Treating a UTI Naturally

by: Nicole Bandes, Certified Herb Specialist

UTIs, or urinary tract infections, are infections that occur in the bladder, urethra or kidneys. While women suffer from UTIs most often, men are not immune. Generally, if a man has a UTI, he should address his concerns with a medical doctor because it may indicate a more serious condition affecting the prostate.

The most common symptoms of a UTI are frequent and urgent needs to urinate even if the bladder is empty, burning upon urination and sometimes abdominal cramping. It is now possible to determine if you have a UTI at home. Most pharmacies sell reagent strips that can be used to detect the presence of bacteria in the urine much the same way a doctor’s office will. .

Many UTIs can be treated naturally at home. The most well known folk remedy for UTIs is to drink cranberry juice. There is actually a great deal of scientific evidence that suggests cranberries can inhibit bacteria from attaching to the lining of the urinary tract which will prevent and even treat UTIs. What has always seemed to get lost in the translation is that the cranberry juice must be as natural as possible (no added sweeteners) and should be a high concentrate of cranberries rather than some cranberry and a lot of grape or other juice type. This type of juice is usually not available in a regular grocery store. It can, however, often be purchased from a health food or natural foods store. To effectively treat a UTI, it is necessary to drink a large amount (approximately a gallon per day) until symptoms clear up and then to drink about half as much for a minimum of 10 additional days.

Natural, pure cranberry juice can be very tart. If you prefer, you can take a cranberry juice supplement instead. Some high quality supplements will combine cranberry with Buchu, a diuretic which will help ease the feeling of needing to urinate when the bladder is empty. Remember to take these frequently throughout the day (every 3 to 4 hours is best) and with plenty of fresh, clean water.

Colloidal Silver and Garlic may be used as a natural antibiotic which will destroy the bacteria in the urinary tract. When using garlic supplements, it is important to use garlic that does not have the odor component removed as this is the part of the garlic that is antibacterial. If you are concerned about odor, use a garlic supplement that is combined with chlorophyll and is enteric coated.

Things to avoid during a UTI

* Citrus fruits: May cause an alkaline environment which will encourage bacterial growth.

* Sugars, processed foods, caffeine, carbonated beverages and alcohol.

* Feminine hygiene sprays, packaged douches, bubble baths, and tampons.

With diligence, most UTI’s can be remedied at home. However, if there is blood present in the urine or symptoms persist for longer than 1 week, a doctor should be consulted as it may indicate a more serious UTI that must be treated with antibiotics.

Choosing a Hydroponic Grow Light

by: Katherine Keleher

HID light bulbs setups have made the pipe dream of year-around horticulture a possibility for tens of thousands of indoor growers and industrial nursery gardeners everywhere. Thanks to their amazing production (up to ten times more lm per w than incandescent lightbulbs) and a colour range that plants prefer, indoor gardeners are able to achieve amazing yield year-around. Metal halide (MH) lightbulbs let out chiefly blueish light, making them good for the vegetating development phase.

HID lighting is utilised all over the world by industrial cultivators. HID lamps furnish various advantages that are otherwise unachievable with traditional fluoro and incandescent lights. Auxiliary HID lighting allows industrial agriculturists to boost harvest production send harvests to marketplace on time and bring out plants whole out of climate which could be very monetarily beneficial. HID lighting is so effective and intense that numerous indoor gardeners benefit from its use year-around. HID lights are operated by stock one hundred ten to one hundred twenty volt AC wall electric current and have a standard three-prong adapter to link up Most grow lamps come complete with a ballast resistor lightbulb and reflective hood.

Plants have the unequalled power to construct their own energy. In the function known as photosynthesis, chlorophyll utilise light energy to process CO2 from the oxygen and H2O from the earth into nutrients and sugars. When these vital nutrients are plentiful in a desired surroundings the growth of nutrients is bound solely by aspects that impact photosynthesis, being the strength, colour, and time period of the day-after-day light the plant absorbs.

High pressure sodium (HPS) light bulbs give off mainly reddish light, which leads to magnified fruiting and fruiting in the plant fruiting phase. Cooler (blue) and warmer (orange) colours in the rainbow raise chlorophyll production and energy fruit. Cooler light is most obvious during the summertime calendar months when the sun is higher in the skyline. It is important for maintaining plants' growth tight and well-shaped. Warmer light, such as when the sun is lower down in the skyline during the autumn harvest calendar months, is crucial for setting off blooming in plants in the form of blossoms and fruit yield.

Thus, if you prefer to grow for the most part bushy harvests such as cabbage and vegetating herbaceous plants, your better option is a metal halide plant lights arrangement. If you choose to grow blossoming plants, the high pressure sodium lamp is your better choice. As a matter of fact, there are conversion light bulbs which permit you to get one kind of organization and apply both kinds of lightbulbs. Conversion lamps cost more but give you the extra advantage of being able to begin your crops with the metal halide light bulb assuring taut, small development and then converting over to the high pressure sodium light bulb when the plants are set to bloom and blossom for increased production. The most recent discovery is in convertible ballast resistors which may employ regular metal halide and high pressure sodium lightbulbs.

The chief plus to employing a HID gardening lamps setup is the mastery it permits you over your plant's growing conditions. Hydroponic grow lights rigs let us all to expand the growing time of year by supplying our favourite plants with an inside alternative to sun. This is a key plus for those of us who prize having a year-around supply of novel blooms vegetables and herbaceous plants.

An additional benefit of inside grow lamps is your power to master the duration of sunlight thus giving you the capacity to forcibly bloom your favourite species even when entirely not in season. Remember, to grow choice plants, the key to the ideal light is colour, concentration, and continuance.

High performance bulbs take inside horticulture to the next degree By using solely the highest calibre constituents. You could now get bulbs that may come nearly to simulating normal sunshine. The latest bluish burning metal halide lights produce colours very pleasantly. Even more critical is the maturation they could bring forth in your garden. You will have very low, bushier plants, as vital as could be and with quite healthy bases. This is usually the opposite of plants cultivated under regular high pressure sodium and stock metal halide lamps.

Check Your Colon Transient Time

by: Rudy Silva

Your colon transient time is the time it takes the food you eat to travel from your mouth through your rectum. A healthy time is 18 to 25 hours. This time relates to how long the food you eat stays in your intestinal tract and colon. Food, fecal matter or chyme in your colon should not stay longer than 12 hours otherwise you have constipation. The other 12 hours, your food is in your stomach and small intestine.

Many doctors and others in the health field may tell you that it is ok not to have a bowel movement everyday. This really goes against common sense. If you eat every day, you should have a bowel movement everyday or 18 to 25 hours after you eat.

Long-term constipation is responsible for the start of practically all body illnesses and diseases. For this reason keeping regular is critical for your health. Constipation leads to auto-toxicity or self-poisoning of your body. When toxins move into your blood stream instead of out of your body with the fecal matter, the liver and other body organs become overwhelmed and become sluggish. With a toxic colon, you will have a hard time keeping free of disease and you will find it very difficult to lose weight.

Slow moving fecal matter in the colon causes re-absorption of fats and cholesterol back into your blood stream and liver instead of out of the body. This can lead to a "fatty liver", which cannot digest fats properly and has to store them in its own cells, other organs, and body cells as pure fat.

Determining Your Transient Time

Here's how to determine your transient time. First thing in the morning, drink one of the following drinks.

· one ounce of liquid chlorophyll, the juice of one lemon and 8 oz. of distilled water.

· or if you like beet juice, use 6-8 oz. of beet juice. You can buy the juice or make your own if you have a juicer.

Buy a small bottle of liquid chlorophyll that does not have peppermint added. The peppermint added has to strong of a taste for me. The cost is around $8.00

Check to see how long it takes to see green or red in your stools. This is your transient time. Average transient time is around 21 hours.

If your transient time exceeds 26 to 30 hours, then you have a mild case of constipation. If your transient time 31 to 36 you are constipated. If your transient time is 37 to 48 hour you have chronic constipation.

Check your transient time now. Go get a bottle of chlorophyll and do the transient time test, then use the chlorophyll for a morning green drink that I describe in another article.

Chlorophyll and Living Raw Foods

Chlorophyll and Living Raw Foods
by: Roxanne Vick

"When you are green inside, you are clean inside", holds a lot of truth. This missing element in many people's lives would cause all vegetation to die, and subsequently, all animals and man. Without chlorophyll, plants would not be able to take nutrition from the sun, because the process of photosynthesis would not go on. In this article I will explain the benefits of chlorophyll, and why raw foods are the best source for this nutrient. But first, let me review, for those having trouble remembering what chlorophyll is.

Chlorophyll is the green pigment found in plants, that enables them to take nutrition from the air, sun, and water, and make them "living", raw foods. This green pigment covers up any carotene pigment in the plant. Chlorophyll is more than just a pigment, obviously, but the pigments tell-tale green color is a great indication if what we are going to eat, or juice, has this most essential element.

Many studies have been done on chlorophyll's benefits. It is fascinating to me that the chlorophyll pigment, is almost identical to our blood pigments! The biggest difference is that the chlorophyll pigments center atom is magnesium, while our bloods center atom is iron. Think of it! The element that causes plants to be able to convert light into energy, is almost identical to our blood pigment. Thus the nickname: "green blood". It is no wonder that chlorophyll has been shown to work wonders for our blood! With undiseased blood, most diseases are impossible.

It stands to reason that since chlorophyll is a natural deodorant, that animals that eat grass should have sweet breath. It is implied here that they don't, but being the city girl that I am, I will just have to take others' word for this. However, there was a study done by a veterinarian, Dr. Maurice E. Serling. He gave his canine patients in his veterinary hospital doses of chlorophyll, and banished all halitosis and body odor after six hours! When the tablets were discontinued, the odors resumed, and when they were started again, the odors left again!

There are many benefits of chlorophyll, really too many to list in detail in this article, since it has been used to fight many different diseases, but I hope to give you a basic understanding of a few of its benefits. They are: purification of the blood, liver, constipation and gas corrector, emphysema, abcesses of the liver and kidney, kidney stones, and it has also been shown to be an excellent topical for infections and burns! Chlorophyll contains properties that break down carbon dioxide, and release oxygen, which kills bacteria. It has even been used in deep surgical wounds! Its absence of toxicity, and promotion of repair tissue/skin, and soothing qualities makes it a miracle antiseptic, and it is my belief that if it could be patented, it would be, along with the air we breathe. (Thank goodness that's not so!)

Alternative Options for Treating Allergic Rhinitis

Alternative Options for Treating Allergic Rhinitis

by: Stacey M Kerr MD

Here in northern California, allergies are a significant health problem leading to fatigue, sick days from work and school, and secondary infections. Allergic rhinitis is a reaction to seasonal airborne allergens. It affects about 7 percent of the population of North America and is a risk factor for 88 percent of asthma patients. We have some excellent prescription medications for treating this, and there are many over-the-counter medications available also. However, BEWARE of the sedating effects of those nonprescription medications!!! Recent studies have shown that an individual on a therapeutic dose of diphenhydramine (Benedryl) is a more dangerous driver than one who is legally drunk on alcohol.

Fortunately, there are also some effective alternative therapies for allergic rhinitis.

Remember: no matter what method you use to treat your allergies, nasal rinsing to clear the mucus membranes of trapped allergens is essential. It only takes about 30 seconds, doesn't hurt a bit when done correctly, and makes all the difference. I recommend Nasopure®, a product developed by Dr. Hana Solomon, a pediatrician who has put together in one simple kit all you need for successful nasal rinsing. There is an excellent article about this on the Nasopure website (www.nasopure.com). If you are regularly using your Nasopure®, and still having difficulties, you can try some of the following remedies without significant side effects.

Vitamin and mineral supplements:

* Vitamin A - 10,000 IU/day

* Vitamin B6 - 50-100 mg/day

* Vitamin B5 - 50-75 mg/day

* Vitamin C - 1,000 mg/day in 3 divided doses

* Vitamin E - 400 IU/day

* Zinc - 20-30 mg/day

In addition some herbs and nutrients can help:

Quercetin has anti-allergy and anti-inflammatory effects if you take it 250mg two or three times a day.

Freeze-dried stinging nettles (Urtica dioica) can relieve symptoms of allergic rhinitis at a dosage of 300mg twice a day.

Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), also called fish oil, can help asthma patients with allergies by stabilizing the airways. They come in capsules and the total dose of the combination should be 2-4 g/day.

Acupuncture has given many patients significant relief. The Chinese medicine paradigm is very different than Western medicine, so I can not explain the mechanism of action. But I know that it is effective!

See your doctor about allergy symptoms if you are unable to manage them on your own - the nonsedating antihistamines and anti-inflammatory nasal sprays available today are excellent in treating this significant health problem!

Stacey Marie Kerr, M.D. graduated from the University of California Davis Medical School in 1989 and is currently a board certified family physician. Dr. Kerr is a member of the California and American Academy of Family Physicians. She holds a B.S. in Education/Special Education from the University of Missouri, Columbia Missouri. She hosts a website the-doctors-inn.comthat provides personalized answers to medical questions.