Hydrogen Peroxide News

Karen Leland: 7 Steps To A SuperNatural Home and Life

Beth Greer thought she was leading a healthy life. But after a lifetime of eating right and exercising regularly, at age 49, she was diagnosed with a 5-centimeter tumor in her chest. The tumor, although eventually discovered to be benign, caused pain in her shoulder, which radiated down her arm and made two of her fingers numb.

The three top thoracic surgeons Greer consulted all told her that surgery was the only option. “They all agreed I needed surgery,” says Greer. “They just could not agree on where. One thought he should cut under the collar bone, another under the armpit, and another wanted to remove a rib from my back,” she says.

What all three specialists did agree on, however, was that the surgery was risky. Because there were so many nerves in the area, Greer could potentially lose feeling in her right hand if one of the nerves was cut. Greer, who has a strong belief in the body’s ability to heal itself, weighed her options and decided to go another route.

For six months, she followed an all-organic diet, ate raw food, did an internal cleanse and cleaned up the everyday chemicals found in her home environment. When she went in for a thermoscan one year later, there was no evidence of any mass.

Last week, Greer’s book, Super Natural Home: Improve Your Health, Home, and Planet One Room at a Time (Rodale Books, 20090), was released. In it, she gives relevant research and practical advice on some simple ways to clear the chemicals that go in you, on you and around you:

1. Eat organic or pesticide-free foods whenever possible. One 1997 study from Mt. Sinai Medical Center found that women with high levels of the popular crop pesticide DDE in their blood were four times more likely to develop breast cancer than women with lower levels. Two vegetables Greer says to go organic on all the time include tomatoes and potatoes.

2. Use chemical-free body-care products and cosmetics. Greer says consumers need to read the label on these types of products much more carefully. Watch out for parabens, as well as the chemicals DEA (used as a foaming agent in shampoo and baby wash) and BHT (used as a solvent in lipstick and nail polish). For more information on how the cosmetics you use rate, go to www.safecosmetics.org.

3. Clean your house with non-toxic, natural cleaning products. Try vinegar, baking soda and hydrogen peroxide. Avoid chlorine bleach, strong solvents and ammonia whenever possible. “It’s trial and error as to what will work,” says Greer. “You may need to use some elbow grease, but the trade off is that you’re not using harsh chemicals.” Clorox and Shaklee (among others) both have green cleaning products.

4. Avoid volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which are found in vinyl wallpaper and floor coverings, new carpeting and paint. VOC’s can often be identified by their plastic smell - reminiscent of a beach ball. Companies such as Bed Bath and Beyond and Target are starting to offer products with low or no VOCs.

5. Sleep on a mattress made from untreated, non-toxic natural materials. If you can’t afford a new mattress, buy a wool and organic cotton mattress topper. Natural mattresses are sold at J.C. Penney and IKEA.

6. Switch to sheets and towels made with bamboo or organic cotton. Regular cotton is one of the most intensively sprayed crops in the world. By some estimates, cotton accounts for 25% of all pesticides used in the U.S. Check out Macy’s and Pottery Barn, both of which sell organic cotton.

7. Get rid of non-stick, Teflon cooking pans. When preheated, Teflon emits potentially toxic fumes that have been known to kill pet birds. Use cast-iron, stainless steel, enamel or glass cookware. Martha Stewart and Cuisinart both sell a green line of cookware.

Want to find out how supernatural your home is? Go to www.supernaturalmom.com and take the quiz.

Karen Leland is author of the recently released books Watercooler Wisdom: How Smart People Prosper In the Face of Conflict, Pressure and Change and Time Management In An Instant:60 Ways to Make the Most of Your Day. She is the co-creator of a new line of Productivity Pads from Time Tamer™ and the co-founder of Sterling Consulting Group. For questions, comments or to book Karen to speak at your next event, please e-mail kleland@scgtraining.com.

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Edited: May 26th, 2009 under News - 1 Comment.

Anne Dunev: Secrets to Avoiding Winter Flu Blues

I was amazed at how many people were down with the flu over the last month. We live in Los Angeles, and many of our friends headed for the shores of Florida or the mountains of Colorado. Expecting glowing reports of lazy days on the beach, or blissful hours schussing down the mountains, instead we heard glum descriptions of being bed-ridden with fever, aches and congestion.

It is common knowledge that wintertime is flu season. The Holidays produce extra stress, from close encounters with family and in-laws with the attendant emotional issues, to extra doses of sugar and fat that stretch the boundaries of the waist-line and suppress the immune system further. Add traveling across time zones, which taxes the adrenal glands, dealing with the TSA, and being packed into airplanes with other coughing, sneezing and stressed out folk, and small wonder some succumb to nasty viruses.

I just received some interesting and useful data on avoiding the winter flu blues from one of my favorite health newsletters, produced by the Health Sciences Institute.

Studies indicate it is not the cold of winter that causes an increase in flu, but the lowered humidity. Remember that we have flu viruses around us all the time. They are opportunistic little buggies that only take hold when the internal “environment” of the body allows them to dig in. That helps explain why some people catch everything and others seem to be blessed.

So, using a humidifier in bedrooms in the winter may be your best weapon against the flu. Traveling across country or just around town? You might try a little added moisture touched to the edge of the nostrils. My favorite choice is Egyptian Magic Cream (available at Health Food Stores, my office in Burbank or online.) Egyptian Magic Cream is made of olive oil, bee pollen and propolis, and Royal Jelly and can be used as a skin cream for hydration or skin conditions — very soothing and healing. I much prefer it to petroleum jelly, which is an oil industry by-product.

Here are some other natural remedies to try. Author of Vermont Country Medicine, Dr. D.C. Jarvis, suggests apple cider vinegar (make it organic) and honey at the first sign of a sniffle. Mix a spoonful of the cider vinegar and a bit of honey in a cup of warm water and drink as a healthy toddy that changes the acid/alkaline balance of the body and can stop a virus in its tracks. May promote restful sleep, also.

Put a few drops of hydrogen peroxide in each ear. Lay the head to one side and allow to bubble down in for a few minutes-then switch to the other ear. Some German doctors think that flu and cold viruses may enter the sinuses through the ear canal. The hydrogen peroxide will also soften wax. Don’t forget to be careful about sticking anything in the ear. Just twist a tissue and gently wipe out as needed.

For some people Oscillococcinium by Boiron, the French homeopathic company, is a lifesaver. Homeopathy means “like treating with like” and is made from tiny doses of plant and biological remedies. It can be very effective and I have used it with great success in my practice. You must use Oscillococcinium at the first sign of the flu, but it can knock the virus out before it has a chance to set up housekeeping.

Speaking of setting up house-keeping, viruses seem to linger when the liver/gall bladder is congested. I often treat liver/gall bladder in my practice when a cold or flu hits and patients want a quick recovery. I can usually move a virus through the body in record time, by doing some soft-tissue work on the liver and gall bladder. You can try massaging the area on the right side below and under the ribs. Also, liver/gall bladder supplements may help, such as the herb Milk Thistle and the B Vitamin Choline (best brand is Standard Process® — I love this product.) Avoid sugar and dairy products for the duration. Sugar may suppress the immune system for as long as four hours. The immune system is in action when the white blood cells attack bacteria and viruses and, like living Pac Men, actually surround and ingest the microbes. See the action here.

Flu shot or not? Guess what the side effects of the flu shot are? Achy muscles, congestion, fever and flu-like symptoms. Hmm, seems like that is just what we are trying to avoid. Here is the problem with the flu vaccine. No one can predict what the next flu virus will be- we can’t even make educated guesses, because there is no pattern. Viruses mutate at a rapid rate. That is why they seldom kill us- and only if the body is in greatly weakened state. A virus attacks healthy cells and takes over the cell’s replication process to create more virus cells. But in the process the virus changes into a more benign form, and the body is able to clean up the remains. That is also why it is hard to develop antibiotics against viruses. They change too rapidly for an antibiotic to chase them down and disappear like ghosts in the morning light.

Is there a risk to being vaccinated? Always. Why put more viruses, even weakened ones such as are in flu vaccines, directly into the blood stream? We have far more allergies, and allergy induced asthma, than we have ever had before. There is a constant assault on our immune systems, and that can trigger an inflamed immune system that goes into high alert at the slightest whiff of pollen or spore of mold. Nature developed a way for our bodies to fight infection, but over-use of modern medicine interferes in this natural process to your peril.

Many people say that the vaccines actually seem to make them more susceptible to flu’s. The key to being flu-proof is a strong immune system that knows the difference between a viral microbe and a healthy cell. The internal environment of the body, when healthy, is unwelcoming to disease causing bugs. Just as a well-tended garden repels weeds and pests, human health can be cultivated. It may be hard to find Eden with so many toxins in our environment, but surely a little knowledge about how the body works can be protective armor against the relentless marketing of prescriptions that are more poison than potion.

Effective prevention for colds and flu? As Frank Lloyd Wright said, “Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you.”

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Edited: May 26th, 2009 under News - No Comments.

Mar 5, Source for “pure” sodium percarbonate added.

I’ve been asked about where to buy “pure” sodium percarbonate, so I’m including a source for that. It’s from eBay! I checked with one of the eBay sellers, and the product was 97 sodium percarbonate.

Now, I realize a number of people have asked me for other things that I haven’t added yet. All I can say is I have a very long “to do” list, and a lot of work ahead of me. Probably enough to last a few years!

Edited: May 25th, 2009 under News - No Comments.