SAFE NATURAL CURES & LIVING

Green is the latest buzzword.  For most of us, green means recycling and avoiding chemicals, for the good of ourselves and the environment. 

But, there is not only one green, but many shades, in our environment.  Compare limes to Granny Smith apples, or the noble fir to the birch tree for only four of the many shades of green in nature.

We should each be accepted for whatever shade of green we are able to reach in our lives and our choices along the way.

A vegan may look down on a vegetarian, and a vegetarian may look down on a meat eater.   Some demand only organic in what they will eat or wear.  Some will not wear leather, and others will shoot their food and make sure that no part of the animal goes to waste.  Consider the choices regarding one tree on the African savannah.  Giraffes eat from the thorny top of the acacia, zebras eat the tender leaves from the bottom of the tree, elephants eat the branches, and monkeys eat the seeds.

Being green comes in steps for most people.  Not everyone is up to having a compost pile in the yard or a composter in the kitchen.  But, most can recycle cans and plastic.  With the addition of chemical-free products in most stores, many are deepening their shade of green in their choice of cleaners.

We are all different.  A group of fifty people may include fifty shades of skin color.  We have fought hard to build tolerance of these color differences and see beyond them to find the person inside.  Now we need to spread that color tolerance to each other as consumers.

You could give a scowl to someone who shops without giving the environment a thought or you could give them a canvas shopping bag and a smile.  The second one has the better chance of starting them down a green path.

It is time to make your survival kit.  Now.  No more putting it off.  No doom and gloom here — no scare tactics — just being prepared.

The US economy was sound only weeks ago.  The financial crisis will, however, affect the economy.  In fact, it has already begun.  And, the financial crisis is not limited to the US for the simple reason that countries invest in each other’s companies and banks.

Now, while you still have a job, put a good hunk of each paycheck toward stocking up.  Read the rest of this entry »

Birds, Butterflies and Caesareans; Older Fathers and Birth Defects;  Barbarians, Yesterday or Today?; The Eyes of Youth; Library Privacy Rights Trump Child’s Right to Life; The Proper Way to Argue in Marriage; and much more.

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Libraries used to be for  and all about kids.  Little kids are new, voracious readers who soar through tons of picture books, and who, if allowed, would  read through more books than most parents would be able to buy.  Libraries should also still be the  best place for kids to do homework    –   not everyone has a computer at home.

Are libraries now more for adults to anonymously ogle kiddie porn, or for terrorists planning to bomb a daycare center?  Maybe they are now more for adults having cyber affairs, or for older kids to be on myspace without their parents watching.  Well, that implies that there are still parents who watch their kids, but that’s another issue.

According to a recent AP article by John Curran, a librarian “demanded a search warrant, touching off a confrontation that pitted the privacy rights of library patrons against the rights of police on official business.”  Read the rest of this entry »

Today, kids 13 or over are allowed to ride in the front seat of a car with a passenger-side airbag, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recommendations.  Some parents may even think that their younger child is safe if he is tall for his age.

Dr. Craig Newgard is assistant professor of emergency medicine in the Oregon Health and Science University School of Medicine’s Center for Policy and Research in Emergency Medicine, and an emergency physician at OHSU and Doernbecher hospitals.   He “felt it was time to study whether more children could be at risk, and assess whether age or body size were good measurement guidelines.”

According to his 2005 study, “children 14 and younger were at high risk for serious injury from air bags when they sat in the front passenger seat during Read the rest of this entry »

Much of the country has the opinion that those who lost their homes to the wildfires in California deserve little sympathy. 

One reason is that reporters and journalists flamed the heat of their stories with mention of multi-million dollar beachfront homes of the rich and famous.  In fact, none of those homes burned. 

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TIMELINE 1960-2007.

The number of acres burned by wildfires has more than doubled.  But, the number of fires in the last 27 years was half that during the 1970s-1980s.  Wildfires are burning hotter and taking longer to extinguish.  This is most likely due to the environmental issue of not allowing forests to be thinned, brush to be cleared from near homes and other buildings, and brush to be thinned through controlled burns.

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How spouses argue is learned from what they saw and heard from their parents.  Most people simply repeat the pattern, even when it is obviously unsuccessful.  But, you can change that. 

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When your child does something wonderful or looks adorable is when you usually give them a big hug.  You might also give them a big hug just for waking up in the morning.

The time that too few parents think to hug their child is after punishing them.  But, that is when a hug does the most good. 

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Google is the main search engine on the internet.  They recently made a huge change in how they get their results.   Sites that lost traffic may have had too many outgoing links, not enough incoming links, or too many paid links.  Only Google knows for sure.  The change does not appear to be due to lack of content. 

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US researchers say that the inner clock (circadian rhythm) of teenagers directs them to be ready for sleep later at night than when they were younger.

This has become just one more opportunity to take the responsibility off the person and the parents, and to be able to place blame.  The blame is put on schools for not starting later to accommodate teenagers - it must be the schools’ responsibility.  It is also a wonderful opportunity to tell us (again) that we need the (socialist-leaning) government to force the situation.  In this case, it is to force schools to change their hours.  The bottom line is that many adults do not parent their kids and the government thinks that none of us is smart enough to do so. 

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Teenagers see staying up late at night as a right.  Even though teenagers push to stay up later and later, they do still need more sleep than adults.  Many adults function best with 7 hours of sleep, but school-aged children need 9 or 10 hours.  Teenagers will give themselves this much sleep if they are allowed to wake up on their own.  Weekends attest to this.  But, it is necessary for them to go to bed early enough to get 9 or 10 hours of sleep before getting up for school. 

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(A follow-up to “Ephedra Free,” dated August 13th, 2007)

Coffee contains about twice as much caffeine as soda, and    most of the energy drinks contain at least as much caffeine as coffee.  One of the energy drinks contains as much caffeine as five cups of coffee, or the equivalent of two and a half Vivarin, No-Doz or Dexatrim.  (The name of this drink is being omitted so kids won’t search it out.)   To put this into perspective, the Olympic Committee will disquality an athlete that has had more than three cups of coffee.

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Most people know that caffeine is stimulant.  Many do not realize that guarana, ginseng and mate are also.  Stimulants can be beneficial when used correctly.

Another stimulant, ephedra, was taken off the market because a few people died after taking it.  Some of the fatalities occurred when it was taken before extreme physical activity, or rigorous activity in extreme heat.  When used correctly, it does work wonders for allergies and asthma.

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He and she had only been married for a few years when the Air Force sent him off to Shemya, Alaska, while she and their two children stayed home in California.  (Shemya is an island in the Bering Sea, about 200 miles off Russia, which has absolutely nothing but an Air Force base, foxes, and tons of snow.)

She was shaken awake on the morning of February 1, 1975.  Not by one of her kids, but by the room itself.  The bed was jumping up and down and actually rolling back and forth on the tiled floor, and the Venetian blinds were violently shaking against the window.  Being a native Californian, she knew that this was an earthquake.  A big one.  A very big one.  Read the rest of this entry »

Animals or kids?  Animals or babies?  Animals or people? 

When a horse and many dogs are found residing inside a house, there is an outcry against their living conditions.  Animal control is called and acts very swiftly.  Besides the filth, the outrage is that a horse should be able to run free.  The sidenote in the news story is that there is a child in the home.  If a concerned neighbor had called to say that a child was living in filth, would child protective services have acted as swiftly?

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Young people have a different outlook, which is natural.  Our youth think that they will live forever.  After all, only old people die and they think that old is “forever” away.  On the other hand, they are apt to forget that a tattoo lasts forever and get one on a whim.

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When we are extremely sick, and we feel like we might even die, we fight.  We spend all of our waking energy fighting, and our body fights as we sleep.  The fight is more important than eating, having visitors, working, cleaning, or even watching television.  The entire goal is to fight to get well. 

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There’s a billboard in the depressed part of town with an interesting message.  “If you graduate, it is like your mother also succeeds.”

The words seem meant to make a teenager feel guilty enough to stay in Read the rest of this entry »

Many people have given up eating meat, for a variety of reasons.  One reason is that they think meat does not digest well, if at all.  Proponents of “food combining” say that the real problem is what you eat with your meat. 

Their rule for eating meat is to not combine it with starch, another protein, cheese, acid foods, sugars, or fats.  That eliminates the cheeseburger, bacon and eggs, pepperoni pizza, spaghetti and meatballs, and most of the staples of the American diet.

So if you’ve turned vegetarian simply for better digestion but miss the occasional Read the rest of this entry »

Oh, where your toothbrush has been! 

Not many people would feel it is healthy to prepare meals in a bathroom.  But, toothbrushes are usually stored there - and in the open.  This is a room that was built for regular deposits of urine and feces. 

A place that is almost as filthy as the bathroom is the mouth.  But, that is where toothbrushes go every day.

First, prevent the filth.

Close the toilet lid before you flush, and instruct everyone in the family to do the same.  The flushing action of the toilet forces waste down, but it also forces germs up into the room.  These germs land on every surface, including exposed toothbrushes.

Toothbrushes could be kept inside a closed medicine cabinet.  This would prevent them from the germs that must still escape while the toilet is being used.  There must be a covered toothbrush holder somewhere.

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The ancient Minoans had grand kings for leaders, and the people had total faith in them. Minoan kings were held as gods who could protect them from everything, including nature’s fury. That is, until a huge volcanic eruption made it obvious to the survivors that human kings were as powerless as themselves.

The people chose to worship and trust in a god instead - two gods might give them even more protection. They erected statues to honor the gods. And, for good measure, they made sacrifices. Human sacrifices. Can you imagine, they sacrificed their own children so that they themselves could have a nicer life.

Can you imagine?! You don’t have to work very hard today to imagine Read the rest of this entry »

Shipping season was long over for daylilies due to the coming winter frosts.  Even Southern California is not immune to the occasional dip to 30 or even 28 degrees, so shipping was not scheduled to resume until March.

Ask and you just might receive.

The grower was obliging, even envious, when told that the daylilies would be planted within walking distance of the ocean.  Coastal frost is extremely rare.  The live plants arrived in time for Christmas.  To the credit of the grower, the daylilies were also the largest we’d ever received.  Still, fingers were crossed and weather reports were checked daily.

But, Murphy’s law struck.  Read the rest of this entry »

Men are physically able to father a child much later than women can normally conceive.  But, the risks increase with the age of the father.

It has long been known that older women have a higher chance of giving birth to a baby with Down Syndrome.  This occurs in less than 1 in 1,000 women under 30, 1 in 400 at 35, and 1 in 6 by age 50.

Researchers now say that the same can be said for older fathers.  Compared to fathers between 20 and 29, the incidence of Down Syndrome increased by 15 percent in men over 35, 30 to 40 percent in men over 40, and 300 percent higher in men over 50.

Older men also have a higher risk of fathering children with Achondroplastic Dwarfism, Marfan Syndrome, or Myositis Ossificans.

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Imagine a bird hatching from its egg.  The process involves an incredible stuggle for life.  The human reaction is to help crack the egg and/or pull away some of the shell.  Helping with the hatching process almost always results in the death of the baby bird.  The same is true for a butterfly emerging from its cocoon.  The process of change, from a fetus to a live baby Read the rest of this entry »

The world began as a perfect place, and we were given all that we need.  Even though the world is no longer a perfect place, who’s to say that we don’t still have all that we need.  Here are just a few examples of “medicines” found in nature.

• Aspirin was one of the greatest discoveries ever, but it was found in the bark and leaves of the willow tree.
• Cranberry juice will prevent a urinary tract infection.
• Apple cider vinegar lowers blood pressure and takes away the pain and restriction of movement caused by arthritis.
• Eating turkey will put an insomniac right to sleep.
• Garlic will lower the bad cholesterol.

When there is a choice, the natural way seems best.

~ Natural remedies do affect the body and can be strong “medicine.”  Using two at once can result in each cancelling out the other or in getting too much of a good thing.