London-where to stay

Stay with Valerie Yates and David Green at their light, airy and comfortable Wellness Bed and Breakfast in Chiswick! It’s 1/2 hour from Heathrow and 1/2 hour from London and just down the street from the Turnham Green Tube. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quiet side street, lovely row homes, in the door and greeted by Reuben, the sweet-tempered and ancient dog. Tranquil Nikken Wellness Rooms, complete with air and water filters and a shower filter, too. Yummy healthy breakfast choices in the bright and cheery kitchen and the stellar company of Valerie and David!

Advertisement

Preparing for a Trip

 

I’m leaving for London in the morning. Last minute packing- thoughts about the weather, so I check it out. Here is a cool site listing multiple weather sources. Throwing in a raincoat, you never know in London. Here are the things I bring specifically for the flight: handwipes- natural, nothing with dangerous triclosan. In my purse I have perx organix individual towelettes infused with herbs known to have anti-bacterial properties. I’ll wipe down my seat belt fastener, seat rests, tray table. I’ll also use when I return from the toilets and before eating. I bring a simple nose spray to hydrate my sinuses. Emergen-C packets are easy to pack and to add to water to keep my immune system alert and ready to deal with anything in the air. And I’ve got to go look for my little personal air filter – because that air on a plane is just recycled- if someone sneezes in row P, you know everyone is going to breathe that sneeze, don’t you. Check out 21 tips for packing for a trip. Noise-canceling headphones are wonderful, or I just use earplugs because I find that some of my exhaustion from flying is from the engine noise. Dont forget to pack good snacks.

Sound of Chipmunks

It’s a crisp September morning and the sun is streaming in the kitchen window. Outside it’s noisy with the “chips” of chipmunks no doubt scurrying around gathering their food for the winter. Their “chipping” is thought to be warning of a threat – like, “hey, you’re on my turf, I’ll make noise to annoy you so you’ll go away.” They store food but don’t store fat, so they snack on their stash all winter. I’ve seen their tracks in the snow. They live 2-3 years. National Geographic will tell you more. The chipmunk has often been portrayed in cartoons. Here is my favorite chipmunk music video:  The Chipmunk Song

What Happens When We Turn on the Heat

It’s the end of September and the nights are getting frosty. Soon the days will be frosty, too, and I’ll start dressing in layers, socks and slippers. But there always comes a time when I am too cold to play the piano or sit at the computer and I think about turning on the heat. I like to wait as long as possible and use the wood stove in the living room to heat the house but it really only over-heats and dries out the living room even though I have fans to move the heat into the kitchen and hallway and up the stairs. And eventually I have to turn on the oil burner.

There are several things that need to be done before I do. I have to vacuum the radiators or I get sick from the dust that starts to float around. Things get very dry when our heat gets on. Do you know that our homes can become dryer than the Sahara Desert which has 25% humidity? Our home can have as low as 10% humidity! With low humidity comes static electricity, dry skin, dryer sinuses and therefore a higher susceptibility to viruses and bacteria. We need to drink more liquids, use skin creams and find ways to put more moisture into the air. There are whole house humidifiers on the market as well as smaller room units that require adding water daily. Negative ions can help with the static electricity problems- It’s important that my air filters are at the ready because they help with the dust because they add extra ions into the air that bond with positively charged dust and also can help supply the missing charge from static electricity.

Cracking Knuckles – the Truth

 

Cracking knuckles has always been a subject of conversation, particularly when my kids were teenagers and were doing it for fun!?!  How many of you grew up with the fear that if you cracked your knuckles you would grow up to have arthritis? That your knuckles would get big and you would lose your strength and grip?  Well, in case you still hold that fear- fear not- there is no proof that any of this is true. My mother told me never to crack my knuckles, but I found that if I didn’t my fingers were tight and uncomfortable, not cracking was not an option, although I do try to massage my joints and stretch them often. I was so relieved to find out that there is no hard evidence to back up my mother’s (and your mother’s) fears. The sound is not something dire occurring to your bones, it is the sound of the release of pressure in the form of C02 inside the fluid sac that cradles your joint. You may have noticed that a person can only crack their knuckles once in awhile. This is because it takes awhile for the C02 to replenish itself in the joint. Arthritis is pain and inflammation of the joint and it it is not a result of joint cracking. What a relief. WikiHow does have a page on how to stop cracking your knuckles along with how to stop biting your nails and pulling your hair! They liken knuckle cracking to dislocating your shoulder, which might lead to soft tissue damage of the joint capsule. If you have lost your grip, or have swollen joints and hands, the cause might be the knuckle cracking. The question is why are you cracking your knuckles in the first place. If it is a nervous habit that you want to change then here is an interesting and thoughtful commentary from someone who also wants to break the habit.

______

Fall Allergies?

Anyone sniffling and sneezing from seasonal allergies? It’s time to pull out my ceramic neti pot, fill it with warm salty water and soothe my sinuses. Use of neti pot has been practiced for hundreds of years in India. Also known by a more clinical name as nasal lavage (I prefer neti) a saline solution washes dust, pollen, mucus gently from the sinus cavities as well as hydrating  Sound strange? It is, the first few times I attempted this I was very worried that it would be uncomforatable, like getting water up my nose from swimming. What I can tell you is that now it feels great, I can’t wait to get to it when I have allergies, the beginnings of a cold, post-nasal drip or have just returned from a long day in NYC or a long and dehydrating plane trip.

You can find neti pots online and often in your local natural food store. Here is a youtube demonstrating how to use!  There are numerous video’s- wish they were around when I was fumbling trying to figure out how to use it. You do ot have to use special “neti” salt, just finely ground sea salt with no additives is fine.

I have my Nikken Air Power 5 Pro right next to my bed every night. I run it 24/7. It senses pollutants and changes speed to accommodate dust and voc’s. Research shows that negative ions have a positive effect on our health.  Negative ions also clean and allow our internal environment to perform better. Negative ions neutralize positively charged pollutants in the air. Now that California is banning the use of air filters with ozone, Nikken stands alone as the air filter with a patented and safe process to create healthy negative ions.

 

Women to Women

 

 

 

Women to Women is a wonderful resource for those women who wish to take more control of their health. This group addresses stress and its relationship to women’s health. Founded by Marcelle Pick, OB/GYN NP, along with former partners Christiane Northrup, M.D., Mary Ellen Fenn, M.D., and Annie Rafter, RNC, their clinic was one of the first in health care for women, by women.”Our practice reflects the reality of how our bodies work: everything — the physical, the mental, and the spiritual — is connected…We honor each individual woman and the power her body has to heal itself — and her place in a mind-body-spirit continuum that makes her health in large part an expression of her life.” 

Take a free online hormonal profile which assesses your levels of stress and they suggest many options including risk-free trial of their holistic supplement line. Check out the library of useful articles ranging from dry eyes and hair loss to preparing for surgery, migraines, menopause and even money!

 

 

Flushing

 

If you don’t have a low flush toilet and will not be replacing your toilet soon but would like to conserve water fill up 1/2 gal plastic container with some sand and water and place in the tank of your toilet (away from the flushing mechanism) to save water when flushing.

How many times do your toilets get flushed during the day? You can calculate how many gallons you are saving by the volume of the container you place inside your toilet times the amount of flushes per person per day. 

Here are some tips on the new low flush toilets which are inexpensive to buy and install. Every little bit helps- isn’t that amazing?

R.I.C.E.R.

At a neighborhood party last night, Annie slipped and twisted her ankle. Everyone rushed around trying to help her. She was embarrassed, she needed space to lie down and collect herself. So what is the best treatment in a situation like this ?  R.I.C.E.R – remember this: Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevate, Referral for medical evaluation.

Here is a helpful site with good explanations about what a sprain is and how to treat a sprain including resting initially then getting into motion so that scar tissue won’t form, and warning not to do anything that causes pain. Some other helpful modalities Annie used are magnets and far infrared products that helped take down the swelling and increased circulation.

Nikken ankle wrap, elastomag, body energizer and power mag

Safe Cosmetics

Many of us are becoming more conscious about the quality of what we put on our skin. Our skin absorbs anything on it and transfers into our bloodstream. I recently reread the ingredients of my most favorite sunscreen lip gloss and gasped when I discovered “oxybenzone” as one of the ingredients. Oxybenzone has not been tested since the ‘70’s by the FDA and now is know to be a carcinogen…damaging DNA.  I am switching lip gloss brands! My friend Teresa just sent me this link to Organic Diva cosmetics that have been screened for cancer-causing ingredients.