Natural Health Help

The quality of the foods you eat is most important to your health. But how you eat, that is how you feel, what atmosphere you are in, also matters a lot in terms of getting the most out of your meals. Creating the best physical and emotional environment helps you to digest well and actually absorb the food you are eating. Here are some suggestions for how to eat in the best possible way. Read the rest of this entry »

And now for something completely practical! I am seeing a lot of folks with gut disruption. We have all become wary of tomatoes and peppers from the grocery store, and before that it was what? Spinach? When your food passes through many hands the chance there will be a bug that eventually gets you grows and grows. We have a generally reliable food supply- but, not infallible. Prevention is best- know who your farmers are would be Rule #1, buy local-grown and fresh. And - Wash Everything! If you get into distress, the following will help. If there is fever, or signs of dehydration, which little kids are especially prone to- lethargy, dull eyes, dry-looking lips- get to your doctor. Read the rest of this entry »

Depression is one of the top five conditions that people want to self-treat with non-drug therapies. St John’s wort (SJW) is one of the best known plant medicines. It is effective for a number of conditions, including mild to moderate depression. Read the rest of this entry »

Essential Oils can be powerful medicine to help you fall asleep. Your sense of smell, and the olfactory nerve are a major pathway defining your mood and your physical energy. Essential oils are a safe, effective and non-drug method you can use to produce a deep, restful sleep. They are great when added to an Epsom salt bath or infused into your room. Read the rest of this entry »

It makes a lot of simple common sense that when we eat food with the residues of chemical fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides on it, we are swallowing tiny but consistent amounts of what is essentially poison. And we know these residues build up, in our body tissues, just like the mercury builds up in the tuna. And so it makes sense to eat organically raised food as much as possible, just to avoid as much of the bad stuff as possible. Read the rest of this entry »

Many common symptoms, for instance headaches, sinus congestion, aches and pains, skin problems, low energy and flat moods as well as anxiety, to name just a few, can be caused by intolerance to certain foods. Foods are powerful chemicals that effect our ablity to fight off infections. What we eat will alter our moods and energy levels as well.

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Background:
The castor bean (Oleum ricini), also known as Palma Christi, due to it’s shape and healing properties, has been known primarily as a cathartic (a strong laxative when taken by mouth). The famed healer Edgar Cayce, indicated in his readings a gentler use, of castor oil, in the form of an external application to the skin of the abdomen, usually assisted by heat. The oil is absorbed into the lymphatic circulation to provide a soothing, nutritive, muscle relaxing treatment. The relaxation of the muscle of the blood vessels allows for freer flow of oxygen, nutrition and waste removal. The relaxation of the smooth muscle of internal organs, such as the stomach, intestines, gall bladder and liver (via it’s rich supply of blood vessels), and uterus is highly effective for pain relief in these areas.

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Heartburn is one of the most common human experiences. It’s become a multimillion-dollar pharmaceutical industry gold mine. Most often you can be free of heartburn by changing how you eat.

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A hiatal hernia occurs when the upper portion of your stomach is able to slip up through an opening in your diaphragm. Normally this opening is just big enough to let your esophagus through and your stomach sits right underneath it. There is a sphincter muscle at the bottom of your esophagus that keeps the stomach closed off. When the stomach sticks up through the diaphragm, this purse-string muscle is distorted, so that it opens up and the acidic contents of the stomach leak into the esophagus. This is called gastroesophageal reflux disorder, or GERD. The stomach contents have to be acidic, in order for you to be healthy. However, if this acid material burns your esophagus too often you have inflammation, pain, and eventually may develop esophageal cancer. Hiatal hernias are only one of several causes that can result in GERD.

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Eicosanoids (eye-kah-sah-noids) are a kind of hormone messenger that tell our cells what to do at a very basic level. People have been making guesses about the function of these cellular instructors since the 1930’s. It wasn’t till the 1980’s however that the technology to see eicosanoids in action was developed. Most of us are familiar with endocrine hormones, like estrogen and testosterone. Those familiar hormones are secreted into the blood to be delivered to their target tissues. Eicosanoids are another kind of hormone. They are born in and never leave the cell. So we can’t study them by looking at the amounts in our blood. Our understanding of how important eicosanoids are is growing by leaps every year. Unfortunately, conventional medicine and nutrition has been very slow to incorporate new information about cellular hormones and health. In the case of eicosanoids, incorporating the growing body of knowledge about how they work means significantly changing the ways we look at health and disease.

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