Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Healthy Teeth

Many dentists and pediatricians will try to tell parents that their children need fluoride pills for healthy teeth. To me that sounded wrong. And when it doubt when something sounds wrong, get a second opinion. When I wouldn't give my son fluoride pills the hygienist said I needed to use fluorinated toothpaste on my two year old who can't spit, now that sounded really wrong. Since the package warns it should not be ingested. Dr. Hyman was my second opinion, and she confirmed my worries.
Fluoride isn't really that great when it comes to protecting teeth. There are a lot of natural products that are better for teeth health than fluoride, for example Myrrh. Apparently fluoride replaces calcium in our body and causes brittleness in all the places you don't want to be brittle. For small children a good toothpaste with natural substances in it can be found at a local health food store. We personally now use Animal Parade Children's Toothpaste.
Here is the booklist that Dr. Robin Hyman thinks is the top 10 about flouride:
Flouride: The Aging Factor by Dr. Yiamouyiannis -- the best researched and most comprehensive
Flouride Deception by Bryson -- new within the last year and excellent
Whole Body Dentistry by Mark A. Breiner -- Talks about all sorts of alternative dentistry
Elements of Danger by Morton Walker
Uninformed Consent by Hall Huggins / Thomas Levy
Roots of Disease by Robertt Kulacz / Thomas Levy
He recommended looking for a "biological dentist" in your area.
There might be a list of praticing biological dentists in in the Mark Breiner book.
I actually haven't gotten to my public library yet to check out the first book, but I am planning to read it.

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Sore or Stiff Muscles

To ease sore or stiff muscles, liberally apply arnica gel or cream.  Arnica can also be taken in the form of little homeopathic pills called Arnica Montana by Boiron.

Sciatic Pain

To treat sciatic pain, use Rhus Toxican--homeopathic remedy from Boiron.  This is very effective used over two or three days.

Pink Eye

To treat pink eye:  Make a compress of chamomile tea by steeping one tea bag of chamomile and 1/4 c. water.  This works for both viral and bacterial pink eye.  Repeat treatment as often as you can.
Compress can be made from eye make-up pads purchased at any drug store.  Soak the pad in the camomile tea and cover eye with it.  Adults can use the tea bag straight without making the pad compress.

Upper Respiratory Problems, Cough

For upper respiratory problems, never-ending cough, or boosting immunity, use elderberry syrup extract.
A good source for this is germandeli.com--often retail sources are not pure enough to work effectively.
Chapped lips or dry skin:  Apply coconut oil topically to the skin.  (Coconut oil comes as a solid in its natural state.)  Not only does coconut oil moisturize the skin, it also allows it to breathe and to heal more quickly.

This was suggested for little Evan's chapped neck caused by his drool.
This is also good for nursing mothers!

Coughs

According to Dr. Hyman:

There are two kinds of coughs:  Productive coughs and Non-productive (dry) coughs.
She recommends Eucalyptus essential oil (not extract) for the productive cough.  This can be on your body or your pillow or a handkerchief near your pillow.  Place it close enough to breathe in.

For the non-productive cough, use lavender essential oil.