Showing posts with label Health. Show all posts

As soon as the Blue Moon hit, my life went crazy! I usually break out around my period but this last time I broke out on my lip. And yes, it was definitely a pimple...but look how swollen my lip got - so bad I had to take my lip ring out :(

I need to go back to my skin care regimen. I used to use Cellex-C products faithfully and this kinda thing never happened. I need to start using it again.

Stay tuned, I have Moon photos and videos of the Witchlets to post :)

I recently blogged about 5 Must Haves During Cold and Flu Season and yes, I do have all of those things but I think I started taking them much too late. I wound up sick but luckily recovered rather quickly, except for an annoying cough. Coughs I get from being sick seem to linger forever.

I am all better but now I feel like I should be wearing a nurse uniform or something because I have spent the entire week taking care of everyone else! I guess this is all part of a mommy's job, huh? Either way, I love my job :)

Next on the agenda I am going to have Olivia gather information about Imbolc so we can get the altar decorated for it.

Echinacea

Echinacea has been used by America Indians for hundreds of years. It is native to the North America Plains, but varieties of the species are now found on most continents. This herb increases levels of properdin, a chemical which activates the part of the immune system responsible for increasing the defense mechanisms against virus and bacteria attacks.

Its anti-bacterial effect makes it a good herb for treating many viral and bacterial infections. Echinacea also helps to sweep dead cells and other debris through the channels of the lymphatic system and sends white blood cells to fight the infection. When you feel a cold coming on - take echinacea. It is important to try to take echinacea before the full onset of a cold or flu to give the best chance for a fast recovery.


Garlic



Garlic has anti-bacterial properties that help the immune system to fight infection, it is an excellent boost to the immune system. The reason for this is garlic contains several helpful compounds, including allicin, one of the plant kingdom's most potent antibiotics. Garlic combines well with echinacea and together make a strong fighting force against infections.


Ginger



Ginger is another of natures' antiviral herbs. It contains nearly a dozen antiviral compounds. Ginger is pain relieving, antiseptic and antioxidant. It is valuable for preventing and treating colds, sore throats and inflammation of mucus membranes. Ginger reduces pain and fever and has a mild sedative effect that will encourage rest. Drink a tea, or soak fresh ginger in hot water, take as a tincture and include it in your food.


Vitamin C



Vitamin C is very good for the relief of cold symptoms and to help the body fight infection. The best source of vitamins is always fresh fruit and vegetables. Citrus fruit is especially high in vitamin C. Combine orange, pineapple, seedless grapes, lots of fresh ginger, banana, pink grapefruit, cantaloupe in a blender. Add orange juice if more liquid is needed.


Goldenseal


Goldenseal is both antiseptic and immune stimulating, increasing blood supply to the spleen. The spleen is the bodies staging area for the fighting cells in your immune system. Berberine is present in goldenseal, and activates the special white blood cells which are responsible for destruction of bacteria, fungi, viruses and tumor cells.

More Info

Also, Lauren Klein Jewelry is donating 10% of all sales in the month of October to breast cancer research in support of the 25th breast cancer awareness month.

There is no denying that vacations at Walt Disney World require a lot of walking. I told CJ this, before our first trip there together in 2008. He had ankle surgery when he was born and always has to wear an ankle brace. I guess he didn't really believe me because he ws just as worn out as Dane was!

He said by the middle of the trip his ankle was 'trashed' and I told him he should have gotten a Donjoy stabilizing ankle brace instead of some cheap CVS brand.

Who am I to talk though, I don't have ankle problems like he does but all the walking did me in too! LOL

I just completed research on xanax detox so I can write an article for work. The research got me thinking about alternative ways to deal with anxiety.

 I'm curious if anyone readers have tried self medicating or use natural remedies to ease anxiety? I would love to hear about personal experience...I'm not just curious, this info will help me with my article ;)

Sometimes I discuss herbs other times I discuss natural products. Today I want to touch on Creatine. If you' are not sure what it is, here's a quick explanation; "it is a nitrogenous organic acid that occurs naturally in vertebrates and helps to supply energy to all cells in the body, primarily muscle" -- so basically, it's a good thing.

I now several people who take creatine powder as a supplement, especially those who exercise on a regular basis. I am wondering who takes Creatine if you prefer the pills or the powder?

It isn't just babies who can get thrush. I found out, from a friend of mine who is studying natural medicine, that Acidophilus is one of the best ways to treat thrush. (I even found information to confirm this on www.thrushtreatment.net--it's listed as the #1 treatment for thrush.)

Basically, the body contains 'good bacteria' and when this is altered, different bodily problems can come about, such as thrush because Acidophilus is naturally found in the body and is designed to control yeast.

Acidophilus can be taken daily to keep the balance of the intestinal flora in check.

Well, it's that time of year again. It's starting to get cooler and already Dante has been blowing his nose and Olivia has been sneezing. I figured allergies until my throat started to hurt yesterday--great, are we all getting sick?

We leave for Disney in 19 days. This means there is less than 3 weeks for this possible sickness to run it's course through all of us. We all started taking vitamins around the middle of August, so I hope that was early enough to have some effect.

I don't give everyone vitamins and supplements year round simply because I don't  want everyone's bodies to become immune to them; so August through May is generally when we all take them. It worked out well last year and this past May no one was sick in Disney!

CJ and I take echinachea and vitamin D supplements and the Witchlets take a multivitamin plus a chewable vitamin C every day. I've heard Zinc is good to add as well, for adults. Any other suggestions? Do you take anything to boost your immune system?

As I get older I tend to think about what I should be taking to help my body age gracefully. Arthritis runs in my family and so I have been contemplating taking an msm supplement just for arthritis.

Curious if anyone has taken this? I've been reading up on it and so far it seems to be a good supplement to take. 

CJ and I were talking about how it feels like 2009 has really sucked! Yet so many wonderful things happened in 2009 it's such a Yin/Yang - amazing.

The Good:

• We are all alive!
• The lesion on my mother in law's breast shrunk!
• We had a good Disney vacation in May
• We became Disney Vacation Club members
  
• I got a promotion with SEOWhat.com
• I got a position as a freelance writer for Demand Studios
• CJ got a promotion with T-Mobile
• CJ got his 2006 Legend Lime Mustang
• We remodeled our basement
• We booked TWO trips to Disney for 2010
  

The Bad:

• Sickness - CJ had kidney stones, then a complex cyst was found on his kidney, then docs are concerned about bladder cancer (WHAT?!)
  
• More sickness - the Witchlets and I got the flu (supposedly H1N1) and this was after we all had bronchitis, strep throat and sinus infections the month before.
• Did I mention sickness? - my grandmother got pneumonia. She has congestive heart failure so this was NOT good. It was very concerning there for a while.
• Angus had some sort of problem with his foot/leg and that still hasn't gotten any better.
• My grammy (dad's mom) was in and out of the hospital.
• Olivia had an accident and injured her neck.
• I missed open circles for Mabon and Samhain due to sickness!
• Samhain was miserable because everyone was sick!
• My kitty passed away.

All of this is just off the top of my head. *sigh*

No Samhain for us. Seriously, I must be cursed! We missed Mabon because we were all sick and well, guess what? Yup, sick again.

It started on Monday, Olivia - headache, chills, fever, etc. Pediatrician said bronchitis and gave her antibiotics. Tuesday night Jeff (the ex) said he had the chills and a fever of 102. Olivia was with Jeff over the weekend.

By Wednesday morning I had it and I went to the doctor. Fever of 102.5, aches, chills, dry cough, runny nose, headache and I was sooo tired. Diagnosed me with the flu - no test, just based on symptoms. Gave me a script for Tamaflu and azithromycin, in case I get a secondary infection, like bronchitis. He wrote CJ a script too, just in case.

Olivia was better by Thursday and so she returned to school. I started feeling better by Thursday evening. About 4 this morning Dante woke up and complained of a headache. I got him settled and went back to sleep. By 6 am he was up again complaining and then vomited. Took his temp it was 102.7! Gave him Motrin, took Wyatt's temp, 101. UGH

The boys have had a fever all day. Wyatt had some cereal and a lollipop (hey, at least he ate!) Dante puked about 3 times. He ate a piece of toast, then vomited but almost 2 hours later. He said his headache made him throw up. The pediatrician prescribed Zofan for he nausea and Tamaflu. He said if he continues to vomit I need to get him to the ER. Since taking the Zofan, at about 5pm or so, he hasn't vomited but he hasn't eaten either. He's been drinking Ginge Ale.

Needless to say, there is o way the boys are going trick or treating :[ I may take Olivia out tomorrow night though. My poor litle Witchlets.

CJ has had lower back pain for about 2 weeks but he thought he just tweaked it and was hoping it'd heal on it's own. He came home from work last night with severe lower abdominal pain. It began as a pain in his lower left side and over the course of about 3-4 hours got worse and worse to the point where he couldn't stand. It went to his abdomen and down to his groin area.

I took him to the ER where he had a CAT scan and docs didn't see any kidney stones or any sign that he had one that passed. They did find a cyst, which he knew he had since 1997 but apparently now it's a 'nice size'.

He was given pain meds and advised to follow up with his family doctor for a CAT scan with contrast or MRI and he was sent home.

He slept okay - with the help of Tylenol PM. I guess well see how he is today, he has an appointment with the family doctor at 3:45 pm. Of course, he went to work today, UGH!

I never saw that man in so much pain. Scary when you don't know what it is - I was hoping for kidney stones but now I guess we're back to square one :[

Light a green candle or send some healing energy his way please.

)O(
Blessed Be

I have seriously been slacking in the exercise department. I stopped seeing results and got frustrated. My friend, Shannon, whom I had been going to the gym with, just keeps losing weight and inches. Yesterday when I saw her she had just gotten back from shopping. She said she bought a size 6 jeans because the size 8 she tried on was too big. She started in a size 12/14 the same month I started.

This didn't make me feel jealous - I am happy for her. What it did was motivate me. If she can do it, so can I, right? RIGHT?!? I think my problem was that I wasn't pushing myself hard enough, I wasn't in a constant state of fat burning. I know I need help with this. I found out about XFLOWSION and I think this may be just what I need!

This workout is supposed to have constantly shifting moves which are specifically designed to promote continuous fat burning and muscle toning. THAT is what I need, something that changes things up and keeps my body in fat burning mode. It should also keep me from getting bored quickly because it gives three workouts in one, combining moves from martial arts, power yoga, and dance.

A Russian-made drug, which was formulated to combat hay fever, now shows it helps improve cognitive abilities in patients with Alzheimer's disease, according to the results of a year-long trial published on Thursday.

This drug is known as Dimebon and was first discovered in 1983, sold in Russia as an antihistamine, but was dropped when better treatments came on the market.

In this neurodegenerative disease, brain cells are killed by a build up of toxic plaques and tangled proteins, leading to forgetfulness, mood swings, dementia and death.

The team enrolled 155 patients at 11 sites in Russia, who were given a dose of Dimebon three times a day or a harmless lookalike pill called a placebo.

They were assessed according to a scale to measure cognitive abilities and memory.

After the six months on this regime, the patients were assessed again. After that, 134 of them took part in a 26-week extension, and were assessed once more.

At both phases of the experiment, the Dimebon group "significantly improved" compared to the start of the experiment, while the placebo group showed clear deterioration, the researchers say.

Read Full Article...

This is huge and I sure hope the results continue to be positive ones. It's so tough for me to get excited about a synthetic drug like this but I really see so much more good than bad in this case.

We just got back from visiting Zyon's family in Ohio. His mom is a health nut and I always learn lots from her, especially when it comes to food. We were talking about how sugar in food is something that should be watched carefully all the time.

High glycemic foods (such as simple carbohydrates) will increase the body’s sugar levels rapidly.
Using the The Glycemic Index can help you get an idea of which foods are good and which are not so good where this is concerned.

Glycemic Index Chart

I know I need to cut way back on simple carbohydrates and the amount of processed sugar I intake. It's tough though, it is not an easy habit to break.
I am fairly certain this part of my diet is what is holding me back from losing weight as I would like. It's very frustrating!

I am slowly getting back in the swing of things, exercise wise. It's going to get a bit tougher though now because Olivia is done with school. This means I don't have to take her to the YMCA anymore 3 days a week, which is where the gym is!
I work out with my neighbor, Shannon, so she is going to have to help me and keep me motivated!

I am also looking to get an education online so between school work and exercise, I shouldn't have time to think about food!

Zyon bought us a stationary bike which is in our bedroom. I am happy to report that since we got it, on Wednesday, we've BOTH utilized it every day! I do about 45 minutes while the kids nap in the afternoon after lunch and he uses it when he gets home from work while I am starting dinner. It's a perfect routine. Hopefully that will help us both.

A new month and soon to be a New Moon as well. Time for starting over, so to speak, for me anyway. I have to force myself to get back into a routine, here at home and at the gym.

I have been slacking big time regarding exercise. I just can't get motivated. This damn PMS I got going on right now isn't helping because all I want to do is EAT, lol.

Anyone else trying to get motivated?

Haha!! I am happy to report that Zyon and I went shopping today to get clothes for our Walt Disney World vacation and I fit in a size SMALLER!!!!!! I have NOT lost weight, in the numbers sense but definitley inches!
This is the first time in a long time I actually enjoyed my shopping spree!

is killing me and I swear I LOOK fatter! *cries*
Okay, I've only been at this diligently for what, 3 weeks now? Still, I am frustrated.
I do feel better after working out and I am sleeping better. I suppose this just takes time.
Hey, doing something is better than doing nothing, right?