Boost Your Immune System This Winter

Many people feel they should avoid the flu shot unless there’s a very specific reason for it I’m one of those people. I’ve sat through many debates on the subject but it’s how I feel. IF you want to read some more about it, stop by www.mercola.com and you can read some compelling stuff.

Anyway, instead of my family marching off to get flu shots, we try to boost our systems naturally. Here are a few of the things we do and some links in the document that explain a bit about some of these ideas.

-Take greens plus. It’s filled with LOADS of good stuff. I always feel healthier & better when I take it.
-Use coconut oil in a lot of my cooking. Coconut oil contains good stuff like lauric acid which is what helps babies get a boost of immunity from their mother’s milk
-up our fruits and vegetables
-wash our hands well everytime we come in from outside. We don’t bother with antibacterial soap at home, we simply sing the tune of happy birthday or the abc’s while we wash to help us wash long enough. I do keep instant hand sanitizer in my purse and the car for when we’re out and feel like we’ve touched something questionable.
-apple cider vinegar helps boost immunity as well
-Drink white tea. It can help kill bacteria like strep and staph.
-Clean your ears with hydrogen peroxide if you think you’re coming down with a cold.
-Get some good flora in your gut by eating yogurt and probiotic cheese

Sometimes our doctor advises us to get a flu shot for a specific reason and if your doctor does, by all means! But, don’t just assume you need one every year if you’re perfectly healthy. I do believe we are harming our immune systems by stopping our bodies from fighting off mild viruses alone. Too many immunizations and antibiotics can do more harm than good!

Boost Your Immune System This Winter

Many people feel they should avoid the flu shot unless there’s a very specific reason for it I’m one of those people. I’ve sat through many debates on the subject but it’s how I feel. IF you want to read some more about it, stop by www.mercola.com and you can read some compelling stuff.

Anyway, instead of my family marching off to get flu shots, we try to boost our systems naturally. Here are a few of the things we do and some links in the document that explain a bit about some of these ideas.

-Take greens plus. It’s filled with LOADS of good stuff. I always feel healthier & better when I take it.
-Use coconut oil in a lot of my cooking. Coconut oil contains good stuff like lauric acid which is what helps babies get a boost of immunity from their mother’s milk
-up our fruits and vegetables
-wash our hands well everytime we come in from outside. We don’t bother with antibacterial soap at home, we simply sing the tune of happy birthday or the abc’s while we wash to help us wash long enough. I do keep instant hand sanitizer in my purse and the car for when we’re out and feel like we’ve touched something questionable.
-apple cider vinegar helps boost immunity as well
-Drink white tea. It can help kill bacteria like strep and staph.
-Clean your ears with hydrogen peroxide if you think you’re coming down with a cold.
-Get some good flora in your gut by eating yogurt and probiotic cheese

Sometimes our doctor advises us to get a flu shot for a specific reason and if your doctor does, by all means! But, don’t just assume you need one every year if you’re perfectly healthy. I do believe we are harming our immune systems by stopping our bodies from fighting off mild viruses alone. Too many immunizations and antibiotics can do more harm than good!

Are Artificial Sweeteners Dangerous?

Are artificially sweetened products safe? They never tasted quite 'right' to the few times I tried aspartame or sucralose. It was like my food or drink contained something too 'fake'. One day, I came across the website www.aspartamekills.com. I've also read a lot of information on mercola.com that also suggests that artificial sweeteners are dangerous to your health. I won't rehash it all here but have a look at these sites for more information.

If you're suffering from health problems and drink a lot of artificially sweetened diet softdrinks, try going cold turkey for a month. You might be surprised at what you no longer have as symptoms.

If the government has approved it, it's ok. Right? Not necessarily. Last I heard, one popular artificial sweetener is approved in Canada and not in the states and and another is improved in the U.S. but not approved in Canada. Canada and U.S. have similar laws about safety of food and drug products so that's an odd occurence. We also know that many food and other products that were deemed safe many years ago are no longer safe.

I have a relative (in-law) that worked in the lab of a major soft drink corporation when their 'diet' version was just created and didn't go into a lot of detail but told us that anyone who drank that stuff was not doing their bodies any favours.

I know sugar isn't great for you either. In an ideal world, you should avoid sugar as much as possible but in a world where many health problems appear to be arising from the use of artificial sugar substitutes, I'd rather stick to sugar and try to minimize it.

Honey is a great alternative and I've recently read that honey is the only substance that is **completely** used up by your body. Many benefits to honey are readily discussed online.

Le Mierre's Syndrome, The Forgotten Disease

I had trouble finding information on Le Mierre's disease or Lemierre's Syndrome. It's pretty rare. I needed to find out about it recently because my 39 year old brother in law was diagnosed. It was kind of bizarre.

He suddenly had this grapefruit sized lump in his neck. The next day it was the whole side of his neck was huge. He was in pain. At first, the doctors weren't sure what it was. Then we heard he had a collapsed jugular vein. Sounded pretty scary since the jugular is pretty vital...

Fast forward a few days and we find out that LeMierre's or Lemierre's Syndrome is rare (less than .8 in a million) and it was coined in the early 1900's. Before antibiotics was almost always fatal. It's so rare that many don't test for it. It starts with a sore throat for many although for my brother in law, it simply started with swelling and we all know that a sore throat doesn't typically warrant antibiotics.

Lemierre's is a staph infection. How it starts looks pretty technical to me so I won't go into it here but if you get the disease you need heavy antibiotics for several weeks. my brother in law spent a week in the hospital and is now home and expects to be on his IV for 6-8 weeks.

Our neighbour joked that since he got such a rare disease, he should probably be told he's much less likely to win the lottery. I think we'll wait until he's fully recovered to break that news to him.

Hearing about the surfacing of rare illnesses and knowing that something seemingly minimal such as a small anaerobic bacterium that can suddenly almost kill you can happen out of nowhere is pretty frightening.