There is a good reason that people put nuts in trail mix to take with them when they are hiking. Nuts provide sustained energy because, thanks to their mix of fat and protein, they are a slow burning food. For the same reason, they are friendly to your blood sugar. In fact Harvard researchers have discovered that women who regularly ate nuts were 20 percent less likely to develop type 2 diabetes than those that didn’t eat them as often.
Some estimates say that people get a billion colds a year, and there are more than 200 viruses that can cause them. Millions of people get the influenza virus each year. About 200,000 people develop complications from flu and have to be hospitalized, and it is estimate that nearly 36,000 people die from flu complications every year.
Both of these viral diseases can spread easily. All it takes is close contact, whether you inhale a virus or pick it up from a surface an infected person has touched. Cold symptoms tend to last 1 to 2 weeks, with the first signs being sneezing, scratchy throat, and a runny nose; later, you have nasal congestion, cough, muscles aches, and a headache. Colds can lead to bronchitis, pneumonia, ear infections, sinusitis, and an increase in asthma symptoms.
The flu, on the other hand, hits suddenly and gives you a high fever, headaches, a dry cough, a sore throat, a runny or stuffy nose, muscles aches, and an upset stomach that lasts from 2 days to 2 weeks. It may also make you feel extremely fatigued and may lead to pneumonia in some people.
Healing medicine has some wonderful answers for arthritis pain. Taking a hot herbal bath or getting a massage with medicinal oils can go a long way toward easing pain and stuffness.
Of all of the respiratory ills, asthma may be the most mysterious. What doctors know is that people with asthma have bronchial tubes that are easily aggravated by cold, dust mites, pollen, and a host of other triggers. When these sensitive airways are irritated, they clench down, making breathing a trial. And to make things worse, the body produces extra mucus with asthma, further clogging up the airways. Chronic inflammation of the lungs seems to be the underlying problem, although no one knows why it occurs.
Because asthma varies from one person to the next, herbalists apply distinctly different approaches. So if you have asthma and want to try herbs, it is a good idea to see a qualified herbalist. Of course, checking with your doctor before you try any new herbs must be done first.
The word cataract has two meanings and neither one of them is pleasant to experience. The first meaning is a huge waterfall or deluge of water, and the second meaning – the one that concerns us now–refers to a medical condiition in which the lens of an eye becomes cloudy or opaque.
More than half of all Americans either have cataracts of have had cataract surgery by the age of 80, according to the National Institutes of Heath.
Food and herbs can delay the formation or progression of cataracts but they can’t cure them.
