5 Essential Items for Healthy Travel

Vacations are good for us. Taking time to rest, relax, and spend time with loved ones can revitalize our bodies as well as our minds. Unfortunately, with travel often comes stress, lack of sleep, changes in daily routines, and unfamiliar and unfriendly microbes found in new environments. These can take a toll on our immune systems and make us more vulnerable to illness and infection. Getting sick can ruin any holiday, so take along these five essentials to reduce your risk.

5 Ways to Prevent Cavities and Heal Teeth Naturally

Most people think of tooth decay as an inevitable aspect of aging. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, three in four people in the United States have dental restorations, one in five people have untreated cavities, and nearly one in four adults aged sixty-five years and older have no teeth left at all. Poor dental health may be common, but it’s not necessarily a normal part of getting older.

Turmeric Tea for Colds and Flu

Turmeric has a long history as both a food and a medicine. Traditionally it has been used to treat small pox, arthritis, liver disease, digestive problems, menstrual disorders, and cancer, as well as respiratory conditions and infections.

The Health Benefits of Shrubs

Shrubs are a refreshing combination of sour and sweet. Also known as drinking vinegars, these beverages date back centuries. They are traditionally made with vinegar, fruit, spices, and sugar. Shrubs likely started as a way to preserve summer harvest but they have medicinal benefits as well.

Why You Should be Eating Organ Meats and an Easy Paté Recipe

Organ meats were the original multivitamins. Inexpensive and nutritious, they were also a staple in the diet of generations past, before nose-to-tail eating became trendy.  Organ meats are a much denser source of nutrients than the muscle meats that account for most of our protein intake in the United States. Both are good sources of essential amino acids, but unlike muscle meats, organ meats are richer in omega-3 fats, vitamin D, and coenzyme Q10, a compound used by every cell in the body to generate energy.

Placentophagy and a Postpartum Smoothie

Placentophagy is the practice of consuming placenta after childbirth. It's common among mammals and gaining popularity with humans too, especially after celebrity moms have endorsed it as a way to ward off postpartum depression, increase milk production, replenish nutrients, and speed recovery after delivery.

Gestational Diabetes: Prevention and Natural Treatment

 

“You have an entirely different body now,” my midwife said at a routine prenatal visit during my second trimester. While that’s not completely true – I would jump at the chance to trade in the bulging disc in my lumbar spine for a new, healthy one – it is partially accurate. The pregnancy hormones that drive the growth and development of a baby can alter the environment inside the mother’s body in unpredictable and unwanted ways. Among these, the body may change how it makes and utilizes insulin, which creates problems controlling blood sugar levels. Approximately one in ten pregnant women develop gestational diabetes and it’s becoming increasingly common.