Category Archives: Natural Health & Beauty

I think of this category of the website as Natural health and beauty because it covers a variety of topics on ways to stay healthy and natural beauty tips. It’s not medical in nature, but rather is about staying healthy or protecting ourselves from hazards. One of the most popular articles in this section is the one about using an air filter in your home when smoke comes from forest fires that might be hundreds of miles away.

Home remedies, belly breathing, cell phones and cancer, natural herbal mouthwash, cayenne as a remedy, and more — do browse this category for tips, book reviews, and product recommendations for natural health and beauty.

No Miracle Cure for Tinnitus But…

Recently the tinnitus I’ve had for decades was louder than ever. So I did what I always do when something puzzles me, headed for the internet. I learned some things about what works and what doesn’t. I will share them here, with lots of references. I don’t necessarily believe anything that I read, but I did get an overall picture, and I think I figured out why my tinnitus acted up. Tinnitus can have many causes, but often it starts from too much loud noise, whether that is from being a heavy equipment operator, going to rock concerts, or other … Continue reading →

How to Remove Facial Hair on Women at Home

It took me a while to figure out a system that works for chin hair removal, so I thought I’d pass this information on. For me, the most essential item is the Tweezerman mirror that I bought. Just now, when I looked it up on Amazon, I was surprised to see that it has been nine years since I got it… it still looks like new, despite wear and tear. Even with new eyeglasses during those years, I find it easiest to leave my glasses off and use the high magnification of the mirror. Seeing what your chin looks like that … Continue reading →

Why Intermittent Fasting Is Really Working for Me

Does intermittent fasting really work? You bet it does. Why is it working for me? Because I bought and read this book: . I’ll share some of my main takeaways from that book with you here, but since we are all different, you might want to read the book yourself. How Much Weight Have I Lost with Intermittent Fasting? Umm… don’t laugh. I’ve lost three pounds in a month. THREE POUNDS and I’m telling you this method works? Absolutely, because I lost those three pounds in December. I have NEVER in my life lost weight in December. Let’s see, in this … Continue reading →

What About Getting a Shingles Vaccine Shot?

I went to a new doctor recently, and one of the questions she asked me was whether I’d ever had chicken pox. I said, yes, when I was about 8. She asked me if I’d had the shingles vaccine, and I said I had wondered about it but hadn’t had the shot. She recommended the shingles shot because I had had chicken pox, and I said I would consider it. That was a shortcut way of saying I would do some internet research on it. So this morning I went online to see what Dr. Andrew Weil said, as I … Continue reading →

The Top Ten Best Selling HEPA Filter Air Purifiers

Here are the top ten bestselling HEPA air filters right now at Amazon… I can say “right now” because this list automatically updates daily. These filters are typically rated for one room but they are easily portable. Also, they are inexpensive enough that we have one in our living room and another in the bedroom. Because the category at Amazon.com includes replacement filters as well as whole units, you’ll sometimes see replacement units in these listings. This page is an addition to a couple of others that I’ve done on HEPA air filters. First, I wrote when we got one to help me breathe when distant forest … Continue reading →

How to Choose the Best HEPA Filter Air Purifier

If you or someone in your home has allergies, a home air filtering system can make a big difference in how well they breathe and feel. Whether the allergy is to dust, pollen, pet hair, or something else, a HEPA filter air purifier is likely to be worth using. My own worst allergy is to smoke, such as smoke coming from faraway forest fires, and you can read my post about how an indoor air filter helped me. Here, I’ll start with my recommendations for five air purifiers after a quick bit of advice on how to evaluate these things. Consider Price, Brand, … Continue reading →

Home Remedies for Leg Cramps: How to Stop the Agony

Do you ever have leg cramps in the night, or do you wake up because someone else in your household is having a bout of this pain? If so, you know it can be agonizing. I woke before dawn this morning as my husband was experiencing it. I asked if I could massage his leg. He said there was nothing I could do. Oh yes, there is, I thought to myself. I will blog about home remedies for leg cramps. So here we go… What Causes Nighttime Leg Cramps? If you go to bed with tight muscles, you are more … Continue reading →

Do Camisoles Increase the Chance of Avoiding Breast Cancer?

Wearing camisoles may significantly reduce the chance of getting breast cancer. This is controversial, but there is enough good evidence that many women have switched to wearing camisoles as much as possible. Dressed To Kill: The Link between Breast Cancer and Bras This book by a husband-and-wife team of medical anthropologists is widely cited on the websites I read while researching this article. Click on the image below to read more about the book. I clicked on the “Look Inside” link at Amazon and was fascinated to read the introductory pages. The story of this connection has been suppressed by those who make money … Continue reading →

The Most Popular Natural Toothpastes without Fluoride

There is a strong case to be made for using a toothpaste without fluoride, and I’ll be pointing you to some of that information further down the article. If you’re in a hurry, I’ll just say upfront that you can find out more about my own favorite toothpaste here: . Why Buy Natural Toothpaste? The word natural can have a variety of meanings… after all, poison oak isn’t man-made! Natural is a widely-used advertising word, where it may or may not mean anything. I was going to write about the most popular organic toothpastes, but when I went to compile the chart from the many … Continue reading →

Experiment with Beeswax and See How You Like It

Have you tried beeswax? For purity it sure beats paraffin, which is processed from sludge that comes from crude oil. Here I’ll focus on three main uses for beeswax: candles, lip balm and other skin care, and then a selection of miscellaneous uses. When I did a search on Amazon for the word beeswax, I was surprised to find over 20,000 listings! (Admittedly, a few of them were books using the slang expression “None of your beeswax,” but most of them were for actual products.) There are dozens and dozens of uses for this versatile substance. As a natural material found in beehives, it has health-enhancing properties and it’s … Continue reading →

My Top Five Home Remedies for Itching Skin

I wish I wasn’t an expert on itching skin, but I’ve suffered from it so many times that I finally know how I can get relief from the annoyance of itching–and pretty quickly at that. Maybe my tips will help you. Here are my top five home remedies, and they are all free or cheap. They’ve helped with insect bites, poison oak or ivy, food allergies, and just plain dry skin. Of course sometimes you need medical help, and if so, do get it. I’ve had to myself a few times. Itching can be such a torment, no need to suffer more … Continue reading →

Glad We Had Emergency First Aid Supplies

Doing first aid is never fun, but the other day we were glad that we had the needed supplies in our rather disorganized bathroom cabinets. A visiting friend had scraped the back of her hand and it was a mess. It took a while to find everything, but we did come up with a newish tube of Neosporin ointment, a large sterile bandage pad, the not-so-sticky kind of tape to attach it to her hand, the homeopathic remedy Arnica and canine Rescue Remedy when I couldn’t find the human kind. After the repair session on her hand, we gave her a nice soothing … Continue reading →

Keeping Diabetes At Bay

Book cover, Dr. Bernstein's Diabetic Solution

I didn’t know that I had diabetic symptoms, but when I sat on my computer glasses and had to go for a new prescription, my ophthalmologist said, “You have some diabetic retinopathy. You have diabetes, right?” “Not that I know of, but my mother did,” I said, gulping. “Guess I’d better get checked out.” “Ask your doctor to let me know, and come back for another exam in three months,” he said. Yikes. I had been tested for diabetes every now and then because of my mother’s history, but the tests had never indicated that I had it. As soon as I got home, … Continue reading →

Putting My Turmeric into Capsules, and Why

I added more turmeric to my diet. I knew it had a long tradition of use in Indian cooking… it’s in curry powder, for example. Why did I want to do this? It seemed to me that it might be a help to my health, based on a variety of articles I read. Here’s one: Dr. Mercolas’s video and page about turmeric. This is a sales page for particular brand of turmeric but I still thought it did a good job of talking about the spice. That brand looks just fine, too, but I am so frugal that I wanted … Continue reading →

Using a Home Air Filter for Forest Fire Smoke

An indoor air filter can be a real help when forest fire smoke is in the air. You don’t have to be close to the fire to smell the smoke and feel the effects of the particulates. We realized this one time when smoke from a fire in New Mexico at least 200 miles away from our Colorado home filled our area, and our lungs, for several days. I was so stuffed up that I thought I would have to take a road trip somewhere far away. But we got an air filter for the house and I was okay. … Continue reading →

Why Use a Pedometer? You Will Walk More as the Pedometer Keeps Count

Walking is the easiest exercise to include in your daily life without needing bulky equipment or a gym membership. Just be sure to wear good shoes for walking, and then take off. You can go for walks alone or with family members or neighbors. You can walk a dog — yours or someone else’s. If shopping, walk some extra distance in the store or parking lot. If you get a pedometer and keep it in your pocket, you will be able to measure how well you are doing, and this can provide a lot more motivation. I have kept an … Continue reading →

Decrease Your Stress with Belly Breathing

Take a deep breath, and hold it. And hold it. And hold it. Hold it until your body insists that you breathe. Then breathe! Did you get pretty uncomfortable toward the end there? We have a powerfully built-in mechanism to be sure that we keep breathing. Our bodies need the oxygen. Yet, paradoxically, another mechanism in the body often keeps us from getting all the oxygen that we could benefit from. When we feel afraid or threatened or discouraged, our breathing typically becomes more shallow – not shallow enough to threaten life, but shallow enough that our bodies don’t work … Continue reading →

Make Your Own Cosmetics

Do you make your own cosmetics? It’s an enjoyable way to save some money and to try out different formulations in small batches to see what really suits you. This is an area where you can be as conventional or as purist about ingredients as you wish. Some recipes that you will see do use petroleum-based oils, some don’t. Some use dairy products, some don’t. Here is a book at Amazon that includes a lot of easy formulations to make your own cosmetics: . I looked at quite a few books before choosing this one to feature. It has some … Continue reading →

Instead of a Flu Shot: Natural Flu Protection

I won’t be getting any kind of flu shot this year — if you are interested in why not, you can go to www.mercola.com and search “flu vaccine exposed.” But I will be taking precautions to keep myself as healthy as possible. Supercharging our immune systems is always a good idea, this year even more than ever. Here are 10 things you can do. Most of them are free, and none are expensive. Wash, wash, wash your hands — specially when you have been around someone who is ill, when you come home from being out, or after you have … Continue reading →

Cell Phones and Cancer

I’ve been following the story about the relationship between cell phones and brain cancer for some time now, and I have often wondered how widely the story is getting out. There IS a relationship, it’s become quite evident, and the long-term implications are serious. The Environmental Working Group has released a free downloadable report in PDF format, titled Cell Phone Radiation: Science Review on Cancer Risks and Children’s Health. It’s at http://www.ewg.org/cellphoneradiation/fullreport I just read it… well, skimmed it. It’s not exactly light reading, but the first sections summarize the findings. Here is an example of the writing, where I … Continue reading →

Do You Drink Enough Water?

Do you drink enough water? How much is enough, anyway? I’ve been mulling over my own water habits recently, every since I happened to buy a book called by a doctor who makes a vigorous case for drinking at least two quarts of water a day, or more if you are a large person. He goes through a variety of his own experiences and those of others. It’s not the kind of book that is loaded with tons of references, but a few are woven into the text. By the time I had finished reading the book, I was not … Continue reading →

Researching Chemical-Free Shampoo

After reading shampoo bottle labels in the grocery store recently, I decided to explore my options for chemical-free shampoo… that is, shampoo free of chemicals that are toxic to the environment or to people who use the products. Here are three routes you can go: Homemade Shampoo Selecting a commercial shampoo which ranks well for its contents Giving up shampooing altogether. Really! I’ll discuss each one in turn. Homemade Shampoo Googling “homemade shampoo” gave me enough ideas to keep me busy for weeks! In a nutshell, many of the recipes are based on using castile soap. It is available in … Continue reading →

Easy Natural Herbal Mouthwash

When my dentist told me that my gums were a little inflamed and that I should use a mouthwash, I thought of those foul-tasting, vile-colored things you get at most stores. As I’m in Mexico at present, my choice of natural mouthwash products from a health food store was probably nonexistent. I asked my dentist if there was something more natural I could use, perhaps involving salt. Generally, Mexican medical specialists know more about herbs, homeopathy, and natural remedies than their North American counterparts, and this dentist was no exception. “Certainly,” he said. “Make a strong manzanilla tea — how … Continue reading →

Wild Goose QiGong with Dr. Bingkun Hu

Wild Goose QiGong is an easily learned form of this ancient Chinese art. I know it’s easily learned, because I’ve been learning it from DVDs. It’s helped my flexibility tremendously and has made other, more subtle improvements in my well-being also. Simple living includes taking care of our bodies, in my view, to do what we can to avoid the suffering and stress that illness can bring. Or to put that more positively, the better our energy, the better our quality of life. About six months ago, my sister-in-law Alexandra came to visit us for a few weeks. She brought … Continue reading →

Herbal Flu and Cold Remedies, Featuring Cayenne

There are a variety of things that can be done with and , from pain-relieving salves to homemade remedies to tackle the symptoms of colds and flus. If you want to make your own remedy, here are two variations on the same theme. In both cases, people who use it swear by it and say it keeps indefinitely. These are recommended when you feel like you might be coming down with something. Be very careful about your fingers so they don’t end up with cayenne on them! (1) Combine 2 tsp cayenne pepper, 1 ½ teaspoons salt, 1 cup … Continue reading →

Fasting

It is said that leaner people do better than heavy ones in conditions of physical stress. They point out that the people who fast the longest are very lean, and that the body can do very well on a long-term diet of mostly raw foods in surprisingly small amounts. But someone who is overweight is used to consuming a lot of food on a regular basis. The physical effects of a change to a smaller quantity, simpler, mostly raw or natural food will often cause a “healing crisis” to occur. I don’t know where the truth lies in all this, … Continue reading →

Simple Green Living

With Rosana Hart