Boost Your Immunity

We all know that washing our hands and taking vitamins can keep us from being sick. But here are five other little-known tips on boosting your immunity to prevent the wintertime chills:

MOVE: Aerobic exercise five days a week for 20 minutes reduces colds per year by nearly half, as well as boosts immune cells in the blood. For seniors, try Tai Chi three times a week.

SOCIALIZE (but stay home if you are already sick): Researchers say that having an active social life during the winter months makes it less likely for you to get sick in the first place.

WARM YOUR TOES: Your mom was right, cold and wet conditions on your feet can trigger the onset of cold symptoms. Cooling the feet causes constriction of the blood vessels in upper airways, which may reduce defenses against vexing viruses.

KEEP IT SPICY: Warm soups and spicy foods promote salivations and can lubricate and soothe the throat.

LAUGH: Laughter increases the number of your body cells that fight off infections. The more you have, the more they can help fight off colds and flue, including strains you've never been exposed to.

Good Night - Sleep Tight

Sleep is essential to our body’s health, but one in four people have a difficult time falling asleep and staying that way. Most people don’t like taking sleeping pills, so instead, try these natural remedies to help you get the best sleep you’ve had in years.

• Use your five senses to become aware of your surroundings. Is your pillow too hard, is there an annoying buzz from the fan, or is it too hot? Little things like these can ruin your sleep, so take the time to find and fix them.

• Get rid of the clutter in your bedroom. Your sleep environment should be clean and peaceful. The last things you need to look at are bills on the desk and dirty laundry all over the floor.

• Adjust the temperature in your bedroom for optimum sleep. In the summer, it should be 74 degrees; in the winter set it at 67 degrees.

• Keep a writing pad on your nightstand so when you start to think of things you need to do, you can write them down and then forget about them. Your mind should be clear of pressing thoughts.

• Get the TV out of your bedroom. The light and sounds are stimulants and will keep you awake. Your body needs to associate the bedroom with sleep, not with watching TV.

• Exercise tires your body and prepares it for bed, but you need to do it a few hours before bed, or you will be staying awake a lot longer than you would like.

• Eating healthy foods with lots of antioxidants will rebuild your body during sleep, helping you feel refreshed when you wake up.

• The scent of lavender has special sedative qualities, like helping you sleep through the night. Place a lavender sachet under your pillow or burn essential lavender oil for a little aromatherapy.

The Wise Man Built His House Upon a Rock

Clingstone, an unusual, 103 year-old mansion in Rhode Island's Narragansett Bay, survives through the love and hard work of family and friends.

Henry Wood, the owner, runs the house like a camp: all skilled workers welcome. The Jamestown Boatyard hauls the family's boats and floating dock and stores them each winter in return for a week's use of the house in the summer.

Mr. Wood, a 79 year-old Boston architect, bought the house, with his ex-wife, Joan, in 1961, for $3,600. It had been empty for two decades.

Clingstone had been built by a distant cousin, J. S. Lovering Wharton. Mr. Wharton worked with an artist, William Trost Richards, to create a house of picture windows with 23 rooms on three stories radiating off a vast central hall.

The total cost of the construction, which was completed in 1905, was $36.982.99.

An early sketch of the house.

Mr. Wood is as proud as a parent of his house, and keeps a fat scrapbook of photographs and newspaper clippings that document its best moments. Many of the historic photos he has were
provided by the company that insured the house for its original owners.

The Newport Bridge is visible from the windows of the ping-pong room, to the left of the fireplace.

The house is maintained by an ingenious method: the Clingstone "work weekend." Held every year around Memorial Day, it brings 70, or so, friends and Clingstone lovers together to tackle jobs like washing all 65 windows. Anne Tait, who is married to Mr. Wood's son Dan, refinished the kitchen floor on one of her first "work weekends."

There are ten bedrooms at Clingstone, all with indecently beautiful views.

The dining room table seats 14. Refinishing the chairs is a task for a future "work weekend."

Sign by the ladder that leads to the roof reads: No entry after three drinks or 86 years of age. "It used to say 80, but we had a guy on a 'work weekend' wo was 84, so I changed it," said Mrs. Wood, ever the realist. "it would have been a shame to curtail the activities of a willing volunteer!"

No lawn to mow, no neighbors, no solicitors, no traffic!
Now, that's my kind of get-away...

Amazing Simple Home Remedies

WARNING!
Parts of this post are very graphic...
Viewer discretion is advised!!

1. IF YOU'RE CHOKING ON AN ICE CUBE, SIMPLY POUR A CUP OF BOIL WATER DOWN YOUR THROAT. PRESTO! THE BLOCKAGE WILL INSTANTLY REMOVE ITSELF.

2. AVOID CUTTING YOURSELF WHEN SLICING VEGETABLES BY GETTING SOMEONE ELSE TO HOLD THE VEGETABLES WHILE YOU CHOP.

3. AVOID ARGUMENTS WITH THE FEMALES ABOUT LIFTING THE TOILET SEAT BY USING THE SINK.

4. FOR HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE SUFFERERS ~ SIMPLY CUT YOURSELF AND BLEED FOR A FEW MINUTES, THUS REDUCING THE PRESSURE ON YOUR VEINS. REMEMBER TO USE A TIMER.

5. A MOUSE TRAP PLACED ON TOP OF YOUR ALARM CLOCK WILL PREVENT YOU FROM ROLLING OVER AND GOING BACK TO SLEEP AFTER YOU HIT THE SNOOZE BUTTON.

6. IF YOU HAVE A BAD COUGH, TAKE A LARGE DOSE OF LAXATIVES. THEN YOU'LL BE AFRAID TO COUGH.

7. YOU ONLY NEED TWO TOOLS IN LIFE: WD-40 AND DUCT TAPE. IF IT DOESN'T MOVE AND SHOULD, USE THE WD-40. IF IT SHOULDN'T MOVE AND DOES, USE THE DUCT TAPE.

8. IF YOU CAN'T FIX IT WITH A HAMMER, YOU'VE GOT AN ELECTRICAL PROBLEM.

Grandma's Mustard Plaster

For centuries mustard plasters were the tried and true home remedy for the flu, coughs, colds, pneumonia and many other ailments. It was used regularly up until the not too distant past since this poultice was thought to sweat out all the “ills” the body held.

As more pleasant cures and remedies came on the market, use of the poultice went down in popularity. This can be an uncomfortable home remedy (from the heat it generates) but it was believed that the poultice knocked sense back into the body and does a good job drawing out all the “gunk” flus and congestion bring with them (of course this isn’t a 100% guaranteed cure, but IMHO it’s one tough gangster bug that laughs off a mustard plaster).

Mustard Plaster Recipe

4 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons dry mustard
Water (lukewarm)

Directions:

• Mix the dry mustard and flour together then add the water to make a paste. The paste should be smooth and easily spreadable but not too thin so that it runs or is watery.
• Take a clean flour sack towel and spread the mustard paste evenly across top half (one side only), fold up the bottom half of the towel and apply poultice to chest area. Do not apply mustard paste directly to skin or it may cause blistering. Cover with a fresh towel then top with a heavy blanket to encourage sweating (the fresh towel protects the blanket from any staining). If needing a large size poultice, cover an entire flour sack towel with the mustard paste, then top with another flour sack towel (or make two separate poultices).
• Leave plaster on for up to 20 minutes, remove if skin turns deep red and is in danger of blistering. If using on children, watch tender skin carefully (not to be used on children under school age unless directed by doctor). Some reddening is normal as heat & circulation is being drawn to the surface.
• Remove plaster, wash skin with a warm cloth to remove traces of mustard that may have seeped through, dry and apply a layer of lard or vaseline over the skin.
• Next apply to back for same amount of time or until danger of blistering appears, again covering with a heavy blanket and following procedure above.
• This poultice can be reapplied every 4 to 6 hours as needed.
• A warm bath or shower can bring some comfort to the patient after treatment, but they must be supervised at all times due to their weakened condition from the illness (not left alone for even a minute). This is standard care in all cases of illness.

Tips:

• Some recipes recommend applying a layer of vaseline on the skin before laying on the mustard plaster cloth, this apparently helps prevent any blistering…however, still “peek” at the skin every few minutes to watch. It is also thought that by using egg white instead of water to mix the paste, there’s some protection against blistering.
• Flour sack towels are a cotton tea towel. If you don’t have any, you can apply this paste to an undershirt or some other thin fabric like flannelette. For children, a cotton terry towel can be used.
• The mustard/flour ratio can be adjusted if necessary to accommodate lower tolerance levels (it can get uncomfortable), but remember the purpose is to draw heat (and the illness) to the surface.
• This stuff is no joke–you really do need to watch for blisters, especially on tender skin. Do not fall asleep with this on–set the alarm clock if you’re treating yourself (for 5 minute intervals).
• Along with colds & flus, mustard plasters were also used for sore muscles, arthritis, treatment of back pain, poor circulation and gout (and many more things I’m sure). Simply apply the poultice to the area afflicted.

For Your View Enjoyment:

Decongest the Baby

Now that we made it through the H1N1 flue season, the regular cold and flu season is here, and you really shouldn't give your baby a flu or cough medication for kids. The brutally short story for why the authorities have pulled these off the shelf for babies is two basic things - they don’t work, and (very rarely) they kill babies from bad reactions. Enough said.

So what are you gonna do for your miserable congested baby? For one thing, taking the baby into the shower with you is a wonderful tool. The hot water, steam and warmth really help loosen up the nasal passages. If you are not used to doing this, it works better if one person gets in the shower, and the other person hands in and out the naked baby. If you can breast or bottle-feed the baby in a warm bath with you, even better. At the apex of my kid’s most recent cold, I dragged a kitchen chair into the bathroom and after the shower and bath were done, I fed him sitting there in the steam while we were both wrapped in warm towels. It really helped him breathe, which in turn helped him eat, and thus helped him sleep. What a relief for us all!

Another easy idea is to elevate the head side of the mattress in your crib or co-sleeper. The safest way to do this is to place some books (phone books or text books are easiest) under one end of the mattress, between the mattress and the wooden platform that supports it. It works just as well as a "crib wedge" but costs nothing. A few inches (3 or 4, tops) will help the baby breathe and aids in sinus drainage. Just don’t space out in the middle of the night and put the kid down with their head on the wrong side - a very grumpy baby will be the certain result.

via Leigh G.