Alternate Medicine...Hmmm

That news story about the kid who is refusing chemo (something I may well do myself if I had cancer) and finding out that he didn't know how to read...interesting.
ANYWAY, as most who've seen me in the past few years know, I'm big on the avoiding mainstream western medicine when possible.

It wasn't possible anymore with the gallbladder. It was suck it out through a tube, or spend much time in the ER. No more avoiding.

But, as for the asthma and allergies I've always had. That I'm sticking to alternatives. Avoiding dairy and using homeopathy (which is a fairly old European traditional system, not just any old herb you happen to make into tea) along with nettle tea has done much more than that cocktail of allergy and asthma meds they tried to put me on in high school. As has avoiding second hand smoke (a pretty constant presence in my childhood) and other general environmental issues.

I'm at what is hopefully the end of a sinus infection that I've been treating the same way I treat a cold or the flu: Less than 30g of sugars per day including fruit sugars; echinacea and goldenseal tea (nasty stuff so it must be good), neti pot, vitamin C, and buckets of herbal tea and steamy showers. I seem to be doing better and only missed a half day of work. I didn't get much done the other days but that could be a separate issue. My boss had the same thing and he's been sick and out for almost the entire week. Of course, he's a guy and well....they are weak in general. I hate to waste days off on illness.

A friend just told me about how she avoided pink eye in Africa during her Peace Corps days. She said pink eye was common in the villages where she worked in Cape Verde and antibiotics were not. So, as soon as her eyes started to get that telltale itch, she would boil a wash cloth and as soon as it had cooled enough to touch, she put it over her eyes and left it there until it was cool. She said she did this 4 times on the day she noticed the itching and never got pink eye. El Kid had pink eye and my eyes were itchy and goobery from the sinus issue this morning so I'm trying it. At the very least, it's ice to take about 20 minutes out every few hours to just lie back with a cloth on my eyes and just leave it. Quite nice.
My sister claims she put purell around the edge of her eye when she thought she was getting pink eye but I'm not sure about the truth or wisdom of that.

I asked my Aunt Sara (Hi Sara!), a nurse, about sugar and infections and she said that indeed sugar will feed an infection and that is one reason diabetics have tough infections to cure. So much sugar in the blood sometimes.

I also just read that most people who get sinus infections in the maxillae (cheek bone sinuses) after a cold had an underlying dental infection! Makes me wonder. I don't think I did. I've always had sinus issues so I'm hoping it's just poor drainage, not dental infection.

Ok, enough of the grossness. Hope not too many people are getting hit by this spring's second round of cold/flu, whether swine or not, and that all avoid dairy (milk makes mucus...that is the most important thing I learned in highschool biology) and sugar if they do get ill.

On a more amusing note. I've spent the day chatting on the phone (Hi Chris) and watching (or listening when the cloth was on my eyes) to Wallace and Grommet videos. They are hysterical. I think they are more like the cartoons of my youth than these stupid baby versions of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck that pass as cartoons these days. These have an actual plot and are not pandering to children. Also, the animation is exquisite claymation. I highly recommend the Wallace and Grommet movies as well as the "Creature Comforts" series by the same folks.