27 August 2022

Flu vaccines - a holistic point of view

* This post was originally written in the long-ago before time of 2012. It's held up pretty well, all things considered. The good news is that human physiology hasn't fundamentally changed in those 10 years even though it seems like the whole world changed in 2020. I''ve updated and reposted this in the hope of encouraging every eligible person to make every effort to get & keep your covid vaccines and boosters up to date. 

And wear your mask in public indoor spaces or anywhere that your human body gets within 6 feet of any other human body that you don't already live with. 

And wash your dang hands. 

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I think it does a disservice to Holistic Health when we call it "alternative medicine".

"Alternative"  means another choice, but it also implies a mutually exclusive, this-or-that choice. I don't think health and healing works that way. No one symptom exists in isolation.. People are whole, interconnected organisms, even at the purely physical, biological level. Add to that the connections of body to mind and spirit. Add to that the connections of relationships and social functioning. Health and healing is a "big picture" venture.  "Mainstream" and "Alternative" medicine can (and do) work together - hence the names "complimentary" and "Integrated" medicine. In the totality of health care, allopathic, homeopathic and holisitic are all different paths to the same mountain top, namely facilitating natural health and healing. Only the body heals itself. Whatever approach you use, everything the doctor or healer does serves to lend our inner nature a hand, not impose some miracle from the outside. The difference comes in deciding which is the BEST approach in a given situation. Sometimes the best answer isn't "this" or "that". Sometimes the best answer really is "all of the above".

The gap between mainstream, 'scientific' Allopathic health care and Holistic Health is narrowing. The more science studies holistic health, the more common ground is found. Naturopaths were promoting hygiene long before the days of penicillin and polio vaccines. The "Nature Doctors" have been telling people to wash their hands for hundreds of years.

Vaccines are another area where modern medicine and holistic health finally agree. Now I'm sure many of you natural health fans are bristling at that and are ready to stop reading...but wait a minute first.

I realize there are religious objections to vaccines. Those are personal decisions, and outside of the scope of this post. I know there has been panic and mis-information about connections between vaccines and autism, not to mention legitimate problems with preservatives and allergies - but consider this for a minute: homeopathy.

The theory behind homeopathy is that the symptoms in an illness are actually evidence of the body's healing processes, not evidence of the disease process. So tiny doses of a substance that induces the same set of symptoms is given to help and support that inner self-healing. As the adage says,  "like cures like".

Now look at how vaccines work. A tiny bit of killed or weakened viruses or bacteria (or more recently protein fragments of a virus) are given to teach your body how to protect itself against that particular microbe and the disease that it causes. The microbe or protein fragment containing vaccine directs and helps our natural inner germ-fighting system. The modified microbe helps the body self-cure the microbe-caused disease before it even progresses enough to cause serious disease. In essence, like cures like. Sounds a little like homeopathy, doesn't it? Yet vaccines are supported by hard science, and are time-proven good medicine.

Whether you are an advocate of holistic health, or a pure mainstream kind of person - vaccines make sense. It keeps individuals healthy and it helps to keep the community as whole healthier too.

Now - go wash your hands.



 

26 August 2022

Easy Aromatherapy - pillow mist

A friend of mine wanted to scent her sheets with lavender oil. That makes a lot of sense. Lavender promotes relaxation, so it is a great scent for bedtime. Plus, it is all natural, so there are no worries about sleeping in chemicals or synthetic fragrance.

We thought of putting oil in the rinse, but it would take a lot of oil to leave a noticeable scent on that amount of water and fabric.

Another possibility would be to put a drop or two on a cotton ball and put it in the dryer...but then you risk oil spots on the sheets, and the heat would volatilize (evaporate) the scent very quickly, especially for a delicate top note scent like lavender.

My favorite solution is the old fashioned "pillow spray". In a 2 oz fingertip pump spray bottle put 1 oz of filtered water (not chlorinated tap water) and 1 oz of vodka (as a dispersant and preservative)  and 10 - 20 drops of your favorite essential oils. You can use one oil, or a blend of two or three oils. Obviously if you are going to use the spray on your pillow, you want to stick to relaxing or meditative scents like lavender, sandalwood, or ylang ylang. Bergamot is a good all-around stress buster, and can help a sleep blend if worry is keeping you awake. 

For pillows and your sleep area, avoid very activating or invigorating scents like citrus and strong floral scents like geranium and rose. While they do really nice things for your mood, they may distract from sleep.

If you don't want to use vodka, just use 2 oz of water, but be sure to shake the bottle very, very well before using and frequently between spritzes. Without the alcohol preservative, be sure to store the bottle in a cool dark place. The shelf life might be reduced without the alcohol, but hopefully you will enjoy and use the mist enough that shelf life won't be an issue.

Use with caution on delicate or water sensitive fabrics, like satin pillowcases and such.

Enjoy!



 


19 August 2022

Black Pepper: Helper at the Table

Black pepper is probably one of the most ubiquitous spices in the world, certainly in the United States. When was the last time you saw a salt shaker without its peppery twin? It hasn't been a hot topic for scientific research but there are many traditional medicinal uses for pepper

Piperine is an alkaloid in black pepper (the berry of a kind of evergreen plant) has been compared to the capsaicin in hot peppers (like jalapenos, chilis etc.). Both have anti-inflammatory properties and have been useful in arthritis for some people. It is completely counterintuitive to my mind, but the anti-inflammatory properties are supposed to help stomach ulcers too...though I can't imagine chowing down on pepper with an upset stomach.

In aromatherapy, black pepper oil is used to promote mental alertness. Ingesting it is supposed to help mental focus as well as the fragrance does. Sounds like as good of an excuse as any to throw some pepper on your morning eggs.

Taste-wise, this particular spice has a strong comfort-association for me. My Grandmother (a major influence and a heckuva good cook) was a whiz at using just the right amount of black pepper to give food flavor without blowing a little kid's head off. The best thing she made with black pepper was her hamburger gravy. I'm not talking about some fru-fru health food here. I'm talking about gut-filling, make a kid happy, old-fashioned, over-biscuits, I'm-hungry-as-a-newborn-vampire Southern gravy.

Although I wouldn't recommend a steady diet of hamburger gravy, with or without black pepper, this spice deserves its place at the table.

Sources:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38311826/ns/health-cancer/t/disease-fighting-superfoods/#.UCUhb6FmTfU

http://www.livestrong.com/black-pepper/




22 July 2022

Deliberately Peaceful

 Teaching  by example is important.

I'm not here to judge, or even advise, really. If you are looking for a healer, I'm not the droid you are looking for, to borrow a phrase from George Lucas. I'm an educator, and a little bit of a helper.

I call what I do "tutorials" because my biggest goal is to arm you with good information, maybe a few tips, tricks, hacks and hints to help you with your healthy lifestyle just like a tutor helps with homework. With Reiki I can boost the signal from the universe to your natural healing - or reduce general stress to improve overall quality of life.

Sometimes that is a little tricky to do in the chaos of cyberspace. 

If it seems like this blog is reviving slowly, that is deliberate. I'm no expert, but I enjoy and admire Japanese Zen aesthetics. I want to rebuild this blog with the spirit of a lotus blossom and the deliberate mindfulness of a tea or incense ceremony. 

Thank you for reading, and thank you for sharing this rebuilding process.






11 July 2022

Spice Up Your Healthy Eating

From 2012:

There is two basic differences between the stuff on your spice shelf and the stuff on an herbalist’s supply shelf: amount and preparation.

To get a “therapeutic effect”, in other words, for an herb or spice to help fix something that’s wrong, it takes a good bit more of the stuff than you would use in cooking. The helpful stuff needs to be used in big quantities…like in capsules or pills, or concentrated through “decoction” which is more like a sauce reduction than a tea.

In general, beverage-strength teas or the pinch and sprinkle amounts used in cooking doesn’t help or hurt either one from a healing perspective. Of course those of us on blood thinners and with medical issues have to be a little careful even with those small amounts sometimes…BUT overall, herbs and spices can do a couple of important things. I don’t have the science to prove it, but those little smidges used regularly over time can give you a little nudge toward health, or at the very least give a little boost to the health and antioxidant effect of an otherwise healthy diet. Of course my favorite effect of using herbs and spices in cooking is that it tastes good!

Take for example, one of my breakfast favorites, cinnamon.

There are several varieties of cinnamon, all with a history of herbal medicine use. The cassia variety that is so readily available has benefits too. A good cinnamon tea can help a gassy tummy, soothe a cold, ease menstrual pain, and at higher amounts, can help with diabetes (some studies hint at a preventative effect, while there is some thought that it improves the body’s use of insulin in type 2 diabetes).

Coumadin / Warfarin folks…cinnamon has naturally occurring coumarin in it, so it can have a blood thinning effect and an additive effect to that of the medication. So don’t use high doses of cinnamon without supervision…to make sure it doesn’t drive the inr too high. I take the nudge approach. I put a little sprinkle in my morning oatmeal or coffee, and follow INR measurement as my doctor orders. So far so good. I do mean GOOD. As in YUM. Especially in cold weather. Cinnamon is considered a “warming” spice in herbalism.

So for a little tasty, warming oompf that might help you digest and might help sugar metabolism, cinnamon might be a good choice. For a big oompf, consult your herbalist. And read the disclaimer on the “about” page of the blog while you are at it, ok?

Source: http://altmedicine.about.com/od/cinnamon/a/cinnamon.htm