Help a stranger to live – Give blood

We are very focused on presents for friends and families, but there is one way you can give the most incredible gift of life to someone you will never meet, or even know their name. Please think about becoming a blood donor this month, as there is a projected critical 50% drop in donations over Christmas and New Year.

We know how vital blood is in hospitals for operations, and emergency treatment and the Christmas period usually means a greater number of road accidents. In critical cases a transfusion may not be able to save a life, but it can keep someone alive long enough for their family to reach them in hospital.

It’s also not well known that terminal patients in the last stages of their lives can also benefit from a blood transfusion. It can help to improve their quality of life during their final months, weeks or even days. These transfusion are often given in the patient’s own home and can give them the energy and ability to enjoy this precious, final time with their families. If you would like to donate please contact the national blood transfusion service and enrol at the website or ask at your doctor’s surgery as they usually have the dates when the next event is in your area.

Visit www.blood.co.uk and type in your postcode.

Natural remedies for Christmas ailments

With the best will in the world it is easy to overstretch and overstress yourself over the holiday period. Lots of intense activity, probably more food and drink than usual – and richer probably than your everyday diet – can all combine to put you out of sorts. Instead of the medicine cabinet, try these natural remedies to help prevent, and alleviate, those Christmas blues. It can be your seasonal ‘first aid’ kit so make sure you keep it handy.

1 Shock and bruising

Arnica is a wonderful homoeopathic remedy for shock – and you often get quite a few of those in the heat of family exchanges or unwrapping the world’s most unsuitable present. Taken as a couple of tablets under the tongue it will help you recover, and in its cream salve form it works wonders on bruises. In all that rushing about you can get bumped more than usual as your mind is distracted with all those lists and trying to remember if cousin George is still vegetarian or if that was just a short-term effect brought on by last girlfriend. Rub the cream onto the bruise – but only if the skin is unbroken – and it’s anti-inflammatory and antiseptic properties will not only bring you relief from the pain but bring the bruising out faster so it passes quicker. As Arnica also helps restore emotional balance – which can seesaw rather violently at this time of year – it is always an excellent remedy to have on hand during the festive season

2 Healing cuts, scrapes, grazes

Under stress our nerves can show in many ways and one of the most popular seems to be picking or biting at cuticles until they bleed, or you might just not be looking carefully enough as you slice the turkey or fight your way through the crowds to get to the last ‘most popular toy of the year’ in the store. Calendula is a herb that has been used for centuries in folk medicine whenever cuts or sores need healing. It contains triterpenes which encourage new cell growth, as well as being antiseptic, and Nelson’s make a Hypercal cream which contains calendula and hypericum which can ease the pain of the wound and Boots the Chemist also make their own version. Make sure wound is clean first by bathing with warm water into which a few drops of tea tree oil have been added as this too is antiseptic and will help clear any infection.

3 Burns

As I am incapable of wresting a roast from the oven, or ironing anything at all, without burning myself somewhere I have amassed several useful remedies. My first option is another homoeopathic remedy from Nelsons, this time specifically for burns, and the second is lavender oil. Apply either immediately to the skin and you will soon feel the heat receding, use the oil neat and reapply as needed. Though if the burn is around food you might want to use the Nelson’s cream instead as lavender oil is rather pungent. If you have an aloe vera plant in the house, then that too is an excellent remedy to treat burns and scars. Just remove a leaf, cut across the tip and squeeze out the gel onto your skin. Aloe vera is one of the remedies used treat radiation burns after Hiroshima and it is very effective at quickly reducing heat and keeping the skin supple and moisturised.

4 Stomach upsets

Well first of all prevention is better than cure, so make a Christmas resolution to be kind to your liver and don’t overload it with too much food and drink – particularly rich foods and things you are not used to having regularly. Avoid things that can irritate or upset the stomach, so cut down on coffee and acid foods and try these natural remedies instead.

* peppermint tea as it soothes the stomach and aids digestion.
* ginger helps with nausea so drink ginger ale or steep ginger slices in a cup with honey and add hot water or eat some candied ginger.
* bananas soothe the stomach and counteract the acids that can cause an upset stomach. They are also easily digested and can help ease diarrhea.
* nux vom is a homoeopathic remedy that is excellent for when you have over-indulged in too much, or too rich, foods. Two tablets of 6 x potency under the tongue and repeated hourly will soon help you overcome any nauseous feelings.

5 Headaches

Lavender oil can be helpful here, just put a couple of dabs either side of your temples, just above your eyebrows and gently massage it in with a circular motion. Do not get the oil anywhere near your eyes. If the headache is very severe you can try a mixture of peppermint oil with lavender and clove in equal parts and inhale this regularly to clear your head If your head is aching then an ice pack might help, so put some crushed iced in a plastic bag, wrap it in a dry towel, and use it as a compress. Ice all been used in the drinks? No problem, just run the cold tap and soak a facecloth then wring it out, lie down and place on your forehead. Close your eyes until you feel better.

6 Emotional overload

If you find yourself weeping into the Brussel sprouts – and who wouldn’t – then keep a bottle of Rescue Remedy to hand. Just a few drops on the tongue of this mixture of floral and herb extracts helps restore emotional balance, reduces shock, calms the nerves and is my first port of call for anyone who is suffering from anxiety and stress. Lavender oil is another fast lifter of the spirit, just open the bottle and inhale, or dab a couple of drops on your wrist and keep sniffing to keep yourself calm and on an even keel – works with virtually everything but no guarantees for insufferable in laws or being left with all the washing up.

Oh Really?

Haven’t done one of these for a while, but sometimes one comes along that is irresistible. Are you ready for this earth shattering revelation? John P. Robinson and Steven Martin are the happy sociologists from the University of Maryland who were given real money by apparently sane people to find out what activities contribute most to a happy life.

Now lots of people have already written many books on this subject, but as always there is still more to learn. They ploughed through the diaries of over 30,000 adults over a 30 year period and analysed what they did and how pleasurable they found it.

What their research has shown them is that people who described themselves as happy were more socially active, attended more religious services and read more newspapers. Unhappy people, however, watched more television. As one of the prime symptoms of depression and unhappiness is withdrawal from the society of others this doesn’t strike me as a major breakthrough, but what do I know.

Apparently television watching provides temporary pleasure to unhappy people; but, in the long run is a waste of time and not particularly fulfilling. The others compare it to an addiction where you get momentary pleasure and long-term misery. They must have been watching Strictly Come Dancing, but they did come up with a neat catch phrase, that ‘tuning in’ can be an easy way of ‘tuning out’ so I can forgive them for making me feel like a social outcast because of my addiction to brilliant US drama series like Boston Legal and The Closer. ”

So, stun your family by letting them know that happy people read and socialize while unhappy people watch TV. If that doesn’t get them playing charades or monopoly after Christmas dinner, then nothing will.

Anyone interested in paying me to study whether breathing is a necessary evil?

The healthiest seasonal fruit

Whatever their eating habits for the rest of the year, Christmas seems to bring out the desire to load our sideboards with groaning bowls of fruit. Usually satsumas and clementines are favourites, and they certainly are healthy, but there is another winter fruit that I associate with this dark time of year and that is the pomegranate. As a child I was diverted for hours by being given my mother’s old hatpin and a pomegranate. It was ceremoniously cut in half and then I focused on winkling out the seeds and pulling ugly faces if by any mischance I got some of the bitter yellow pith.

Pomegranates have become the fashionable fruit over the past year and now you can find its juice in every chiller cabinet so I thought a reminder of its benefits might encourage you to add them to your shopping trolley. As this is a spiritual time of year, you might like to know that ancient scholars believed that: the number of seeds (roughly 613) found in a single fruit corresponded to the 613 commands of the Hebrew Torah. Now, that could keep the kids quiet as they counted every one before they ate it!

Health wise, the pomegranate contains at least a dozen known anti-inflammatory phytochemicals and around 36 antioxidants. Studies have suggested that both the fruit and its juice are beneficial to help treat or prevent heart disease, high cholesterol, prostate cancer and Alzheimer’s. However, if you don’t like the taste then stock up on other fruits such as cherries, blueberries, and raspberries, as they also give you similar health benefits.

Upset stomach at Xmas – help!

Now I know you are going to be entirely sensible over the next few weeks, and those Christmas parties and drinks won’t tempt you to overindulge. But, if you do then it’s as well to be prepared. If you get an upset stomach that remains sensitive then slippery elm is a good supplement to help soothe any irritation – it’s also a good thing to line your stomach with if you know you are going to be faced with food or drink that might be a bit much for your system. If you are offered coffee after the meal, see if you can’t get peppermint or green tea instead as they will help you digest better. If by any mischance you need more help then there is a very good Ayurvedic recipe for tea which will help those feelings of being bloated and sluggish from too many mince pies or slices of Christmas cake. It is a blend of aniseed, fennel, cardamom, coriander and celery seeds to help purify your system, clear your mind and help your body to recover it’s normal balance. You can find Ayurvedic teas in many supermarkets and health stores, and if you have a Whittard of Chelsea’s store near you then their own Ayurvedic Detox tea will put you on the road to recovery for a very reasonable £2.30 for 20 teabags.

Steady on the perfume or aftershave spray!

To my mind, perfume adds a great deal of pleasure to life – but like most things a little moderation is not a bad idea – and the fact I have one for each day of the week seems pretty moderate to me. However, we have probably all suffered in the proximity of someone who has overdone it and extends the wearing of it to everyone in a 6 foot radius. I was working in London at the time Christian Dior launched his perfume Poison, and my daily journey up the escalator at Green Park was an exercise in holding my breath and trying not to feel faint at the overpowering waves it that surrounded me.

It’s not pleasant for the passive receiver, but it may actually legally constitute at health hazard – it has just been found guilty in the USA and a case is going forward as we speak. A Judge in Detroit heard a case where city planner Susan McBride alleged that perfume from a co-worker was so overwhelming she couldn’t breathe properly. This she claims created a hazardous work environment and actually prevented her from working properly.

The city council went to court to have the claim dismissed, but the Judge agreed with McBride that her breathing difficulties had a legitimate basis and so qualified for protection under federal laws that protect the disabled from workplace discrimination. I don’t know what the court case is based on, but certainly synthetic perfume chemicals have been linked to asthma, infertility and cancer. Because they are applied directly to the skin they are absorbed into the bloodstream and then have to be processed by the liver, where they can do damage.

We are already exposed to a number of toxic chemicals in our everyday environment from air fresheners to hairspray, and the day might come when perfume in the workplace might be banned on health grounds in the same way that smoking was. You might also wonder why it went to court and they didn’t just have a quiet word with the offender, but maybe – as is often the case when wearing perfume – she (or perhaps he for all I know) was just immune to the smell and kept putting on more.

If you want to be sure you are not poisoning the atmosphere, what about switching to natural perfumes with no nasty chemicals?

Tsi~La (pronounced chee-la), is a collection of delicate, sophisticated, 100% natural perfumes with no alcohol, preservatives, artificial fragrances or colourings. Just pure, natural perfumes made from the world’s finest essential oils and plant botanicals, and if you were wondering, the name means “flower” in Cherokee.

You have a choice of six different and distinctive scents, you just have to decide which is the most appropriate – though for most women buying at least two for our varying moods would be a good idea. You will know what will suit them best: Fiori d’Arancio (flirtatious), Fleur Sauvage (alluring), Ilang Ilang (exotic), Kesu (mysterious), Kizes (spontaneous) and Saqui (sensual). Personally, as a woman of many and diverse moods, I am asking Santa for the Tsi-La mini collection because a) I get four of them, and b) they come in a handy roll on so no spillage in the dark cavernous recesses of my handbag. To have a look at these, and other wonderful natural fragrances, visit www.puresha.com

Important new finding on bone health

For the first time ever, a link has been made between the body’s production of serotonin in the gut and the production of osteoblasts, the cells that create new bone. Normally we associate serotonin with the brain and its role in our ‘feel good’ moods, but apparently a new study has found that 95% of the body’s supply of this molecule is produced in the gut and it is acting as a hormone to regulate bone mass,”

In an online paper published in the Journal Cell, a team led by Dr. Gerard Karsenty, chairman of the department of genetics and development at Columbia University in the USA have uncovered what could be a new way to control bone formation and treat could osteoporosis. Dr. Karsenty has found that gut serotonin is released into the blood, and the more serotonin that reaches bone, the more bone is lost. The reverse also applies; the less serotinin in the bloodstream then the denser and stronger bones become. As part of his study Dr. Karsenty was able to prevent menopause-induced osteoporosis in mice by slowing serotonin production. Osteoporosis is often dubbed ‘the silent killer’ because it is rarely diagnosed until the condition is established and bones start to break and fracture under little pressure. Conventional osteoporosis treatment has focused on preventing bone loss, such as with bisphosphonate drugs like Didronel, Fosamax and HRT, but unless action is taken to build bone then the situation eventually deteriorates. There are two more natural alternatives to such osteoporosis drugs, one of which is made known to us through this new study. Its findings have huge implications for osteoporosis treatment, as it could be a simple matter of regulating your diet. The basic building block for serotonin in the body is the amino acid tryptophan, which is found in red meat and turkey and in chocolate, oats, bananas, milk, yogurt, eggs, fish, poultry, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, and peanuts. So if you have a tendency to osteoporosis in your family, which is one of the biggest risk factors, then aim for a diet low in tryptophan foods to help minimise your bone loss.

The other approach, that has been tried and tested by many osteoporosis sufferers, is to use the hormone that is essential for bone-building and that is progesterone. Its levels decline with age and it is a simple matter to supplement with natural progesterone cream, patches or tablets. Though notionally available on the NHS in the UK, it is more likely to be offered as a private prescription and it cannot be bought over the counter in the UK, though it is perfectly legal to import it for your own use. If you want to know more about this hormone, the book Natural Progesterone by Dr Shirley Bond and myself will answer all your questions (you will find it on my website) and you can find plenty of suppliers of the cream that Dr John Lee recommended including Wellspring who operate out of Guernsey and have a helpful website at www.progesterone.co.uk

Natural help for eyes

As we get older our eyes become vulnerable, and around 1 in 7 over 55 year olds will suffer from macular degeneration. This is the leading cause of blindness and severe vision impairment worldwide, and a study in the Archives of Ophthalmology reports on the benefits of Omega-3 for reducing the risk.

Macular degeneration (MD) affects central vision and this gradually deteriorates causing functional blindness. Peripheral vision is not at first greatly affected; but over time peripheral vision is also reduced. A study of 8,000 people in the Netherlands found that those who developed the disease were more likely to be smokers and have high cholesterol and that because free radical damage has been linked to MD that antioxidants can reduce the disease’s progress.

However, a more recent study has shown a clear link between consumption of Omega-3 and reduction in age-related MD. Dr Chong of the University of Melbourne did a meta-analysis of nine studies which covered 90,000 people, and 3000 of those had age-related MD.

Back to the benefits of fish again, because her study found that eating just one portion of Omega-3 rich fish may reduce the risk of contracting MD by over 50%. In fact increasing your daily intake by 300 mg per day of the Omega-3 fatty acids DHA and EPA, reduces the risk of MD by about 70%.

If fish really isn’t your favourite then you can get Omega-3 from flaxseed oil which is also rich in lutein and that’s one of the antioxidants that boosts eye health and prevents cataracts and macular degeneration. These are the essential elements for good eye health:

BETA-CAROTENE which destroys free radicals and helps keep eye tissue healthy.

VITAMIN C and VITAMIN E are antioxidant and protect the eye from sun damage

ZINC and COPPER are antioxidant and protect our eyes

B VITAMIN complex to fight free radicals in your eyes, particularly the cornea and the myelin sheath around the optic nerve

TAURINE is an essential amino acid for retina health and blocks out UV rays and environmental toxins.

EYEBRIGHT is a herb that been traditionally used to relieve irritated eyes and strengthen blood vessels in the eyes.

Otherwise it’s the usual mix of dark green leafy vegetables, particularly spinach, and a varied daily diet to keep your eyes sparkling.

Wind me up Scotty!

With the energy crisis being what it is, and us all trying to reduce our carbon footprint, it could be time to go back to the old fashioned energy sources. No batteries needed, just use natural daylight and the power of your arm to wind things up. There is a great range of solar powered toys, Christmas things, games and lights at Nigel’s Eco Store, and I can highly recommend his practical, useful and environmentally friendly products. Two things I really love are the Bat and Penguin wind up torches, and a low energy moonlight night light that uses space age technology to produce a soothing light for children’s rooms, and hallways. The shop is in Brighton and is a fascinating place to visit or you can order online. If you want advice or to order over the phone, call 0800 288 8970.  Vistit online at: www.nigelsecostore.com

Radiator booster

From the same store, a great way to boost the heat from your radiators, heat your room faster, save lost energy, and reduce your heating bills. What more do you want? This innovative and eco-friendly product first saw the light of day on the Dragon’s Den and it uses small fans to capture the heat that comes out the back of your radiator, circulating it better into your room. Just put a Radiator Booster™ on top of a standard domestic radiator, plug it in, and away it goes. It’ll save you huge amounts of energy – all for a running cost of about 30p a year and they have even got it at £5 off the RRP! www.nigelsecostore.com

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