Lavender – The one really essential oil

There are so many essential oils to choose from, but the one that I would never be without is lavender because it is really almost a medicine chest in a bottle. I thought I would remind you of how versatile it can be and how useful if you are travelling and limited in what you can take with you.

Let’s start with sleep; trials at the Radcliffe hospital in Oxford showed that patients who were offered a bath with lavender oil in it, or inhaling the oil before bedtime were able to dispense with sleeping tablets -and their side effects.

If you have been bitten by an insect, apply it neat onto the bite and it works just as well on spots or boils. You can also mix it with a base oil such as almond or grapeseed and massage it in to relieve aches and pains in your muscles. I am a great one for burning myself on the oven or the iron and you can again apply the oil straight onto the burn and it takes the heat out and prevents a blister forming.

As I work on a computer, I can find myself ‘spacing out’ and losing focus and so I then rub some lavender oil on the inside of my wrists and inhale to clear my head. It also works if you feeling down as the scent can help lift your mood.

For headaches just put a couple of drops on each index finger and gently rub into the indentation on either side of your forehead, just above your eyebrows but make sure you keep well away from your eyes – no rubbing them after you have put the oil on!

Remember with essential oils, you tend to get what you pay for so the cheaper the oil the less active ingredient is likely to be in there. It really pays to buy organic for something that has so many uses and is so portable.

Can snoring help weight loss?

This almost came into the ‘I don’t believe it’ category, but it is a valid piece of research and I shudder to think how people are going to exploit it. A new piece of research has been revealed that shows you can burn up to an extra 2000 calories a day if you are a heavy snorer. There is of course a known link between being overweight and snoring, but as a weight loss aid it’s a new one on me. I would have thought it’s the partner of the snorer that burns more calories from all that digging them in the ribs and rolling them over onto their backs, but what do I know?

The researchers have, not surprisingly, said they don’t know if the snoring is actually causing people to put on the pounds because they believe it might be. This comes from the fact that disturbed sleep patterns can alter the way your body metabolizes energy, and that could affect your weight. As a dietary regime I don’t think snoring will catch on, and one of the great dangers of heavy snoring is that it can be related to sleep apnoea. This condition needs to be taken seriously because it can reduce the oxygen content in the blood to dangerous levels.

Your online doctor will see you now

I know it can be tedious hanging around the doctor’s surgery – no matter what time the appointment it’s rare you get in there on time isn’t it – but a new trend from the USA could make that a thing of the past. We are now internet savvy; from banking to shopping online we are used to remote contact – but how do you feel about expanding that to include your doctor?

What do you do when you feel a cough, cold or sore throat coming on? Head to the pharmacy or make an appointment to see the Doctor. If you are a busy New York casting director you do a Star Trek and have the doctor beamed into your office. No, really! This chap just switched on his laptop where he has an account at something called hellohealth.com which is a ‘virtual’ doctor’s office. There, for a monthly fee, you can ‘visit’ by video link with a doctor to ask questions, get diagnosed, and have a prescription phoned to your nearest pharmacy to collect.

The doctors communicate in the modern way and you can connect via the internet, email or mobile, and it is certainly catching on in busy New York. Obviously the amount of diagnosis is limited over a video link, but as a first call to pick up any problems it does have its advantages. You get an appointment at your time of choosing and can talk online via video, e-mail a question or visit a Web site where, for a small fee, a doctor will answer your medical questions instantly.

The future is here … Ever pop into Asda? Well their American parent, Wal-Mart has set up clinics in some of their stores in Texas where patients speak via videolink to a physician who works in a central office. The doctor can see a patient’s throat and ears via a camera at the end of medical instruments. Emergency medical technicians at the clinics operate the instruments and do hands-on tasks such as taking blood pressure and temperature. A basic office visit costs $59. Got a medical question? If you need information on your medication or symptoms for measles then there are online sites that have various specialists on hand to give quick answers. Current charge is around $16 – roughly £9.81 per answer, so you might do better to use a great free service here in the UK. I find that NHS Direct does a good job for answering questions for free, and they are very helpful. If you want to try them they are on 0845 4647

Free way to boost immune system

Now I am a great believer in having the strongest possible immune system to combat illness, and in particular to prevent colds and flu in winter. To this end I have seasonal acupuncture and take Echinacea and vitamin C as well as juicing daily to get my ‘live’ vitamins and antioxidants.

Now I find I could cut my expenditure radically by just making sure I get a decent night’s sleep. I know this now, because Sheldon Cohen, who studies the effects of stress on health at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University has researched the effects of lack of sleep on health.

We already know from previous research that sleep boosts the immune system at the cellular level, but this new research shows that even the smallest reduction in your sleep can make you more susceptible to illness by reducing the effectiveness of your immune system to combat it.

If you are someone who tosses and turns at night between dozing and sleeping then you are more 5 times more likely to get sick than someone who sleeps undisturbed. If this is you, and you get more than the average number of colds in winter, then you need to spend some time working out what causes your sleeplessness and tackle it.

At this time of year you really cannot avoid being exposed to the cold virus unless you do a Michael Jackson and travel in your own portable isolation tent and oxygen mask. On the bus, train or office there is always someone who is sneezing, or incubating the cold virus to pass on to you so the most sensible plan is to do all you can to improve your ‘cold armour’ by keeping your immune system in peak condition.

I have had a sleep pattern of a couple of hours under and then awake and then back for another couple of hours for a number of years and although I manage to stay fairly healthy, I think I will try a lavender bath to relax me before bed and five drops from the handy bottle of Bach Rescue Night which I have found effective in the past.

Worldwide attitudes to regulating health

I know we often feel ‘nannied’ by the Government in many areas and health is certainly a prime one. There is the ‘no operation’ unless you lose weight/give up smoking lobby and the imposition of rules around tobacco and alcohol are no longer questioned. But we are not alone in facing new and increasing government interference in what was once nobody’s business but our own?

I reported last year on the new proposal in the US for government workers to have to pass a monthly medical or they get their health insurance cover paid, and what if the Government insisted on regularly checking your waistline once you hit 40?

Personally, I stopped checking it years ago and I don’t see what business that is of the Government’s but it is being proposed in Japan. Anyone deemed too fat would be forced to have dietary counselling and if they didn’t shift the weight there would be penalties both for them, and for their community. The Japanese government’s argument is similar to that of the public employee one in the US, in that it has to have an input of how people live because bottom line is that the Government pays for the consequences of their lack of health care. eg that it must regulate citizens’ lifestyles because it is paying their health costs.

In 2007 in the UK censorship for health reared its head over a TV ad when The Egg Information Service wanted to screen an advert, which featured comedian Tony Hancock, to celebrate its 50th birthday. The offending item came in an iconic series of ads made in the 1950′s and whose slogan encouraged viewers to ‘go to work on an egg’. The advertising watchdog said went against the principle of eating a varied diet and refused to allow it to be shown.

Oh, and if you are fed up with all this and thinking of emigrating, I wouldn’t put New Zealand on your list unless you are healthy and slim, or willing to diet. Their government banned an overweight man and his wife from entering the country on the grounds that their obesity would “impose significant costs … on New Zealand’s health or special education services.” It had the right effect as he lost weight and was allowed in, but his wife couldn’t stick to the regime and had to stay home.

If you don’t watch your weight in Germany you are named as being “antisocial” for the amount of money you are costing the state in medical treatment.

If you know of a nice country that allows you to take responsibility for your own health then let me know and I will compile a list.

Cutting the cost of travel vaccinations

One of the drawbacks to foreign travel, at least to me, is the number of vaccinations that you seem to be required to have. I am travelling to the Far East this month and was told I had to have Typhoid, Teteanus, Polio, Hepatitis A and Malaria. I am not a fan of vaccinations unless absolutely essential, as they do have side effects. The most serious to me is that they do compromise your immune system, and these are some of the others:

Headache, Itching, Loss of appetite, Fever, Nausea and vomiting, Anaphylaxis (extreme allergic reaction), Redness or pain and swelling around injection site, A general feeling of being unwell.

I like to keep my immune system as healthy as possible to naturally ward off infection and illness so I phoned my favourite homoepathic chemist and asked if there were any effective alternatives to these vaccinations. I was assured there were certainly were, and I was sent a neat set of little bottles to take one a day for the next 10 days. If homoeopathy is good enough for the Royal Family it is certainly good enough for me, and there is an additional bonus that doesn’t worry them, in that it is a huge cost saving. My remedies cost me £13, including postage, and the cost quoted at a Travellers Clinic was the best part of £150 which seems an awful lot of money to me.

I will let you know how I get on, and if you want to find out more then call Galen Homoeopathics on 01305 263996

Is gardening the new gym workout?

I love two for one offers, and apparently gardening is not only going to provide you with lots of organic fruit and vegetables, and flowers to brighten your life, but apparently it has now been declared healthy, too.

A report from the American Society for Horticultural Science (30 December 2008), has given us the glad news that being fit is not just about eating fewer calories but it also provides the right amount of recommended physical activity for the over 60′s. It’s generally recommended that for optimum fitness you need at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity on most days of the week – which can be hard to fit into a schedule, and as my readers know I am full of admiration for those who have the discipline to go the gym regularly, but I have no intention of joining them.

But gardening is a pleasurable activity and one that is very popular; previous research has shown that it results in improvement in mental health and depression and a recent study from Kansas State University wanted to find out how it could affect fitness compared to such activities as jogging, swimming, or weight training. They anticipated good results on bone density because of the weight bearing activities related to gardening – mowing the lawn, digging holes, pulling up weeds, pushing the wheelbarrow in case you are interested – because all these tasks involve, using all the muscle groups in the body.

Obviously the time you spend in the garden varies according to the time of year from up to 33 hours a week in May down to 15 hours a week in June and July – and it does depend on what part of the country you live in. As we get older we are risk of having less strength, endurance, flexibility, balance, and a healthy heart but we are also less likely to exercise because we find it boring. Gardening is a year round physical activity that engages our mind and our body and now we can also cite is as our ‘free and natural gym’. No membership required, but I am wondering how I can spend 33 hours a week on a balcony 6 feet by 3 feet – does sitting watching the garden grow count do you think?

Get moving in the morning – In 60 seconds

We read a lot about ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder), but mostly in relation to children. However, children grow up and they don’t necessarily grow out of the disorder but they usually learn to manage it. One of the challenges can be the task of getting out of bed in the mornings and getting on with the day.

If this is you, then here’s a simple 60 second plan to overcome this – and it works whether you have ADD or just difficulty getting out of bed! All you have to do is open your eyes, sit up in bed and breathe gently and slowly while giving yourself a gentle face massage just like this:

1 Breathe in and as you slowly breathe out stroke the sides of your nose from your eyebrows downwards, using the knuckle of your thumbs.

2 Next out breath, move your thumbs up to the middle of your forehead and stroke outwards over your brow. Repeat 5 times and on the last time let your knuckles move down to end in that hollow on either side of your temple.

3 Again using your thumb knuckles, take a deep breath and as you breathe out apply some light pressure and massage with a circular motion until you have no breath left. with a bit of pressure, massage that area of your temple, right in the dip. Continue the massage until you’re out of air from that breath.

4 Next breathe in, move your thumbs down to that small hollow just in front of where your ear lies and massage that as you did before.

5 Moving down your face, stop at the next small hollow where the bottom of your ear lies, and near the top of your jawbone. Massage again until you are out of breath. Take another slow even deep breath, and find the last dip just inside the spot the bottom of your ear attaches to your face. This one’s right near the top of the jaw bone at your temple, right in the dip. Massage that dip until you’re out of breath.

6 Final breath in, and now move round to massage the curve of your ears as you breathe out. Repeat once more.

Now you should be ready to face the day.

Kids health and new media dangers

We have touched on this before but with the average child now spending 7 hours a day on various forms of media it bears looking at again. Most Christmas lists will have at least one or two electronic ‘toys’ on them, plus the ones already in the home. New research from the National Institutes of Health, Yale University and California Pacific Medical Center in the USA has yet again emphasised the problems between high media consumption and children’s health problems.

This is not the usual concerns about too much violence, though they have their place, this is specifically focused on the effects on childrens health and the ‘new media’ area has not so far been put under the spotlight. Just what is ‘new media’? Well it encompasses everything from the internet to mobile phones, texting, video games, and social networking sites like YouTube and Twitter. Many youngsters organise their whole social lives on YouTube and one local family near me had their home trashed when their teenage daughter posted her birthday invitations on the site and got 100 gatecrashers instead.

The researchers found that the greater the exposure to the internet, TV, movies, music and technology a child has then they have correspondingly higher health risks. So what are they risking? Primarily obesity but they also are more likely to smoke, drink and use drugs – three other key health risks. There is of course a follow on effect and they are also likely to be poor performers at school as well. What’s the cure? Well, back to the family – limit the amount of time spent on this media at home. You can have little impact outside it so it’s important to have home boundaries and don’t add to the electronic stockpile this Christmas – don’t buy them an Xbox, think outside it.

No fumes nail varnish and sweet hairspray

A major drawback to nail polish, and remover, to me is the terrible acetone smell, plus the fact that many of the chemicals they contain dry out your nails. If you want to give a natural present then Suncoat Water-based Nail Polish costs £10.95 8ml and is part of a range of eco-friendly and primarily vegan products from Canada.

These revolutionary and award-winning products are fast-drying, long-lasting and have a wonderful range of colours using natural mineral pigments to produce pearlised, matt and soft metallic finishes. They don’t smell like conventional nail polish because water vapour is released instead of fumes from chemical solvents and, uniquely, they do not contain any harmful chemicals such as phthalates, formaldehyde, toluene, alcohol or even acetates and are non-flammable. You can then take them off with no fumes either as their Nail Polish Remover, can be used for both Suncoat water -based and conventional nail varnishes. It is gentle, moisturising and virtually odour free and will costyou £12.95 for 60ml. If you don’t do nail varnish, another great natural idea from the same people is a Sugar-based Hair Spray, which I admit doesn’t sound immediately appealing but has some great benefits. It has all the long-lasting hold, volume and versatility of a conventional hairspray but without synthetic resins or alcohol. Enriched with vitamin E so it will not dry the hair, brushes out easily and is suitable for all hair types. And the sugar? Well it uses sugar-biopolymers (polysaccharides) to give body and medium hold to hair, without harming us or the environment and provides antioxidant protection for hair and scalp. A sweet price too at 8.95 for 60ml.

These products are only available by mail order from www.simply-nature.co.uk, so if you want to buy a great stocking filler give them a ring on 01580 201 687 and cross one more person off your list!

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