Natural Living in the US

I finally found relief from arthritis pain, naturally, and you can do it too. It was just a few years ago that I accidentally discovered how to get rid of arthritis pain, naturally, with no conventional arthritis treatment.
Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis; when people refer to arthritis they usually mean osteoarthritis. The pain in arthritis can be mild, moderate or severe. Sometimes arthritis symptoms can occur in the wrist, elbows, shoulders, and jaw but generally you don’t find it there.
The synovium is a membrane that surrounds the entire joint; it is filled with synovial fluid, a lubricating liquid that supplies nutrients and oxygen to the cartilage. Collagen is the essential protein that is found in cartilage; it forms a mesh to give support and flexibility to the joints. Proteoglycans are the large molecules that help to make up cartilage; they bond to water, which ensures the high-fluid content in the cartilage.
Sometimes injuries can be the start of the arthritic disease process; osteoarthritis can develop years later after a single traumatic injury to a joint or near a joint. When chondrocytes, which are the cells that make up cartilage age, they lose their ability to make repairs and produce more cartilage; this process may play an important part in the development and progression of osteoarthritis. Researchers report a higher incidence of osteoarthritis between parents and children and between siblings rather than husbands and wives.
One dietary natural treatment method involves avoiding all inflammatory foods. Make all-fruit smoothies using a base of two bananas, add a cup of frozen or fresh blueberries and mango chunks or substitute any other fruit and add an energy boost of two tablespoons of organic virgin coconut oil if you like; add one or two leaves of kale for even more super nutrition. Many arthritis sufferers who have changed their diets significantly have noticed major and even total improvement.
Many people have told me that going off dairy products and foods containing gluten, like wheat especially, relieved them of arthritis pain entirely. If arthritis is affecting your weight-bearing joints, keeping your weight within a normal range is important to get rid of any arthritis symptoms. Some of the foods and beverages to avoid that are inflammatory are: caffeine, salt, sugar, meat, dairy products, additives, soft drinks, white flour, white rice, alcoholic beverages, fast food, processed vegetable oils, and all refined, packaged and processed food.
Some people swear by a morning drink of pure filtered heated water with a teaspoon or so of raw apple cider vinegar (like Bragg’s) and honey to keep them free of arthritis pain but vinegar is too harsh for many. If you’re not already doing so, make a big effort to change your diet for the better.
Some of the supplements commonly reported for relieving arthritis pain (and I don’t know if any of these work) are: cherry powder, glucosamine, chondroitin, bromelain, grapeseed extract, omega-3 and omega-6, cod liver oil, manganese ascorbate, MSM, boron, niacinamide, pantothenic acid, vitamin A, vitamin C, and vitamin E. For a natural approach and for natural treatment for arthritis make an appointment with a naturopathic doctor, called a naturopath; ask around for referrals in your area.
Make sure to exercise all your affected joints every day, to keep them flexible. Important exercises for arthritis include: range-of-motion exercises, isometric exercise, and some weight-bearing exercises. At bedtime you can try putting on a pair of stretch gloves to help reduce the pain and swelling in your fingers if you have arthritic hands. A good exercise routine is important to beat arthritis and keeping arthritis pain at bay; keep on moving.
Your body has 147 different joints in motion every day of your life; keep them moving! Yes, whatever you do, keep moving; don’t sit when you can stand, don’t stand when you can walk or walk in place. To be on the safe side always check with your doctor before starting or changing any exercise program.
At the very least, understand what the side effects and adverse reactions are for any arthritis medication you take; one rule of thumb is – don’t take any medication that has been on the market for less than five years. For conventional treatment of arthritis – if you do choose to take drugs or medications, be careful, read the labels thoroughly and talk to your pharmacist about side effects and adverse reactions; make sure you know the name of them and if they’ll react with any other medication you’re taking. Once you become completely informed about arthritis you’ll be able to plan an arthritis treatment program, natural or conventional or a combination.
Changing your diet to lots of raw fruits and raw veggies, like I did, can turn your arthritis pain around almost overnight. More and more doctors are investigating the benefits of natural arthritis treatments and alternative therapies and most don’t object to their patients trying them. Relief of your arthritis pain and symptoms is the ultimate goal – understanding arthritis and arthritis treatments is a good way to get there.

In Natural Healing For Gout – 7 Great Tips you’ll find suggestions on how to apply some popular natural healing for gout principals and techniques that folks are using throughout the world. Without the nasty side effects of many mainstream drug-based treatments, these tips are being used more and more by gout sufferers looking for a total gout remedy…

1. A key part of natural healing for gout has to be your diet. Foods high in purines have to be avoided. Foods like, red meats, offals, game, gravy, broth, poultry, shellfish, fish roe, sardines, mackerel, legumes, lentils, yeast extracts, etc. Also alcohol. Avoid alcohol, especially beer!



2. Another vital part of natural healing for gout is to flush excess uric acid out of your system by drinking at least 2 litres of water every day, preferably 3 litres.

3. Eat five helpings of fresh vegetables and fruit per day to help flush uric acid out. Avoid cauliflower, asparagus and mushrooms though.

4. Consume a cupful of cherries at each meal. They have antioxident and anti-inflammatory powers. They are very effective natural cures for gout.

5. Take Alfalfa (in seed form, capsules or liquid extracts) to reduce uric acid levels. It also acts as an anti-inflammatory agent.

6. Apple cider vinegar can help your symptoms, as a drink or applied topically. For a daily drink; 2 teaspoons each of vinegar and honey mixed together. To bathe the affected joint; 1 part cider vinegar and 6 parts hot water.

7. Apply a charcoal poultice made up from 1/2 cup of activated charcoal, 3 tablespoons of ground flaxseed and warm water. This will help reduce pain and swelling.

These are just some natural healing for gout treatments. But what you also need to consider is how to prevent your gout returning time and time again. If all you do is get rid of the symptoms of gout each time you suffer an attack you run the risk of possible permanent joint damage down the line.

Ideally, you need to relieve the pain of gout symptoms, and, prevent your gout returning in the future. That’s why more and more gout sufferers are researching online for a complete natural remedy to prevent their gout returning.

And thousands of ex-gout victims around the world have found the answer in the “gout sufferer’s bible”, an online report called The Gout Remedy Report. It’s a fully-researched, proven report that step-be-step shows you what you need to do to get rid of your gout instantly, and, prevent it returning.

If you want to get gout pain relief in 2 hours, plus, prevent your gout returning in the future, then go to http://gout-relief-today.blogspot.com and discover how you can quickly do both using natural healing for gout.

Join Will today as he discusses how he teams with nature by enlisting the help of bacteria and fungi in actively aerated compost tea in the care of his garden. Will explains an experiment he has run this summer using two tomato plants. In this experiment Will has watered one plant with water only and the other with water and actively aerated compost tea twice per month. One result of the experiment has shown that the compost teas Will makes was able to sufficiently cover the root and leaf surfaces to out compete and stop an infection of early blight on the tomato plant.

Hakim Archuletta -USA On April 24th 2010 Bahrain Hakim Archuletta has worked within the healing arts profession for over 30 years. His first formal studies were in the Fine Arts which he studied in the 60′s in Berkeley where his expertise ranged from graphic arts to theater, cinema and ethnomusicology. He studied homeopathy and apprenticed with Dr. John Damonte in London in the early 70′s. He has conducted workshops and lectured at University of California Berkeley, Harvard, Wellesley, Stanford, UCLA, University of Houston and many others. www.hakimarchuletta.com

Copyright (c) 2010 Alison Withers

Global food prices have been volatile for a couple of years now, leaving shoppers to make an uncomfortable choice between the cost of their shopping in a recession and buying healthy, natural foods.

So how have food shopping habits changed over this period? What has been the impact on the growing trend for natural, healthier foods and can anything be done to make food prices less volatile?

Oil price rises in early 2008 had a major impact on food prices – both because of the increased costs to farmers of producing them, plus increased costs of packaging materials and of transporting to the shops.

In some parts of the world with large populations living already with extreme poverty and less able to absorb rising costs alarm signals began to sound about food security and food scarcity.

In the more prosperous parts of the world, such as the USA it was noticed that consumers were becoming more aggressive in buying products on special offer.

Particularly in staple commodities like milk, bread, meats, coffee and cheese where there is less of a perceived difference between branded and private label quality they were also beginning to trade down to private label and value brand.

Then, in the autumn of 2008 came the credit crunch and by June 2009 the BBC was reporting that in the UK “one of the first things we’ve tried to cut back on is our spending on food”.

Over the previous year food prices had risen by 8% and people had cut back on eating out in favour of staying in and cooking from scratch.

Local independent shops were reportedly receiving £50million less in sales and organic food sales were down 11% year on year.

While it was clear that organic and locally-produced foods – traditionally perceived to be more expensive – might be a loser the picture has turned out to be mixed.

For the year 2009 consultancy and research firm Organic Monitor estimated overall growth on organics in Europe was between 2 and 6 per cent, a drop from the double-digit growth rates of previous years but still unusually strong for a premium priced category.

Within Europe there were significant differences between countries. Growth rates varied according to the severity of the recession with organic sales worst hit in the UK and Spain – countries which were both badly affected by the recession, so consumers traded down to ordinary products and switched to cheaper retailers where organics have a weaker presence.

In Nov 2009, according to data compiled by the Steel Can Recycling Information Bureau, consumers suffering under the credit crunch were also eating 20% more canned food and drink than in 2007. Figures from Mintel highlighted a sales rise, with canned food worth £718m in the UK, with a predicted rise to £792m by 2012.

Shoppers in the US and UK were also buying cheaper custs of meat with 40% of them saying they had changed the way they bought meat and poultry compared with before the recession.

So where are we now?

While the recession has been declared officially over in most places, the after-effects are still being felt by people who have lost their jobs or gone onto part time working.

In the year to March 2010, UK food prices rose 1.2 per cent year-on-year, according to the British Retail Consortium’s price index.

One factor that put upward pressure on prices was the return of VAT to 17.5 per cent on 1 January 2010. But also commodity price changes put upward pressure on food retail prices as fuel prices and packaging material costs increased.

In December 2009 The Food Channel predicted that a top food trend for 2010 would be for consumers to focus on buying pure, simple, clean and sustainable basic ingredients and shift from convenience foods to scratch cooking

Despite the rise in food prices there are signs that people are buying organic again. This year organic sales are expected to creep back up by 2-5%, according to the Soil Association’s Organic Market Report 2010.

The squeeze on farmers to produce more at lower costs continues, meanwhile, and the EU has approved a &pound20million; farming crisis fund to give limited amounts of aid of up to €15,000 (£13,214) to UK farmers affected by the economic crisis until 31 December 2010.

So the pressure is still on to find more sustainable ways of farming to satisfy both consumer demand for healthy, natural, chemical – free food and the farmers’ need to increase production in a sustainable way that preserves the quality of their land allows them to earn a reasonable living.

The CEO of the main US-based company researching and developing low-chem agricultural products has agreed on record that organic is currently a “middle class” option and he believes natural, healthy foods should be available affordably to everyone.

One way to achieve all this may lie in the new generations of biopesticides, biofungicides and yield enhancers that companies like his are increasingly developing to replace the older and more damaging chemical agricultural products being taken off the market.

Happy New Year!

As the clock ticked down the old year and we all awaited the arrival of a brand new 2008, I begun to wonder what all the people around me truly wished for deep down in that very quiet place where dreams, hopes and wishes really live. You know the place where we don’t always reveal our true desires to others in case we sound silly, foolish or vulnerable.

But if we want to be a co-creator of our own universe and family life we must make plans with a purpose in order to manifest the destiny that that we foresee for ourselves and let go of our fear of sounding silly. I call it “creating dreams…. with a date” and since writing down my dreams and visualising them every day I can’t believe how extraordinary things keep happening to me.

Having watched “The Secret” DVD a couple of years ago and having just read Napoleon Hill’s amazing book “Think and Grow Rich” I can’t believe the people I meet, the adventures I have and the relationships and people that I’m so grateful for having in my life since I started to use the power of visualisation.

Some people say that we cannot control the future, but failing to plan is planning to fail. If you have a wait and see attitude, then whatever happens simply happens and sometimes you can feel like life is controlling you and you are a victim to fate. When you write down some goals that you’d like to achieve you feel far more in control of your life and you feel far less stressed and far more energised.

Like everyone else, I like to plan things that I’d like to achieve or see happen for the new year, but I also know that unless I put determined, concentrated effort behind my goals they will never materialise. You have to distinguish between a wish, a dream, a hope and a desire. Napoleon Hill even goes so far as to say you must make your dreams burning desires which adds passion and real enthusiasm to your hopes. It’s the difference between just talking about something you’d like to happen and really making it happen.

So why not look at the sort of family relationships you’d really love to have with each of your children in 2008 or look at the sort of parent you’d like to be described as when your kids are all grown up and are telling their kids about you.

What sort of memories are you creating for them through your discipline, enthusiasm and time spent really chatting and playing with them?

Go and grab a cup of coffee and a pen and take a few moments to daydream and make some plans.

The year is divided into 12 months, so why not assign yourself 12 goals for the new year?

So start by asking yourself:

* What do I most want to change in 2008 in my family relationships?

What would be different in my family life if these problems, niggles or worries were gone permanently?

* What will happen if I don’t sort them out once and for all?

* What small thing could I do today to start the process off?

If you want to, you can even rank the goals highest to lowest with one being your number one goal for the year. Once you have written this list, look at it first thing in the morning and last thing at night. Keep it somewhere handy or pop it up somewhere where you can see it easily.

Just read your goals to yourself slowly and deliberately and start to relax and imagine them happening in great detail. See what you see, hear what you hear and feel how great you feel as you start to see these things happening for real in your life. Be as detailed as possible in your pictures and make them really bright and colourful.

Let the list of goals go into your unconscious mind through the repetition of reading them a couple of times each day ( I often say just before you brush your teeth as it’s something you naturally do regularly every day so you can easily remember to do it!and quickly your goals just turn into habits. This is genuinely the key to success as your unconscious mind starts to explore ways to make these things happen for you -it just starts to deliver a plan that will be the turnkey in achieving your goals.

Loads of people make New Year’s Resolutions to lose weight, give up smoking or take more exercise but I agree with Paul McKenna when he says that visualisation is far much more powerful than willpower. So if you want your relationship to improve with your stroppy teenager or your unpredictable toddler just relax and keep visualising how you’d like it to be in a perfect world in lots of detail – see yourself relaxed and hear the sorts of things you say and do in this perfect scenario. This inspires you and keeps you really motivated and enthusiastic and is far more powerful than just “wishing for” things to improve.

But as I also learnt on Tony Robbins “Unleash the Power Within” Firewalking weekend you also have to take massive immediate ACTION. Don’t just be like one of the people down the pub talking a good game …..and blaming someone else…. go and actually DO SOMETHING about making it happen. Change your tone of voice, appear more assertive and perhaps more confident, listen more and talk less, read a parenting book on communicating with teenagers – whatever it takes to make a small change that can make a huge difference.

Don’t just wish – be really specific – daydream and imagine how you’d like it to be – take a small step of ACTION and believe – then you will truly see the changes that you genuinely want to see.

I want you to pat yourself on the back and take a few moments to reflect on the achievements and challenges you experienced last year and to really celebrate all the things you did really well – as parents we forget to celebrate and praise ourselves for doing a great job often under difficult circumstances. Then just relax and come up with some new and different positive ways to further your goals and ambitions in the New Year ahead. Remember, the year is just starting and you have a whole world of possibilities available to you. Don’t be too hard on yourself up about last year’s mistakes – just learn from them and get excited about the things you can do this year.

I hope you make this your most positive, harmonious and fun -filled New Year ever!

Keep learning and enjoying the adventure together in 2008

Organicare co-creator Jamie O’Banion was the featured guest on Natural Living Today Radio on April 5, 2009.

Over the centuries various tribes people and indigenous groups from around the world have developed an intricate knowledge of the medicinal qualities of their native plants. Living off the land has been a necessity and joy, and nature has provided for all of life’s needs and simpler wants – shelter, food, entertainment and medicine. With the much hyped and more than occasionally maligned rise of globalization, this once regionalized knowledge has been gathered, tested, proved and shared.

 

Exploitation in today’s interconnected business world is common but by no means inevitable, there are vital information-sharing possibilities that exist and the spread of natural medicines is one such example. Carefully transferred from the heart of the Amazon, the Kalahari interior or simply the field across the road these simple, ancient, recipes tested by time have emerged via the laboratories of modern medicine makers, packed into protective containers and are now available on the wider world market.

 

 Natural medicines are inspired by stories such as that of the Southern African Kalahari bushmen who would, and still do, chew on specific roots [harpagophytum procumbens] to suppress their appetite during hunts that could take them away from camp for days at a time, or Native American tribes who crushed certain flowers such as the Chamomile [Matricaria recutita] for a few drops of juice that acted as effective disinfectants and the beautiful simplicity of the English dockweed conveniently found in most places where the rash-producing nettle lurks, the former acts as a natural cure for the latter.

 

In the native El Salvador where Wegerich is based Balsamo [myroxylon balsamiferum] remains a popular and effective solution for open cuts, rashes, bites and blended with other natural ingredients a cough medicine too. A tall proud tree the sap is extracted mainly by hand as the trunk is scaled and a simple cut made into the tree. Moments later the sap emerges from the cut and is collected. The cut rapidly heals and it is estimated that the same tree may be farmed for up to 30 years.

 

So careful were the Spanish explorers to guard this precious sap, the story goes, that they named it Balsama de Peru after a similar yet less productive tree in said country hoping rival explorers would waste time and resources searching for their own supply thousand of miles to the south.

 

Producers of natural medicines are usually fully qualified pharmacists and openly acknowledge when their medicines can and cannot help an ailment but for a range of illnesses and conditions whose extent continues to grow nature provides a non-invasive antidote whose side-affects in comparison to chemical medicines are negligible, and this idea of looking to nature for a solution is the guiding principal behind Wegerich Natural Medicines.

 

For more information visit the website.

 

Here is a test of Better Life against some other cleaning products using a fresh flower. We wanted to see how the flower would do in our product and the others.

The full Worm Power video explaining production and usage of organic worm castings and vermicompost for flowers, fruits and vegetables, and wine grapes.