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Vitamin K is an essential vitamin when it comes to issues like blood clotting and for avoiding dreaded diseases such as Alzheimer’s, heart disease and cancer.

There are thousands of people who depend on medication such as Coumadin or Warfarin to prevent blood clots, and unless you are one of them, there is no reason why you should not be taking plenty of vitamin K in your diet.

How to Get More Vitamin K in Your Diet

Vitamin K foods include cooked or raw green leafy veggies like cabbage, cucumber, asparagus, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, green beans, okra, lettuce, and the like. Your daily requirement of vitamin K in this form is around 120 micrograms.

Let’s take a quick look and see just what all vitamin K health benefits there are and then we will look at 10 foods that boost vitamin K.

Why You Need the Coagulation Vitamin

• As mentioned above, vitamin K is vital for blood clotting, reversing the effects of blood thinner medications.
• Vitamin K also treats vitamin K deficiency, where the body doesn’t have enough of this vitamin.
• It treats weak bones (osteoporosis).
• It relieves itching that is often associated with liver diseases.
• Vitamin K lowers the total cholesterol of people who are on dialysis treatment.
• It is known to remove spider veins on the skin, to remove scars, stretch marks, burns, and bruises and used topically, treats rosacea, a nasty skin condition that causes pimples and redness on the face.
• After undergoing surgery, vitamin K helps to speed up healing of the skin and to reduce swelling and bruising.

Here are more; however, there is still insufficient evidence yet to prove that vitamin K2 can assist with:

• Breast cancer: It is suggested that taking in vitamin K2 lowers the risk of developing breast cancer.
• Cystic fibrosis: People who have cystic fibrosis might have low levels of vitamin K due to their problems digesting fat. Early research suggests that taking vitamin K orally can enhance osteocalcin production – important for metabolic regulation and bone-building.
• Lung cancer: Research is suggesting that taking higher intakes of vitamin K2 could be linked to reducing the risk of lung cancer.
• Prostate cancer: Research suggests that higher intakes of vitamin K2, not vitamin K1, could be linked to a reduction in the risk of prostate cancer.

But getting enough of this important vitamin, as you can see from the above, is integral to good health and when there is a deficiency, a long list of health problems can develop.

There are 2 main types of vitamin K:

• Vitamin K1 – consisting of leafy vegetables.
• Vitamin K2 – found in fermented foods and animal products. You will find vitamin K2 also being produced by the friendly bacteria in your gut microbiome.

Are you deficient?

There are signs and symptoms that you can look out for which could include:

• Bruising easily
• Your nose or your gums are oozing
• You have excessive bleeding from wounds or injections for instance or from surgical areas
• You have heavy menstrual periods
• You bleed from the GI (gastrointestinal) tract
• You notice blood in either the urine or stools
• An increase in prothrombin time (tests used to detect and diagnose bleeding disorders or clotting)

When a newborn is vitamin K deficient the signs and symptoms could be similar to the above, but when the case is more serious, bleeding in the skull could be involved.

Top 10 Vitamin K Foods

• Green leafy vegetables: ½-cup: contains 444 micrograms
• Natto (fermented soy): 2 ounces: contains 500 micrograms
• Spring onions (scallions): ½-cup: contains 103 micrograms
• Brussels sprouts: ½-cup: contains 78 micrograms
• Cabbage: ½-cup: contains 82 micrograms
• Broccoli: ½-cup: contains 46 micrograms
• Dairy (fermented): – ½-cup: contains 10 micrograms
• Prunes: ½- cup: contains 52 micrograms
• Cucumbers: 1 medium cucumber: contains 49 micrograms
• Dried basil: 1 tablespoon: contains 36 micrograms

This valuable vitamin was discovered by a Danish scientist, Henrik Dam.

From his research, he named it vitamin K, which is abbreviated from the word Koagulationsvitamin. In English, this means the “coagulation vitamin”.

Another biochemist, Edward Doisy continued Dam’s work to discover more exciting roles that vitamin K plays in the body, and both these scientists received the Nobel Prize in 1943 for their amazing work.

Years later, we are beginning to unearth the multiple functions this coagulation vitamin is performing in the body – truly amazing vitamin K1 and vitamin K2.

Goat care is somewhat different than typical farm and household animals. It doesn’t help that there are some very silly, very wrong myths about goats.

You love animals and your home is starting to look like a zoo.

Now that you have chickens gobbling up insects and giving eggs in their beautiful chicken coop, rabbits multiplying as they are prone to do, and a lovable old farm dog sitting on the porch and watching all of the craziness, it occurs to you that you’re missing something really important – goats.

And now … you’re getting a goat!

Goats are wonderful. They’re adorable to look at, and they’re a lot of fun.

It’s important to realize, though, that goats aren’t quite like other farm animals, and goat care is going to be a bit more involved than chicken care.

To make sure that you can give the kind of attention and care that all your animals need before you add goats on the growing list, you have to be certain that you can commit to the task. If you have a full time job and you are doing this to relax after a tough day at work, find someone who will look after your pets whenever you are not at home.

You may have been a very experienced pet owner, but you are still a novice when it comes to looking after goats.

Let’s look at three very important things that you need to know!

Goats Eat Everything …. Not Quite!

We’ve all heard that goats will eat anything. Tin cans, old boots – nothing is safe if you have a goat.

That’s SO far from reality, though. You can’t just turn your goats out on any green area and expect them to thrive. The truth is that if your goats don’t like the plants or the hay that’s provided, they’d rather not eat!

If the food is on the ground, they’d rather not eat it.

If something got in or on their food, and they don’t like the look of that thing, they’d rather not eat.

Where did the myth come from, anyway? After all, it’s so clearly wrong.

Well, goats use their mouths to explore and understand the world. They will ‘taste’ everything to see if it’s good to eat or not because that’s how they learn. But while a goat may pick up a tin can and taste it, she won’t eat it.

Feeding is a goat is actually more like handling a child who is a picky eater.

You know what they want to eat, and you know what they need to eat. Proper goat care means it’s your job to make it happen for them, unless you’re okay with your goats starving themselves to death.

I know, your doctor says your child won’t starve herself to death. Your goat will, though.

Goats need a small amount of high quality grains (males need almost none), plenty of fresh grass and hay, and clean water every day. Most of them need extra vitamins and minerals, which are often as difficult to get into them as getting vitamins into children. They also need loose minerals and access to baking soda to prevent bloating.

They’re sturdy and can handle bad weather

They hate it when they get wet.

They will stand like a statue for hours before willingly walking through mud or a water puddle. If their food is on the other side of that puddle, they’d rather starve.

Dogs, chickens, and even cats might brave a storm to get what they need. I’ve seen our chickens leaning forward, bracing themselves against the wind and rain because they really wanted … well, who knows the mind of a chicken, but they were determined to get there.

A goat will stand in one place and bellow for the world to hear her unhappiness.

Whoever started the myth that domestic goats can handle rough weather must have also started the myth that goats eat anything.

*cough* *cough* And as a reader of mine just pointed out – there are always the exceptions. You might end up with a goat who thinks she’s a dog and wants to be out in all sorts of mud and weather (just as you could have chickens who panic at the sight of a snowflake or a gust of wind).

They’re like children – just when we think we have a handle on what they’ll always do, they do the exact opposite and make us look like liars.

You’re going to need a shelter. It doesn’t have to be heated, but it definitely needs to be dry and clean. You will have happy (well, happier) goats if you make a bed for them that is raised off the floor because goats will almost always seek the highest ground before resting.

What happens if you don’t ensure that your goat has clean, dry shelter for winter and rainy weather?

Your goat won’t sleep.

If your home is anywhere near the goat shelter, you won’t, either, because you will hear the constant cries of an unhappy goat morning and night.

You only need one goat

I’ve had a few people tell me they were getting a goat. One goat, all by itself.

What an awful idea.

Goats are extremely social animals. They really have no idea what to do with themselves if they’re separated from the herd.

Actually, no, I shouldn’t say that. They know what to do – cry. (Notice a theme here? Unhappy goats are loud.)

A lonely goat will cry day and night. But more than that, your lonely goat will become depressed and stop eating.

Yup, a lonely goat is eventually a dead goat. The answer is simple – have more than one. Chickens, goats, and cookies – all things that require more than one.

Are you still ready for life with goats? It’s rewarding and heart-warming. But be sure that you know the truth about this common – and very wrong – myths first!

When you start feeling ill, fatigued, develop cramps, or have digestive issues like gas and bloat after most meals, it is often related to what you eat and your gut health.

Whether you have irritable bowel syndrome or simply are concerned with how your digestive system is working, the low FODMAP diet might be for you.

Most Common Symptoms of Digestive Issues

This diet with the funny name is great for people with IBS and related conditions, but that’s not all it helps with.

It can also help you with general digestive problems you might be experiencing since it temporarily eliminates foods that might be triggers for you.

So if you’re experiencing typical digestive symptoms, you’ll find that this diet will give you some relief and hopefully help you narrow down the culprits that are causing distress.

These digestive problems might include:

Nausea or vomiting

Abdominal cramping

Diarrhea or constipation

Bloating

Incontinence

We might all have these symptoms once in a while, but if you’re dealing with this frequently and there seems to be no other cause, it’s time to change what you’re eating.

Food Makes You Bloat

Now for the more specific signs.

The biggest is … bloat.

Most women are familiar with bloat since we deal with it during our menstrual cycle, and you might deal with it if you’re retaining a lot of water weight.

But if you get bloated every single time you eat, there’s something in your diet that is causing problems.

You Don’t Know What Foods Make You Ill

Eliminate dairy, says one person.

Another insists that gluten is the problem.

Yet another says that you should avoid coffee.

But you look at what you’re eating and there just seems to be no rhyme nor reason to the bloat and discomfort. It could be dairy … and maybe it’s gluten … but what about that tossed salad that had you belching for hours?

The problem is that most of us don’t eat just one ingredient, or even one food group, during the day.

We eat a bit of this and a bit of that. This makes it hard to pinpoint exactly what’s making you ill. It could be dairy – but it could also be wheat, traces of barley or rye, nuts, nightshade vegetables, or any number of foods.

With the FODMAP elimination diet, you remove many of the common food allergens and then re-introduce them slowly to figure out exactly what foods are triggering for you.

Digestive Issues Keep Worsening

Years ago, you dealt with a bit of mild indigestion or IBS, and you removed some foods that definitely were a problem. But now? Now it’s getting worse.

I know it’s not just me. We’ve talked … maybe not you and me personally, but I’ve talked with a lot of people who are having the same problems that I am.

This can happen because of age and because our bodies gradually increase in how they react to triggering foods.

This is another good reason to get rid of FODMAP foods for a while.

Low FODMAP Diet Elimination

Some people get on this diet and stick to it, immediately and permanently. I really admire their dedication (and I hope they’re taking a good multivitamin!)

For most people, though, it’s a type of elimination diet.

This means that you eliminate all of the suspected problem foods for a few weeks and then gradually start re-introducing them back into your diet.

This lets you see exactly what is giving you digestive complaints or triggering your IBS symptoms.

Understanding FODMAPS

I knew someone a few years ago who read the first chapter of the South Beach Diet book and decided he was going to go all in.

He filled his freezer with steaks and said no thanks to anything other than … well, meat.

When I read the book and let him know that he was supposed to be eating a great deal of salad and legumes, he scoffed. If I recall, it said two cups of vegetables for every ounce of meat, and a quarter cup of legumes daily.

He wasn’t listening.

The first chapter – and a lot of meaty protein – was enough for him.

It’s really important to learn as much as you can about this or any other elimination diet. The first thing to do is understand FODMAPs – what are they, what’s the strange name mean, why would you want to stick with the low ones, and why would you want to avoid the high ones.

FODMAP stands for Fermentable Oligo, Di, Mono-saccharides and Polyols – so you can see why most people just call it by the initials!

Essentially, the low FODMAP diet means that you eat foods that are lower in certain types of fibers and sugars which are known to contribute to abdominal cramping, gas, nausea, and pains related to digestive issues like IBS.

What are included in the high FODMAP foods, the ones that you should be eliminating? This includes lactose, fructose, sorbitol (and other sweeteners ending in “ol”), Galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS), and fructans.

Removing the High FODMAP Foods

Like many elimination diets, there are three main phases to the low FODMAP diet.

The first phase is eliminating the high FODMAP foods from your diet.

Phase two is re-introducing some of these foods one at a time.

Phase three is adapting to a new eating lifestyle and avoiding any of the foods that triggered symptoms.

For the first stage, you need to look at the food lists of low and high FODMAP foods, and eat only what is on the low FODMAP list. Some of the high FODMAP foods can be eaten sparingly, but during the elimination stage it is best to avoid them entirely.

Re-Introducing Foods

You’ve eliminated the suspect foods and you’re starting to feel better? Now it’s time for the re-introduction phase.

This simply means that you try eating those high FODMAP foods, but only one at a time. Introduce bananas again, for example, having one at breakfast each morning for a week. Wait long enough to see how your body reacts to it. The next week, try having wheat products. Of course, if you react to a food, you’ll stop eating it.

It can take some time but eventually, you’ll figure out what your body can handle without digestive issues and what foods you need to cut out of your diet for good.

FODMAP Eating: High and Low Foods

Like in any diet, the first question people ask is – what can I eat on the low FODMAP diet? Here’s a guide to the low and high foods.

Avoid These High FODMAP Foods

First of all, you should know what foods you are avoiding or reducing. Most people will skip them entirely, but depending on your circumstance, you might just want to reduce how much you consume them for a while.

To start with, you should avoid garlic and onions as much as you can. These tend to affect your digestive system, so stick to other ways of seasoning your food.

Many fruits are on the high FODMAP list and should be avoided because they can be high in fructose. These include, but are not limited to:

Bananas
Apples
Cherries
Nectarines
Grapefruit
Mango
Peaches
Pears
Blackberries

There are many vegetables you can eat, but avoid some of them, like cauliflower, asparagus, artichoke, and larger stocks of celery.

Most meat is fine, though you want to avoid sausage and chorizo.

Avoid wheat products, including baked goods, pasta, bread, biscuits, and cereals.

Some nuts are allowed, like walnuts and pistachios, but avoid most nuts.

You’ll also avoid sweeteners and a variety of other foods.

Enjoy These Low FODMAP Foods

An easier way to plan your meals is to know the low FODMAP foods.

That way, you can print out a list of these foods and head to the grocery store, making sure you only pick foods from this list.

This is not a comprehensive list of low FODMAP foods, but they include some of the major options for you.

Vegetables

Most vegetables are allowed.

Broccoli, olives, pears, carrots, smaller stalks of celery, butternut squash, brussels sprouts, kale, lettuce, spinach, pumpkin, red peppers, and many others.

Low fructose fruit

If you are a fan of fruit, not to worry.

There are still some you can enjoy, but you want to stick to the low fructose fruits, like cranberries (1 tbsp only), mandarin, passion fruit, oranges, cantaloupe, blueberries, strawberries, pineapple, papaya, and raspberries.

Meat and fish

Continue eating most of the meat and seafood you already enjoyed, including poultry, cold cuts, chicken, beef, lamb, salmon, canned tuna, shrimp, and crab.

Cereals and grains

With the baked goods and grains, just make sure they don’t contain wheat or gluten.

This means you must avoid foods made with buckwheat flour, brown or whole grain rice, corn or oats, rice bread, shortbread (limited amount) and potato bread.

Other foods and sweeteners

You can have some sweeteners, including aspartame, golden syrup, glucose, and most jams or jellies in moderation.

Condiments like peanut butter, mustard, mayonnaise (with no garlic or onion in ingredients), fish sauce, maple syrup, ketchup (limited amount), and many others are allowed.

For alcoholic drinks, stick to clear spirits, one beer or one glass of wine, or whiskey.

You can have either decaf or regular coffee as long as you use lactose-free milk.

How to Fit Low FODMAP Foods into Your Meal Plan

Once you figure out what you can or can’t eat while on a Low FODMAP diet, the hard part is figuring out what meals you can eat.

It is very important that you not just pick and choose any foods and eat them randomly, but make sure you are eating enough and have well-balanced meals with the available foods in the diet. This often requires meal planning.

Here are some tips for working on a meal plan while on the low FODMAP diet.

Keep a List of the Low FODMAP Foods Handy

You should always have your list of approved low FODMAP foods whenever you are meal planning, or if you run out of time and need to just head to the grocery store.

This diet isn’t like others where it is easy to guess what might or might not be allowed. Have multiple copies of the low FODMAP list so that you can plan meals and snacks wherever you are.

Start with Low FODMAP Foods You Already Enjoy

To start with your meal planning, don’t go crazy and try all the foods you haven’t eaten before or force yourself to eat what you don’t like.

The low FODMAP foods list is very extensive, including fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, fats, and lots more foods. You should be able to find the ones you already eat in your daily life.

Highlight the foods on the list that you enjoy consuming now and fit into some of your favorite meals. This is a great place to start.

Find Alternatives for High FODMAP Foods in Your Meals

Once you have chosen your favorite low FODMAP foods, it is time to put some meals together. You will notice many of the ingredients you typically use are not allowed, so you need to get a little creative. Start finding approved alternatives from the low list.

For example, use fresh herbs instead of garlic, or if you need healthy fat in your salad instead of avocado, add some of the approved nuts and seeds.

Since many fruits aren’t allowed, increase your veggies instead.

Having a meal plan will help you stick to the diet and not end up being malnourished. It is extremely important that you have three well-balanced meals a day, and also plan for approved low FODMAP diet snacks as needed for when you are hungry or can’t get home to prepare a meal.

Success Tips for Low FODMAP Eating

Before you begin the low FODMAP way of eating, it helps to know some tips and strategies to help you be more successful.

Any time you eliminate a large number of foods or complete food groups, it can be difficult to adapt and learn how to plan your meals. When our youngest son was born and we discovered that he was allergic to cow’s milk, it felt as though every meal I wanted to make needed milk or cheese. Of course, that wasn’t the case and we’ve learned to adapt to a new way of eating.

Click below for a printable cheat sheet to help you with the basics of this diet.

Here are some tips for being the healthiest and most successful while on a low FODMAP diet.

Learn the Low and High FODMAP Foods

First things first: learn what you can and can’t eat.

Over time, you will memorize what you are able to eat based on the low FODMAP plan, but for now, print out the food lists so you have them available at all times.

Have them saved to your phone and computer, bookmark sites with the lists or food ideas, and also have a printed version when you are meal planning or headed to the grocery store.

That way, you can stick to the elimination part of the diet, and know what to eat even after the first few weeks and know what you are re-introducing into your diet slowly.

Track Your Symptoms and How They Change

Throughout the low FODMAP diet, you should be tracking your symptoms and how you feel.

Keep track of what you eat, and mark down any notes about foods causing illness or not.

Do you feel better during the elimination diet or do you still have digestive issues?

When re-introducing high lactose foods or fruits with a lot of fiber, are you suddenly having stomach cramps again?

You need this information so that you can create a custom diet that makes you feel good.

And if you feel WORSE after eliminating the high FODMAP foods? Stop the diet immediately and see your doctor. There might be something else going on. Report all symptoms and what diet changes you were making.

Focus on Proper Nutrients

Any time you start a new diet that is restricting certain foods or food groups, you are at risk of malnutrition.

This can happen even if you are not “starving” or even hungry, but as a result of not getting the right amount of nutrients.

Make sure that when you choose from the low FODMAP food list, you are choosing foods with a wide range of nutrients, from fiber foods like chia seeds and berries, to plenty of vegetables and lean meats.

Have Low FODMAP Snacks Ready to go

It might not be realistic to be home and able to cook every meal and snack of the day, so prepare ahead of time with some fast favorites.

Keep grab-and-go snacks available like berries in portion-controlled containers, gluten-free crackers, and nuts or nut butter.

Not all of the superfoods are well known. Here are 5 lesser-known superfoods that are extremely healthy and full of minerals, vitamins and nutrients but you might not have known just how great they are!

A superfood is a type of food that is extremely healthy for you due to delivering a lot of minerals, vitamins, and essential nutrients.

While many people know the basics like spinach, oatmeal, bananas and blueberries, there are some others that are a little less known.

Here are some healthy superfoods you might not have known were included in this category.

Goji Berries

There are quite a few exotic fruits that are now becoming a staple in America, and goji berries are one of them.

These delicious berries come from Asia and are filled with nutrients that can make you a healthier person.

This slightly less common superfood has fiber, iron, amino acids, and vitamin A.

The best thing about them is that they can be eaten with the skin on and without removing a seed or pit. This makes it easy to add them to your cereal, yogurt, or oatmeal. Since they’re sold in dry form, they can also be added to granola.

Pumpkin Puree (Homemade or canned)

Believe it or not, pumpkin is also considered a superfood. There is a reason so many ‘healthy’ dessert and baking recipes ask for pumpkin.

It is low in fat, delicious, and good for you!

Pumpkin puree contains antioxidants, unsaturated fat, fiber, and an excellent amount of protein.

If you like pumpkin seeds better, there is even more included in them. Pumpkin seeds contain potassium, zinc, protein, magnesium, and vitamin K.

Beets

Beets may look a little too purple for you, but they are actually very delicious. Plus – they come in other colours, too (although you might have to grow them yourself).

Plus, they’re extra good for you.

Adding some beets to your salad could give you vitamin A, vitamin C, fiber, calcium, and iron. This is huge for just one small little vegetable. You can also find other recipes for beets that seem more appealing, such as steaming or roasting them.

Risotto also tastes very good with cooked beets in the dish.

Olives

As a kid you used to love putting them on your fingers and as an adult, you often have them on your plate during Thanksgiving, as a low-fat snack, or added to your salad for flavor.

Luckily, olives are also very good for you!

Olives contain vitamin E, iron, calcium, and copper.

While you should watch your intake due to the sodium content, they are still very good for you and considered one of the superfoods.

Artichokes

Another vegetable that is on the superfood list is the artichoke. This is another fun addition since they’re delicious and unique in the way you eat them.

You are only going to eat the ‘meat’ of artichokes, which is found on the inner part of each leaf. This soft meat is really good to be used as a dip or simply to eat on its own after steaming the vegetable.

For a little more flavor, dip them in melted butter or mayonnaise, but be careful not to use too much!

Artichokes contain fiber, vitamin C, vitamin K, and antioxidants.

Consider adding these superfoods to your regular diet to increase your nutrients.

In history, the elder plant is awash with folklore, romance, and superstition.

Shakespeare used the plant as a symbol of grief and referred to it as “the stinking Elder” in Cymbeline. And in another one of his works, Love’s Labour Lost, he propagated the medieval belief that “Judas was hanged on an Elder.”

Why people should identify the Elder with the traitor Apostle is puzzling but its constant reference in literature as Judas’ gallows subsequently caused superstition, magic, and fancies to hover over it.

Elderberry is an amazing plant – the berries, leaves, and the flowers are all used. Everything except the roots (which are poisonous) can be used. But if you’re picking them wild, you’re going to have to plan carefully. The birds know the value of this reddish-blue berry and will gobble them up before you get a chance to harvest them.

Elderberry syrup is the most popular form of elderberry for natural treatments, but it is definitely not the only way to get these berries. You can also get fresh and dried forms, powder liquid, and even supplements.

The general dosage for children is 1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon of black elderberry extract syrup no more than once daily.

For adults, 2 teaspoons to 2 tablespoons can be taken twice daily. Taken as a tea, use 1/2 – 1 teaspoon of dried flowers steeped in 1 cup boiling water for ten to fifteen minutes. This can be drunk three times per day.

9 Main Benefits of Elderberry

1. It Works as a Diuretic

Let’s face it, sometimes we “retain fluids” and need something to get things moving along. Our digestive system doesn’t always work the way it should. Instead of reaching for an over-the-counter diuretic, look for a natural diuretic like elderberry.

The fruit itself, the popular elderberry syrup, or even a supplement will all have a diuretic affect on your body.

Keep in mind that you do not eat these berries like you would blueberries or strawberries. Instead, use elderberry to flavour your food, or use the medicinal syrup.

By using elderberry on a regular basis, you can promote good digestive health and have a diuretic that isn’t as harsh on your body as many of the over-the-counter alternatives out there. Give this a try if you are having trouble with your digestive system.

Ways to Use Elderberry as a Diuretic

If you are interested in consuming elderberry, as opposed to trying out the supplement or topical applications, then the following list will be very useful for you. Keep in mind it is not a complete list – there are many different ways to use these berries.

• Make your own elderberry syrup
• Try making a homemade elderberry jelly to put on toast or muffins
• Create fruity baked goods with elderberry and other berries
• Add some elderberries to juice or smoothies for a sweet and nutritious kick
• Make an elderberry tart

2. You Can Lower Your Blood Sugar

Elderberries are also amazing for lowering your blood sugar. This is what is going to be beneficial at helping to prevent or treat diabetes. There have been many research studies performed on the effects of certain foods and herbs on the blood sugar levels, looking at what does or does not stimulate glucose.

The most recent study was published in the Journal of Nutrition, which found that elderberry can lower the blood sugar levels in your body by stimulating glucose metabolism.

While type 1 diabetes is often genetic, type 2 diabetes can happen at any time in your life. Many people think it is only for people who consume high amounts of sugar or who are overweight, but that is not the case. Anyone can get type 2 diabetes, whether you are considered high risk or not. The best thing you can do is lower your blood sugar,
which is why fruits like elderberry are so amazing.

It can also help treat the diabetes you already have by naturally helping to lower your current blood sugar levels. With the right diet, you might even be able to get rid of your diabetes altogether, but you will need to talk to a doctor about that.

3. It Helps with Cold and Flu Symptoms

There are many natural remedies for illnesses like the common cold, chest cold, and flu, including garlic, various herbs, turmeric, and yes – elderberry. When you are trying to get help for the cold and flu, that handy medicinal elderberry syrup is to the rescue.

Research has shown that elderberry syrup works wonders for various symptoms related to these illnesses, including congestion and headaches from both the cold and flu, inflammation, and digestive issues as the result of the influenza (flu). You can try a little elderberry syrup alternating with traditional cold medicine, or try just the elderberry with other natural remedies for a day or two to see if you notice any changes.

As always, consult your doctor before trying any natural remedies. With a flu, if you have a high fever or dehydration, get medical attention right away.

4. Elderberry is Loaded with Antioxidants

Everyone wants more antioxidants in their body, and now is the time to get them. Elderberry, like many other fruits and herbs, provides an exceptional amount of antioxidants. Antioxidants work to keep you from getting illnesses and fight off infections since they protect your cells from free radicals. These free radicals can do a lot of damage to your body, lowering your immune system, and making you susceptible to illness.

Elderberry also has vitamin C, which is another great way to raise your immunity and keep you from getting illnesses and chronic diseases. Elderberry has about the same amount of antioxidants as other berries, including goji berries, blackberries, and blueberries, also with a high amount of flavonoids. Additional immune-strengthening compounds also exist in elderberry, which is another great bonus.

If you want to use the berries alone, try adding them to a cup of hot tea for added flavor, or using them to flavor a fruit smoothie along with other immune-boosting fruits and veggies. If you want to try a smoothie, elderberry is great with the following ingredients for antioxidants and to boost your immunity:

• Blueberries and blackberries
• Strawberries
• Spinach
• Kale
• Oranges or grapefruit
• Cherries

Get creative when making your fruit smoothies to help boost your immunity and get all those antioxidants.

5. It Improves Your Digestion

This is a big benefit and one of the main reasons people use elderberry, aside from helping with immunity and as a natural treatment for the cold and flu.

So many people have digestive problems, and even though they try elimination diets and allergy tests, can never really figure out what the issue is. In some people, it is not getting enough fiber, while others just have an overly sensitive stomach.

Regardless of the reason for your digestive problems, elderberry can help a lot.

This handy little fruit (or syrup) provides a decent amount of dietary fiber, which is going to help tremendously with your digestive problems. This includes helping to relieve your gas, get your bowels moving in the morning, getting rid of chronic constipation and diarrhea, and improving your digestive and gastrointestinal system as a whole.

Don’t forget that when you get more fiber into your diet, it doesn’t just help with your digestive system, but it can also help with general gut health.

If you don’t like the taste of elderberries, you can always get gummies, which are soft to chew and don’t require swallowing pills either.

6. Boost Your Cardiovascular Health

Elderberry have also been effective at helping with cardiovascular health. This is related to your heart, which is how it can help reduce your risk for heart disease and other cardiovascular conditions. It is essential that you take your cardiovascular health very seriously, or detrimental consequences could follow.

Like many other fruits and vegetables, elderberries are great for your heart health.

The fiber and other nutrients in the elderberry can help reduce your blood pressure and help with your cholesterol levels.

It helps to promote the good cholesterol while reducing the bad cholesterol.

Elderberry is also effective at protecting your arteries and blood vessels, both of which can lead to heart disease. It is the potassium in elderberry that helps reduce your blood pressure.

Just look at all these different forms this bright purple fruit comes in:

• Fresh berries
• Dried berries
• Elderberry syrup
• Capsules and supplements
• Elderberry tablets
• Pure elderberry liquid

There are a lot of options available for using elderberry more often and getting all these heart-healthy benefits from it.

7. Promotes Healthy Skin

Who doesn’t want to have healthier skin?

Elderberry works similar to many other fruits and herbs, where it can really improve your skin rejuvenation and give you a more youthful, glowing complexion.

Elderberry will help your skin in the following ways:

• Make it softer and more supple
• Give you a naturally glowing complexion without highlighters
• Help with acne and blemishes when combined with other acne-fighting ingredients

You can try making your own mask or scrub with elderberry, or check out stores and online shops with natural beauty products, and you might just find what you’re looking for.

8. Get Help with Your Allergies

Don’t go anywhere yet – there are more health benefits to check out!

Elderberry is also great at helping with various types of allergies, including fighting off the allergens and helping out with your allergy symptoms. Elderberry plants are often used for medicinal and herbal remedies, and helping with allergies is definitely no exception.

The way elderberry helps with allergies has to do with how your body reacts to inflammation.

Allergens tend to increase inflammation in your body, thanks to a reaction in your immune system. This inflammation can lead to allergy symptoms like swelling, redness, itching, coughing, and congestion. The elder plant and elderberries not only boost your immune system, but it can help to reduce the inflammation as well.

There are some different ways to use elderberry for allergies, from creating a topical product with elderberry and other herbs, to taking a supplement of elderberry.

9. It Improve Your Bone Health

The last health benefit you should know about with elderberry is that it can improve your bone health.

This is thanks to various natural properties of this plant, including the anti-inflammatory properties and the antioxidants.

As you know from the previous section about allergies, elderberries are great at reducing inflammation in the body. This not only helps with allergy symptoms, but can help with your joints and bones as well. It is particularly useful for people who have osteoporosis at an older age, as that often accompanies arthritis at the same time.

Now that you know the top health benefits of elderberry, you can get started using it. Remember that there are a wide range of ways to use or consume elderberries – from making a tincture or topical application to help with your skin and various bacterial infections to consuming it for flavor and getting all the added antioxidants.

A first aid kit is a necessity in every home, but it doesn’t have to be a store-bought and generic one – you can put together a homemade, herb based and natural first aid kit for your own family.

A first aid kit is something every household needs, but it doesn’t have to be a store-bought and generic one.

After all, if you generally use essential oils and natural remedies to heal your ills, why would you want a kit full of chemical compounds and harsh treatments?

You can put together a homemade, herb based and natural first aid kit for your own family. If you don’t want big pharma involved when there’s a problem at home, rest assured that there’s a natural solution for most of the everyday issues.

Some people worry that natural first aid doesn’t have the same effectiveness as mainstream drugs.

It’s true that there are many situations in which mainstream medical care is unavoidable. I mean, as a brain tumor survivor, I am very grateful to modern medicine. But for minor issues, why turn to mainstream drugs with all of their side effects when there are safe, simple (and inexpensive) natural remedies?

Natural and herbal medicines have been used for centuries to treat minor health problems, and here’s the shocking truth – “going herbal” can sometimes be more effective than using over-the-counter drugs. In fact, when it comes to minor problems like shallow wounds, sore throats, cuts, bug bites and uncomplicated rashes, your best option is to turn to Mother Nature’s pharmacy.

How to Fill Your Natural First Aid Kit

Your natural first aid kit isn’t just for your home. You can customize one for traveling, camping or for in your car. You can create a tiny one just to carry around in your purse or diaper bag or school bag. I was recently at a women’s retreat and as we unpacked our bags, one lady said, “If anyone needs essential oils, here’s my kit!”

There are many different medicinal plants and recipes for natural remedies passed on from generation to generation, and it’s up to you to create your own perfect combination for a natural first aid kit.  Let’s take a look at some of the more obvious choices.

Activated Charcoal

This coal-black dust is most often found in the form of capsules, and it’s unsurpassed in the home treatment of poisoning and ingestion of toxins, or just dealing with a disturbed stomach in general.

It’s even used in mainstream medicine, especially in emergency trauma centers around the world, and it’s most certainly a great addition to your homemade first aid kit. Just don’t mix it up with the barbecue charcoal – that stuff is full of chemicals and toxins and should definitely never be consumed.

Activated charcoal is a completely natural antidote to most poisons, like arsenic, hemlock, strychnine and mercury, just to name a few, and it can also be applied topically on a snake or spider bite.

However, if you suspect poisoning or you have been bitten by a poisonous animal, it’s best to use activated carbon as a means of first aid only and seek the help of a doctor immediately.

In case of food poisoning, or vomiting and diarrhea, rely on activated charcoal to help the problems go away.

Aloe Vera gel

The gel found in Aloe Vera plants has a soothing and cooling effect on skin, and it’s perfect for treating cuts, scratches, sunburns or rashes. My mother always kept a big aloe vera plant on the windowsill.

The Aloe Vera gel not only calms the skin and eliminates irritation, it also has anti-inflammatory qualities and promotes healing. It can be used for blisters and smaller burns, too. Rich in antioxidants and beneficial vitamins, it will help regenerate skin faster and more efficiently than mainstream topical gels. Aloe Vera gel can be either directly harvested from the plant (if you have one) or bought in most stores and pharmacies.

It’s one of the most widely used natural remedies, and it’s easily available. This is one product that I buy in the biggest bottle I can find!

Arnica gel or cream

Bright yellow flowers of mountain arnica are revered for their antiseptic, anti-inflammatory and pain relieving properties.

What does that mean, though? It means that you can apply it on painful joints, sore muscles and bruises – as long as the skin isn’t broken – to speed up healing and decrease pain and bruising. This makes it something every mother should have around the house. Luckily, it’s easy to find arnica gel or cream to deal with the many bruises of childhood. (Maybe my children are just unusually clumsy?) I have to admit – I first discovered this when my sister sent me a tube of arnica cream.

Another great tip is to apply arnica gel to insect bites. It stimulates circulation, which minimizes the swelling and eases the irritation.

Cayenne

This spice isn’t handy only in the kitchen, it’s also indispensable in a natural first aid kit.

While I have heard that cayenne can stop a heart attack if consumed when the first symptoms appear, I can’t confirm it. The every day power of cayenne, though, is the powerful affect it has on bleeding. Applied to a wound, cayenne can stop the flow of blood in seconds.

No, despite what you might think, it won’t sting at all and it’s one of the most efficient, natural ways to stop bleeding.

Colloidal silver

Anti-bacterial and anti-viral, colloidal silver is an all-around great addition to your homemade natural first aid kit. Despite widespread use, anyone stocking this in their first aid kit should recognize that the FDA has made a statement that colloidal silver is neither safe nor effective when taken orally.

Still used in mainstream medicine for treating burns, it’s especially effective for treating sunburn or blisters, and its powerful properties will speed up your recovery.

Cramp bark

When I was younger, menstrual cramps saw me running to the pharmacy for pain medication. My daughters, though, will be getting raspberry leaf tea and the amazing cramp bark.

Unlike those painkillers, cramp bark doesn’t just treat the pain. Instead, it regulates the monthly cycle and relaxes the uterine muscles that were causing the painful cramps.

Echinacea tincture

Now this isn’t a plant to mess around with. Remember what Spiderman says – with great power comes great responsibility. Echinacea is great for boosting the immune system but definitely should not be used daily. There really IS such a thing as too much when it comes to herbal remedies.

When you have a nasty cut or are coming down a cold, though – dose up on Echinacea tablets or tincture and start feeling better quickly.

Eucalyptus essential oil

Eucalyptus smells great but it’s also effective for respiratory problems. Sinuses clogged, or you have a runny nose that won’t go away? Put a few drops of eucalyptus essential oil into a big pot of hot water and steam your face over it.

Sorry, you’ll need to put your phone down while you’re doing that.

If you really can’t handle hiding your head under a towel for a steam session, try mixing a bit of eucalyptus essential oil into coconut oil or your favourite carrier oil. Rub this salve on your chest to open up your nasal passages.

Ginger

When I was young, my mother had one remedy for tummy troubles. She would stir a cup of ginger ale until the bubbles went away and then have us sip it slowly through a straw.

She’s a smart lady, and I’m increasingly being told by doctors to do things that mom was teased for when we were children. I’m not sure fresh ginger root was as easily available to mom as it is now, so don’t knock her for the ginger ale. Today I give my children warm ginger tea or some homemade ginger beer to calm their bellies.

Dried ginger root capsules are available, which is great for motion sickness when traveling, as are ginger lozenges. But don’t forget the soothing comfort of some warm ginger tea!

Goldenseal

Having goldenseal powder on hand is great if your family is prone to cuts and scratches. It has antibacterial properties which will help to prevent an infection.

The best use of goldenseal, though, is for intestinal parasites. It has strong anti-parasitic properties and internal parasites like pinworm and Giardia are more common than you might think. It will also help out if your stomach problems are caused by a bacterial or fungal infection.

Jewelweed

Do you go camping? Make sure to keep jewelweed salve or spray in your kit. This is nature’s cure for poison ivy and it completely neutralizes the element that cause irritation.

A must-have for all your camping trips, jewelweed (in the form of a salve, spray or fresh) is nature’s cure for poison ivy. It completely neutralizes the elements in poison ivy that cause irritation, but it’s not the only thing this amazing plant is good for- it will also neutralize other irritating plants, such as poison oak and stinging nettle, as well as help with a variety of skin rashes, from eczema to heat rash.

You can use essential oils for so many things – including treating colds and flu!

[adthrive-in-post-video-player video-id=”qChsSlEZ” upload-date=”2018-06-28T11:03:09.000Z” name=”Essential Oils For Colds And Flu” description=”using essential oils for colds and flu”]

Lavender essential oil

Other than being one of my favourite scents, lavender essential oil has the amazing property of easing headaches. Gently massage a few drops into your temples and tension headaches should ease quickly.

Not too much, though – in this case ‘a little dab’ll do ya’!

If you have sensitive skin, dilute a few drops of lavender essential oil in an oil that you can tolerate and use that.

Lavender is also great at helping you to relax and even go to sleep. Use it the same as treating headaches, or put a bit on a cotton ball and place it in your pillowcase under the pillow.

Tea tree oil

Tea tree oil, which comes from Australia, is quite the overachiever. It can be used to treat a wide range of problems from sore throats to fungal infections. It eases gum and tooth pain and repels insects.

Try diluting a few drops in water for a sore throat gargle and mouth rinse, or dab gently behind the ears to help ease the pain of an ear infection. As a note – when my eldest was young, the doctors pushed antibiotics now for ear infections. Now that they’re realizing that most ear infections will go away on their own and are encouraging natural treatments.

And in between applications of tea tree oil, don’t overlook the power of plain old honey for easing that sore throat. It was about ten years ago that a nurse first told me to head for honey before commercial products, and an ER doctor recently reinforced that. It doesn’t have to be raw honey – even your pasteurized honey will soothe and help heal sore throats and coughs!

Swedish Bitters?

Okay, I have to admit that this was a new one for me. I had never heard of these until I ran into my friend Carly’s post about them. It’s a concoction of several incredible herbs soaked in alcohol, and has been used as a cure for pretty much everything. Essentially, it’s an old fashioned “medicinal compound” that is, as the Irish Rovers famously sang “most efficacious in every case.”

But unlike Lily the Pink’s Medicinal Compound, these actually work. Check out the real deal about Swedish Bitters at my friend Carly’s site.

Important Miscellaneous Items for a Homemade Natural First Aid Kit

A well-stocked homemade first aid kit isn’t only packed with herbal and natural remedies – you’ll have to include some other goodies, too. Keep in mind the potential situations you’ll be needing the first aid kit for, and add the items accordingly. For example, a hot water bottle probably won’t find its place in your compact traveling first aid kit, but it’s good to have in your home.

Here’s a list of important items to consider for your natural first aid kit:

• Tweezers
• Scissors
• Bandages
• Gauze
• Cotton pads
• Thermometer
• Hydrogen peroxide
• Rubbing alcohol
• Hand sanitizer
• Hot water bottle
• Bulb syringe
• Wound glue
• Cold pack

Without some of these items, treating injuries would be very difficult. These items, combined with natural remedies mentioned above, are a winning combination for treating minor injuries and health problems at home, from scraped knee to belly ache.

Assembling Your First Aid Kit and Storing It

Ideally, you should make more than one first aid kit and customize their contents for their specific purpose. For example, create a smaller one for your car or workplace, customize a first aid kid to bring with you on your travels, and keep a fully stocked one at your home.

Of course, when it comes to storage, it’s all a matter of personal choice. You can buy plastic containers, repurpose a makeup bag or an old first aid kit bag, or keep the items securely tucked in a drawer.

For your home first aid kit, you can even buy a small wall-mounted cabinet. This way, you’ll have enough space for all of the essentials, and have your first aid kit easily accessible and neatly displayed.

When choosing a place for your homemade first aid kit, have in mind that most of the herbal remedies need to be kept in a dark and cool space to retain their medicinal properties and potency.

Regularly check the items in your natural first aid kit and replace the ones that have gone bad or are running low. The trick is to keep your first aid kit stocked with fresh, potent items that are always on hand.

Raising chickens can be expensive and a lot of work, so why do people do it? There are definite benefits to raising chickens at home – for eggs, meat, insect reduction, or just companionship. And they’re not really as expensive as you might think.

“They accepted our offer. We’re going to be homesteading on our own property! So … what’s our next step?”

“Chickens.”

“What?”

“Chickens. We need to order chickens. Like – right now.”

While that’s not the way I’d recommend anyone go about it, I have to admit it’s pretty much what we did. The moment we knew we had the property, I started looking for a local place to get chicks.

We didn’t even have a chicken coop built.

In fact, we still hadn’t moved to our off grid cabin!

For us, it was Black Australorps – large heritage birds that forage well and do a fabulous job at hatching and raising chicks.

Your reasons for wanting chickens might not be the same as mine were. And you might wish to actually have the coop built before you order your chicks.  Starting a homestead is difficult enough – avoid some of the foolish mistakes we made.

Maybe your children have been doing a school project on chickens and now they’re fascinated. You could have a future chicken farmer on your hands.

Or have you heard that chickens are great at controlling flies and turning the compost pile? They are!

You might just like to see chickens roaming the yard. It’s a lovely sight, especially since they’re eating weed seeds and insect larvae, and aerating your lawn as they go.

Are you tired of whimpering at the price of free range eggs and pastured chicken? Or you’ve found out exactly how factory chickens are grown? Yuck – that’s enough to make anyone either start forking out the money for free range eggs or researching how to build a chicken coop.

And it’s possible that you don’t fit into any of these, and you’re not even sure you want to raise chickens.

Let’s Define the Chicken Egg

Everyone knows what an egg is, right? It’s a baby chicken. But the truth is that it’s not, no matter how much some people want to insist that it is.

In human biological terms, an egg is the female reproductive cell and it is not visible to the naked eye.

A chicken egg, though, is a large food supply stored around a tiny amount of female genetic material.

Since chickens aren’t inside the womb of a mother chicken, the chicks can’t feed from her body like mammals do. Because of this, the entire food supply for the chick is stored inside the egg.

An unfertilized egg, or a fertilized egg that has not been incubated, remains exactly that – a food supply. The egg we eat for breakfast is the food preserved for the development of a chick that never happened.

It’s not a baby chicken unless a rooster fertilized it AND a mother hen sat on it for 21 days.

What do Chickens Eat?

There are some very familiar fast food restaurants (at least here in Canada) bragging about the ‘vegetarian’ diet that their chickens eat.

The problem is that chickens are certainly not vegetarian. Their omnivorous diet might be an inconvenience if you’re raising them in large factories without sun, dirt, or grass, but for the backyard homesteader, it’s one of the best reasons to keep chickens.

Given access to the green space around your garden, chickens will happily eat June bug larvae, ants, beetles, ticks, mites, and worms (okay, THAT one isn’t good). If it moves around in the grass, chickens will eat it.

That also includes mice – if a flock of chickens finds a nest of mice, there will be a feeding frenzy.

Don’t let your birds too close to your garden (because they’ll eat the broccoli just as happily as they’ll eat the potato beetles on it) but if they are allowed to range just outside of your garden, they will decimate the pest population.

And if you’re thinking of raising pigs, too, be sure to have chickens roaming nearby. Pigs attract flies, and I don’t think there’s anything chickens like to eat more than a juicy fly.

What About Meat Birds?

The most common bird raised as a quick-growing meat bird is the Cornish X. That’s the chicken grown for the fast food places.

They don’t hunt insects.

They don’t scratch in the grass or scratch their litter.

They wouldn’t know what to do with a fly.

They don’t develop unique personalities.

They are eating, drinking, pooping machines that grow extremely rapidly and show almost nothing we consider ‘chicken’ traits.

I have heard people express distress that they must be slaughtered at 8 weeks, but anyone who has raised them tells me it’s a relief to get rid of them. And in fact, if they aren’t slaughtered before 12 weeks, they collapse on their weak legs and have heart attacks.

When I lived in the city, someone who worked at a factory that raised chickens for a famous chicken-serving fast food restaurant brought one back to our apartment building. It was eight weeks old, he said, just about ready to be slaughtered. The poor thing huddled in the corner, terrified. It could only stand long enough to take one or two shakey steps, and then it would fall down. Its feathers were uneven and ragged and its beak was chopped short.

You’d have be pretty much starving to look at that and think ‘yum, good eating on that bird’. It was horrible.

I have been told, and it’s worth experimenting with, that Cornish X chickens fostered under a very good mother hen will act much more like regular chickens, including scratching and eating bugs. It’s possible that limiting their food and raising them with non-Cornish X chicks will do the same.

Update – in 2024, my mother raised Cornish X from chicks, and had them slaughtered at 10 weeks. They were active the entire time, but they definitely didn’t act the same as her Rhode Island Reds. When I tossed a cabbage into each pen, the RIRs dove for it, pushing it back and forth, playing and eating. The Cornish X stared at it until Mom gave it to the RIRs.

This photo is about 6 weeks old – they were already large, and they were growing faster than their feathers.

Is it worth the hassle?

I have friends who raise chickens all over the world, from here in chilly Canada to the beating heat of Africa.

An Old Order Mennonite once told me “Chickens are just about the best thing you can raise. Feed it – and it’ll eat anything – and it’ll give you an egg every day. Have a chicken for each person in your family, and you’ll always have food.”

Is it worth the hassle, though?

Cleaning the litter, dealing with aggressive roosters (yes, they happen), fretting over sick and wounded birds – there’s a lot of work involved even when things go well. And Murphy rules on the homestead. Things always go wrong, usually just when you most need things to go right.

So don’t expect that you’ll get eggs and meat without any work.

And it probably won’t save you money over buying your chickens at the butcher and your eggs from the deli.

However, remember what you’re buying.

The butcher’s chicken was raised in a disgustingly-crowded factory, likely never saw daylight and certainly never saw grass or bugs. It ate a perfectly controlled diet, with the food dish positioned so it never had to move, until it was slaughtered at 8 weeks. Its beak was probably clipped to prevent pecking each other and pulling out feathers (which chickens do when they’re stressed). It’s just one step away from machines pushing out pink glop and forcing it into chicken-form.

And the factory eggs? In a dark room, crowded three to a tiny cage, the hens spend a year – never more – dropping an egg a day while standing on a wire floor. No sunlight, no grass, very little movement.

If all of that makes you shudder, and you’re currently buying meat and eggs from pastured, organically (and ethically) raised chickens that get to scratch and peck and eat bugs in the sunlight, then you probably will save money.

If you’re a homeschooler, raising chickens from chick (or even egg if you have an incubator) to dinner gives countless learning opportunities. All children should learn where their food comes from.

Some people like keeping chickens as a hobby or as pets. In this case, cost becomes less of an issue since they’ll be like your cats or dogs.

There are SO many reasons to raise chickens – you’re doing something by yourself, for yourself, increasing your self reliance. While many people will disagree with me, I think it’s a good thing for all of us to be personally involved in our food, to realize that meat doesn’t originate from Styrofoam trays at the meat market.

You can rest easy knowing that you’re giving your chickens the best possible ‘chicken’ life they can have, and a kind death at the end of a useful life.

Chickens add to the personality of your homestead, and if given the opportunity, pay back ever bit of time and work you invest in them.

And in these fluctuating economic and political times, it’s always nice to have an ever-filling nest egg that you can eat.

Eco-Friendly Cleaning Products You Can Make Yourself

You don’t have to give up a clean and fresh-smelling home to become more eco-friendly. You can clean your home with ingredients you already have. Baking soda, water, and vinegar are the most frequently found ingredients in most eco-friendly household cleaners. Give some of these a try.

Window Cleaner

If you like shiny windows, mirrors and glass surfaces, then you probably need to make an eco-friendly window cleaner. It’s super easy; you simply need a glass spray bottle and equal parts glass vinegar, water, and isopropyl alcohol. Use a reusable lint free soft cloth to clean surfaces. You can also use old newspaper to bring a shine to your glass and mirrored surfaces.

Floor Cleaner

If you have laminate floors, use the same recipe for windows, but add a few drops of dish soap to help it work better. You can also add some olive oil to help condition the floors if they are made from wood. If you dry after washing, the shine will show even more.

Furniture Polish

You can make a very useful and earth-friendly furniture polish with two simple ingredients. Mix 1 part cold pressed olive oil with 1/2 part lemon juice. Use very sparingly to polish clean furniture to a beautiful sheen. You can clean the furniture first with 1 cup distilled water mixed with 3 TBS distilled white vinegar. The trick is to use a soft cloth, and to dry thoroughly when finished.

Sparkling Pans

If you have metal or stainless pans, you can quickly whip up an eco-friendly cleaner each time you want to clean up the pans. Do not make this in advance. A good tip is to have some baking soda in an old parmesan cheese shaker at the ready near the sink. Shake on your pans as you wash them. You can add a little hydrogen peroxide to kick it up a notch.

Silver Cleaner

Baking soda is good for a lot of things, including cleaning silver. Make a paste of baking soda and water, in about equal amounts. Apply to the silver with a soft microfiber cloth (or extra soft baby toothbrush for silver with intricate designs), making small, circular motions. Once covered, rinse and dry silver.

Soap Scum Killer

You know that horrible scum that gets in your bathtub and bathroom sink? You can get rid of it naturally and safely. In a glass beaker, mix 1 cup of distilled white vinegar with 1 TBS cornstarch. Heat until it’s hot and comes to a boil; mix quickly, being careful not to splash it. It’ll look kind of like a gel-like substance. Using a funnel, pour into a glass spray bottle, then add 2 TBS dish soap and shake well. Spray on the area, let sit for a few minutes, then wipe clean with a soft cloth. Rinse and dry.

Get Rid of Lime Deposits

It’s easy to get rid of lime deposits by just using plain, distilled white vinegar. Spray on the deposits and let sit, then use a soft cloth to wipe down until dry. No need to rinse. To get the lime deposits off faucets, just use an old plastic grocery bag and fill with vinegar and tie to the faucet. Leave overnight if desired.

Clean Your Stainless

To clean stainless you have several choices. You can use distilled white vinegar on a soft cloth. This is the best choice for large appliances like refrigerators or the stove. For your stainless sinks you can use a paste of baking soda and water, but be sure to rinse very well and dry to ensure that you’ve removed all the cleaner.

These ideas are easy to use and you likely already have most of the ingredients on hand. Buying these ingredients in large quantities will save a lot of money and be a lot better on the environment than prepackaged chemically-laden cleaners.

Note: Many ideas are adapted from: http://bit.ly/1xx4dJA

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It’s always a good idea to stay organized throughout the year, but things don’t always go according to plan. During springtime, it’s popular to use the opportunity to whip your house into shape.

It can be a tough job since there may be things you’ve been putting off all year long. But in the end, it’ll be worth it because you’ll have a great sense of accomplishment and your house will be looking its best.

Try some of the following ways to get your home into shape during spring cleaning:

Do the deep cleaning

Deep cleaning is clearly not something you can make a part of your everyday cleaning routine. During spring cleaning, however, you can take the opportunity to get down and dirty.

Rent a steam cleaner and clean all of your carpets and upholstery.

Note the condition of your bathrooms to see if deep cleaning is required there as well.

Vacuuming

During spring cleaning, take that extra step to vacuum everything. During regular cleaning, you likely do a quick job in a matter of minutes. However, with spring cleaning, it’s good to take time for the details, crevasses, and under the couch.

Time to use the ladder

Spring cleaning is also an opportunity to get to all those hard to reach places. Include ceiling fans, the tops of doors, and light fixtures. Do this dusting first so you can vacuum up the fallen dust later with the regular vacuuming.

Wash all surfaces

Take the time to wash every surface you can. There may be certain things that you don’t think need cleaning, but you really never know where dust has settled throughout the year. Grab a cloth and clean your walls, cabinets, and more.

Organization

Pay special attention to organization. If you’ve already been using an organization plan, you’ll only need to reorganize things that may have fallen out of place. If you don’t have organizational methods in place, perhaps it’s time to adopt some.

This is a great opportunity to go through the “junk drawer” and other places where things may have piled up.

Sift through the clutter

Find the cluttered spots in your house and deal with those items. If you need them in the house, then find them a permanent home that’s out of the way.

If you need to keep small items, but aren’t using them every day, find a place to pack them away for the future. If you feel that you can do without it, consider dropping it off for donation.

Get your family involved

So much more can be accomplished when it’s a group effort. Have children take responsibility for their rooms. Then, divide up the other cleaning projects among every member of the family.

Remember to reward yourselves at the end of the day for a job well done! Perhaps you can throw a pizza party for the family.

Remember that getting your house into shape doesn’t need to be too difficult on you; just take everything one step at a time, do what you can, and it’ll all get done.

Natural wound care includes traditional methods of wound care that use the healing knowledge that has been used for generations. These natural healing methods may come from many different cultures and have been proven effective through decades of use.

Today, a growing number of people use homeopathic wound healing methods to avoid the overuse of antibiotics. Frequent use of antibiotics causes some infections to become resistant to antibiotic use, leaving antibiotic users few choices when fighting infections.

When treating any wound, be sure to cleanse the area thoroughly before treating the injury.

Wash the wound, then gently pat it dry with a clean cloth.

Next, apply the treatment of choice to the injured area. Lastly, use a covering to the wound area to protect the wound while it heals, and to keep the traditional healing agent on the injury.

Natural VS Standard Wound Care

 When you are going more “natural” in your wound care, it doesn’t mean you will use 100 percent holistic products. It is simply a matter of making the switch to more natural options when they are available.

Types of Products You Will Use

For example, you might make your own salve to apply to burns and scrapes instead of using Vaseline, which can have a lot of added ingredients. You often use herbs, coconut oil, essential oils, and natural pain relievers.

Going natural is about reducing as many toxins and artificial ingredients as you can.

There is also an added perk of saving money as you do so. Some natural ingredients often used in wound care include:

• Garlic
• Turmeric
• Coconut oil
• Herbs
• Essential oils
• Honey
• Aloe vera
• Activated charcoal
• Witch hazel

How to Use These Natural Remedies for Wounds

Now let’s look at some of these specific ingredients and how they can be used for different wounds. This isn’t a complex description of every ingredient you might use, but it gives you a good idea of what to stock up on.

Garlic and Onions

Garlic and onion have been used for generations for medicinal purposes in general and in wound healing.

Historically, garlic has been used to assist in wound healing during World War I and World War II for its antimicrobial and antibiotic properties. The soldiers of the Russian army substituted garlic as a wound healing agent when antibiotics were not available. Also, medical personnel in the field used garlic to aid in the triage of injured soldiers.

The active ingredient in garlic that promotes healing, called allicin, has been shown to increase the speed of wound healing and prevent infection as well.

Scientists testing garlic’s ability to assist in healing wounds discovered that wounds in rats showed an increased rate of healing when a garlic salve was applied to their injuries as compared to rats whose wounds were treated with Vaseline alone.

Onion also contains allicin, and its healing properties resemble garlic’s wound care benefits.

Beyond the more recent use of garlic for disinfecting and encouraging wound healing, the herb increases immunity and has been used in ages past to speed recovery in various types of injuries and lacerations. People in modern times also have begun to use crushed garlic placed on and around a cleaned cut to enjoy its health-giving benefits without overusing antibiotics and antimicrobial medicines.

To use garlic to its most significant benefit for wounds, here are some simple steps to follow:

• Clean the area of injury with soap and water.
• Mix mashed garlic or onions with enough water to create a paste.
• Place the mashed garlic or onion on a sterile cloth or gauze.
• Place the gauze over the injured area, so it has contact with the wound.
• Wrap the wound with more sterile gauze and loosely secure the bandage.
• Leave the garlic or onion bandage on the wound for about two days.
• Take the dressing off, wash the paste from the injury and reapply if necessary.

Honey and Wound Healing

Honey has been used for down through the ages as a wound healing agent. A combination of sugars and bee enzymes seem to work together to create a substance that has been used to speed injury healing since biblical times. The Ancient Egyptians documented the use of honey to heal wounds and as a beauty treatment since about 2000 B.C.

Honey contains fructose, glucose, sucrose, and water as its main ingredients. Some of the other ingredients in this golden elixir include:

• Amino acids
• Glucose oxidase, which in turn produces hydrogen peroxide
• Antioxidants
• Vitamins
• Minerals

Individuals using honey for wound care advise that honey should be sterilized before use.

Honey provides a moist healing environment for a wound, which can speed healing time. It also has antibacterial, antifungal and anti-inflammatory properties that help a wound heal faster. Honey also relieves pain and stimulates collagen synthesis to give healthy, normal skin an excellent environment in which to recover.

Medical grade honey remains available for purchase for those who want to use it to promote healing while avoiding antibiotic use. Honey has been tested and used around the world and found to be successful when applied to heal wounds of various kinds.

Aloe Vera

Aloe vera looks like a spiky cactus without needles.

This lush green plant makes an excellent houseplant for those individuals who have a warm, sunny window to encourage the plant’s growth.

The juice of the aloe vera plant contains vitamins E, C, B, A as well as natural amino acids, minerals and sugars that aid in healing the skin and wounds. Individuals who have used Aloe Vera to injuries have had a variety of results. However, healing rates increased in general when aloe vera was applied to wounds.

The juice of the aloe vera plant may increase the speed with which a wound heals.

Further testing is needed to determine whether aloe vera speeds wound healing or aids in treating injuries according to science and research. But people have been using the plant for skin healing purposes for generations. It’s easy to make an all-natural aloe vera moisturizing lotion.

Turmeric 

If you use natural healing remedies regularly, you are probably no stranger to the magical power of turmeric. Here are some of the top healing properties of this orange spice:

• It’s anti-bacterial
• it’s a natural anti-inflammatory
• It has lots of vitamins and minerals
• It’s used with essential oils
• It has healing properties like curcumin
• It can be an antioxidant 

There have been studies that indicate the curcumin in turmeric enables a cut or other type of wound to heal more rapidly as well as prevent the incidence of infection. When applied topically, turmeric’s use is indicated for the successful, natural treatment of wounds.

Caring for These Common Wounds

Now let’s look at some wounds that you can help treat with natural treatments.

Disclaimer: These are not meant to replace medical intervention. With more mild wounds, these natural methods can treat them very well, but severe wounds may still require a doctor.

Basic Wound Care

For basic wounds like cuts and scrapes, such as what you might get while on a hike or when playing outside, you first want to stop the bleeding.

Even something that looks superficial can bleed quite a bit. You also need to stop the bleeding so you know how bad the wound is and how best to take care of it.

Use a clean material like gauze or even cloth to apply light pressure to the wound, allowing the bleeding to stop. In some cases, you need to elevate the part of the body with the gash or cut.

Clean the Wound.

After you have stopped the bleeding, you will need to clean the wound.

If you see any big debris that won’t cause more pain to remove, use a pair of tweezers to very gently remove it. You then need to clean it out, but do not use hydrogen peroxide or soap! This can dry it out further.

Instead, use a natural antiseptic, such as honey, tea tree oil, or grapefruit seed extract. Use another gauze or clean cloth with some water when cleaning out, and be sure you are very gentle.

Once it is cleaned out, cover it with a sterile bandage, and monitor it closely.

Treating a Burn

The only types of burns you should be treating with at-home remedies are mild or minor ones.

A light sunburn or simple burn, like from accidentally touching a hot pan, can be treated at home. However, if the burn has discoloration, blistering, or covers more than a few inches of skin, you should consult a doctor.

Burns can be treated first by cooling the skin. This is done simple by running cool water over it, but make sure it isn’t extremely cold. Once the skin has cooled, apply some aloe vera gel to it.

Caring for a Bee Sting

Bee stings can be extremely painful for a few minutes, then start to subside. However, if the pain is too intense (such as with a child), there are ways to reduce the discomfort. The treatment can also help to reduce itching after a bee sting.

Immediately after being stung, remove the stinger, then cool off the area with cool water or apply an ice pack. If that doesn’t work, there are a few home remedies that help reduce the pain and itching, including apple cider vinegar and just regular toothpaste.

If you don’t mind using hydrocortisone cream, that can also help tremendously.

As long as you have your natural first aid kit stocked up with these and other natural ingredients, you should have all simple wounds covered. In some cases, these will actually help to treat the wound and help it heal without ever visiting a doctor, but in others, it simply gives you a temporary solution before heading to urgent care.