Back to school means back to cold season!

The common cold is an inflammation of the upper respiratory tract caused by viral infection which can affect the nose, ears, bronchial tubes, and sinuses. Your more likely to "catch" a cold when you are around lots of people for instance school kids and teachers. Instead of using strong medications there are many other ways to soothe your cough.

Zinc lozenges can be taken. If you are not taking a multivitamin you might not be getting enough zinc in your system depending on your diet of course. Adding more zinc would help reduce the duration of a cold. It is recommended to take a lozenge every 2 to 4 hours during the day but not to exceed 6 to 12 a day depending on age.

Astragalus root is used in chinese medicine. It is an antioxidant that has also been suggested for other conditions such as heart disease and can be used to strengthen your immunity. You can find this in capsules, tea, or extract. However, this is not recommended for pregnant women or children.

Garlic is one of the more common cures which can be used in chicken soup and hot drinks. Allicin is the cold fighting compound in garlic. In order to get the max of allicin you should use raw garlic chopped or crushed. You are also able to find this in pill form. The downfall of this can be bad breath and body odor.

Vitamin C is the most popular remedy. If taken orally in doses of 200 mg or more it can reduce the duration and severity but does not prevent the inflammation. If you have children this is going to be one of the easiest one to get them to take since the chewable tablets are pretty tasty! I definitely didn't mind taking them as a kid. Do not exceed 2000 mg of Vitamin C though as this can cause diarrhea.

Honey is another easy one to get children to take. This can calm a childs cough and help them get a deeper sleep. It is believed to have antioxidants and antibacterial effects. Dark honey, such as buckwheat honey, is higher in antioxidants. You can take this as a teaspoon or added in a hot drink.

My personal favorites are honey and vitamin C or even both combined. I normally put honey in warm orange juice and even sometimes add just a little lemon juice to calm a scratchy throat. I have also used this with my daughter as well. Other things that can be used is lime juice in warm water, echinecea, ginsing, and ginger which can be found in tea form at most health stores and are pretty tasty as well.


{Picture via www.thekitchn.com}

Should you jump on the gluten free bandwagon?

Gluten is found in grains such as rye, barley, or wheat. These grains are found in many things that you don't even realize til you are on the diet. The gluten free diet started out for people with celiac disease, which is an autoimmune disease. It is under diagnosed 97% of the time. It is also common in 1 in about 250 people in the United States. People with celiac disease are unable to digest gluten correctly which then causes one or many different things from skin, bowel, or developmental issues. The GFCF diet is gluten free and casein free diet. Casein is a protein from milk so its also in cheese, butter, yogurt, ice cream, whey and some brands of margarine.

The gluten free or GFCF diet has recently been proven to help with many other disorders. Some of these disorders consist of autism, M.S., PDD, IBS, eczema, psoriasis, arthritis, diabetes, and the list has continues to grow with more people trying this diet for other medical issues. This diet does take time to show any improvement in most cases. It can take your body up to 6 month to completely get rid of gluten.

The biggest concern with this diet is that you or your child is not getting enough nutrition. The only major things that you will possibly lack while on this diet are calcium and copper. Many times lack of certain nutrients can be fixed with some sort of vitamin.

Most of my research starts with trying to find different cures for eczema and autism. I have already read so many praises on the GFCF diet for autism that I am pretty much convinced. I just recently started researching this diet for eczema, which is mostly caused by food allergies and in infants its mostly caused by milk and/or gluten. Eczema is an autoimmune disorder which can lead to other issues like asthma. The body is unable to break down gluten proteins which causes the body to be under a large amount of stress that then causes and inflammatory reaction. It seems to me that this would work great for eczema just like autism.

So should you jump on the bandwagon? I would say if you or your child has a medical issue that seems like it would benefit from this diet, then go for it! Of course make sure you are getting the nutrients your body is missing out on too! If you don't have a medical issue then its not really necessary and personally I like my pasta and breads and I'm not sure that I could give them up since it is unnecessary for myself. However, I have tried many recipes as I have had my daughter on this diet and I can tell you most things you can't tell the difference in taste but some are mostly texture difference which my husband can't stand. This diet can get very expensive so if you decide to try it out then definitely learn how to make some things yourself instead of buying all the specialty products.

Budget Friendly Green Cleaning Products

I don't know about you, but I don't like the smell of chemicals in my house after a day of cleaning. Of course, I do want it to smell clean but now that I am 7 months pregnant smells already bother me and then for them to be harsh just makes it worse. There are three items in your house that you probably didn't even realize can be used instead of these horrible smelling cleaners. These items are baking soda, vinegar, and lemons.

The first of these, baking soda, is one of the most amazing product you will find. You can use it for to freshen up your carpet, sprinkle the powder over your carpet, let it sit for about 15 minutes and vacuum up. Also unclogging a drain, take 1/2 cup baking soda and 1/2 cup salt, pour down the drain followed by boiling water. Let it sit over night then flush it out with regular tap water. I'm sure baking soda will definitely come up again in some of my other blogs since it just seems like endless possibilities with that little box.

Vinegar is a great disinfectant and deodorizer! Mix 1 part vinegar and 1 part water in a cheap spray bottle for an all purpose cleaner that can be used at anytime. You should make sure it is diluted as vinegar can be acidic and should not be used on marble! You can use undiluted vinegar in the bathtub, toilet, sink, stove top, and also as a fabric softener (which is great for families that have skin problems). To use as a fabric softener put 1/2 cup in during the rinse cycle it is very effective on breaking down laundry detergent.

Lemon juice can dissolve soap scum and hard water deposits, it can shine brass, and copper. It can also be mixed with vinegar or baking soda to make a cleaning paste. My favorite in reading about this great product that normally just sits in my fridge is you can mix 1/2 cup lemon juice with 1 cup olive oil for a furniture polish! I was paying so much for furniture polish that seemed to be gone in weeks since all the furniture we have is wood!

I personally have used many of these for the bathroom and kitchen but I can't wait to get to my cleaning this week just to try out the furniture polish and to find even more ways these products can be used!

Choosing between Flaxseed Oil and Omega-3 Supplements

While doing a lot of research for many different medical problems for friends and family I kept running across Flaxseed oil. I then remembered my mother using flaxseeds in many different things while I was growing up. So I researched the pros of flaxseed oil which sounded amazing at first. The pros that I have found are it can decrease your risk for coronary heart disease, arthritis, cancer, skin problems such as acne, eczema, and psoriasis, and helps improve responses to stress. It also soothes ulcers and IBS, lubricates and absorbs toxins, prevents toxic build up in bowel, and acts as a buffer for excess stomach acids. If you decide to use flaxseed seeds be sure to grind them so they can be absorbed by your body. However, after saying all of this, there are some side effects to note, such as, easy bruising, severe headache, or signs of allergic reaction. These side effects would have to come from a large amount of flaxseed and not the recommended dose.

As I was reading about the side effects from flaxseed supplements I kept reading about Omega-3 oils. Omega-3 is part of flaxseed supplements (in a much smaller dosage) so I continued to research it. Omega-3 pros consist of maintaining good blood pressure and cholesterol levels, give relief from joint pain, migraines, depression, autoimmune diseases, improves brain development and memory function, and help control ADHD. Can you imagine how much better kids would be taking a natural supplement like Omega-3 instead of Ritalin?! How much money would parents save?! There are no major side effects from Omega-3, however, if you are pregnant, allergic to fish or already have a known health condition you should check with a doctor first. FDA recommends no more that 3 grams of combined EPA and DHA per day, which isn't an issue if you follow the recommended dose on the container for your Omega-3.

Going over both of these has convinced me that Omega-3 is the better choice for myself as I suffer from joint pain that comes from years of running and also migraines. Without insurance my migraine medicine can break most peoples bank so I am going to try the Omega-3 out (after my pregnancy of course) and hopefully it'll save just a little bit more in my pocket. For the people that I was doing this research for to begin with I also believe the Omega-3 would be the better choice except for one who suffers from eczema, I have yet to read anything about Omega-3 and any skin disorder but my research will continue!

{Picture via Beatdownacne.com}