Natural Ways to Keep From Catching a Cold

You know that antibiotics don't cure colds, right? Well, did you know there are natural ways to keep from catching a cold? It's true that the occasional virus might slip through all safety measures, but it's certainly within our power to reduce the number of times that we are laid low by the common cold. And no I'm not a doctor and if you are sick or need medical advice, you should probably call one. Now, onto my practical tips that (in my humble opinion) have helped me to keep myself and my family from getting sick so often.

HANDWASHING is perhaps the most important and well publicized means of avoiding illnesses of all kinds.


KEEP YOUR HANDS AWAY FROM YOUR FACE! My mom is a stickler about not touching our faces (nose, eyes, mouths) with our hands. She says that when she was a kid they actually had a place on their report cards where they were graded on keeping their hands away from their faces! Since this is a favorite way for germs and viruses to enter our bodies, we probably should start teaching this rule to school children again!

DRINK A HOT BEVERAGE! I read where it's a good idea to drink a cup of something like tea as hot as you can stand it at least once a day to clean out the cooties from the back of your throat. It makes sense to me, so my kids all get a cup of hot green tea a day.

GARGLE WITH SALT WATER Another way to keep those germs to the curb that lurk in the back of our throats is to gargle with very warm salt water.

SWAB OUT THOSE NOSTRILS! Soak a Q-tip with salt water and swab out your nostrils once a day.

SKIP THE SUGARY SNACKS AND YES...EVEN JUICE! Sugar is not good for the immune system. Even a glass of orange juice has a negative effect on its germ fighting capabilities. Cold and flu season is especially not a good time to load up on cookies, candy and other bad carbohydrates for this reason.

VITAMINS Eat vitamin packed meals to give your body the weapons it needs to fight its way to good health should one of the nasty viruses break through our line of defense. If you don't get out in the sun, pay special attention that you are getting enough Vitamin D.

Those are my favorite, natural ways to keep from catching a cold. If I skipped any, would you please be so kind as to drop a comment and tell me your favorite ways to avoid catching a cold or flu?

NATURAL SKIN CARE TIPS

I thought I would share my natural skin care tips that will help your skin to look its best even when you don't have money for expensive creams...like me. I don't have time for an elaborate treatment program. In fact, some days around lunch I have to stop and think if I've washed my face or not that day. YET...I get lots of compliments on my skin so I must be doing something right.


And what I came up with is that it has to be my diet that is very rich in good stuff that I try to focus on to boost my family's immune system. Evidently, there is an added bonus to fighting illnesses...your skin is smoother and looks healthy!

While other moms are spending a lot of money for exfoliates and moisturizers, I'm buying cherries, berries and veggies that I hope are helping me to beat wrinkles, acne and dry, flaky skin. Here are some fruits and vegetables that may help you fight illness and look super! Natural foods may be one of the best, cheap and most effective remedies for illnesses and I believe that working on our skin from the inside out is a very good idea.

Natural cures and treatments are always best in my book. And since we have to eat why not buy foods that are nutrient rich and have disease fighting properties. The right foods will not only cleanse and protect our bodies' immune system but they will produce beautiful skin and a clear complexion with less acne (hello...teenage boys and girls, are you listening?).

Here are some of the foods that I buy either to eat raw or to use in my healthy old fashioned recipes for my family. Why don't you give them a try and see how much they improve your skin. It's true that good food is not cheap, but if you break it down you will see that they cost a fraction of the price of even discount creams and lotions.

YOU ARE WHAT YOU DRINK

In my humble opinion, colas are evil. They pack on pounds and I have to believe that drinking out of a mudhole might be more healthy in the long run. Well, not really but drinking colas is something I don't promote. On the other hand, I'm not a big fan of drinking fruit juices either because of sugar.

I prefer to drink water and green tea. I don't love the taste of green tea but it has been proven to reduce the damage of sunburns and overexposure to ultraviolet rays of the sun, which in turn reduces the risk of skin cancer.

As far as the benefits to your skin, green tea contains polyphenol which has recently been reported to reactivate dying skin cells. Holy Moly!!! That has to be one of the best natural skin care tips ever. This stuff might just be my own, personal Fountain of Youth.

IT'S FISHY BUT IT'S GOOD

I would eat tuna everyday but the mercury thing gives me pause. So, we eat a lot of sardines at my house. Yeah, we smell bad but our skin looks good. Probably because of the many, many essential fatty acides that protect our cell membranes healthy by keeping out harmful substances as well as allowing nutrients to enter cells and then leave carrying nasty waste products.

BERRY, BERRY NICE!

You know how you see some kids popping M&Ms and Skittles? Well, mine pop blueberries and strawberries. This is a good thing because of the antioxidants that attacks free radicals that can ruin skin cells.

Protecting our skin cells from disintegrating makes the skin look younger.

THAT WASCALLY WABBIT WAS WIGHT!

If Elmer Fudd ever manages to bag Bugs Bunny and shave him clean of hair, we will probably see an amazingly smooth and youthful hide! You see, carrots are an excellent source of vitamin A, which is a nutrient that skin loves because Vitamin A is required for developing and maintaining skin cells.

These natural skin care tips are not very exciting but you don't have to mix up a recipe and wear goo all over your body to reap the rewards! Give them a try for a couple of months..your skin and your bank account should be showing marked improvement by then.

HOW TO REMOVE A TICK FROM A PERSON

We had an incident yesterday that required me to refresh myself on how to remove ticks from a human. Dear hubby had gone out in the field to dump some grass clippings and apparently picked up an unwanted hitchhiker and before I would commit to helping him out, I went in search of the best method of removing ticks. Here are some tick removal tips.

HOW TO REMOVE A TICK

Clean the area with rubbing alcohol and then with clean tweezers grab the tick as close to where it has attached itself to the skin as possible.
If you don’t have tweezers handy, avoid handling the tick with your bare hands. Once you have a good hold, pull it straight out of the skin with a firm, steady motion WITHOUT SQUEEZING THE TICK’S BODY. Crushing the critter’s bulbous little body will cause it to regurgitate its stomach’s disease causing contents. And friend, if there is anything more disgusting in this world than tick puke I can’t name it.
Once you have removed and destroyed the tick, go over the area once again with rubbing alcohol and when dry, dab on some bacitracin ointment. Our doctor says bacitracin (available without prescription) is better than Neosporin.

I have one suggestion on how to teach your kids how to remove ticks from a human being; let them practice on the family dog. Growing up in the country, I had to remove ticks from dogs all the time that they picked up running through the woods and I got really good at it. For all practical purposes knowing how to remove a tick from a human is the same as knowing how to remove ticks from dogs except for the fact that my daddy’s hunting dogs were nowhere near as squeamish as my husband!

Return to Family Recipes, Babies and Parenting Issues to see if my patient feels that I did a good job or if (God forbid) the spot gets infected.