Seasonal Allergies: Gear Up Now!
What would a healing post, from me, be without my favorite herb... stinging nettles! It is my "go to" herb for all nourishing and healing needs. Start with nettles + herbs specific for the health symptoms = healing equation!
Got allergies? Gear up now to fortify your body before pollen season. (I know, it does seem like winter will never go away, here in Northern NY! But, pollen season will happen!) This self-responsible, preventative health action will help to ease the seasonal allergy symptoms. Breathe freely this spring, summer, and fall...
1. Freeze dried stinging nettles: Get to Nature's Storehouse, Canton, NY and purchase some freeze-dried stinging nettles. Start taking them now to calm and heal your immune system and relieve the seasonal pollen allergies.
2. Local, raw honey. Start eating 1/2 to 1 teaspoon two times daily, now. Local, raw honey will acclimate your body to the local allergens before they bloom and blossom. This local honey will help to relieve or even rid your seasonal pollen allergies.
3. Herbal Formula: Herbs Etc. is a great company. I use many of their formulas in healing ways with friends, family, and clients. They work!
Allertonic® Enhances healthy inflammatory responses of the respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts. Stabilizes mast cell walls and fixed antibodies found in the eyes and respiratory system, keeping the tissues calm. Normalizes secretion of the respiratory system, liquefies mucus, stimulates its removal from the lungs, and keeps pulmonary tissues hydrated.
Ingredients: Fresh Stinging Nettle herb, Licorice root, Eyebright herb, Horehound herb, Osha root, fresh Horsetail herb, fresh Mullein leaf, Elecampane root, and fresh Plantain leaf.
Suggested Use:
Acute: Take one soft gel or 40 drops with water every two to three hours until comfort is achieved or as directed by your health care professional. Noticeable comfort is attained within the first or second day. Switch to ongoing use.
Ongoing: Take one soft gel or 40 drops with water three times a day.
Proactive: Two months prior to seasonal challenges, take one soft gel or 40 drops with water twice a day.
4. Yes, you can use all three of these natural, allergy relief "foods" as a preventative measure. Start now, before the snow melts!
5. Whole foods: I would be seriously amiss as a whole food, holistic healer if I did not tell you that the foods you put into your body, every time you eat, affect the way you feel. Eat crap, feel like crap! If you over load your body with packaged, factory made foods, you overwhelm your immune system (actually, you overwhelm your whole body, every body cell!). Your immune response to allergens in the seasonal air will be seriously heightened if your body is already overwhelmed by crap food. Eat whole, love your body cells!
6. Liver Nourishment: As I write this post, I have a draft post on liver nourishment, ready to go. Be looking for it. Keeping the liver healthy will cut down on seasonal allergy symptoms.
7. Acupuncture: is an excellent healing tool in the seasonal allergy toolbox. Give Five Elements Living a call if allergy relief is in your plans!
PS: I can order any product from Herbs Etc. for you. Check Nature's Storehouse OR the Potsdam Food Coop for a similar product. Compare the ingredients as many herbal companies make allergy relief herbal combinations.
Need Help? Not sure about herbal healing foods: what to take, how to take it, when to take it, etc? As a Certified Herbalist, I can help with this! Give me a shout.
13 Health Foods That Are NOT So Healthy
13 Health Foods
That Are NOT So Healthy...
Proceed with
1. Brown Sugar: Brown sugar used to be sugar that did have the molasses intact. Modern brown sugar is merely refined "white" sugar that has added caramel coloring to make you THINK it is real brown sugar. Action to take: Use sucanat, read the label and look for sugar that is simply dehydrated, sugar cane juice... nothing added, nothing removed. Another good brand is Rapunzel Rapadura Sugar.
2. Greek Yogurt: Real Greek yogurt is truly just cultured milk that has been strained to make it thicker, creamier, and higher in protein. If refined ingredients have been added to thicken the yogurt, it is not real Greek yogurt. Most Greek yogurts, on the market, are not real. Action to take: Read labels on everything that a food manufacturing facility makes for you. Read those labels for 100% whole food ingredients. Do not settle for less; your cellular health depends on this.
While I am on the subject, eat plain yogurt*, not the flavored varieties. Again, read labels, flavored yogurts are loaded with crap ingredients and sugar. These crap ingredients and sugar do not create vibrant, healthy body cells.
Real yogurt should be milk and active cultures, period. No thickeners, no flavorings, no sugars, etc! Want a recipe for making a yummy snack with yogurt, fruit, and nuts... email me! pyoumell@gmail.com
3. Frozen Yogurt: OK, so this is a fun one. People order frozen yogurt instead of ice cream... well, because "it is yogurt. Yogurt is good for me, so frozen yogurt is a healthy treat, right?" No, it is not. See above info on plain yogurt. No good gut microbes survive freezing, so thinking frozen yogurt is good for gut health is a flawed thought (yes, perpetuated by marketing, but flawed none the less). Action to take: *Eat plain yogurt you have made yummy and fun with fruit, berries, cinnamon, vanilla. Want a recipe? Email me, pyoumell@gmail.com.
4. Ginger Ale: "Ginger ale is good for me when I am sick, have a fever, correct?" "It settles my stomach if I have a nasty, gut bug sickness, correct?" No, sorry. Modern sodas are just a source of liquid corn syrup, artificial flavors, and other artificial ingredients. Action to take: Make ginger tea, use the ginger tea with seltzer water to make your own ginger soda; buy a natural brand of ginger soda that has real ginger in it!
5. Bran Muffins: Running late for work or an appointment, no time for breakfast, so one stops at the mini-mart and grabs a bran muffin. It is the health option in the mini-mart, correct? NO, it is loaded with refined and toxic ingredients: white sugar, corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, white flour, artificial flavors, fillers, dough conditioners, etc., and a small amount of bran. Action to take: Make your own and have them handy. Want a recipe, email me. Take the time for a real breakfast.
6. Wheat Bread: Lots of issues here: modern wheat is not all it is cracked up to be, most wheat breads have minimal whole grains in them, and most manufactured wheat bread is loaded with refined and crap ingredients. Again, read labels.Action to take: Read labels and make certain breads are 100% whole grains for 100% whole cellular health. Sprouted whole grain breads are another nourishing option.
7. Commercial Fruit Smoothies: Ok, so the fruit does not exist in powdered smoothie mixes. Many are artificially fruit flavored or have dried fruit powders in them. Action to take: Make at home with 100% whole food ingredients, whole fruit, and only buy fruit smoothies in shops that make them the same way. If the fruit smoothie is a powdered mix, RUN, fast, get away from the powdered world crap. I don't care how healthy they say their protein powder fruit smoothies are for you. They are not real food!
8. Vitamin Water: One word: crap. Ok, so vitamin water has a marvelous marketing campaign. This is a big clue here, any product with a marketing campaign most likely is worthless and not nourishing to your body cells. Fresh produce does not need to be marketed as healthy. We all innately know it is! Action to take: Drink water from your tap, if it has not been poisoned with chlorine and fluoride. If it has, filter it. If you think you need to have added vitamins in your water, go to Nature's Storehouse and find a 100% whole food liquid vitamin supplement and add it to your water. Your health and cells will be grateful.
9. Non-Calorie Sweeteners: Nature did not make many non-calorie sweeteners. Food laboratories do; that is your clue to avoid them. Nature makes real food, "food" labs do not. These sweeteners are toxic to your liver and toxic to all of your body cells. Now stevia... yes, if you are using real, green stevia. The powdered green herb form of stevia is a real non-calorie sweetener. Stevia that is the white powder or clear liquids, refined in food labs, in not healthy cell food. Action to take: Get a hold on your sugar usage. Is it really something we were meant to eat every day? Nah... it's not!
10. Diet Soda and Diet Drinks: Toxic to liver and body cells. See Non calorie sweetener above. Action to take: Always put your body cells first and foremost in your mind when choosing foods and food products. Make herb teas and enjoy them sweet free or use a tiny bit of raw, local honey. Make "soda" with seltzer water and a wee bit of organic fruit juice concentrate.
11. Gluten Free Food Products: A word of caution: when a health problem arises, manufacturers are quick to respond with ' "food products" to help solve your problem. Many gluten free products are HIGHLY processed and full of junk ingredients.
Gluten free does not mean it is healthy. There are thousands of gluten free products on the market: cakes, cookies, breads, pizza crusts, boxed mixes; processed food heaven! Learn to read labels. Many of these products are full of fillers. Yes the “fillers” in question are gluten free, but they are also refined, nutritionally devoid foods. If the natural, whole food nutrition is not in the food, the refined food product will rob your body cells of nutrients and contribute to degenerative diseases. You are trading off one huge health problem for another of equal degenerative quality.
Things to look for are: white rice flour, corn starch, potato starch*, tapioca starch*, tapioca flour*, potato flour*. Basically these are cheap, filler ingredients not real food, not food that nourishes your beautiful body cells. These fillers create a host of health problems in your body including blood sugar and insulin issues that contribute to inflammation and exacerbate health issues.
Action to take:
Keep refined ingredients out of your diet for vibrant health. Read labels, buy food products that are 100% whole food ingredients only, including gluten free products.
Want to learn more? I do gluten free workshops, contact me: pyoumell@paulayoumellrn.com
Want gluten free bread & pizza dough recipes? See my recipes under FREE STUFF link at the top of my web page. Or contact me for more suggestions.
*Note: Some brands of tapioca flour and potato flour are the whole roots ground into flour. Check with the individual companies to know that what you are buying is a whole food flour, not a refined food flour.
12. Fat Free Dairy: There are many reasons to avoid animal fat. My big issue is that they are contaminated with all the toxins that have been created on this divine planet. So, I advise buying organic and naturally raised animal products. I even try to avoid animals products from animals that are fed GMO foods: corn and soybeans. These are no easy tasks, I admit, and can leave one throwing up their arms in despair. With this said, fat is needed in your body! The manufacture of your bodily hormones depends on ingested fat. Action to take: Get to know your farmers, ask them how they raise their animals, what they feed them, if the corn /soy is GMO free, if they get fed very little corn and soy and mostly have access to pasture. (Yes, winter in the north country complicates the pasture grazing issue!) www.gardenshare.org Go ahead, click the link, and start finding local farmers to grow your food!
13. Chocolate: Ok, I know there are people who will want to strangle me for adding this one to the list. Let's get serious, anti-oxidants aside, we all intuitively know that eating processed chocolate, every day, is not what nature intended. It has been well marketed to us as a healthy superfood. (Please see the above comments about marketing campaigns and food.) Yes, I am certain chocolate, cocoa beans, have antioxidants, why wouldn't they? Nature did make them. But humans take those beans and process them into 554 million different chocolateproductsand then market them as a necessary daily food. Our culture has certainly bought into this food campaign: hook, line, and sinker. Perhaps we could all thrive ingesting just chocolate, red wine, and coffee... all are loaded with antioxidants, right?! Ok, ok, I know I am being a smart ass. Action to take: See it for what it is; a tasty, fun, occasional treat. Buy organic and fair trade to support the farmers that grow these amazing beans and enjoy it, with a smile, on occasion.
Questions to ask yourself about a food product:
Was this nature made or man-made?
Were the ingredients nature made or man-made?
Was this made in a food factory?
Does this product have a huge marketing campaign?
If you would like to know more about how to heal your body with real food, how to incorporate healing-whole health strategies into your life, enter your name (above and on the right side of the page) to subscribe to my blog newsletter. Come to a class I teach or give me a shout and we can work one on one. Your health will soar, you will feel great, your cells will bounce with amazing energy! Blessings, Paula
Arthritis: Cooling the Inflammation Naturally
Dietary Changes:
1. Ok, here I go.... whole foods.
If you replace everything you put in your mouth that is not 100% whole food with real food, whole food, your body will heal. It is really that simple.
I could give much more information but making changes, one simple thing at a time, is easiest for most people. Changing the diet from processed, packaged, food "products" to 100% whole food is a huge change for most people. Seriously think about what you eat for each meal and snacks, if you snack: How many food items are manufactured in a factory? How many were created by nature and nature alone (no human meddling)?
Support to move into a whole food eating & healing lifestyle.
Dietary Changes:
1. Ok, here I go.... whole foods.
If you replace everything you put in your mouth that is not 100% whole food with real food, whole food, your body will heal. It is really that simple.
I could give much more information but making changes, one simple thing at a time, is easiest for most people. Changing the diet from processed, packaged, food "products" to 100% whole food is a huge change for most people. Seriously think about what you eat for each meal and snacks, if you snack: How many food items are manufactured in a factory? How many were created by nature and nature alone (no human meddling)?
2. While switching to whole foods, remove wheat and gluten from the diet.
By removing all these packaged foods from your life, you will be removing many laboratory made ingredients that are derived from wheat. Many food additives are made from wheat and therefore contain gluten. You will not read "wheat" on the label but the ingredients with weird, chemical sounding names, more than likely are wheat derived and contain gluten. Eat un-packaged food!
I know many people have complete relief of symptoms by getting gluten out of their diets. This is not as hard as people "groan and moan" it is going to be. People need to educate themselves around gluten and with this new found knowledge, avoiding gluten is not so difficult. Where it gets difficult is we have become a culture dependent on food products and eating away from home (which most food in restaurants is cheap, crap food; use the cheapest ingredients to make the most profit possible). Food products and food prepared out of home is often times full of wheat derivatives. For help: Gluten-Free Cooking & Living Class
3. Another key step in whole food, gluten-free eating is to avoid gluten-free products.
Most are full of filler crap ingredients that are debilitating to health. You will be, in essence, trading one debilitating food for another. Read labels on all foods, gluten-free included, for 100% whole food ingredients. All gluten free foods need to be 100% whole food: no white rice flour, potato starch, tapioca starch, etc. These are refined ingredients and hard on your body's health.
OK, so why remove gluten? Because it is very inflammatory in most people's bodies. Modern day wheat is extremely high in gluten compared to heritage wheat of days gone by, the wheat that existed before human manipulation. The high concentrations of gluten in modern wheat disturb metabolism and cellular health, some people notice it more than others. How gluten affects each person is different. What is known is that gluten is a huge culprit in arthritis and many people are relieved of arthritis symptoms simply by getting rid of gluten. Eat completely gluten-free for 2 weeks, see how you feel. If any doubts about it helping or not, try this: after 2 weeks of gluten-free eating, eat plenty of wheat at every meal for a whole day. Pile on the whole wheat bread, pasta, crackers, and cereal. Now pay attention to how your body feels!
Bread was traditionally made from sprouted whole grains and then fermented for 3 full days with sour dough cultures. The amount of gluten left after sprouting and culturing was very minimal. Today's bread is mass produced in a matter of a couple of hours. There was good reasons for traditional food preparation.
Gluten is naturally found in wheat, rye, barley, and oats*. Any variety of wheat will contain gluten: spelt, kamut, einkorn... anything that says heritage wheat variety. Yes, they have less gluten but at this point, with an auto immune disease, any amount of gluten will just exacerbate the internal inflammation.
Think lung disease: how many daily cigarettes would you recommend to someone with lung disease?
Think liver disease: how many shots of liquor would you recommend to someone trying to heal liver disease?
Think diabetes: how much sugar would you recommend to someone trying to heal the beta cells in their pancreas and ultimately heal their type II diabetes?
Would you tell these people to do the 80/20 plan with their cigarette, alcohol, or sugar consumption?
Eliminating the "culprits," (the cause or causes of the health symptoms) and introducing nourishing healers (food, lifestyle, herbs, etc.) is what will heal your beautiful body, right down to each and every beautiful cell!
*Avoid oats unless certified gluten-free and organic. Oats do not naturally contain gluten. If whole oats, oat flakes, Irish oats, or oat flour are CERTIFIED gluten-free, then they are fine. Gluten-free certification is essential with oats. Otherwise, you are consuming oats that have been contaminated with gluten in the grain harvesting and handling process. Oats are processed on the same equipment that wheat is processed on. This industry practice contaminates oats with gluten from the wheat.
All grains should be organic to avoid pesticides and agricultural chemicals that will, most likely, exacerbate your symptoms. Glyphosate (broad spectrum herbicide brought to you by Monsanto) is hard on the gut lining's health, disrupts gut microbial populations, and creates inflammation in the body.
4. Get rid of sugar:
A whole food diet will take care of that problem immediately. Perhaps some educational handouts around the ill effects of sugar would help out here? Email me and ask for my sugar handouts: pyoumell@gmail.com
5. Dairy:
Often people have much relief from arthritis symptoms when they completely avoid dairy. Some people do well to re-introduce dairy after weeks of eliminating it IF the dairy is raw and from grass fed animals. This means no pasteurization or homogenization. Others do well to re-introduce only raw, grass fed goat milk and goat milk products (cheese, yogurt).
6. Alkalize the body:
The human body likes to function in a slightly alkaline state. When the body struggles to balance from acidic eating and lifestyle habits our health suffers: mineral loss causing tooth decay and bone de-mineralization and deterioration of body organs, body cells.
Below is a chart on acid and alkaline foods. Eating in a balanced way, to keep the body alkaline, helps to heal, including arthritis. Example: Eat veggies with meat to balance the acid-alkaline effects. This is only a quick explanation of acid-alkaline balancing. I encourage you to explore and learn more.
A youtube video with a good, basic explanation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yk1ru_CJt2k (Forgive the couple of misspelled words, the content is what counts here.)
7. Movement Magic:
Movement is essential. Move it or lose it. Try something called dynamic movement which helps to heal the adhesions that settle in from moving body parts in one direction only. Can I recommend Yoga?
Lisa Huck: I cannot recommend this woman enough: her exercises will restore youthful movement in just minutes a day by lubricating (listen to her awesome words in the video). I stumbled upon her (thanks to Dr. Mercola) and her dynamic movements have ended my sciatica and low back issues (which were not low back issues at all, but movement issues!). She is the Goddess of Movement, my Goddess of movement!
http://thrivefnlblog.com/2012/04/16/dynamic-core-routine/
8. Herbal Healing:
Herbs are fabulous whole foods for healing the body. I would add these in AFTER you have had gluten out of your diet for at least 2 weeks. This way, you can see the effects getting gluten out has on getting healing into your body! You do want to know what is having the healing effects!
My favorite herb: Stinging nettles, I love this green healer. Her work is truly magic in the human body. Nettles adds nutrients to every body cell. This is what you want for your body!
Nettles: planted right next to my porch so I always know I have a supply!
9. More herbs to add for nourishing the body cells, easing symptoms of inflammation, and healing:
ginger, turmeric, cinnamon*, cayenne, and Devil's claw. (*Please use real Ceylon cinnamon, not the grocery store variety of cinnamon.)
Turmeric Ginger Anti-inflammatory syrup recipe
Turmeric butter, anti-inflammatory butter recipe
10. Burdock root and dandelion root:
Nourishing the liver and adding essential fatty acids to the diet heals the body. Both of these roots can be eaten in soups, stir fries, stews, and grated (raw) into a slaw salad or grated to put on top of a green salad. Making an infusion and drinking 3 to 4 cups daily is healing as well. An infusion is a medicinal strength herbal tea. Need help on how to brew an infusion?
11. Nature's Path:
Find that place outside and get fresh air and sunshine (even on cloudy days) every day. Visualize a potted plant, shoved in the bottom of a closet, no fresh air or sunshine. What do you think will be the outcome for that plant? Put this common sense in action in your life. All living beings need fresh air and sunshine, period, bottom line! Embrace it, love it, find time every single day. I promise, you will not regret it.
Putting your body in direct contact with the Earth is called Grounding. Think bare feet walking on a sunny day, cloudy day, even a rainy day. Try removing as much clothes as possible and lie right down on the ground getting as much Earth contact as possible.
Below zero and snow you say? There are Grounding mats you can buy. I will not profess any knowledge or experience around these things as I have never used them. I have clients who swear by them for relief of body aches and pains.
12. Acupuncture:
I would be horribly remiss if I did not tell you about the healing powers of acupuncture to reduce inflammation and move healing energy in the body. I recommend Shelby Connelly, Licensed Acupuncturist in Colton, NY: http://fiveelementsliving.com/
Not in the Northern NY State area? Find an acupuncturist from Tai Sophia, Maryland University of Integrative Health.
13. Yoga:
Does amazing things for healing! Find a yoga instructor knowledgeable in arthritis health and healing. Here in the Northern part of NY State, St. Lawrence County... I recommend Rebecca Rivers, Ellie Beeler, and Sarah Harris. Try the Yoga Loft & Trillium!
14. Reiki Energy Healing:
Find a Reiki practitioner to help bring calming relief to your body, mind, and spirit. I often recommend people take Reiki 1 training to learn to do Reiki healing on themselves.
Bottom Line:
1. Whole foods
2. Gluten-free eating, maybe grain free
3. Sugar free eating & drinking
6. Herbs
7. Acupuncture and energy healing
8. Yoga
9. Reiki
May this post inspire you to move forward in your life, to take self-responsibility for healing your own body. You know your body best and what it needs to heal.
Be well, relax, learn to heal your beautiful body through nature! If I can help you with your healing plan, you know where to find me. Contact Paula
PS Need some words of love & encouragement from happy clients & students?
Free Natural Health-Lifestyle Medicine Information to further encourage your Self Healing Skills:
- Principles of Whole Food Eating (Whole foods are the foundation for your healing plan.)
- Movement Magic
- Whole Health Lifestyle Choices
- Making Herbal Infusions
- Bone Health
- Making any recipe a Whole Food Recipe
- Microwave ILLS
- Gut Health
- Keeping blood sugar healthy
- Cook like a kitchen artist!
- Clean 15, Dirty Dozen list from Environmental Working Group
- Recipes