How We Stay Out of the Doctor’s Office During the Winter and All Year Long
In early 2011 we got to know the student health center pretty well. While my husband was in his last semester of his graduate program, we visited the health center for an ear infection or other significant illness every week for about two months. All but one of the ear infections belonged to my baby who had just recently turned a year old. He would complete a round of antibiotics only to have the familiar difficulty sleeping and ear infection return. Finally the doctor said if he got another one we’d need to look at doing surgery to put tubes in his ears. For some reason this comment lit a fire inside of me–I knew surgery wasn’t the answer for this little guy at this time and I was determined to figure out what was.
I began researching and came across this book, written by a mother with experiences similar to mine. She had gone to medical school after having children and shared the view that antibiotics have an important role, but that we should start with other methods. Finally I understood that ear infections are caused when mucus stays in the ear canal and becomes infected. Antibiotics killed the infection, but didn’t address the root of the problem — the fluid resting in the ear canal. This began my exploration of alternative treatments and I’m pleased to report that nearly all of our doctors visits since have been for either check-ups or injuries. I have had two babies since and although ear pain has arisen from time to time, we have been able to treat it ourselves and it disappears quickly.
I love this verse in the Book of Mormon:
And there were some who died with fevers, which at some seasons of the year were very frequent in the land—but not so much so with fevers, because of the excellent qualities of the many plants and roots which God had prepared to remove the cause of diseases, to which men were subject by the nature of the climate—
I do believe there have been important, even inspired advances in the pharmaceutical world, however I think generally our priorities are out of order. If we begin with the medicine God has prepared to remove the cause of diseases, the need for the man-made solutions often disappears. I especially love how it says “remove the cause”. It seems that all too often our visits to the doctor don’t get to the cause, but rather address the symptoms and never really get to the root of the problem, causing side effects along the way.
As with most things, the saying “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” is very true here. These remedies work best when used before you get sick or just when you feel it coming on. I will still do them when it appears something has become full-blown to lessen the severity and length of the illness, but doing them early is the key to staying healthy. And similar to antibiotics, 2-3 times a day for 10 days, even after you feel better is going to be more effective than a little here or a little there. I have had symptoms disappear with these remedies and then return after I stop the remedy for a day or two.
None of us are going to be completely immune from health challenges, but we absolutely have the power to decrease the severity and frequency of many illnesses by taking care of our health.
Fresh Garlic
Fresh garlic is known as anti bacterial, anti viral and anti fungal. You have to mince it yourself to get the benefits–bottled or cooked won’t have the same impact as freshly minced. If you’re really serious, mince a clove of garlic on a spoon, cover it with honey and swallow. DO NOT DO THIS ON AN EMPTY STOMACH!! Garlic is potent and I personally know someone who ate a whole clove and then the stomach couldn’t handle it and it came back up. Start small, with 1/4-1/2 tsp of minced garlic and work your way up. Generally we try to do this after every meal if it seems likely someone may be getting sick. It took some getting used to, but now if someone is starting to feel sick and we say, “anyone want some garlic?” generally everyone says YES! Regardless of whether you or your family are ready to take these measures, it’s a good idea to eat as much garlic as you can in fresh salsa, guacamole, homemade salad dressing, etc. You can even mince a clove into store bought salsa. Just try to eat it as soon as possible after mincing the garlic for best results.
A friend also told me that whole, roasted garlic can have similar effects. They roast their garlic and then use it as a spread on toast to clear up an infection.
Either way, the stuff is potent AND it’s dirt-cheap–a great sign that no one is getting rich off of it and that it really just works.
Eating Lots of Plants
We eat a mostly whole food, plant based diet. It seemed in years past that if I went too long without a trip to the grocery store and we were out of fresh produce, it was almost a guarantee that we would start getting sick. I don’t let that happen anymore. I wish I could say that we are never sick anymore, but unfortunately we still have things pop up here and there. What I can say is that every single time we’ve had something this winter, it’s been after holidays or travel when we haven’t been in our normal food routine. Interesting studies support that increased fruit and vegetable intake is strongly associated with few colds. In the past two years since we began eating primarily whole foods & plants our colds and stomach bugs have been minimal and mild.
Our increased intake of nutritional yeast instead of cheese products may also be helping. Nutritional yeast has been found here and here to support the immune system. Now most of our cheesy recipes rely on nutritional yeast instead of the animal-derived version. Try it out in this Cheese Sauce, Broccoli Soup, Whole Foods Lasagna or Caramelized Pineapple Dip,
Essential Oils
When a kid has a cold or especially if they complain of an earache, I just rub a little Breathe outside of or behind the ear (Never In the Ear). The menthol-like properties help to clear out the mucus and prevent infection from setting in. I also have put a drop on my baby’s clothes or sheets to help clear out a stuffy nose. Both are very strong and it’s wise to use a carrier oil (can be any oil you have) to help dilute the oil and prevent any ill effects. I order all of these on Amazon and when purchased all at once will run around $80, so it’s an investment but they last a long time and are so, so much better than dealing with really sick kids and taking them to the doctor.
I really like using the diffuser–these oils are potent and you need to be careful and know what you’re doing before ingesting them or even putting them directly on your skin. We have had one similar to this one for 3+ years and it’s still going (not bad for $13.99). If I put a few drops of On Guard in it with the water and put it on my night stand, I pretty much always feel my budding cold symptoms improve if not completely go away.
Sleep, Exercise & Stress
I don’t really need to tell you this one, we all know that poor sleep, exercise and stress do not do good things for our health! Haven’t we all gotten through a busy, stressful time only to suddenly be sick? And yet we can be so quick to put ourselves on the back burner for this or that project. When we turn things around and take good care of ourselves, we are in a much better place to take care of everyone and everything that needs our attention. Take good care of yourself, your body will thank you!
Note: This post was originally published February 2, 2018