Times of illness do not a conservationist make: It is pretty much just scrapping for whatever will provide relief, whether that is three-times-a-day deliveries of tom yum gai or a medicine cabinet stuffed with decongestants.

I’m actually just recovering from a two-week bought with bronchitis. I feel quite guilty about this; yesterday, I stood in the tissue aisle of the drugstore for a full 10 minutes, debating whether my nose was worth the destruction of so many old-growth forests.

In this case, sadly, I must admit: I decided that it was. Had I felt like my normal and healthy, eco-crusader self, I would have made the schlep to the supermarket that I know stocks sustainable boxes of 100% recycled, chlorine-free Seventh Generation tissue.

With a bit of knowledge, even the most pathetic of cold-sufferers can lessen the damage of their feverish footprint. Here are some ideas:

Washable tissues are an elegant, eco-friendly option. In the privacy of your home, who cares if you look like a granny when you’re blowing your nose in an old-timey tissue? You’ll find that they’re also a nice alternative to recycled facial tissues, which feel like sandpaper.

It’s not fun or easy to cook when you’re sick, but a week’s worth of wonton soup delivery can add up to a pile of trash, definitely due to all of that unnecessary packaging (who needs 10 packets of soy sauce anyway?). Just cook up a giant pot of soup that’s full of organic veggies.

With the threat of H1N1 this flu season, it seems like everyone’s going crazy with the hand sanitizer. Though many conventional sanitizers contain harmful chemicals like phthalates, and can actually promote the growth of antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria if they contain the antimicrobial triclosan, a suspected endocrine disruptor. Bottom line? To prevent your illness from infecting others, nothing is as safe and effective as washing your hands with soap and water.

Don’t pressure your doc into prescribing an antibiotic for your runny nose. The common cold and flu are viral illnesses, and while it’s not fun to wait it out for a week while your cough dies off, a dose of amoxicillin will not make you healthier. In fact, it could harm you, since every time you take an antibiotic when you don’t actually have a bacterial infection, you actually increase your risk of later developing a life-threatening superbug.

It’s very tempting to arm yourself with an arsenal of decongestants and sleeping aids, but most of these medications come with a whole slew of side effects — and actually do nothing to lessen the duration of your illness. They also will pollute our soil and groundwater with chemicals once they’re thrown in the trash. Interestingly, some of the best remedies are also the most eco-friendly: a salt water gargle to soothe a sore throat and hot lemon water with honey to calm a cough.

First of all, they just about always contain little to no vitamins or other essential nutrients known in a healthy diet. And the caffeine, carbonation, simple sugars, sugar substitutes and other additives and preservatives which they do contain, can in fact do damage to one’s health.

In fact, tooth decay, heart disease, type-2 diabetes, nutritional depletion and obesity in young children is often caused by an unhealthy diet, consisting of a soft drink overdose.

Also, if you were thinking that diet or sugar-free soda is a better health choice, think again. While the sugar overdose risk is cut in half with diet drinks, the sugar substitutes used in them is equally unhealthy. For instance, saccharin has been found to be a carcinogenic.

Aspartame, or nutrasweet, tricks the brain into thinking that it is sweet. It breaks down into acpartic acid, or phenylalanine and methanol at 86 degrees. This is bad because your tummy is usually about 98 degrees.

Breaking it down:
Sugar: The USDA recommendation for sugar consumption is about 2,000 calories per day. Most soft drinks contain more than this.

Dr Mao says:

“When you drink sodas that are packed with simple sugars, the pancreas is called upon to produce and release insulin, a hormone that empties the sugar in your blood stream into all the tissues and cells for usage. The result of overindulging in simple sugar is raised insulin levels. Raised blood insulin levels beyond the norm can lead to depression of the immune system, which in turn weakens your ability to fight disease.”

Too much sugar also results in weight gain and increases the risk of heart disease and cancer.

Carbonation:
Carbonated beverages contain phosphoric acid, which depletes the blood calcium level. This is bad for the bones and can eventually cause osteoporosis.
As for the risks incurred with overdosing on caffeine, well, you can probably make a nice educated guess.

However, I do still believe in Western medicine.The way I see it, the two fields are both legitimate precisely because they don’t really overlap all that much. Alternative medicine primarily has to do with health. Maintaining it, strengthening it, putting us in line with nature so our bodies, products of nature, can more easily and efficiently move through their environment.

Western medicine, on the other hand, has more to do with sickness. Meaning, when your body is way off center, you might need some sort of technological intervention to get you back. A U-turn, a sharp curve left, something that’s out of the ordinary, because if you stay on the nature path when you’ve got a serious problem, you cannot forget that nature also has the capacity to kill you. Sometimes, nature is actually our enemy, and we must circumvent it. Failure to recognize this truth can be deadly.

The reason I’m writing about this now is that a case was just reported out of Sydney where a middle-aged couple was convicted of manslaughter for not seeking medical help for their 9-month old daughter who died of severe eczema, (pictured here) a common skin ailment among babies that is easily treatable. My nephew even had it for a few weeks.

In this case, the eczema was left untreated for 5 months, and the baby, Gloria, died of infections from open wounds in her skin as a result of the rashes. They finally brought her in to hospital when an eye infection was literally melting her corneas, but by then it was too late. The reason they did not take her in is that the father, Thomas Sam, a college lecturer in homeopathy, resorted to homeopathic techniques instead.

Homeopathy is a theory of treatment based on the assumption that an extremely diluted mixture of a substance that would otherwise cause similar symptoms at higher doses in a patient can actually cure a patient of those symptoms. This is fine, even if a bit strange, because it can’t really hurt you. But relying on that to the exclusion of Western intervention can, indeed, kill you, as it did to this baby.

Recently, my wife was prescribed a series of homeopathic treatments, to which I raised my eyebrow, but was OK with because other forms of treatment were also included. I remember being opposed to the practice because I didn’t see any scientific merit in it, but thought that, on the off chance that there’s something scientific to it that we just haven’t discovered yet, I’d be willing to give it a shot. But not at any risk.

Back to the story at hand, Sam refused to take Gloria to a hospital even after her hair actually turned white from the disorder. By the time he finally did, it was too late.

“Gloria was subjected to significant pain over an extended period of time and the omission of the offenders to seek proper assistance for her may be characterized accurately as cruelty,” Johnson said. “Each offender fell profoundly short of their parental obligations to their infant daughter.”

Dr. Lee’s review was based on 40 different studies conducted which compared P-6 acupuncture and other acupoint stimuli, such as transcutaneous nerve stimulation and acupressure wristbands on the same part of the body. The review concluded that this acupoint stimulation reduced or eliminated the need for anti-nausea drugs.

P-6 acupoints are located on the underside of the forearm about 2 inches below the joint between the hand and the wrist. You can do a self-stimulation on this acupoint by relaxing your arm and then pressing your thumb between the tendons into the point until it feels quite tender. Hold it down firmly from 30 seconds to 2 minutes and then perform the same treatment on the other arm.

Hospitals and other medical facilities are welcoming these findings as an alternative to the use of antemetic or anti-nausea drugs (due to their increasingly high costs) and can be used before, during and after the surgery.

Mainland Chinese hospitals have been using this kind of treatment for years, often as the only means of alleviating these symptoms.

Acupuncture is now widely used in the treatment of a variety of disorders, including arthritis, fertility problems, migraine headaches, bed wetting, post traumatic stress disorder, breaking the smoking habit, and even sexual dysfunction.

Lee’s reviews of 40 studies covered 4,858 patients, most of them adults who had elective surgery performed under general anesthesia. In addition to findings on post-operative patients, it was found that acupressure wristbands, which stimulate the P-6 section of the wrist were similarly beneficial for reliving nausea in persons suffering form motion sickness and morning sickness during pregnancy.

Sources: NaturalNews.com & News-Medical.net

Marijuana contains a chemical called Tetrahydrocannabiol (THC) that is been found to be beneficial for cancer patients and AIDS patients suffering from severe depression. And scientists in Italy have found that another marijuana derivative, Cannabidiol has been found to inhibit the growth of cancer cells in animals. American medical drug control organizations, such as the Food and Drug Administration, have noted that the plants chemical components, especially cannabinoids, could possibly have some therapeutic effects on humans, and this applies to elderly patients suffering from conditions such as Alzheimers disease; as well as from people suffering from glaucoma by reducing inner optic pressure in the eyeball.

But by far, the main therapeutic benefit from marijuana is as an analgesic to treat various forms of pain. It has also been found to be very beneficial in treating muscle spasms caused by multiple sclerosis. A synthesized version of THC is currently being offered in a capsule drug called Dronabinol in many countries under special controlled prescription use.

Some countries, including Canada and the Netherlands are liberalizing their legislation and allowing more usage of marijuana among the general public. Other countries however, especially some in Asia, have very strict penalties for possession and especially the sale of marijuana and its derivatives. In countries like Thailand and Malaysia, these penalties can result in life imprisonment and even death.

While growing the plant at home at home is also illegal, the cannabis plant is basically very hardy and can be grown in a variety of climates ranging for tropical to near frigid.. It is expected that as more therapeutic uses for the plant are found, laws forbidding its usage will be liberalized to allow people suffering for aforesaid medical conditions to have more access to it.

The theory of acupuncture revolves around the idea that the body has a number of “pain points” and pathways that carry sensations of discomfort and pain from the body to the brain. By manipulating the inserted needles, a sensation of warmth is created that rids the feeling of pain and gives comfort to the affected area. Acupuncture is so relied on in countries like China that it is often administered to patients who are in pain or who are having surgery. The Chinese believe that there are 12 main pathways or meridians that can be tread by manipulation of the acupuncture needles at certain pressure points. These meridians or channels are know as yin and yang channels and they represent opposite forces that affect a person’s well being. Both the arms an legs have important acupuncture channels, but the major body organs, including the heart, lungs, liver, etc., have acupuncture points as well. The warmth and sensation created by the needles are said to be carried by these body channels to the brain.

By listening to the reactions of the patient to the insertion of the acupuncture needles, the practitioner can know whether or not they have been inserted correctly and whether or not the correct condition is being treated.

People suffering from cardio-vascular problems are said to receive much benefit from acupuncture as the revolving needles help to remove blockages in the blood vessels and reduce pain. An experienced acupuncture practitioner is trained to observe the various body signs or “inquiries” to indicate an illness or condition. These signs give the practitioner an indication as to where the insertion of the needles where do the most good. In traditional Chinese medicine, the use of acupuncture is considered to be an individualized treatment based on a person’s body signs. Together with other forms of treatment, acupuncture has proven to be successful treatment that is gaining in popularity all over the world.