Positive steps to stay healthy

[Maria]

Proper hygiene - earwax removal

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/artic ... =470791527

• * Earwax is a self-cleaning agent for your ears where it helps slow the growth of bacteria and prevent dirt from entering your ear.

  • Unless you have an earwax blockage, you should leave your earwax alone; it will naturally migrate out of your ear.
  • Trying to remove earwax with cotton swabs, ear candling, or other devices can cause earwax to move further into your ear canal and may damage your ear.
  • Impacted earwax, which may cause hearing loss, ringing in the ears, or a feeling of fullness in your ear, can often be remedied at home by using water, oil, or ear drops to soften the wax to help it migrate out on its own.

[Barbara]

I had never heard that about ear wax being a self-cleaning agent.

I believe that using Q-tips cautiously with lavender oil on them [or if tough,
lavender-tea tree combined, for the tea tree DOES sting !]
actually helps keep the ear clean and resistant to germs from the air around.

This novel point of view - to leave the ear alone - is worthy of consideration as it is quite logical.

[Maria]

I had never heard that about ear wax being a self-cleaning agent.

I believe that using Q-tips cautiously with lavender oil on them [or if tough,
lavender-tea tree combined, for the tea tree DOES sting !]
actually helps keep the ear clean and resistant to germs from the air around.

This novel point of view - to leave the ear alone - is worthy of consideration as it is quite logical.

I have heard that some people who have cleaned their ear using Q-tips developed dizziness and vertigo.
After they underwent testing and a thorough exam, their ENT specialist advised them to not touch their ears.
They followed his advise, and have not experienced dizziness or vertigo.

[Barbara]

I am bit skeptical, Maria.
First, I think that the earwax would not build up to the point of needing to be removed in a major way
IF one regularly cleaned out one's ears.
I can see a problem if one were struggling with the Q-tip and it broke !
That would hurt.
The best bet seems to be to attack this mildly but every day.
Also, using good quality Q-tips is a key to avoiding trouble.
There are so many cheap ones on the market which break off or - worse, probably -
shed a few layers of their cotton possibly into the ear if not noted and removed at the time.
So using the Johnson and Johnson Q-tip makes a difference, too,
I assert. No proof !

Someone who felt a problem with vertigo would be I assume having a difficulty in the INNER ear.
That's not what one cleans, anyway.

But, I am no physician.
This is important to know about, most surely, as this is something most all take for granted.

Even when I wash my hair, I immediately clean out the soapsuds with a Q-tip. It just feels better
not to have soggy, soapy ears !

Time will probably produce more information to help us on this topic.

[Maria]

Honey Curbs the MRSA Superbug

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news ... honey.html

• Finding out more about manuka's mystery ingredient could lead to new treatments for drug-resistant bacteria strains, the study authors say.

  Still, the researchers caution against treating wounds with commercially sold manuka honey.

  Unlike medical-grade honey, store-bought honey is not sterilized and could contain microbes and spores that might make an infection worse, Jenkins said.

In a more recent article:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/artic ... rbugs.html

• It is a natural medicine used for thousands of years to clean wounds and fight bacteria.

  A study has shown that manuka honey can fight back on two fronts. Not only can it help to kill MRSA and other superbugs, it can also prevent bacteria from becoming resistant to antibiotics.

According to comments made there have been at least 20 published peer-reviewed articles praising Manuka Honey in the medical literature (Pub Med).

[Maria]

Here is a link that is fascinating. I am taking Dr. Mercola's challenge to eat fermented veggies and to use coconut oil to rinse my mouth partly at least once a day, preferably every morning and every evening because my dentist asked me to do something today, six months ago, last year, and five years ago about my increasing plaque build up.

Here is a brief excerpt from this article:

• One of the primary reasons coconut oil's benefits are so broad is that 50 percent of the fat in coconut oil is lauric acid, which is rarely found in nature. In fact, coconut oil contains the most lauric acid of any substance on Earth. Your body converts lauric acid into monolaurin, a monoglyceride that can actually destroy lipid-coated viruses such as HIV and herpes, influenza, measles, gram-negative bacteria, and protozoa such as giardia lamblia.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/artic ... decay.aspx

I got my teeth cleaned today. Now the challenge begins.
I just bought some fermented veggies at WholeFoods.
Now I need to pick up some Coconut Oil from Trader Joes, in the meantime, I might try some olive oil.

[Barbara]

Excellent posts, all, Maria.

What are "fermented vegetables" - ??
I have never heard of them.

But coconut oil ! I have been taking that for a year or two every day morning and night,
and I don't see any change but take for granted that it's highly beneficial.
Your article excerpt explained a possible reason why ; I bet there are plenty of them.

I did read a mass med. article from Yahoo News disdainfully dismissing Coconut Oil as
"So-o- 2012 : now the new thing is bla bla"
I thought that was ridiculous.
Once good, always good de people.

Quick, though, before you chose Trader Joe's brand, I would wait.
It MUST be Extra Virgin AND Organic, which is not always highlighted.
Trader Joes brand is probably all right.
But one of the top brands that I know of is "Artisana", available at Whole Foods.
Expensive, but worth every penny.

As for manuka honey working against MRSA, hee hee, I think I posted about that when talking about
the use of essential oils and ideally better manuka honey to fight MRSA which floats around anywhere, I think.
No one has said that, having mostly located it in hospitals and perhaps nursing homes.
But I bet it's all over.
That's why I remind everyone reading the site here to gargle with oregano or tea tree oil AND swab backs of nostrils
with tea tree as a bare minimum.

ESPECIALLY WHEN ... going to the dentist ! Or any doctor's office or veterinarian's clinic. Or any public building such a school or library, for that matter.

Well, I am interested to learn that manuka has become well-known enough that National Geographic wrote about it.
It's expensive, too.
There is no ventilation in these places, and perhaps a lot of traffic through.