Alternative Medicine

What is the best foods to eat besides fruits high in antioxidants while sick with the flu?

I went to see the Homeopath that I've been taking DD to for the past two years for my own health consultation.--read more

Sorry about this guys, but I am getting desperate as to what to do for this medical problem I have, and all the wise people I know are right here Too much information coming up...--read more

Well now that the weather is changing to that cool wet damp time of the year here in the eastern USA, it's time to think about preventing colds, flu, and stuffy heads.
Mom always made warm apple cider with a cinnamin stick. That really warmed us to our toes. I really loved it when mom made home made apple pies...a 9 X 12 pan, which was deep dish back then. She would serve it piping hot with milk poured over it. It was cooled down just enough to eat it. It was great being a kid back then! Mom would also make her home made chicken and rice soup. I believe the kettle was about 15 quarts...or so it seemed like that to me at the time. We had soup for a week. But it did keep us from getting a cold or the flu. --read more

Mehmet Oz is a cardiologist who gets why heart patients are so pissed off (finally!), and understands where alternative medicines can help. This is a great interview from the great public radio show Speaking of Faith.

Right now I'm seeing a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practitioner, who I'll call Dr. K. My cardiologist recommended him, which blew my little mind. Dr. Matt and I are on a first-name basis now, after four years, two heart attacks and a cardiac arrest. We have achieved a state of clear with each other.

He knew as soon as I got out of the hospital that I'd be hitting them Internets looking for supportive/complementary therapies, if only to mitigate the side effects of the allopathic meds I'm on, which are not trivial. (Biggest problem: I'm absolutely exhausted a lot of the time.) He said, look, I know you, I know what you're going to do, and I just beg you, please do this with supervision. He said Dr. K understands drug interactions, please go see him.

So I'm seeing Dr. K. While his English is way better than my Chinese, which is limited pretty much to "ni hao!" and "xie-xie!", his accent is really thick. I find that it makes me listen harder, interestingly, and I remember what he says without taking notes. He did some acupuncture on me (immediately got the blood flow going in my compromised arm) and prescribed some Chinese herbs and also tai chi practice.

I'm brushing up on my tai chi forms--it's been years, I can't even do cloud hands properly any more--and taking these really disgusting herbs. I mean, wow. I thought I'd taken some foul Western herbal medicines. Valerian comes to mind. Valerian is almost palatable compared to powdered snakegourd rind (gua lou pi) and cordyceps mushroom (ling zhi). It got me wondering: Is this Dr. Matt's revenge?

I'll let you know how the treatment is going. So far, I'm a bit worse (ache-y mostly), but that sometimes happens at the beginning of TCM treatments as the liver clears out.

Snakegourd. *shaking head* the things I get myself into...

Every Monday, Anhata and I and our kids get together for what I call a half-@ssed Waldorf kindergarten. The girls go outside, feed the chickens and get the wiggles out, then we come inside, have a fairy tale and circle, do a craft and have a snack. Then they go play for a little longer.--read more

I have never been able to gargle, and my throat and chest hurt when I cough. I wish there was something other than cough drops, and a friend of mine told me to drink lemon/honey/water. Cut open, and squeeze a lemon into a cup, then pour some honey in there, then hot water and drink it after eating something, like lunch or supper.--read more

Over at Natural Health Information Center blog young Ben is detoxing by order of his dermatology professor. (Ben is a naturopathic student.) He'll be posting the full program every day as well as his progress, and reminds us all that now is not the time for detox; spring is.--read more

This could be major. Elderberry extract may kill the avian flu virus, specifically Sambucol.

Dr Madeleine Mumcuoglu, the Israel-based developer of Sambucol, said the good results confirmed her earlier findings on the product, which is currently marketed around the world as a natural supplement for fighting common flu. ...

“But I'm very happy with these results, especially as the work was done by Dr John Oxford, a reputable specialist in flu,” she added.

Dr Mumcuoglu stressed that the results could in no way demonstrate a benefit for humans infected with the bird flu strain that has killed more than 70 people, mostly in South East Asia, since the outbreak began in 2003. Nor will she be able to test it in a human trial.

But she is looking into starting an animal trial using ferrets, which have similar flu symptoms to humans.

I can personally attest to how well elderberry syrup works; when I got the flu last week--and it was the real flu, not what most of us call the flu--I got rid of it in less than a week by taking elderberry syrup (specifically Sambucol but elderberry syrup in general is a Good Thing) and oregano spirits, and John and the kids didn't get it from me because I dosed them with Sambucol every time I dosed myself.

What makes me especially alert about this study, though, is that avian flu can kill the young and strong by creating what's called a "cytokine storm"; basically the immune system is revved up to the point of killing its owner. Elderberry syrup usually works by boosting the immune system, which isn't such a good idea in this case.

But if elderberry syrup is actually anti-viral, not just immune-boosting, that's extremely good news. As an herbal student I've been researching anti-virals in case of pandemic; if a pandemic does hit, the medical system is going to be overwhelmed and we'll all need whatever help we can get for ourselves and our families, friends and neighbors. I've been putting my hopes in kimchi (shown in South Korea to be effective against bird flus) and turmeric (a traditional anti-viral), but if further trials on elderberry continue to be promising, I'll be a lot more optimistic if we find ourselves out on our own. Meanwhile, I'm planting two more elderberry bushes in our yard this year--it's that valuable a plant, bird flu or no bird flu.

Via Natural Health Information Center.

Categories: Sambucol, elderberry, flu, avian, bird, H5N1, medicine, health

The CDC called a rare Saturday news conference to announce that doctors should stop using two antivirals. It's discovered that the most common strain of flu virus currently circulating has built up high levels of resistance to them:

A whopping 91 percent of virus samples tested by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this flu season proved resistant to rimantadine and amantadine, a huge increase since last year, when only 11 percent were.

The discovery adds to worries about how to fight bird flu should it start spreading among people. Health officials had hoped to conserve use of two newer antiviral drugs, Tamiflu and Relenza, because they show activity against bird flu, unlike the older drugs.

Now, because of the resistance issue, the newer drugs are being recommended for ordinary flu, increasing the chances that resistance will develop more rapidly to them, too, as they become more commonly used.

So, if you've got the flu what do you do? If you've got the flu badly enough for your doctor to be prescribing drugs, that's one thing and I can't advise on that--really I can't advise on anything, I'm not a doctor. I can tell you what I've done for my flu that seems to have helped, and how I'm trying to keep John and the kids healthy.--read more

The American College of Chest Physicians says there's no evidence over-the-counter cough medicines work, and that they may actually make things worse with children. I'm not so much with the standard medicine, as my cardiologist can tell you, and that goes double for most cough and cold medicines.

When things are really bad for an adult here we dose them with a little Nyquil if they can't sleep and for children we've found that Eldertussin not only helps with coughs but DOES seem to resolve a lot of the underlying problems. It actually seems to shorten the amount of time the girls suffer a cold or cough. Otherwise we tend to let things run their course. You have a fever for a reason, you're coughing for a reason. Let your body do what it needs to do.

Categories: cough, medicine, children, alternative

Josie is sick today with a cold. She's congested and miserable--well, not too miserable. I've been waiting on her and she's been allowed to play unlimited computer games so she's actually pretty content. Nevertheless, I'm glad I ran across ways to relieve head congestion naturally from the Natural Health Information Center. I agree with Benjamin that taking symptom-suppressing drugs is bound to make things worse not better.

Categories: health, congestion, natural, medicine, alternative, cold, flu

Well, I've gone and done it. A while back I purchased the assets of someone's online general store (someone we all know and love, see below) and have now opened up the online store, familynaturally.com!--read more

As most of your know, I had a hyst in October, since then, I have gained 45 pounds, and my energy has been very low, along with my moods. I got hives and went to my doctor, she said, "don't know about the hives, but your thyroid is huge"--read more

Hey all...

Anyone have some good tips for dealing with sinus junk, other than peppermint/ginger/herbal tea and steam baths? I am doing both of those on a regular basis, which is helping a lot. But there is so much dang pressure that it makes me wish they made snotsucker bulbs for adults!!! :/ I guess I could try the kids' snotsucker, but I have kind of big nostrils.--read more

hmm, i just selected every single category that has to do with my life, but perhaps that was overdoing it. Yet all these subjects came up today:

Teens, Education, Homeschooling: my homeschooler is trying to crash a class at the local public high school, and although we have every right as "taxpayers" for her to attend, all the b.s. that goes along with their bureaucracy makes you have second thoughts! She thinks it's so funny that the teacher admonishes the kids to be quiet and keep their hands to themselves, stay in their chairs, etc. She's been going to independent classes and community college classes for a year now, and no one ever talks like that. Yet this class is supposed to be this really creative interdisciplinary math class that people vie to get into... had to do an "audition" like it was a broadway show! Maybe it will turn out to be inventive and cool... right now she's just mesmerized by the social scene. They also gave her three hours of homework last night...what on earth? If they spent more time in class doing math instead of worrying about the baby stuff...--read more

I've noticed that ever since I hit my 30's my hormones have changed. When I'm PMSing I am more angry,frusterated, and irritable. When my time of the month does come I tend to be WAY MORE emotional than I ever remember being before. Lets just say I've cried 5 times in the last 2 days and fought crying at least a dozen times. I feel hopeless. I know in a couple of days I'll feel fine and things will be back to normal, at least for a couple of weeks.--read more

has anybody been to school for an alternative thearapy; eg massage, reiki, aromathearpy, hebal etc? If so which one? What made you decide on that one? Has it helped you?

My aromatherapy course from Heart of Herbs (aka my buddy Demetria) arrived!