Stomach Flu Remedies

It hits everyone now and then... that queasy, rolling pain and the mad dash to the bathroom. A stomach virus can be sneaky. Sometimes it strikes like a sledgehammer, at other times you might not even realize that is what you have for a day or so. Things just won't be 'quite right', with occasional pains and gas, sour stomach and mild constipation or diarrhea. Sounds like a Pink Goo moment, right? Not necessarily! Since it, and other OTC remedies like it, treat only the symptoms and leave the 'cause' intact, this might make you less miserable at the moment while prolonging actual recovery... sometimes for several days!

Old time folk treatments shine in cases like this! They not only sooth that icky feeling, but work to treat any underlying causes right from the beginning. Not a flu at all, this condition can be caused by the same virus that causes the common cold! When something as common as an ill co-worker sneezing around you or using your phone can be a source of this type of infection, incorporating herbal and dietary preventatives into the daily routine just makes good sense.

Below is a list of the beneficial herbs and foods I use when we get sick with the stomach flu. I am not going to go into the details of treatment here... Most of us already know to quit eating heavy foods, drink plenty of fluids and get rest. You should realize that dehydration is a dangerous possibility with any purging illness. If it lingers more than a few days or there is unusual pain or symptoms, do not put off seeing your doctor. As with any medicine, use wisely. Alternate herbal teas with diluted fruit juices and plain water. Consume food items in small amounts over the course of the day. The idea is to replace essential nutrients and minerals being flushed from the body while reducing the demands placed on the digestive system. Once vomiting and diarrhea stop, follow a lighter diet of reduced fat and meat for 3 or 4 days to give your stomach and digestive tract a chance to recover.

• Chamomile is one of the medicines I grow and keep around as much for the pleasure of it, as the power. This tasty, wonderfully aromatic little herb makes a delightful hot or iced tea all by itself! German Chamomile (the kind usually found in the grocery store or health food shop) has been found to be an effective anti-inflammatory, a nervine or smooth muscle relaxer, antimicrobial, mildly sedative and carminative (helps with gas and bloating). It might be good to note that some folks might have allergic reactions to chamomile. If you are allergic to ragweed, use caution.
• Mint: There are many types of mint and although most have medicinal value with stomach ailments, I usually have and use catnip because it is native to the Americas and quite easy to grow. As far as I know, all of the more common mints (peppermint, wintergreen, catnip, spearmint and lemon balm) may be used with good results. Mint has shown antimicrobial activity against fungi and gram-positive bacteria as well as being a smooth muscle relaxer. It is considered antispasmodic, mildly sedative, carminative and generally beneficial to digestion when taken in small doses such as a mild tea.
  
• Lemon: Acidic fruits are not normally recommended, but used sparingly, lemon juice can help kill off the pathogens causing diarrhea. Up to a teaspoon of fresh lemon juice (or a squeezed slice) in a large glass of water or added to your herbal tea is beneficial. It is at its very best as a preventative though. One to two tablespoons before meals when a stomach virus is making the rounds can keep you out of the loop. This could be due to the vitamin C in lemons as well as the antimicrobial properties of the volatile oils.
  
• Banana: Studies have proven that green bananas help stop diarrhea. Ripe or green, they are easy to digest and provide both potassium and magnesium. These minerals are two of the electrolytes critical to bodily function. Without them the heart will go into arrhythmia and can fail entirely.
  
• Salt: Sodium is another electrolyte that is rapidly depleted with vomiting and diarrhea. Broths and soups are an excellent and nutritious way to replenish the loss, along with their added benefit of replacing lost fluids. If you can't handle broth because of nausea, add a tiny pinch of salt to your juice or tea. You won't notice the added flavor as you sip it, but your body will thank you!
  
• Rice: One of the best all time aids for lingering diarrhea is rice water. Cook a handful of rice in a pan of water until nearly soft. Strain out the rice, allow water to cool and drink a small cup full every hour or so. Make a tasty drink by adding a bit of honey and cinnamon, which are also good for this condition. Leave off the cinnamon and add a little powdered ginger or mint to sooth nausea and sour stomach. Cooked rice is always recommended in the 'recovery diet' for a few days and usually well tolerated during the illness.
  
• Applesauce: Fresh apples can cause diarrhea in some folks while applesauce seems to have the opposite effect on most people. Apples contain pectin, a water soluble fiber that helps retain water and add bulk to the stool, slowing diarrhea.
• Toast and Crackers: Dry toast or saltine crackers have often been the one thing that could initially get past the nausea to help settle a cranky stomach, paving the way for healing teas and foods.
  
• Turmeric: Though not a spice you would want to use in large amounts for a stomach virus, small pinches added to rice or soup provides a good antibacterial boost.
• Garlic: This is something I usually use as a preventative more than a treatment during a stomach virus. Although it does wonders as an antibacterial and antimicrobial, I find it too strong on the stomach when vomiting has been an issue. If you can tolerate it, whether taken fresh chopped in honey or in tablet form, it can speed recovery almost miraculously. It is said that it will sooth the lining of stomach and bowel, calming the rawness and cramping.
  
• Yogurt: Diarrhea flushes most of the good bacteria and other natural flora that are essential to proper digestion out of your gut. Yogurt helps replace these and balance the inner ecosystem. Combining bananas, yogurt, blueberries, applesauce and honey in a blender as a smoothie is a wonderful tonic for recovery!
• Blueberries: Dried blueberries have been used for centuries as a cure for diarrhea in young children. They are high in fiber and antioxidants as well as being a bacterial inhibitor. They contain anthocyanosides, a substance thought to be lethal to E. Coli (a bacteria often linked to these infections.) Blueberries are also high in fiber, which aids in water retention and adds bulk to the stool.

Please note, as it bears repeating...
If any illness lingers more than a few days or there is unusual pain or symptoms, do not put off seeing your doctor! If you are on Any prescribed medications, it is advisable to consult with your doctor PRIOR to using most traditional or historic home remedies (as well as some common food items!) as there can be interactions with certain prescribed medicines.

Onion and the Rings of Life

Commentary by user d. chedwick bryant, creator of Tangled Up in L'Heure Bleue, reminded me of an old saying, "An onion a day keeps strokes away." He also pointed out the benefits of using it for colds and coughs.

This started me thinking about onions and their history. There is little doubt that onions have been used as food and medicine since our earliest days. The first evidence of onion as a known food source comes from Bronze Age archaeological digs dating back to 5000 B.C. There is evidence to suggest onions were being cultivated as early as 2000 B.C. by Egyptians, who worshiped them. Ancient Egyptians, looking at the circular shape and concentric rings, associated the venerable onion with eternal life. Slices of onion were often placed over the eyes of the dead where it was supposed to bring back their breath once they crossed into the afterlife.

Other historic uses have included rubbing on the body to tone muscles and as a blood tonic for athletes. Doctors in the 16Th century prescribed onion to treat infertility in women as well as cattle and other livestock. It has been used as a staple in many culture's diets due in part to being so easily grown and of such great benefit health wise.

Onions contain thiosulfinates, sulfides, sulfoxides, and other sulfur compounds and have shown effectiveness against many bacteria including Salmonella, and E. coli. They are known to be antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti cholesterol and anticancer due to containing Quercetin, an extremely beneficial flavinoid. Check out the link for a bit of scientific information on this flavinol that is proving to have remarkable anti-tumor properties and is being used in the successful treatment of skin and prostate cancers when used topically and combined with ultra-sound.

If you were to receive a bunch of onions as a gift today it would probably be thought offensive. Historically there is evidence that a gift of onions was considered to be a gift of love. Science is showing us that a gift of onions just might be one of the most beneficial and thoughtful gifts you could wrap up! Imagine that!

Marvelous Medicinal Vinegar!

Vinegar is a vital part of my household. I make a point to keep a gallon or two of white vinegar available for various uses such as cleaning, as well as a quart bottle of organic apple cider vinegar for medicinal uses. My grandmother added a teaspoon of vinegar to a glass of water at each meal and swore by its health benefits. As it turns out, she was probably right on target!

Calcium & Osteoporosis: High in acetic acid, vinegar aids the body in absorbing minerals from the foods we eat. This is especially important for women as they get older to avoid the effects of osteoporosis through loss of calcium. 1 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar in a 6 oz. glass of water 3 times a day is thought to be ideal. To increase benefits with a natural source of calcium, wash and crush several egg shells into a pint jar. Fill to the shoulder with your vinegar, cap and allow shells to dissolve. Shake or stir before use. Store in the refrigerator.

Diabetes: Several studies have shown that a small amount of apple cider vinegar taken with a meal can reduce the blood glucose and insulin levels by up to 35% in healthy participants! This may go a long way to prove what folk medicine has said for years... That taking a tablespoon of vinegar in a glass of water with meals is helpful for diabetics.

Sore Throat: Gargling with this same mixture can lessen the pain and scratchiness of a sore throat and some say, heal it almost over night.

Fungus: Vinegar works in the treatment of some fungal infections. Soaking affected fingernails or toenails each day in undiluted vinegar for up to two months has gotten excellent results.
Treat Athlete's Foot by soaking feet for 15 to 30 minutes in full strength vinegar once a day for 5 days. To prevent constant reinfection, saturate all socks with vinegar at onset of treatment. Allow to soak for a couple of hours, then wash and dry as usual.
Although considered fungicidal, vinegar not work for all types of fungus. Some it can actually make worse. If yours seems to get worse, stop the treatment.


'Heart Tonic': I've known quite a few folks that swear by a vinegar 'heart tonic' that consists of a quart of apple juice, a pint of (dark) grape juice and 1/3 cup of apple cider vinegar. According to them, drinking a juice glass full of this mixture each day will help lower cholesterol and blood pressure, increase resistance to colds and flu, aid digestion and promote regularity.

Cough Syrup: Mix 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar, 1/2 cup honey and 1 clove garlic (thin sliced) in pint jar. Stir well and age for a week in the refrigerator. Stir and dose with one tablespoon for hacking coughs that just won't let up.

Sunburns: Daub or spray vinegar mixture (1 cup vinegar to 1/2 cup water) on sunburns to relieve pain and aid in tanning without the blisters and peeling. On a bad sunburn, this will sting like crazy for the first few seconds then works to kill the pain.

Depths of Winter

Winter is in full force and everyone seems to be having coughs and congestion so I am obsessed with garlic. Obviously! lol

I am from the Southwest where garlic, chilies and onion are staples in our diet. Here, most folks eat these 'wonder drugs' in the form of salsas and a delicious fresh topper called Pico de Gallo. Pico is varying amounts (depending on taste) of tomato, onion, garlic, jalapeno, fresh cilantro, lime juice and a bit of sugar and salt. This is all coarse chopped, tossed and left to marinate in the refrigerator for a couple of hours. This lets the flavors blend. It is then used on just about anything from plain chips to the evening entree.

While I'm on an allicin binge, it might be good to note something a venerable, old Chinese healer once told me about onion. He instructed me to make sure every male in the family ate an onion a day. He said a small to medium one, cooked or raw, would ensure that they never had prostate problems. I haven't seen any western scientific studies that verified this. Knowing his abilities and that he has a couple of thousand years of written history in natural medicine behind him, I trust his advice.

So, all you men (and women who love them) out there remember, "An onion a day keeps prostate cancer away!"