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Anti-bacterial

Lemon to clean, detox & focus

September 28, 2020 By Sue

Lemon Water & Lemon Oil 

The History Lemons

Lemons originated in the North West region of India over 2,500 years ago. Drinking lemon water is a morning ritual rooted in the ancient science of Ayurveda which used lemon water to help loosen “ama”, or toxins, and to stimulate digestion.

The Ancient Greeks used lemons to preserve food and purify water. 

Lemons were then later introduced into Spain, then North Africa, then later to wider Europe, and then, in 1493, brought by Christopher Columbus in seed form to the Americas.

Probably most famously, in 1747 Scottish physician James Lind used lemons and lemon water to treat scurvy amongst sailors suffering from Vitamin C deficiency (even though Vitamin C was not the known cause at the time).

One of the best things you can do is drink lemon juice and water, and it’s far easier than making that celery juice.

It might just be the simplest, cheapest, and fastest morning ritual you can do for your long-term health (and waistline). Both Lemon or Lime Water both offer powerful benefits of drinking first thing in the morning.

Lemon Water

Is a gentle yet effective way to support and detox your liver, kidneys, and colon, and help to alkalise your body. It assists in breaking up mucus and provides energy via enzymes, vitamin C, potassium, and trace minerals.  Use fresh, ripe lemons, not prepared lemon juice. Make lemon water simply by squeezing the juice of ½ a lemon into a glass of water.

Flush Out Toxins & Stimulate Your Liver

While you’re sleeping your liver is collecting toxins for release the next day. Drinking lemon water in the morning helps to support the liver function and to flush out toxins whilst also giving the liver the hydration it needs to operate more efficiently. Two birds, one stone.

Animal studies show citric acid (Vitamin C) helps to protect liver function and prevent oxidative damage helping to support your liver’s role in detoxification.

Lemons (and limes) contain micro mineral salts which help protect your liver’s immune system.

Drinking lemon juice and water helps to loosen and disperse the fat cells within the liver because of the special combination of vitamin C and calcium present in lemons and limes, which bind together and enter into the liver.

For Glowing Skin & Anti-Aging

Lemons contain the antioxidant Vitamin C, that helps reduce free radical damage for fresh looking skin and slowing down the aging process. Vitamin C, helps the body to produce collagen, essential to smoothing out fine lines on the face.

In the, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition research suggests that regularly consuming vitamin C leads to younger looking skin with fewer wrinkles. 

Helps To Hydrate, Alkalise & Balance Your PH

Adding freshly squeezed lemon juice to water, helps water to travel more deeply into your tissues and cells and carry the essential nutrients and compounds you need in order to thrive.

According to the acid / alkaline theory of health, our modern diet contains too many acid-forming foods (sugar, dairy, meat, refined carbohydrates, chemical additives etc..) and not enough alkaline forming foods (greens, vegetables, low sugar fruits, etc..) which can result in a net ‘acid’ environment in the blood.

When examined under a microscope, the cells of an acidic blood sample are said to be thick, sticky, and do not operate with efficiency. They don’t carry oxygen as well, they lose some of their electric charge, and appear to become less efficient at eliminating waste and taking on nutrients. This may lead to depleted immunity and increased illness or disease.

Research is starting to show how an alkaline diet may be beneficial for relieving chronic pain, boosting bone health, and protecting against disease and how an alkaline diet could enhance cancer treatment effectiveness. 

The solution? Eat more alkaline foods (and relax more). Turns out that lemon water, although considered acidic, actually has an alkalising effect on the body, helping to balance your body’s pH and optimise overall health.

Drinking lemon juice in water can break down the enamel on your teeth over time. This is easy to overcome, however, by simply drinking a small amount of fresh water after your lemon water or by using a straw.

Why use Lemon essential oil?

Lemon essential oil contains “d-limonene”, key to lemon essential oil’s healing power, extracted from the lemon rind and the richest sources of d-limonene, this is found in all of the citrus essential oils.

?? Lemon ?? essential oil is a widely used and known for its cleansing attributes. Limonene and b-pinene are two main components that give this volatile oil its cleansing properties.


Study’s show that it supports immunity.

This is one essential oil that I use every single day. It’s a powerful detoxification oil that I add to my water throughout the day. 

This super versatile oil also boost immunity and supports digestive function. This one oil is considered a Swiss-Army-knife oil and can boost your health in many different ways:-

Here Are the Top Benefits for Lemon Essential Oil:

  • Supports digestive function, reverses liver and pancreas damage
  • Boosts immunity and cleanses the body
  • Improves mood, decrease anxiety, promote restful sleep
  • Contains powerful antioxidant properties for weight loss
  • Offers non-toxic green cleaning abilities
  • Acts as a food preservative

To give you something you can use TODAY, here’s are of some the most practical recipes for lemon oil...

CAUTIONARY NOTE: Do Not Ingest Just Any Essential Oils UNLESS they are PURE and approved for internal use.

Apple Cider Vinegar Tea DIY Recipe - Supports Weight Loss

Promotes healthy digestion, boosts immunity, helps detoxify your body, enhances energy

Ingredients: 

  • 10oz Hot Water
  • 1/2 Tbl honey (preferably local)
  • 1/2 Tbl Organic Apple Cider vinegar
  • 1 drop doTerra Slim & sassy essential oil 
  • 1 drop doTerra Lemon essential oil 
  • Fresh grated ginger

Mix all together and enjoy hot or cold. It also tastes great without the ginger if preferred.

Helps To Boost Your Mood in your diffuser 

Move over coffee… or have it after your lemon water! the scent alone of a lemon (we’ve all seen the rind emit a soothing lemon-scented mist when squeezed) has been shown to improve mood and reduce stress.

Lemon essential oil has the same effects! A single drop smells like an entire sliced Lemon, and if you put from 6 to 10 drops in your diffuser, it can fill the air in your kitchen with that bright, inspiring aroma. 

The negative emotions that lemon support the mental & emotional fields of adults and kids alike.


Move From feeling:
Confused to....       clarity
Unfocused to....    focused
Guilty to .....             happy 
Disengaged to.  energised

Diffuse or breathe in, apply to wrists or temples, take 1-2 drops under the tongue, in a capsule or in water.

For Seasonal Discomfort

By combining Lemon, Lavender, and Peppermint essential oils, you can ease the suffering from seasonla disordes and discomfort.

doTerra LEMON essential oil naturally clears the nasal passages and rids your body of unwanted toxins. 

doTerra LAVENDER essential oil works as a powerful, natural antihistamine to relieve itch and swelling from environmental irritants while calming and soothing your mind and body. Win-win!

doTerra PEPPERMINT essential oil opens up airways, allowing you to breathe more freely and clearly while giving you a boost of natural energy without relying on caffeine. (Spearmint essential oil can be easily subbed in for kiddos under age 11 who may not do well with the high menthol content in Peppermint

Here’s a quick recipe that’s age specific (for safety!) to get you started:

 THE Seasonal Discomfort Essential  Blend Recipe
10 mL rollerball bottle

1-5 Years Old
 (2% Dilution)

  • 2 drops Lavender
  • 1 drop Lemon
  • 1 drop Spearmint
  • Fractionated coconut oil (FCO)

6-11 Years Old (5% Dilution)

  • 5 drops Lavender
  • 3 drops Lemon
  • 2 drops Spearmint
  • FCO

 12-17 Years Old (10% Dilution)

  • 7 drops Lavender
  • 7 drops Lemon
  • 6 drops Peppermint
  • FCO

For adults, a 50:50 ratio of oils or stronger to carrier can be used.

Directions: Add essential oils to rollerball bottle and top off blend with a carrier oil of choice (fractionated coconut oil is recommended). Roll the blend behind the ears and on the back of your neck; also try on the bottoms of the feet and up and down the back. 

WHY WASH YOUR FRUIT & VEG

We’ve all had to become far more conscious around removing pesticides, 'germs' and bacteria, including from the fruit and veg we’re consuming. 

Another very good reason to wash your fresh food thoroughly is to remove any pesticide residue. Simply rinsing your produce with water, will remove dirt - but it’s not going to remove oil-based pesticides.

Pesticides, if consumed play a huge role in hormone disruption, cause gut issues and weight gain (think obesogens).

If you can eat organic is optimal, if it's not  available I recommend soaking your fresh food.


Citrus oil's like lemon remove pesticides due to the monoterpenes, specifically d-limonene, which has the ability to dissolve petroleum oils among other things. Lemon and orange oils have particularly high concentrations of d-limonene.


You can either make a spray or soak you veg in water. Whatever works for you!

Food will stay fresh for longer, strawberries, raspberries, black & blueberries keep far longer in my fridge, where normally they’d waste in 2-3 days.

 Often these soft fruits go off quite quickly due to the growth of mild spores. True story!!

FRESHEN & CLEAN YOUR KITCHEN

Lemon is one of the most commonly used fragrances in store-bought cleaning products because it smells clean. Real lemon oil neutralises odours and removes the cause. 

Did you know that lemon essential oil is also anti-sticky? Use Lemon oil to get tape or sticker residue off of anything,

Lemon will also cuts grease, freshens laundry, disinfects and polishes silver.

Lemon essential oil to clean your kitchen surfaces, sponges & your cutting boards.

Cutting boards can hold onto a lot of unwelcome germs. Wash your cutting board in hot, soapy water.

Put 2 drops of Lemon essential oil directly onto the surface and use a paper towel to rub it all over. You can also your Lemon Sponge Spray on your cutting board. 

You can just put two or three drops of Lemon essential oil on your kitchen sponge and let it sit. That’s it! This is great to do overnight. Or make a sponge spray.

Lemon Sponge Spray

  • 30 ml water
  • 18 drops Lemon essential oil 

Shake before using, to disperse the Lemon essential oil in the water. Every time you’re finished using your kitchen sponge, give it a few sprays.

(Lemon essential oil may lighten the colour of some wooden or bamboo cutting boards)



ARE YOU READY TO RECLAIM YOUR HEALTH WITH ESSENTIAL OILS?

Imagine if you were able to take care of your entire family in your own home, with natural solutions that worked effectively.

With essential oils, YOU can! If you'd like to explore ways to make natural lifestyle choices using essential oils for your whole family's well-being and improved mental, physical and emotional health, then you're in the right place.

A free guide will show you how to incorporate essential oils into your life and around your home for cleaning, cooking and self-care.


SIGN UP HERE

To order doTerra oils you can email me at [email protected]

Filed Under: blog Tagged With: alkalising, allergy relief, anti-ageing, Anti-bacterial, cleanse, detox, Digestion, essential oil, glowing skin, immune system, lemon, natural cleaning, sinusitis, vitamin C, weightloss

What the heck is Candida & how to know if you have it

December 15, 2018 By admin

If you have any of these symptoms, you may have candida:-

  • A white coating on the tongue is typical.
  • You are sensitive to many foods 
  • You carry stubborn weight, no matter what you do 
  • You experience brain fog
  • You have ongoing tummy bloating
  • You are struggling with autoimmunity 
  • Your hormones are still wonky in spite of doing many good things 
  • You crave something sweetor anything with carbs 
  • You have itchy ears, rectum or vagina
  • You struggle with intestinal distress such as constipation, bloating, or gas
  • You have mental/emotional aspects including depression and anxiety
  • You have debilitating fatigue or exhaustion
  • You have chronic sinus infections
  • Recurring vaginal yeast infections
  • Hypothyroidism (Candida inhibits thyroid conversion)


What exactly is Candida?

Candida albicans is an opportunistic fungus or yeast, meaning that it will grow out of balance in the right conditions. We all have it in our bodies, and most of the time it’s harmless. When it overgrows, it causes major problems and symptoms.

It's a very common condition and if you suffer from digestive issues, fatigue, brain fog, recurring fungal infections, skin problems, mood swings, and more, it could be due to a Candida overgrowth.

You can beat your Candida and have your energy and vitality return, mental clarity restored, and chronic symptoms fade away.

For some women, clearing Candida is as easy as abstaining from sugar and processed carbs for 6 to 8 weeks. For others, it can take a well orchestrated effort involving a lot more.

Bottom line: Candida can be an infection that needs to be cleared for good, so you can move forward with your health. 


What Causes Candida?

It could be any one from the list below, or a combination of them that reduces your good gut flora, thins your gut lining, compromises your immunity and allows candida to take over.

If you've had it for a while, it can also start start to play havoc on your hormonal and immune health.

The main causes are:

  • You have a diet high in sugar & refined carbohydrates and alcohol. These break down to glucose, which is candida's preferred food source to allow it to proliferate and begin to take over your intestinal tract.

  • You may have chronic stress - this suppresses your immune system and signals your body to release stored glucose into the bloodstream, which the candida loves!

  • You've been on antibiotics or birth control pills, or the antibiotics in your meat supply.

    These can destroy the friendly, good bacteria in your gut that play a huge role in your immune system. With your good bacteria destroyed, the fast growing yeasts take over and can grow unchecked. Antibiotics - even just one full-spectrum round can cause it.

    Antibiotics kill bacteria—both the good and the bad. So whenever antibiotics are used, you need to repopulate the intestinal flora with good bacteria (probiotics). 

    Antibiotics can also thin your mucosal lining, leaving you ill-equipped to wrap up pathogens such as parasites and transport them out of the body. This can make us vulnerable to all kinds of foreign invaders and yeast overgrowth. 

  • Your immune system is weakened - if you have an existing inflammatory or autoimmune condition, your weakened immune system gives the yeasts more opportunity  to reproduce.

If Candida penetrates your gut lining so that it becomes leaky, it then opens the floodgates for undigested food particles, toxins, viruses, and bacteria to pass through your intestinal wall and into your bloodstream. This then triggers an inflammatory response from your immune system in an attempt to fight off these foreign “invaders”. 


How to Test for Candida?

There are stool, blood and urine lab tests you can do for Candida overgrowth.

Stool Testing
This is one most accurate test available. This will check for Candida in your colon or lower intestines.

You need to ensure that you do a comprehensive stool test rather than the standard doctors stool test. The lab can usually determine the species of yeast as well as which treatment will be effective.

Urine Organix Dysbiosis Test
Can detect elevated D-Arabinitol, a waste product of Candida overgrowth, and determine if there is Candida in your upper gut or small intestines.

However, many people can't afford to run labs and many don’t want to go through the hassle of testing.

When that is the case, there is a fast, easy, free DIY Candida spit test you can do at home (it was also featured on The Dr. Oz Show).
For six days in a row, when you wake up in the morning, fill a glass halfway with room-temperature water (before you brush your teeth or eat or drink anything).

It’s as simple as this:
Next, work up about a teaspoon amount of saliva and spit it into the glass. Check it three times over the course of forty-five minutes to see if your saliva sinks to the bottom, stays floating on top, or if it grows legs, little spindly tails that reach down the glass.

If it sinks or grows legs, then you can suspect that yeast is overgrowing in your system. Don’t be freaked out, it happens to so many of us these days, and there is a way to cleanse from it permanently.


How do you deal with your Candida overgrowth?

In a perfect world, your good bacteria would keep the Candida in check and it wouldn’t be a problem, however we are doing so many things daily to kill our good gut bacteria.

Effectively treating your Candida involves stopping the overgrowth, restoring the friendly bacteria that usually keep them in check, and repairing your gut so that Candida can no longer enter your bloodstream.

You can accomplish this with a simple and proven four-wave attack as follows:

Part 1: First, you need to starve the Candida by removing the foods that feed it from your diet.

Eliminate all yeast, gluten, sugar, white flour, fermented foods and drinks, and most fruit. Complex carbohydrates such as gluten-free grains, legumes, and root vegetables are allowed, but should be limited. Focus on non-starchy vegetables, clean animal protein, and healthy fats including avocado, butter, and coconut oil for six to eight weeks.our text here...

Coconut oil - Take 1 tbsp of extra-virgin coconut oil daily and use in meals, where possible. Coconut oil exhibits both antimicrobial and antifungal properties and has demonstrated to be effective in the treatment of fungal infections including Candida.

Alkalise with greens - Get your daily greens by adding 1 cup of dark, leafy greens like spinach or kale to every meal or have a vegetable juice twice daily - 4 celery stalks, 1 cucumber, 1 cup spinach or kale, 1 inch ginger, 1 lemon and ½ an apple.

Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) - Take 2 teaspoons in a small amount of water twice daily. ACV has anti-fungal properties which can kill yeasts and prevent yeasts from reproducing. 

  • Part 2:  Attack the Candida by using herbs, oils & supplements that can help remove Candida
    ​
    ​Use healing herbs & spices - Cook with garlic, turmeric, cinnamon, cloves, and oregano. These herbs exhibit antifungal properties that prevent the continued growth of Candida. Black walnut, olive leaf and golden seal are also helpful in combating candida.

    Vitamin C - Take 1,000 mg of a wholefood Vitamin C supplement twice daily. Vitamin C helps fight off the ‘die-off’ symptoms of Candida. This is when the yeast in the body releases toxins into the system as it gets killed off.   


superman oregano essential oil


Oregano oil -  has been used medicinally for centuries due to its potent antiviral, antibacterial & anti-inflammatory properties. Recent studies indicate its efficacy in overcoming Candida overgrowth

  • Part 3: You'll need repopulate your gut with good bacteria using a probiotic supplement to restore your gut’s healthy microbial balance. 

    Build your gut and intestinal tract using a glutamine-based product, to heal your gut lining.
  • Part 4: Manage Stress. You can take an epsom salt bath - Enjoy a warm bath with two cups of epsom salt daily. This reduces stress & draws toxins out through the skin. Add some lemongrass essential oil for its refreshing smell and therapeutic antifungal effect that has been shown to kill external candida 

You can’t possibly live to your fullest potential if you’re constantly hindered by how you handle stress, on-going digestive issues, tiredness, haywire hormones  yo-yo dieting, and not having enough energy to get all you need done. The list goes on….. sleepless nights.. 

By taking charge of your health you can take charge of how you feel and  how you LIVE.

My consultations and health programmes are not your typical diet program. Instead, we focuses on fueling your body with delicious, nutrient-dense foods that boost your metabolism and help you increase you energy levels and release excess weight – and keep it off.

I will coach you through a process that has worked for me and my clients.

If you’re interested in learning more about working with me, schedule a FREE 20 minute Health Strategy Session now – email me  [email protected]

Benefits of probiotics

Filed Under: blog Tagged With: Anti-bacterial, autoimmune, candida, digestive disorders, doterra, essential oil, Gut health, Herbs, immune system, leaky gut, oregano, oreganum, thrush

Pelargonium – Quickly Stops Coughs, Colds & Sore Throats

February 8, 2016 By admin

#Plant Medicine 101

Your nose is running, you can’t breathe, your throat is dry and scratchy – it happens to most of us and it’s especially hard when it effects your kids because there aren’t to many effective solutions.

woman-blowing-nose-400x400Pelargonium (Pelargonium sidoides) is gaining huge popularity in Germany because of it’s effectiveness against the symptoms associated with colds and flus, and it is the best researched herbal cold and cough remedy.  It helps to reduce the mucus of snotty noses and phlegm that makes it hard to breathe, improves a bad cough and any associated chest pain, and decreases congestion to help open the breathing passages.

I keep this herbal medicine in my Home Medicine Cabinet, along with some of my other favourites – including Echinacea vulgaris.

Pelargonium has long been used by the South African Zulu’s, it’s also known as the black geranium, “umckalwabo”,  roughly translated as ‘for heavy cough and chest problems’.

Back in 1897, the remedy was popularised in England as ‘Steven’s Consumption Cure’, having been brought back by an Englishman ‘cured’ of tuberculosis by a Zulu tribal healer. With the advent of anti-tubercular drugs, it went out of fashion until recently rediscovered by  researchers in Europe.

In the last few years Pelargonium has gone from being an obscure herbal remedy to become one of Germany’s most popular herbal medicines.

While most other cough, cold and sinus medicines tend to mask your outward symptoms, pelargonium shortens the duration and reduces the severity of your respiratory irritations and helps boost your body’s natural defence system.

Scientific research also shows it to have potent anti-bacterial, anti-fungal and immune-boosting properties.

Pelargomium Sidoides has been successfully used for treatment of:

  1. Respiratory infections like bronchitis, sinusitis, and pneumonia, tonsillitis.It is very effective for treating acute bronchitis as it Pelargonium sidoidesincreases your body’s natural healing rate. Studies have found that 40-60% of patients suffering from acute bronchitis fully resolve their symptoms within a week of Pelargonium sidoides supplementation.Some people reported experiencing benefits after just two to three days. People that are not cured after a week still experience benefits from Pelargonium sidoides supplementation, since it can treat the symptoms associated with bronchitis, including headache, fever, fatigue, cough, chest pain while coughing, sputum in the lungs, rhonchi, and nasal dripping. A 2008 report published in Phytomedicine. In their analysis of six clinical trials testing pelargonium’s efficacy as an acute bronchitis treatment, the report’s authors found that pelargonium significantly improved symptoms of acute bronchitis without causing any serious side effects.
  2. It is often used as an alternative to antibiotics – Pelargonium sidoides has anti-infective properties. It prevents bacteria from adhering to cells, helps fight viruses and stimulates the immune system to hunt down pathogenic invaders.
  3. Acute and chronic ear, nose and throat infections.
  4. Rapid improvement in the symptoms associated with colds and flu. Pelargonium may help relieve your common old cold. A  2007 study published in Explore revealed that pelargonium helped reduce the severity of cold symptoms, as well as shorten the duration of sickness.

The alcoholic extract of the root has been shown to have a three-way effect:

1.) Anti-bacterial: The herb extract prevents bacteria from attaching to cells in your mucous membranes. 

2.) Antiviral effect: It prevents viruses from attaching to your mucous membrane cells and stimulates your body’s immune system in such a way that both bacteria and viruses are prevented from multiplying. 

3.)Expectorant: the extract acts as an expectorant, allowing your body to expel contaminated mucous making conditions less suitable for the multiplication of the bacteria and viruses. 

The three-way effect stabilises the immune system, preventing a re-infection, shortens the recovery phase.

Due to its anti-bacterial and immune-modulating characteristics Pelargonium appears to be a good alternative to the conventional therapy of treating respiratory illnesses with antibiotics.

 

                 

Whether you’re considering using herbs for colds, flu, and boosting your immune system it’s best to see a qualified Herbalist. 

A Herbalist will formulate a personalised treatment plan to suit each person depending on their needs, with the correct dosage and combination of herbs.

If you don’t want to miss any future newsletters or blogs please sign up HERE  in the sign-up box. 

(Please note: The information in this article is general information and not a substitute for medical care. As always, consult your own physician should you have any concerns.)

Filed Under: blog Tagged With: Anti-bacterial, Anti-viral, Bronchitis, Colds, Cough, Flu, Herbal First Aid, Herbs, immune system, Natural Medicine, Plant medicine, Plant Medicine 101

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