My Favorite Self-Help Stuff

Now that I’ve survived the swine flu myself, I’ve been getting useful tips in my email about how to prevent it in the first place. Wish I had known! The Swine Flu (or H1N1 Flu) was NO fun!

The email had been forwarded lots of times but the original was from an expert in India (I will have to go back and find the name).

In the meantime, I’ll share the info for everyone’s benefit so you’ll be able to avoid getting that swine flu bug.

You already know about the handwashing and that you’re supposed to avoid touching your face, right?

So I’ll go right to the important and new stuff:

1) Gargling with warm salt water.

I knew that this helps with sore throats. But what I did not kinow is that the reason it works is that it kills bacteria and viruses that are proliferating in the throat — which is the gateway where flu viruses gain entrance to our bodies.

So gargling with warm salt water reduces the number of swine flu and other germs greatly and prevents them from gaining a foothold. It was recommended that you do this twice a day.

Also, if you don’t want to gargle all that much, you have an alternative: Eat/drink warm (supposedly salty?) liquids, i.e., soups etc. They kind of work in reverse.

While the gargling removes the H1N1 flu germs as you spit them out, the soup will flush them into your stomach, where the stomach acid will kill them. Works either way.

2) Use a Net Pot

Sort of gargling for the nose

The nose is the OTHER main gateway for the flu and other viruses to gain entrance to our bodies. So it’s important to flush thit out too and remove excess viruses and bacteria.

So Mr. … reocmmends that we use a neti pot and flush our nostrils once a day (thank God not twice a day!) with warm salty water.

Once again, I’ve had one of these contraptions and have used it occasionally. However, I never fully understood exactly what was to be accomplished. Now I know.

It take a bit of practice and getting used to, but it’s not terribly unpleasant to do once you get the hang of it. Keep plenty of tissues around for blowing your nose though. It does clear the sinuses very nicely.

Actually, I’ve encountered a neti-pot less technique that sort of accomplishes the same thing — to basically inhale warm salt water through the nose. Personally, I think the neti pot is MUCH more comfortable!

So this is it:

I’ll add those two things to my routine. Maybe not EVERY day, but I’ll try to remember to do it as much as possible, and even though I already had the swine flu. You never know just how immune I am from getting it again.

Speaking of which… I’m debating whether I should get that swine flu shot. Would that be a good idea or redundant? What do you think?

Please leave a comment if you have an opinion (especially if it’s an informed opinion) about that.

There are more things you can do to prevent H1N1 flu or swine flu or any other kind of flu or cold, and I’ll write about those in another post…

Meanwhile, get yourself a neti pot and start rinsing out those nostrils

Hmmm. Come to think of it — maybe I should explain the procedure for those who are not familiar with it… I’ll do this in an upcoming post.

Meanwhile:

Happy Halloween, and stay healthy!

Elisabeth

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Hello again. Here’s now the sequel from the previous post: How to treat swine flu?

No big secret: Just like the regular kind.

My self help blog style advice… (remember that I’m not a medical doctor (my doctorate is a Ph.D.), just an alternative health stuff nut.

Then again, in Germany, where I grew up, my father was definitely practicing integrative medicine. So I grew up with herbs etc and Kneipp treatments and all kinds of cool stuff, the specialness of which I only learned to fully appreciate many years later.

So I’m a walking repository of info on alternative treatments of various kinds… and I’m happy to experiment too. Just remember, you might want to check with your doctor before taking any of my advice, which is right below:

First of all, be careful with over the counter meds. Make sure you don’t overdose on taking multiple kinds with overlapping ingredients.

I once found myself fearing for my life when I had inadvertently ingested twice the recommended max dose of some ingredient that caused me to get an extremely rapid heart beat.

It was in the sinus stuff AND in the cough syrup, and i had missed the bit in the cough syrup. Now I read ingredients very carefully, and prefer single symptom remedies with single ingredients (or no more than a couple) and make sure I know what each of them does and that they don’t interact before I combine them.

For the sniffles, I am still a great fan of the “classic” Sudafed that I now have to get from behind the counter. It works like a charm (even at half the recommended dose, so one pack lasts a LONG time) and helps me sleep because it keeps my nose unclogged (usually, and much better than anything else).

Cough: Robitussin DM (I use the sugarfree kind). Learned that in Berkeley from a nurse practitioner in the Student Health Center.

Sore throat: gargling with salt water. Among other things.

Lozenges are great too. My favorite — Olbas Pastilles

And with other meds — be sure to read the ingredients of lozenges and stuff as well — you don’t want to overdose.

And then, the other stuff… Here’s my list of things I did and took that helped me feel and get better:

Your mileage may vary, but heres a sampling:

My power chicken soup. I take organic chicken stock, heat it, mix in some shiritaki noodles, and lots of chopped garlic, ginger, and green onions, plus some cayenne pepper, and some other spices to taste.

Have a bowl of that several times a day. Other than that, drink herbal teas for their soothing as well as medicinal qualities, and take loads of supplements.

Among my favorites: Quick Defense by Gaia Herbs. In fact, that stuff has accelerated the progress of various colds and flus ever since I first discovered it. I now keep it handy just in case because it’s important to take it right away.

Also NAC (N-Acetyl Cystine) and Olive Leaf are great immune system strengthening supplements.

And of course the usual multi and C and so on.

A regular dose of Airborne.

Vick’s Vaporub and essential oils for respiration.

Lots of soup, chicken and otherwise.

And LOTS of sleep.

What helps you? Any secret recipes? Comments?

H1N1 swine flu! What a buzz word, and what a drag! I got it about a week and a half after having just gotten a flu shot to prevent the “regular” flu.

And it’s no fun! It started very suddenly and within a matter of a couple of hours moved from a scratchy cold and chills to a full blown very sore throat.

Then my nose started dripping like mad and I stocked up on the mentholated Kleenex (Puffs, actually) which also have lotion on them.

Good thing I did because I went through FOUR packs in a few days, two of them in ONE day, when it was worst.

And then there was the cough. Ouch! Unusually painful cough. And a total loss of appetite, headaches, fever, etc.

I threw everything at it that I had, and now I’m not sure if it’s because of that or because it simply runs its course more quickly than the regular flu, but the worst was over much sooner than “normal” though I’m still coughing, and not feeling up to speed.

I’m not the person to say anything much about preventing it, but then again, preventing the swine flu is harder than you would like since it’s highly contagious before you even know you have it.

So you cannot know which one of all those people around you might give it to you. But its a moot point anyway.

Anyway, in my next post, I’ll share some of the things that have helped me feel (and get) better comparatively quickly.

Hope you don’t get it. It’s no fun!

For starters, stay away from people who cough.

Elisabeth