Do you know: Home Remedies for Sore Throat, Sore Throat Cure
There are many ways of helping the body in dealing with infections. Home remedies for strep throat are various and they include many aspects: diet, natural antiseptics, natural analgesics or natural antibacterial cures. Used appropriately, home remedies for strep throat can speed up the process of healing by fighting bacteria and by stimulating the immune system of the body.
Untreated strep throat can lead to serious complications and doctors usually recommend a course of antibiotics to most people affected by strep throat. With appropriate medical treatment, the illness can be overcome quickly, minimizing the risk of developing complications.
Mango bark is effective in the treatment of a sore throat and other throat related disorders. Its fluid that is extracted by grinding can be applied locally with favorable results. It can also be used as a throat gargle. This gargle is made by simply mixing ten milliliters of the fluid extract with one twenty five milliliters of water
The treatment for strep throat is usually antibiotics because they can quickly kill the viruses responsible for the infection, but there other cures for this illness that are natural and that can also cure the infection. Natural cures are preferred by many people because they are healthy and they can do other beneficial thing for the body, like healing other damaged tissues and improving the defense system.
Cover one half of a lemon with salt and pepper and press with a knife or the back of a spoon so that the salt and pepper absorbs into the lemon. Warm the lemon either in the oven or in the microwave. Do not overheat. When it is warm, slowly lick the lemon, squeezing it at the same time until there is no more juice. Repeat this 2 to 3 times daily.
Cayenne Pepper - Cayenne pepper, another common item in the kitchen can also be used as an herbal remedy for sore throat. Boil water and add cayenne pepper. The ratio of this is 1 cup of water is to � teaspoon of cayenne pepper. Mix the ingredients and stir well. Unlike ginger, you will not drink this concoction but gargle it. For it to be effective, it should be gargled while it is still warm.
One of the best known natural health remedies for sore throat is gargling. Gargling with a mild mixture of salt or 4-6 drops of grapefruit seed extract and warm water, sage or raspberry leaf tea or other herbal teas, several times a day, will ease sore throat pain, reduce the inflammation and hydrate dry tissues.
The belleric myrobalan, commonly known as behera in Ayurvedic parlance, is a popular Indian household remedy for coughs. The pulp of its fruit is taken. This pulp is mixed with salt, long pepper and honey. This is given for allaying the problems of sore throat. Instead of this preparation, its fried fruit can also be covered with wheat flour and then roasted on a low flame.
Posted in: Health Diet| Tags: Remedy Sore Throat Cure Health'Stomach flu' rips through the nation
Stomach viruses tearing through communities from California to the Carolinas wrecked the December holidays for some, and they are getting the new year off to an uncomfortable start for others.
The most likely culprits, experts say, are noroviruses, the most common cause of contagious gastroenteritis, better known as the "stomach flu." Cases occur every winter, but health officials say that in recent weeks they have seen two to three times as many cases as usual.
The virus, best known as the cause of cruise ship outbreaks, is easy to catch, hard to wipe out and seems to be everywhere at once.
Last week, San Quentin State Prison closed to new prisoners and visitors after nearly 500 inmates and guards fell ill with vomiting, diarrhea, stomach cramps, headaches and low fever. Similar symptoms have been plaguing staff and residents of nursing homes in several states. College and pro athletes have missed games. Hundreds of patients have sought help in emergency rooms since mid-December. Nearly 400 people on a Caribbean cruise last month and 700 on a trans-Atlantic cruise in November were stricken, according to Associated Press reports.
Norovirus infection usually clears up after two or three days, but medical epidemiologist Marc-Alain Widdowson, a norovirus expert at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, says the misery of those days shouldn't be dismissed.
"When you're ill, you're really ill," he says. "People (can) vomit 20 times a day."
Norovirus can be spread through contaminated food or water, causing large outbreaks. About half of food-borne diseases are thought to be caused by norovirus, the CDC says.
But this winter, it is spreading mainly from person to person through communities, and experts believe the majority of cases are unreported.
Once it's in the house, experts say, it's tough to wipe out. It can linger for days on surfaces such as children's toys, keyboards, telephones and doorknobs, and both vomit and stool are highly infectious. It is present in the stool up to three weeks after the patient recovers, so health officials stress the importance of hand-washing, especially after using the bathroom and before preparing food.
The virus causes illness year-round, though like many, it is more common in colder months. Why it's so widespread this winter is not known, Widdowson says. "Some years, it does seem to be a lot worse than others, and this is one of those."
From Carolina to California
Among states with outbreaks:
•Texas. In Corpus Christi, there has been "a true minor epidemic here," says William Burgin Jr., health authority for the Corpus Christi-Nueces County Public Health District. "Dozens of cases at a time were reported" during the holidays, and hundreds more likely went unreported. Hospitals saw about three times as many cases as usual. "Even our emergency room folks caught it."
•North Carolina. In Asheville, 30 to 40 people have been sick enough to seek emergency room treatment for norovirus symptoms in the past two to three weeks, and up to 10 have been hospitalized, says Buncombe County Health Center medical director Steve Swearingen. And "there's no way of knowing how many are out in the community."
•California. Twenty nursing homes in Contra Costa County have reported outbreaks, twice as many as in a normal year, says communicable-disease program chief Francie Wise. "In one facility, we had over 50 patients and 21 health care workers sick," she says.
•Wisconsin. The state Division of Public Health put out an alert to local and tribal health departments last month, says spokeswoman Stephanie Marquis. "It's hitting a lot of people all at the same time." She says outbreaks in schools led a few, including two in Oshkosh, to close before the holidays.
•Montana. Cases began in nursing homes the week before Christmas, says Yellowstone City-County Health Department spokeswoman Barbara Schneeman. "That's real typical for noroviruses. It seems they like nursing homes and cruise ships."
Six facilities have confirmed positive cases. No cases were reported last winter, she says, but there was an outbreak earlier this year. From late March to early June, "we had about 1,100 to 1,200 people reporting the norovirus to us, but we estimate for every person who reports, there are two or three who don't. That would put our numbers in the 4,000 to 5,000 range."
Outbreaks in nursing homes are of special concern because of the risk of dehydration caused by vomiting and diarrhea, health experts warn. Deaths as a result of norovirus are rare. It may be a factor in roughly 300 deaths, generally in the elderly, the CDC says.
But even the young and healthy are vulnerable. About 50 University of Missouri football players, coaches, staff and family members were flattened days before Christmas while in El Paso for a bowl game.
"It spread pretty fast," says Chad Moller, team spokesman. "When you travel in a plane in closed quarters and are around each other a solid week in a hotel," it's easy to see why, he says.
A stomach flu knocked out three players and an assistant coach for the San Antonio Spurs and eight players for the Washington Capitals in the past couple of weeks, according to news reports.
The disease, often characterized by doctors as "mild," is anything but that from the patient's point of view, Burgin says.
"The patient is absolutely miserable. You don't know which end to put on the pot sometimes, you get cramps, don't feel like doing anything, don't feel like taking the fluids you need."
Norovirus strikes every year, but the last time it was notably severe was the winter of 2002-03, when there were several outbreaks on cruise ships, mainly caused by a new strain known as the Farmington Hills strain, the CDC's Widdowson says. There are 30 to 40 major strains; new variations are often responsible for spikes in the number of cases. Widdowson says the CDC doesn't yet have information on strains circulating now.
Positive ID is expensive
Unlike many bacteria and other viruses, norovirus doesn't grow in a common lab culture, so it can only be positively identified through specialized, expensive tests called PCR, which are run on stool, vomit or swab samples from the environment. Because most people recover at home with no medical care, most cases are never diagnosed.
Infection is no guarantee against future misery, he says. "You may develop immunity to one group but get whacked by another," he says, and any immunity gained is only temporary.
"In tests with volunteers, you feed them (virus), they get sick. A week later, you give it again, they're immune. You give it six months later, and they get sick again," he says.
Other studies show some people are naturally immune to norovirus. "You can throw as much virus as you want at them, and they won't get it," he says.
To cause illness, the virus binds to receptors in the gut, he says, but "clearly, there are people who don't have the receptors and won't get infected."
Then there are people who get infected and can spread the virus but don't get sick themselves.
Some research suggests people with blood type B seem to be resistant to infection and illness from at least one of the norovirus strains known as Norwalk virus, Widdowson says. Why? Another mystery.
For now, health officials are monitoring the situation and are on alert for new outbreaks, especially as students return to schools after the winter break. Happily, it is unlikely to last much longer.
"It's seasonal," Widdowson says, "and the season will end."
Posted in: Health Diet| Tags: Stomach Flu Flu NationThe Diet Connection and Calories
A balanced diet should be part of any weight control plan. A diet high in complex carbohydrates and moderate in protein and fat will complement an exercise program. It should include enough calories to satisfy your daily nutrient requirements and include the proper number of servings per day from the "basic four food groups": vegetables and fruits (4 servings), breads and cereals (4 servings), milk and milk products (2 - 4 depending on age) and meats and fish (2).
Experts recommend that your daily intake not fall below 1200 calories unless you are under a doctor's supervision. Also, weekly weight loss should not exceed two pounds.
Remarkable claims have been made for a variety of "crash" diets and diet pills. And some of these very restricted diets do result in noticeable weight loss in a short time. Much of this loss is water and such a loss is quickly regained when normal food and liquid intake is resumed. These diet plans are often expensive and may be dangerous. Moreover, they do not emphasize lifestyle changes that will help you maintain your desired weight. Dieting alone will result in a loss of valuable body tissue such as muscle mass in addition to a loss in fat.
How Many Calories
The estimates for number of calories (energy) used during a physical activity are based on experiments that measure the amount of oxygen consumed during a specific bout of exercise for a certain body weight.
The energy costs of activities that require you to move your own body weight, such as walking or jogging, are greater for heavier people since they have more weight to move. For example, a person weighing 150 pounds would use more calories jogging one mile than a person jogging alongside who weighs 115 pounds. Always check to see what body weight is referred to in caloric expenditure charts you use.