Spring Equinox Rituals, Health Tips & Recipes
The vernal equinox, also called Ostara, is a time to invite equilibrium and renewal into the mind, body, and spirit. Day and night are equal length, and each day after is longer than the one before. After winter's coldness, scarcity, and stagnation, spring’s invigorating energy inspires us with brightening days, blossoming abundance, and uncontainable movement. Ostara also marks the beginning of the astrological new year, a prime opportunity to start new projects and patterns. New endeavors take root more easily during this time of fertility and blooming, making it ideal for adopting nourishing self care habits to fortify our health and resolve for productivity in the months ahead.
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How to Let Go of Things from the Past
It’s a question many of us ask ourselves each time we experience heartache or emotional pain: how do you let go of past hurts and move on?vHolding on to the past can be a conscious decision just like letting go and moving forward can be a conscious decision.
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5 Flower Remedies in Homeopathy
American poet Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote, “The earth laughs in flowers.” And if you stop to consider all the ways plant life has helped humanity, you’ll know that the earth heals through flowers, too. For homeopathy, flowers have long been the source of active ingredients providing indispensable relief for a wide range of ailments. Of the many in use, here we discuss five spring flowers commonly used as homeopathic remedies.
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Oxytocin — The Versatile "Love Hormone"
Maternity wards routinely use synthetic oxytocin to kick-start the birth process and keep it moving. That is the main reason why this hormone is so widely known. It is less well known that, after birth, naturally produced oxytocin triggers milk ejection during breastfeeding. It is also connected with orgasms in both sexes and bonding between individuals. These additional links have spawned many labels for this multitasking hormone: "bonding hormone", “herding hormone”, “cuddle hormone”, “love hormone” and even “hormone of happiness”. Because oxytocin significantly affects the brain as well as reproductive organs it’s been dubbed by some, “the great facilitator of life”.
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Tension Headaches: Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Tension headaches are quite common and, unfortunately, they're also among the most neglected and difficult headaches to treat. With a tension headache, the pain often starts at the back of your head and moves forward, so that it eventually includes your neck, scalp, and head. It's often described as feeling like you have a tight band across your head. It may be caused by staying in one position for a long time, such as in reading, using a computer, or playing video games. It may also be caused by stress, but sometimes there is no obvious cause. In this article we discuss their causes, symptoms, and treatments.
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Natural Approaches to Hormonal Balance
The problem of hormonal imbalance is often oversimplified in many conventional doctors’ offices. This lack of support leaves women with one-size-fits-all solutions that don’t get to the root of their symptoms or offer lasting results. Our bodies are already equipped with the natural potential to maintain hormonal balance for life. They just need to receive the right support so they can carry out this task on an ongoing basis.
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Mugwort: It's Benefits, Side Effects, and How to Use It
Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris) is a flowering plant native to northern Europe, Asia, and parts of North America. This sage-colored plant has seen continuous use in many cultures throughout the world as a medicinal, spiritual, and culinary ingredient since at least the Iron Age. In contemporary culture mugwort is commonly found in foods and drinks, and remains a common ingredient in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean traditional medicine, where the leaves are used directly as a food or to obtain oil extracts or tinctures. The roots, leaves, stems, and blossoms of the mugwort plant are all used in folk medicine to make tinctures, extracts, tonics, teas, powders, and essential oils. This article describes medical uses, possible side effects, and how to select and safely use mugwort.
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Spring is Coming - It's Liver Detox Time
We have all heard about using hormones or herbs to address our hormonal imbalances. But there is not much talk about the liver. Let’s understand the organ that does more than just detoxing. The liver is the second largest organ of the body. Your liver performs about 200 vital functions, most of which are vital for good health. Blood filtration, protein synthesis, excretion of bilirubin, hormones, cholesterol, drugs, and production of bile are just some of the important functions that the liver performs.
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How Milk Thistle's Antioxidant Actions Help Protect The Liver From Toxins
Prickly yet pretty, milk thistle is a plant with a long, thin stem, spiny leaves, and a purplish-pink thistle at the top. Often considered a weed, it has been used for hundreds of years as a natural, herbal way to treat liver and gallbladder diseases. But is it really good for you, and can it really help your liver?
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10 New Year's Resolutions for Stress Relief
Around the first of the year, most of us begin turning our attention to ways we can improve our lives. While resolutions often center on developing new habits that will get us into better physical shape—Eating healthfully and getting exercise generally top most people’s lists of goals for the new year— reducing stress and getting into better mental and emotional shape can provide huge rewards. This year, consider incorporating new habits that will reduce stress and increase happiness and overall life satisfaction. Here are some important steps you can take to be a happier, healthier, and more relaxed you in the new year.
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The Blood Type Diet - Foods to Eat and Avoid Based on Your Blood Type
Your blood type matters in ways that might surprise you: It's tied to your risk of heart disease, how much you get bit by mosquitoes and more. There's even a diet based on blood type, which proposes that people with type O blood should focus on eating different foods than, say, those with type A or B. For example, people with blood type A are advised to avoid eating red meat, and those with type O are advised to do the opposite. The general thrust of the diet is that there are optimal foods for people with various blood types O, A, B and AB. Part of the claim hinges on the idea that blood types serve as maps of our ancestral history and genetics, and that the foods commonly eaten by our ancestors are better suited for our bodies, even in the modern day.
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Vitamin & Mineral Supplements: What are They & Who Needs Them?
Vitamins and minerals are essential nutrients because they perform hundreds of roles in the body. There is a fine line between getting enough of these nutrients (which is healthy) and getting too much (which can end up harming you). Eating a healthy diet remains the best way to get sufficient amounts of the vitamins and minerals you need.
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Naturopathy In Wintertime
As we move into winter and flu season emerges now is the time to up your self-care for an improved immune system. Consider it your superpower. While we're all genetically and immunologically different, some of us are more resilient to infections than others. When you apply self-care, the benefits are universal. It's clearly preferable to act in advance while it’s still early, thus avoiding unnecessary colds and flus.
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Homeopathy: A Survival Tool for the Holidays
The holiday season is upon us, it can hold promise and potential, often unrealized, which can result in disappointment, anger, sadness or depression. Whether they are filled with happy celebrations with wonderful friends, family and food – or the realization that the magic has not happened for yet another year – homeopathic remedies can help ease and support you into and out of the season more gracefully.
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Homeopathic Remedies for Insomnia
We all need different amounts of sleep to feel refreshed. At different times in our lives we may need more or less sleep. Ask anyone about their sleep and you will learn we all experience sleep problems at some point in our lives. It is one of the first things which may be impacted by changes in our health and environment. The effects of lack of sleep can be felt very quickly. Thankfully, homeopathic remedies can help you re-establish a good sleep pattern, naturally and gently.
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5 Hormone-Balancing Foods for Women
Hormone balance is an essential part of wellbeing, especially for women. Our hormones fluctuate a great deal throughout the month, and throughout our lives — your hormones are quite different in your thirties and forties than they were in your twenties. To help get your hormones back in check, hormone balancing foods can help.
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Collagen Peptides & Joint Health
According to a review in the journal, Amino Acids, collagen peptide supplementation (COL) in conjunction with exercise, has been shown to help support healthy joint functionality for people with degenerative bone and joint problems. Collagen peptides are a critical element of extracellular connective tissue, making up one-third of the total proteins in the human body. COL, alongside exercise, can have some stimulatory effects on the extracellular matrix of connective tissues, improving their structure and load-bearing capabilities.
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Homeopathic Remedies for Sore Throat
Homeopathic remedies are often effective in treating the acute symptoms of a sore throat, though professional constitutional care is usually necessary to cure chronically recurring sore throats. Children with much pain from a sore throat or those who have difficulty opening their mouth or swallowing should receive a culture to determine if they have strep.
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The Naturopathic Approach to Treating Autoimmune Disease
Autoimmune disease is defined as an immune reaction against one’s own tissues. A robust immune system needs to fight foreign invaders but not harm ourselves in the process. A large proportion of the U.S. population are diagnosed with these conditions. We now know more than ever about autoimmune disease and all the contributing factors. A naturopath can take the time to identify all the factors and help you deal with your condition from a holistic perspective.
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Epigenetics and Child Development: How Children’s Experiences Affect Their Genes
New scientific research shows that environmental influences can actually affect whether and how genes are expressed. In fact, scientists have discovered that early experiences can determine how genes are turned on and off and even whether some are expressed at all. Thus, the old ideas that genes are “set in stone” or that they alone determine development have been disproven. Nature vs. Nurture is no longer a debate—it’s nearly always both!
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