by Michelle Moore on May 15, 2012
As summer and warmer weather draws near, staying well hydrated is crucial for your overall health and a strong immune system. Getting enough water each day is especially important if you have an active infection, or you have diarrhea from using antibiotics. Dehydration from antibiotics is also a very common problem.
It’s easy to forget to drink enough water throughout the day, especially if you’re active and on the go. And most common beverages could be doing your immune system more harm than good.
While a cold soda, sports drink or fruit juice can be a tempting refreshment on a hot day, water is a much better option for hydration and to support your immune system. Water is free from the immune-weakening sugar, unneeded calories and artificial ingredients found in most popular beverages.
A bit about beverage quality and quantity
It’s important to understand that water means water. Yes, there’s water in soda, coffee, tea, and many other drinks, but these are not meant to keep you hydrated. You can enjoy a cup of coffee or a soda, but make the following distinction in your mind: Most beverages are simply a treat, not a substitute for hydration throughout the day with water.
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Immune Boosting Foods
by Michelle Moore on May 8, 2012
This week I heard another amazing report about green smoothies and healing from chronic disease. While I often hear testimonials about the benefits of green shakes with Staph and MRSA infections, this latest report came from my mother. Her story is about an autoimmune disease she has struggled with for years that had been getting worse (see below for her own testimonial).
For many years my mother has suffered from scleroderma, a progressive disease similar to arthritis. The hardened joints in her hands have been painful and it makes her unable to hold or grab things well. It’s also made it more difficult for her to paint or make pottery, which she loves, and none of her medications seemed to help her much. She did enjoy some joint relief by taking certain supplements for her immune system, especially omega-3 oils. But recently she added green smoothies to her diet and experienced the biggest improvement yet.
Just a few weeks after starting the green smoothies, my mom’s symptoms started to improve. Eating one green shake every day or two, she now has more joint movement than she has had in years. Better yet, by drinking green smoothies, she’s wanting to eat even more healthier foods as well as reducing her sugar intake. She’s noticed another big shift by cutting down on sugar. Sugar is a major contributor to inflammation in the body. If “super foods” do exist, then green smoothies have to be one of them.
When I told my Mom I wanted to share her good news with others on how diet can make such a big difference with chronic conditions, she wanted to share a few words of her own:
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Immune Boosting Foods
by Michelle Moore on May 1, 2012
As a child I was highly allergic to wasp stings. Each sting was always worse than the last and eventually, a wasp sting meant a trip to the hospital. As a precaution, I began carrying an EpiPen (to prevent anaphylactic shock) in the outdoors in case of a sting.
A few years ago while camping in Colorado, I forgot to take along my EpiPen. On the last day or our trip, a bee flew in through the open window of the truck and stung me on the arm – the first sting I’d had in years.
At first I was really panicky, as we were in the back country and no where near a hospital. Thank goodness I had some essential oils with me and I remembered that lavender oil could help with bug bites. So I put a few drops onto the area of sting and gently rubbed it in. I kept putting more lavender on every 5-10 minutes. Long story short, my arm never got swollen or my skin red and I never had a reaction.
This amazing essential oil saved our camping trip and also saved me a trip to the hospital. Nowadays I take lavender oil with me everywhere I go and haven’t carried an EpiPen since.
A universal oil
Lavender is the essential oil that I use most often day to day. While there are stronger oils for a MRSA skin infection, you just can’t beat lavender for sheer number of uses. In fact, I consider this fragrant oil one of the top 10 additions to anyone’s natural medicine cabinet.
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Natural MRSA Remedies
by Michelle Moore on April 24, 2012
MRSA, Staph and other infecting bacteria can live on towels, clothing and can contaminate the inside of washing machines. MRSA laundry contamination provides an easy route for the bacteria to spread from person to person, or to re-contaminate a person who was recently infected. Did you know there are simple and inexpensive ways to reduce MRSA on clothing during washing and drying?
Staph and MRSA on clothing is an extra concern for families, schools, and athletic clubs where more than one person can share the same clothing and washing machine. Surface disinfecting, hand washing and good personal hygiene are all important ways to control an infection and keep it from spreading to others. But taking steps to kill MRSA laundry contamination is an often overlooked part of MRSA infection control.
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