medicines. Already, less than 12 hours post-surgery, he is in significantly less pain. We have high hopes for a speedy recovery.

Remedies for nighttime coughing

May 10, 2012

A naturopathic client has been complaining of coughing fits at night this spring. He says that it is not as bad when he closes the windows and uses the air conditioner, but it is still interfering with his sleep. An ENT used a nasal scope to see small, weak, red bumps and inflamed tonsils but could not identify an infection. The patient asked me for some advice on what to do.

A little deductive reasoning suggests that he might be reacting to some pollen in the air in this season of blooming plants. Many plants and trees bloom at night, releasing their pollen into the dark. To begin with, there are some hygienic steps I recommended he take to limit his exposure and reduce his reactions:

Keep windows closed at night and shower before bed to remove any pollen from hair, etc.
Try a daily nasal rinse before bed to clean out sinus passages and remove allergens. Here is the one I like: NeilMed SinusRinse.
Leave shoes at the door and keep the house a shoe-free zone. The Japanese have it right here: shoes track in all kinds of germs and debris that you don’t want in your living space.
Change the filters on the air conditioner and furnace to clean, high-quality filters.
Consider using a HEPA-certified air purifier — these can make a real difference in the air quality inside your house, particularly during times of high pollen or other forms of air pollution.

Other remedies he might try include:

Eucalyptus essential oil. Pour a few drops in a hot bath or diffuse it with a humidifier at night in the bedroom. Rubbing a few drops directly into the soles of your feet can stop a coughing fit in the midst of it.
Homeopathic hayfever remedy. This will not interact with any of the other meds and it only needs to be taken 1-5 times a season to get complete relief from pollen allergies.
Probiotics. Help boost your tolerance threshholds and immunities by keeping your digestive system in good order. More than 80% of our health starts in the gut. Good Belly is a good, all-around probiotic dairy-free juice drink that is very bio-available and contains lots of other good-for-you nutrients as well.
Locally-collected bee-pollen. A spoonful or two of these pebble-like secretions from bees can help you resist pollens active in your area. Check the refrigerated section of a good health food store to find bee pollen from your vicinity.

Tag: Good Belly

Are Probiotics Helpful for Kids?

Natural Remedies to Recover From Surgery

Remedies for nighttime coughing

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