Flu Season- What Will You Do?

If you know me, then you know I like to treat my body naturally and have no intention of having a flu vaccine. I did however decide to do some investigating because it interested me that more people are being vaccinated, yet more people are getting the flu.  Vaccination each year is regarded as the single best way to prevent seasonal flu – WHY??? I say WHY.

Let us take a look at the effectiveness of the flu shot

 The Centers of Disease Control – CDC reported for the 2016/2017 flu season that the vaccine was 39% effective. I know that is pretty bad isn’t it? It is their study too! They have stated that this year's vaccine is only "moderately" effective. Actually the best method to avoid the spread of seasonal flu is to adopt a rigorous hand hygiene approach, with proper hand washing being essential, according to the CDC. So if the CDC know that the best prevention is hand washing why are we still hearing “Vaccination each year is regarded as the single best way to prevent seasonal flu”. That is not a real question, we know why RIGHT?

OK so what is up here people? Well the problem is that the frequency and quality of hand washing among the general population is poor. Did you know that 1 in 5 people don't wash their hands and of those that do only 30% use soap.  The CDC recommends 15-20 seconds of vigorous hand washing with soap and water to effectively kill germs.

Some Health loving Simple Techniques For You

 Make a Turmeric Paste

Turmeric is an immune-boosting spice. Just take equal parts organic turmeric powder and raw honey and mix it into a paste. At the first hint of a cold, take 1 tsp of the paste every two hours until you're feeling better. To make the formula more potent, mix 16 parts turmeric to 1 part black pepper and make a paste with equal parts ghee and honey, and you've got a pretty amazing cold remedy.

Sinus and Immune Essential Oil Blend

Ingredients:

4 Tsps Sunflower Seed Oil
15 Drops Rosemary Essential Oil
15 Drops Eucalyptus Essential Oil
15 Drops Peppermint Essential Oil
15 Drops Frankincense Essential Oil
15 Drops Myrrh Essential Oil
8 Drops Geranium Essential Oil

Directions:

Combine all oils and store in a dark glass container.
Oil can be rubbed below nose, to help with seasonal or environmental threats, or on temples to help with head tension associated with sinus pressure.

Put Oil in Your Ear

Putting a few drops of warm oil in your ear at night—sesame oil, mustard seed oil, or ear oil—lubricates the upper Eustachian tube and the cervical lymph nodes in the neck. Your lymphatic system carries your immune system. If the cervical lymph nodes get dry, you get swollen glands, which means the immune system is stuck in traffic. You want to keep the nodes lubricated so the glands are more effective at getting rid of any bad bacteria that might accumulate.

Start Oil Pulling or Swishing

Your mouth is your first line of defense against a cold. Oil pulling or swishing with herbalized oils takes away bad bacteria and boosts good immune-boosting bacteria in your mouth. Oil pulling has been in use for thousands of years. 

How to do it

Blend together:

½ T of fresh, uncooked, cold-pressed sesame oil

½ T organic coconut oil

1/4 tsp. ground turmeric

Take about 1 tablespoon of this oil mixture and chew it, suck it through your teeth, and swish around your mouth, for 10 and up to 20 minutes each morning before brushing your teeth. Spit out and rinse with water.

Daylight Savings Time

Each year, in the wee hours of a Sunday morning in March, the pesky little time gremlins banish 60 minutes from our lives, and will not give it back until November!

Daylight Saving Time was created to make better use of the long sunlight hours of the summer.

But where did Daylight Saving Time come from? And how is it useful?

The idea was first suggested in an essay by Benjamin Franklin in 1784, and later proposed to British Parliament by Englishman William Willett 1907. However, it did not become a standard practice in the United States until 1966. Daylight Saving Time was originally instituted in the United States during World War I and World War II in order to take advantage of longer daylight hours and save energy for the war production. Congress passed the Uniform Time Act in 1966, which standardized the length of Daylight Saving Time for the country.

Advocates in support of Daylight Saving Time suggest that in addition to reducing crime and automobile accidents, extended daylight hours also improve energy conservation by allowing people to use less energy to light their businesses and homes. Opposing studies argue the energy saved during Daylight Saving Time is offset by greater energy use during the darker autumn and winter months. Newer studies also are showing some major health risks associated with Daylight Saving Time. My own opinion is “STOP – Leave It Alone”. It seems very annoying to keep changing the clocks and I never did see any benefits myself. 

Each U.S. state and territory is free to ignore daylight savings time, so residents of Arizona (except those on the Navajo Nation), Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and other territories have the sense to not participate in this folly. 

Here in Alaska, Daylight Saving Time Gremlins will confiscate our 60 minutes on Sunday March 11th at 2:00 AM.

Your Health and Daylight Saving Time

This will also have an effect on your own body clock and for a few days your body might feel a little more sluggish and tired. Your immune system might also be affected and you could be more at risk to colds, coughs and sore throats.

Changing the clocks does not create extra daylight, but it shifts the time the sun rises and sets. This can cause disruptions to our body clock, otherwise known as the circadian rhythm.

Setting your clock forward 1 hour for Daylight Saving Time in spring might mean losing an hour of sleep on the morning after the change. For some people, this may just be a minor annoyance. However, the lack of sleep can have unfortunate effects in those predisposed.

• A Swedish study showed that heart attack risk increased 10 percent the Monday and Tuesday following the beginning of Daylight Saving Time. The health risk was tied to sleep deprivation, a change in circadian rhythms, and a slight shock to the immune system due to the time change.

• A recent study from Finland, showed that in the two days following a clock change (either in the fall or spring), the overall risk of stroke rose by 8 percent

• Tiredness induced by the clock change is thought to be the main cause for the increase in traffic accidents on the Monday following the start of Daylight Saving Time.

• On Mondays after the start of Daylight Saving Time there were more workplace injuries, and the injuries were of greater severity compared with other Mondays.

• The start of Daylight Saving Time has also been linked to miscarriages for in vitro fertilization patients.

• Some research has shown that fatal car accidents increase the Monday after we lose an hour, likely due to sleep deprivation. 

• An Australian study found that male suicide rates increased the days after the spring and fall Daylight Saving Time shift.

•  Researchers from Penn State found that losing just 40 minutes of sleep has been correlated to an increase in surfing the web, checking Facebook, and more unproductive activity. In fact, entertainment-related Internet searches spike the Monday after the beginning of daylight saving time, compared to other Mondays before and after.

 

Whether you like it or not the clocks will change for us Alaskans, so here are some ideas to help you through the change

Color and Light

Blue light exposure can be helpful during the day—especially in the morning and early afternoon. Research shows exposure to blue-light during daytime hours can be beneficial in several ways, including:
• Reducing daytime sleepiness
• Speeding reaction times
• Elevating alertness
• Strengthening attention span

30 minutes of blue-light exposure in the morning led to better working memory performance and faster reaction times, compared to other light exposure.

Getting as much sunlight as possible during the day and keeping your home well lit will 

Reflexology 

Rub the above points thoroughly, morning and night.

Essential Oils

Having a hard time getting out of bed? Try a diffuser blend for a great morning wake-up call. You can use a Reed Diffuser or an Electric Diffuser.

Reed Diffuser

You can use  many variations of essential oil to make custom blends, just remember you need 20 drops of essential oil for each 1/4 cup of fractionated coconut oil.

•  Add fractionated coconut oil and essential oils to bottle. Gently swirl to mix oils together.

• Add the reeds into bottle. Let the reeds soak up the oil for one hour, then flip them over.

•  Enjoy the aroma, you will occasionally need to flip the reeds to freshen the smell.

 

 

Electric Diffuser

 

Besides these tips, going to bed 30 minutes earlier the week before would be a great idea. 

Thank You for reading

Brenda