Category Archives: wellness

A new way to think about respiratory allergies

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My expertise on the subject of allergies comes from over fifty years of putting up with reactions to smoke of all kinds, dust, perfume (no matter how expensive), musty paper (no matter how interesting) and many pollens which shall remain unidentified.  I experienced headaches, nausea, congestion, sinusitis, chronic cough, sneezing, earache, various secondary infections, and feeling under the weather for a good chunk of my life.

I tried various over-the-counter and prescription medications, to no avail. They are more likely to cause liver damage than to cure an allergy.  Why use a whole-body treatment for a very small, localized problem?

Secondary infections would usually result in the use of antibiotics, which are now known to affect the balance of thousands of species of microbes which inhabit our bodies–more of which are beneficial than bad.

The remaining professional advice was usually about avoiding the irritants—never mind that pollens can travel hundreds of miles and exposure to most of the other culprits was often beyond my control.

Now I know it was all for no good reason.  No one is really allergic to any of those substances!  Some human bodies just think they are. How unfortunate.

One day in November of 2004, I read an article written by a chemist, explaining how to avoid the common cold.  He said his very inexpensive method would stop the histamine reaction caused by cold viruses.  Just stopping the reaction and preventing congestion would make the cold go away.  It turned out that his technique is also effective against the excessive histamine reactions of the body caused by false alarms about harmless irritants.

The rest is history.  I can honestly say I have not had a cold, a headache or any repercussions from allergies since that time.  If I notice that my nose doesn’t like something, I can help it relax and go about its ordinary business.  No more fake allergic reactions are permitted.

Yes, I know.  If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is–or is that an old wives tale in this instance?

I have no experience with food intolerance, extreme reactions to insect stings or contact allergies that can cause severe inflammatory responses. But if you share fake allergies to substances which are not really harmful, I recommend that you investigate this further.

Stop Cold Sores Before They Break Out

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You really can stop cold sores (fever blisters) before they erupt–without resorting to any of the risky remedies posted on various websites. My simple solution is based on the concept of transdermal absorption. Don’t underestimate what can be absorbed through your skin.

Estimates of the rates of herpes simplex virus type 1 infection vary widely from sixty to ninety percent worldwide, and from about twenty percent of American children to over eighty-five percent of senior citizens. Therefore, it appears that most of us will suffer from this nuisance sooner or later. There is really no reason for embarrassment, other than the cosmetic effect and the fact that cold sores seem to appear when we are already stressed about something else.

Although there is said to be no cure, many products are available for shortening the duration and making us more comfortable in the meantime. But the remedy I have discovered beats that hands down. You can put a stop to them before they break out!

As soon as you feel the unmistakable tingling sensation and bump under the skin, you can stop it short. All you need is a cotton swab soaked with mouthwash containing at least 14% alcohol. Hold it gently on the spot for at least five minutes. This should allow enough time for the alcohol to soak through your skin or lip and destroy the pesky virus. Dabbing it on does not work. You must keep the spot wet long enough to allow the alcohol to soak in. The treatment can be applied from inside the mouth also, if needed.

You could even use vodka (plain ethyl alcohol). It doesn’t have to be full strength. It could be diluted with two parts of water and still be strong enough to kill the virus. Please do not use isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol) for this purpose. It is much too strong and is not recommended for use around the mouth, according to the poison control centers in America.

If a cold sore has already broken out, alcohol would probably be painful–even if it is diluted. I am sorry I don’t have any recommendation for that.  Ever since I devised this way to stop cold sores before they start, I have not had to deal with that phase.

Recently I read that the virus which causes cold sores on the mouth can contribute to Alzheimer’s or dementia; and it is best to treat any outbreaks as quickly as possible–to make the virus return to the dormant stage. You probably don’t need any extra motivation to rid yourself of a cold sore, but that is something to think about.

If you find this tip to be effective, please tell a friend. This simple remedy deserves to go viral (pun intended). This article may be shared freely; but please give credit to the author, Carole Ramke, and reference this blog or my website at howtostopcolds.com.

If you ever have colds or respiratory allergies, you might be interested in my simple methods for stopping those symptoms as soon as they start.  My book, How to Stop Colds, Allergies & More, is available for $9.99 at amazon.com or through major bookstores.

What do we know for sure that just ain’t so?

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Mark Twain once said, “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” I have noticed more and more examples of the latter lately–especially in the areas of health and wellness.

Like many young mothers, I became more interested in the subject of nutrition when our children were babies. As a result, they did not have frequent colds and allergies like most of their classmates.

I remember when one of our sons came home from school complaining that something was wrong with his nose. I was checking to see if he had gotten bruised or something when he explained that he couldn’t breathe out of one side. I started laughing before I realized his feelings were hurt by my insensitive reaction to the fact that he didn’t even know what a cold was. This was followed by time out for some extra TLC and vitamin C.

The Adele Davis books were my favorite references during those years and the benefits of her advice were obvious, not only for the children but also for the parents, although we didn’t follow her recommendations as closely for ourselves.

After her death, I noticed that at least one of her books was revised by someone who had bought into the new assumptions about the dangers of cholesterol. It turned out, however, that she was right all along–cholesterol is not the culprit in heart disease. See my Resource page at www.howtostopcolds.com for reference to the book by Dr. Tom Levy, showing that our deficiency of vitamin C is actually at fault.

The books by Adele Davis are rather outdated now, but I still use them as a backup reference because some things do not change. No one can know everything, and many scientific advances have been made since her death.

Unfortunately, Adele Davis was discredited by some and labeled a quack. It is discouraging to see the same kind of things happening today to some of our pioneers in nutrition and wellness.