Your World and You: Tips to Improve Your Family’s Health – Issue 7 (Premium)
Environmental and Nutritional Tips to Improve Your Family’s Health
This feature highlights reports, studies, and feedback from families on efforts that can make a positive impact in our quest for health. We invite you to share material with us that you think would be of interest to our readers.
Topics featured in this article:
- Help Control Ticks and Fleas Around Your Home
- Gut feelings: the future of psychiatry maybe inside your stomach
- More on the gut! GI Biology, Pathology, and Treatment Strategies
- Taking Time to Pick the Right Teas
- Natural Simmering Air Fresheners
1) Help Control Ticks and Fleas Around Your Home
When the weather warms up, critters start to surface. The EPA offers these suggestions to deal with fleas. While some of them may seem common sense, skipping one or more can make control more difficult. See also the link at the end of this list for ways to make a “tick-safe” zone in your yard.
- Vacuum every day to remove eggs, larvae and adults; this is the best method for initial control of a flea infestation. Be sure to vacuum the following areas: carpets, cushioned furniture, cracks and crevices on floors, along baseboards and the basement.
- Steam clean carpets: the hot steam and soap can kill fleas in all stages of the life cycle. Pay particular attention to areas where pets sleep.
- Wash all pet bedding and family bedding on which pets lie in hot, soapy water every two to three weeks. If an infestation is severe, discard old pet bedding and replace it with fresh, clean material.
- Use a flea comb to suppress adult fleas. Hair can pass through the comb’s teeth, but not the fleas, removing fleas as well as flea feces and dried blood. Especially comb the neck and tail areas, which is where the most fleas congregate.
- Deposit fleas in hot soapy water to kill them.
- Consider allowing your pets to stay indoors as much as possible, which reduces their chance of being bitten by tick and fleas.
ALSO: Modify your landscape to create Tick Safe Zones.
2) Gut feelings: the future of psychiatry maybe inside your stomach
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Readers should appreciate this article from The Verge which describes the efforts of psychiatrist Dr. James Greenblatt, in the Boston area and how digestive health affects the mind. See here.
3) More on the gut! GI Biology, Pathology, and Treatment Strategies
Anju Usman, M.D, of Naperville, Illinois is well known in the autism community for her biological treatments of autism. The AutismOne organization has offered her slide presentation in PDF form on the topic of gut biology and pathology, and treatment strategies to address problems. It is loaded with helpful information. (Give PDF time to open, and be prepared to zoom in to read the details on the slides.) See here.
4) Taking Time to Pick the Right Teas
We like to think of tea as a perfect beverage to calm us down, perk us up, or give us some important antioxidants. It’s always best to go with organic teas. But we are learning that beyond that, the tea bags themselves can be toxic. This is a great article that gives you lots of options for toxin-free bagged teas. See here.
5) Natural Simmering Air Fresheners
Simmer select ingredients in a small pot of water gives your home a fresh fragrance when opening the windows isn’t enough. Use natural extracts for best results. Get creative, these are just some examples. We recommend setting a timer so you don’t forget about the stove. Store cooled liquid in the fridge for using another time.
• Vanilla extract, sliced lemon, rosemary sprigs
• Apple peels, sliced orange, cinnamon sticks, whole cloves
• Sliced orange, almond extract, cranberries
• Sliced limes, vanilla extract, peppermint extract
• Sliced fresh ginger, almond extract, cinnamon, cardamom
• Sliced orange, almond extract, cinnamon, anise
• Sliced lime, vanilla extract, peppermint extract
• Sliced lime, coconut extract
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