Mixing Honey and Garlic is Best For Your System

Sep 29, 2015

For centuries, people used natural remedies to boost their immune system. Nowadays, we tend to forget to boost our immune system and react after we are already ill.

The trick, however, is to provide your immune system with the tools and assets to fight illnesses. And when it comes to natural remedies, honey and garlic are on the top of the list of home and natural remedies you can find in your kitchen.

Honey and Garlic

These two ingredients look like total opposites but mix them together, and the result is one of the best mixtures to boost your immune system. The best way to maximize the potential of the mixture is to add raw honey into crushed garlic.

You can also use whole parts of the garlic, but crushing the garlic releases the natural enzymes into it and allows the enzymes to reach the maximum potential.

Health Benefits of Honey

Raw honey has been used in the medicine for centuries. Different cultures have a different use for the precious gem that is high in antitoxins and antiseptic. Honey is an excellent natural remedy thanks to the high amount of minerals, vitamins and enzymes it packs.

Honey also can be used to fight free radicals, serving as an antioxidant. In just one tablespoon, honey packs more vitamins and nutrients than most super foods. You can even say that a spoon of honey per day is better than the famous premise, “an apple per day keeps the doctor away”.

In the 20th century, honey was discarded from medicine due to the popularization of antibiotics, but some people still prefer it as an alternative medicine.

Health Benefits of Garlic

The first association people get when garlic is mentioned is probably Dracula and fighting vampires. But garlic is one of the healthiest foods you can get. For thousands of years, garlic has been used as a medicine by different cultures.

Ancient Egyptians, for example, used garlic as a medicine to treat ailments and infections. In Ancient Greece, athletes at the Olympic Games consumed garlic in an effort to enhance their performances.

Even Romans gave garlic to their soldiers and workmen. In India, ayurvedic physicians prescribe garlic as a medicine for rheumatism and prevention of heart diseases. In China, even from ancient times garlic has been used as a remedy for high blood pressure.

Nowadays, garlic is used to improve heart function, fight fungal infections and help us maintain regular blood pressure. But the most frequent use is to fight common flu and cold.

Honey and Garlic Sauce

The combination of sweet and sour gives this sauce an ideal taste, making it popular with dishes such as chicken wings. To prepare the sauce peel one head of garlic and then chop it and squeeze it.

Crush it until you get a transparent mixture. Now it is the time to add honey and you need approximately 200 grams of raw honey. Stir, and then put the mixture into a jar. You can keep the jar in the fridge, and consume half a spoon per day to boost your immune system.

The recommended dose is three doses of half a spoon per day. You can also add lemon or ginger tea for maximum health benefits.

Honey and roasted garlic

For the second mixture of honey and garlic, you can throw in some other healthy ingredients. For starters, you need 250 grams of honey and 10 cloves of fresh garlic.

Also included on the ingredient list is dry white wine (approximately 30ml), olive oil, fresh rosemary, cracked white peppercorns, and little sea salt.

Peel the garlic and stir with olive oil and white wine. Preheat the oven while you prepare the mixture. Place the stirred garlic on a baking paper and then on an oven dish. Sprinkle some salt and add rosemary springs.

Close the package with the baking paper and place it in the oven. Wait for 15 minutes, or wait until the smell of the garlic occupies the kitchen. After you extract the garlic from the baking paper, smash it with a fork.

Now, add honey and stir until you get a composite mixture. Pour the mixture into a jar and take one tablespoon per day. Your honey and garlic mixture can last two months.

http://www.gbcghana.com/1.7258169 

Natural home remedies: Colds and flu

It may be “just a cold,” but it’s nothing to sneeze at. And the flu can make you feel downright drained. Fortunately, fast action on your part—including these simple home remedies for colds and flu—can mitigate the misery

Natural home remedies: colds and flu

Is it a common cold or the flu? If your symptoms are above the neck—congestion, sore throat, sneezing, coughing—you probably have a cold. If you have all those symptoms plus a fever of 38.8˚C (102˚F) or more, headache, muscle aches, extreme fatigue, diarrhea, nausea or vomiting, you’re more likely to have the flu.

What you can do for colds and flu

• For a sore throat remedy  fill a 250 mL glass with warm water, mix in one teaspoon of salt and gargle away. The salt really does soothe the pain.

• Add a squeeze of lemon juice to a glass of warm water for the more traditional sore throat gargle. This creates an acidic environment that’s hostile to bacteria and viruses.

• Chicken soup is a time-honoured remedy that is tried, tested and true.Chicken soup stops certain white blood cells (neutrophils) from congregating and causing inflammation, preventing large amounts of mucus from being produced. The hot soup also thins the mucus. Adding freshly chopped garlic to your soup gives the system a powerful boost. While garlic kills germs outright, it also appears to stimulate the release of natural killer cells, which are part of the immune system’s arsenal of germ-fighters. Spike your soup with red (chili) pepper flakes to increase the broth’s decongestant power.

• Drink as much water as you can—eight or more 250 mL glasses—to keep mucous membranes moist and to help relieve dry eyes and other common flu symptoms. Fluids also help thin mucus so that it’s easier to expel.

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• To help keep mucus loose, stay in a moist, warm, well-ventilated room. To keep the air in your bedroom moist, place bowls of water near the air ducts or run a humidifier.

• Cut short your cold with a blow-dryer. As outlandish as it sounds, inhaling heated air may help kill a virus working its way up your nose. Set your hair dryer on warm (not hot), hold it at least 45 cm (18 in) from your face, and breathe in the air through your nose for as long as you can—at least two or three minutes—preferably 20 minutes.

• Wear wet socks to bed. Believe it or not, this soggy strategy can help ease a fever and clear congestion by drawing blood to the feet, which dramatically increases blood circulation. (Blood stagnates in areas of greatest congestion.) Best method: Warm your feet in hot water. Then soak a thin pair of cotton socks in cold water, wring them out and slip them on just before going to bed. Put a pair of dry wool socks over the wet ones. The wet socks should be warm and dry in the morning, and you should feel markedly better.

• Try soaking your feet in a mustard footbath. In a basin, mix 1 tablespoon of mustard powder in 1 L of hot water. The mustard draws blood to your feet, which helps to relieve congestion.

• Another oldie: try a mustard plaster for chest congestion. Grind up three tablespoons of mustard seeds, add water to make a paste, and then slather it on your chest. The pungent aroma helps to unclog stuffy sinuses, while the heat improves blood circulation and eases congestion. Don’t leave the plaster on for more than 15 minutes, however, or your skin may burn. You may want to smear on a bit of petroleum jelly before you apply the plaster to protect the skin.

• Breathe easy with steam. Pour just-boiled water into a large bowl. Drape a towel over the top of your head to trap the steam, and breathe in through your nose for five to 10 minutes. Don’t lower your face too close to the water or you risk scalding your skin or inhaling vapours that are too hot. To make steam inhalations more effective, add five to 10 drops thyme oil or eucalyptus oil to the water. Keep your eyes closed as you breathe in the steam, since both essential oils and steam may irritate your eyes. On the go? Dab a few tissues with eucalyptus oil and hold them under your nose whenever you feel congested.

A natural boost for colds and flu

• At the first hint of a cold, suck on a zinc gluconate lozenge every few hours. Don’t take zinc gluconate longer than a week, though, because excessive zinc can actually weaken immunity. Avoid zinc lozenges that contain citric acid or are sweetened with sorbitol or mannitol; these ingredients seem to weaken the mineral’s effectiveness.

• As soon as you notice cold or flu symptoms, start taking 500 mg of vitamin C four to six times a day. If you develop diarrhea, cut down on the dose.

• Take one 250 mg astragalus capsule, twice daily, until you’re better. This ancient Chinese herb stimulates the immune system and seems to be highly effective at fighting colds and flu. To prevent a relapse, take one capsule twice a day for an additional week after your symptoms are gone.

• Goldenseal stimulates the immune system and has germ-fighting compounds thatcan kill viruses. As soon as you begin to feel sick, take 125 mg five times a day for five days.

• At the first sign of the flu, take 20 to 30 drops of elderberry tincture three or four times daily for three days. Elderberry has been used in Europe for centuries to fight viruses.

• Oscillococcinum, commonly called Oscillo, is widely recommended by naturopaths and herbalists to reduce the severity of flu symptoms. Be sure to use it within 12 to 48 hours of the first appearance of your symptoms. It comes in packages of three to six vials. Buy the three-vial pack and take one vial every six hours.

• A dose of garlic—a natural antiseptic—will do a job on those viruses. If you’re feeling very brave, hold a small clove or a half-clove of garlic in your mouth and breathe the fumes into your throat and lungs. If it gets too strong as the clove softens, just chew if up quickly into smaller pieces and swallow with water.

• For a serious congestion-busting blast, buy fresh horseradish or gingerroot, grate it and eat a small amount. To guard against upset stomach, wait until after a meal to try this.

• Drink a cup of ginger tea. Ginger helps block the production of substances that cause bronchial congestion and stuffiness, and it contains compounds call gingerols, which are natural cough suppressants.

• During cold and flu season, take 20 to 30 drops of Echinacea tincture in half-cup of water three times daily.

Adapted from 1,801 Home Remedies, Reader's Digest

http://www.besthealthmag.ca/best-you/home-remedies/natural-home-remedies-colds-and-flu

The flu may hit one gender harder than the other

NEW YORK -- The next time a guy you know gets the flu, you may want to show him a little more sympathy.

A new study shows that men may be more likely to catch the flu than women and suffer more from the symptoms, CBS New York reports.

That's unfortunate news for many men, since experts say a flu-filled winter could be on the way.

"This year they are predicting that it's going to be a particularly bad year," said Dr. Jake Deutsch, clinical director at CURE Urgent Care, told CBS2's Maurice Dubois. Health officials say this year's flu vaccine is leseffective than usual against certain strains of the virus, leaving many people vulnerable even if they got a flu shot.

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Why you should still get a flu shot

The study from Stanford University School of Medicine found that the flu vaccine may be more effective in women than in men, and for women who do get the flu, the study found they are better at fighting the virus off.

"Are men less equipped to deal with infection? Technically, yes," Deutsch said.

The reason, according to the study that was conducted on mice, is the female sex hormone estrogen.

"The female mice that produced estrogen produced an enzyme and that enzyme was able to help them fight infection," Deutsch explained.

It may be a simple result of evolution. "There's an idea there that estrogen, which is native to women's endocrine system, is there because part of their role is to be nurturers. They have to take care of not only themselves, but their families," he said.

Some women, however, interpreted the findings a bit differently: as scientific evidence backing up what they already believed, that men are bigger babies when it comes to getting sick.

"They seem to whine more and they seem to want to ride it out longer," one woman told CBS New York.

"They think they don't need help and they don't accept help, and they don't take medicine," another woman said.

Of course, some men disagreed, but Deutsch had to admit he's seen signs of it himself. "Anecdotally, I can say that a lot of times guys are wimpier when it comes to being sick," he said.

The study could eventually help pave the way for new immune-boosting drugs.

"I think there is the possibility of somehow delivering the key elements of estrogen to men in a safe way in order to activate that enzyme," Deutsch said.

Doctors do not recommend that men take estrogen supplements, but they do suggest other ways of boosting immunity, including getting plenty of sleep and vitamin C.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/flu-hits-men-women-one-gender-harder-than-the-other/