" Newsletter - May 2014"

Don't leave out God and prayer - the 2 most important ingredients in any situation.
While you are praying or after praying don't forget to LISTEN for the answers! They will come.
click here - to view the studies showing the scientific proof that prayer works.

Fun and Informative Pages on Essential Oils
Essential Oils are naturally antiviral, anti-fungal, and antibacterial,
they naturally energize, deodorize, clean and refresh.

Clean your Home Chemical Free
Using Essential Oils

Celebrating Lavender
Free Lavender Recipes
and more

A new way to look at
Essential Oils
what they really are and how to use them every day

Add new dimensions to your life with our
New and Exciting Essential oils.

Diabetes and Bitter Melon

At least three different groups of constituents in bitter melon have been reported to have blood sugar lowering actions of potential benefit in diabetes mellitus. These include a mixture of steroidal saponins known as charantin, insulin-like peptides, and alkaloids. It is still unclear which of these is most effective, or if all three work together. Already, some clinical trials have confirmed the benefit of bitter melon for people with diabetes.

New research has shown one way it helps with diabetes.

Diabetics are not able to move enough sugar from their blood into the cells where it can be burned for energy. Exercise is often prescribed as part of diabetes treatment because it activates AMPK, which basically helps regulate blood sugar levels by moving glucose transporters to the surface of the cells where they can retrieve the sugar out of the blood. In the joint study, it was discovered that bitter melon appears to stimulate the activity of the chemical AMPK and had the same effect on AMPK as exercise.

Eczema the Itch that Rashes

Generally appearing on the hands, feet, face, legs, or the inner creases of knees and elbows, symptoms of eczema include extremely dry or thickened skin, redness, swelling, and almost always an extreme unbearable itching which, if scratched, causes the rash to appear.

The rash consists of oozing blisters which burst at the slightest disturbance, take around a week to heal, then turn back into (a bigger patch of) red, itchy, leathery skin.

While no one is quite certain of what causes eczema, it is thought to be an overactive immune response to irritants coming into contact with the skin. Soaps, detergents, certain types of fabric, animal dander, excessive exposure to hot or cold, and other allergens may cause a flare-up. Stress can also be a contributing factor.

The majority of eczema cases can be traced to the digestive tract. There are two main culprits:

Some food allergies can develop over time, so even if you don’t believe that you are or if you had not previously been allergic to certain foods, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you don’t have an allergy. Try cutting out soy, dairy, peanuts, wheat, tree nuts, shell fish, fish, and eggs, as well as any artificial food colorings or additives (MSG is a big one) from your diet. You can eliminate them one at a time to see which one is causing the irritation. Take notes on how you feel after meals during this process. It should be fairly obvious if you are allergic to one or more of these foods

Dysbiosis

If you’ve recently taken antibiotics, had food poisoning, or if you have chronic digestive problems (characterized by irregular stool, frequent gassiness, and/or stomach aches); it’s more than likely that your intestinal microflora have been compromised. There are literally hundreds of species of bacteria living inside your gastrointestinal tract. When they become unbalanced, harmful bacteria may colonize in their place, impairing your ability to digest food and absorb nutrients. What many people don’t realize is that this imbalance of microflora, called dysbiosis can also lead to skin problems such as eczema. Pick up a good probiotic or start taking fermented cod liver oil on a daily schedule. Both are highly effective for reversing this common internal cause of eczema.

A good way to balance the flora is through keifer.

Of course, these treatments won’t heal your damaged skin overnight. While you wait for the internal solution to take effect, you will definitely want to turn your focus to the external symptoms of eczema. Soothing the dry, itchy, and painful rashes can be tricky. Apply the wrong thing (hot water, soaps, lotions with fragrance, etc) and you’ll only make it worse.

Dry it up with salt

While this advice may seem counter-intuitive, treating the oozing blisters with sea salt spray may help to ease the terrible itching. Or, if you’re within range of a beach, try taking a dip in the ocean. Many eczema sufferers have reported that being immersed in the surf gave them temporary relief from their symptoms.

Soak It

Assuming that you can physically tolerate being submerged in water during a flare-up, there are a couple of herbs and minerals that you can add to your bath to help clear up and reduce the irritation of eczema rashes.

Try a salt bath to relax and soak up some minerals. Add Epsom salts to your water to give your skin a boost of magnesium. Himalayan salt mixed into warm bath water offers a powerful mix of trace elements that will absorb through and improve the health of your skin. Just add one cup to your bath.

Chamomile tea is not only relaxing to drink, it is also a wonderful bath additive for soothing irritated skin.

Another great herb for treating eczema is Horsetail. This ancient herb has anti-inflammatory properties that can ease the pain and itching of eczema rash.

Make a Poultice

For those unable to submerge in water during an eczema flare-up, try making a poultice from healing herbs and vegetables. Horsetail and Chamomile can also be used for this purpose. Others to try include calendula, cucumber, carrot paste, juniper berries, sage and thyme.

Make a strong brew of chamomile tea from fresh dried herbs by steeping for 15 minutes minimally. Apply to the eczema area with gauze for 20 minutes. This can be done more than once daily to relieve acute symptoms.

Aloe vera gel, especially when mixed with vitamin E oil, is a useful symptom remedy. Gels from freshly cut aloe vera leaves are optimum.

Ten drops of gentian tincture before each meal helps the digestive system eliminate toxins that can irritate the skin. Take as often as needed.

Cut thin slices of a whole organic cucumber and allow the slices to soak for at least two hours. Filter the liquid and apply it with a clean cloth or gauze where needed.

Place 50 grams of ground horsetail plant or herbs in a quart or liter of water and boil for 10 minutes, allow some cooling, then filter the liquid into your bath water for a 10 minute bath

Flower power: Make a tea of calendula, and five drops marigold (tagette), with five drops of lavender essential oil added, then apply to the affected area twice a day until the irritation is relieved.

Skin three organic carrots and boil them till they're soft. Mash until you get a smooth paste, and then apply to affected areas for 15 minutes. Rinse with cool water when finished.

Keep Spiders OUTSIDE using the Essential Oils in this Recipe

Ingredients: Pure essential oil-either peppermint, tea tree, lemon, or neem,-warm water, and dish soap
The soap breaks apart the oil molecules in the water, making for a more consistent solution

-5 to 7 drops of peppermint, tea tree, lemon, or neem, essential oil
-a reusable spray bottle
-liquid dish soap
-warm water
-a dash of white vinegar* (optional)

Put 5-7 drops of peppermint oil in a spray bottle (about 16 ounces is good), and fill mostly to the top with warm water. Add a squirt of dish soap, place the top on, and give the mixture a good shake. Before using, use the hose attachment of your vacuum to suck up any egg sacs or old webs. Test on an inconspicuous area, and then spray in the corners of window frames, along door cracks, or in dark dingy places spiders may be hiding out. You can also add a dash of white vinegar to the mixture, but keep in mind this could affect some fabrics and surfaces.

Dangers of Aggressive Detoxing

Many people have told me that a "detox" protocol made them feel extremely ill. They take detox supplements, pills or tinctures, and within a few hours they suffer dizziness, diarrhea, chills, outbreaks or even vomiting. These symptoms range from mild to severe, depending on the person and what they've taken. Such is the legacy of what I'm calling "extreme detox supplements" that seem to be designed to cause as much suffering as possible while framing it all as a "healing crisis."

How Detox Works

Your liver filters toxins out of your blood, including pharmaceuticals, heavy metals, ammonia and chemicals.
Your liver then dumps these toxins into your upper GI tract as part of a bile mixture used for digestion. Importantly, this reintroduces these toxins into your digestive system, where they can be quickly reabsorbed through intestinal walls and cause acute toxicity where you are essentially being "re-poisoned" with the same exact toxins your liver just pulled out of your blood.
If you are eating a holistic, whole-food diet at the same time your liver is dumping toxins into your GI tract, then food fibers will tend to capture those toxins and trap them, ultimately transporting them out of your body through bowel movements. But if you aren't eating any fiber -- for example, you're on a "juice fast" or a "juice cleanse" -- then you have a potentially huge problem: You have no fibers to trap the toxins your liver is dumping into your small intestines! So those toxins get reabsorbed right back through your intestinal walls and into your blood.

Food is Medicine

Every food item you eat every single day, in other words, should be part of a cleansing and toxin elimination lifestyle. My view on this has evolved over the years, of course, and today I no longer believe we need to suffer through "detox" regimes to experience lasting health. A healthy, whole foods diet that's rich in fresh fruits, vegetables and plenty of clean water is, all by itself, a "daily detox."

The only thing that can “detoxify” your body, is your body itself. The kidneys, liver, and lungs in particular work to filter any bad stuff through your system, so the best ingredients when it comes to detox drinks are those that help peak the efficiency of those organs.

Beets can help thin bile, thereby improving its flow and helping your liver work to the best of its abilities. It also imparts a beautiful light red color to the water that I find lovely and refreshing. Mint contains menthol, which gives your liver a boost by encouraging bile to flow into the duodenum. A little lime works in the same way the menthol does. Combined, these ingredients help your bodies detox system work better than ever.

-1/2-1 red beet
-1/4 cup of chopped, fresh, peppermint leaves
-Juice of ½ lime
-1-2 liters of fresh water
Infuse and chill for 12-24 hours in the refrigerator before drinking. Serve in a glass with ice. This will last for 4 days in the fridge.

Who said that apples and oranges can’t go together? Apples and oranges contain pectin, the same ingredient that puts the gel in gelatin. Pectin will bind willingly to heavy metals, allowing them to be easily flushed from the system. This nifty trick gives your liver a helping hand and helps keep it in tip top shape. In oranges, most of the pectin is in the pith (the white part on the peel) or the membrane between the segments, so be sure to leave the peel and membrane on the fruit. For this particular drink, I enjoy eating the fruit in the glass while I drink it.

2-3 oranges, cut into chunks
-3 apples, cut into chunks
-1-2 liters of water
Slice up the apples and oranges into large chunks, leaving the skin/peel on, and place in a pitcher with fresh water. Infuse for 24 hours before serving in glasses with ice.

Want to Live Longer?

Drinking water does so much more than keep us alive, though. Here are some ways that getting enough water can help you live a longer, fuller life:

Recent studies have shown that drinking enough water can reduce the risk of cancer in the colon and bladder by as much as 50%.
It clears toxic waste from your joints, kidneys, liver, brain and skin.
Having enough H2O keeps your blood flowing smoothly; this helps prevent artery clogs in the brain and heart.
Water also improves the efficiency of your bone marrow, leading to better immunity.
It keeps the brain lubricated, helping to prevent memory loss as we age.

Knowing how much water you should drink varies from person to person. A good rule of thumb is to divide your weight by half. This will help you determine exactly how many ounces of water you should drink for your body.

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