80. How We're Staying Healthy This Winter

Natural health remedies seem to share a certain distinction when it comes to health care.  While that may be the case, we’ve found many different herbs and essential oils to be a key component of maintaining good health.  On today’s episode, I explore the different tactics that I’m utilizing with my family.  This involves everything, including simple habits like getting more sleep and eating less sugar to how to maintain proper gut health.  You’ll also get my opinion on the ever important hand-sanitizer debate.  If you’re seeking some extra things you can do to help maintain the health of you and your family, you’ve come to the right place. 

LINKS:
My Essential Oil Ebook: https://bit.ly/39m3Sn4
LivOn Lipo-Spheric Vitamin C: https://amzn.to/2GWjlxS
The Digestive Ezymes I Use: https://bit.ly/39rYMpx
The Probiotic I Use: https://bit.ly/2UIvgHM
On Guard Products: https://bit.ly/37lCuEw

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to the old fashioned on purpose podcast every single year. I think. Holy moly, this is the worst flu season ever. And then the following year seems to top it every single time. But the junk that is floating around right now is UNreal and all of the fear mongering news reports are definitely not helping. But anyway, since this is such a hot topic right now, I wanted to share with you a few of the natural things that we're doing as a family to stay healthy over the next few months. I'm your host Jill Winger, and this is the podcast for people who are disenchanted with conformity. If you like to swim upstream while you watch the societal herd ride the river of least resistance, or you're drawn to growing and shepherding and producing, meeting and crafting rather than consuming well, you're in the right place. This is the podcast for people who are old fashioned on purpose and true and choose to truly live, not merely exist. If you're a trailblazer, a Maverick, a homesteader, modern pioneer or backyard farmer, you have found your tribe. Okay. So before we dive into this topic, I feel the need to give a quick disclaimer of sorts. It can be extremely tricky to talk about natural health options online these days and it's getting worse. Some of you, as some of you know, I have been sharing essential oil remedies since 2012 like a million years ago. And back then it was kind of the wild, wild West of the internet and you could say anything you wanted. Now what happened is that people started to say ridiculous things like, if you remember a couple of years ago when Ebola was a concern, a whole bunch of people started to say all of these different oils and herbs would cure Ebola. Now when you say stuff like that, you tend to get the attention of the good old FDA. So that prompted this microscope focus on any sort of claim being made around like a health claim being made around a natural remedy. And it was really highly focused on essential oils for awhile. And now all of the regulatory agencies are starting to look at different, all these other modalities and all these other options. So all that to say, if I seem to be vague in some of the things I'm saying today, I want you to understand that it's just so I don't get a letter that I have to remove this podcast episode. Okay. It doesn't mean that just because I'm being vague that the different remedies and options I'm explaining today aren't going to actually help a real issue and a real problem. They will, I just can't say it in a black and white way, which is definitely, definitely frustrating. But it is the nature of the internet and just public information sharing at this point in time, we're even seeing, the big social media, conglomerates like Facebook and Pinterest and even Google starting to penalize people who are talking about natural health and natural remedies. They're taking the websites off of the top pages in Google. Facebook is censoring. Pinterest is censoring. So it's kind of a yucky time to be trying to share Natural remedies. So I'm going to do this in a way that is as legal as possible. But if you have more specific questions, feel free to email me if you'd like. I do want to say also kinda that going along with that, none of the things I'm going to talk about today are a cure for anything, flu or otherwise, right? What these things do, and this is really important for you to understand and just learning how these things work and how your body works is these sort of natural remedies strengthen your body. So then it can fight whatever it needs to fight on its own. These things themselves are in there fighting the bugs in your body. They're actually just making your body stronger and able to defend itself more thoroughly. And then it does the work. It does the heavy lifting. So I think that's a really important distinction because we're so used to pharmaceutical land where we're like, this drug is a cure for this and this drug is the cure for that. And that's not how, at least the things I'm talking about today, that's not how they work. But they still work in their own right. Just by helping your body perform at its very best. Okay. So let's dive in. These are some of the things that myself and my family are doing on a pretty much a daily basis right now to ward off potentially any of the junk. That's my FDA friendly word, uh, that's floating around right now in Epic proportions. All right. First off, I've got to start with the boring ones, but these are really a big deal man. Like I know they're not glamorous and sparkly and the next big thing, but they are the core. They are the foundation and they matter. So I've got to say, I'm sorry. Sleep. Sleep is important. It's really important. And I think we all know this, right? As soon as, oftentimes, as soon as we get rundown on sleep, we get sick. It's just our body cannot fight off what it is. You know, the immune system is weak. It can't fight off the bugs. The sleep keeps us operating at an optimal level. So this time of year, I'm really particular about getting a full night's sleep. I'm putting the kids in bed early or at just a reasonable time and, and taking naps if we need to on Sundays. But sleep is important. And I want to point out that even if you are doing all of the things, all of the herbs and the oils and the remedies, but you are not taking care of your body with sleep, it really won't do you much good. It is the foundation. Another piece of that is what you're eating. Again, I mean I get tired of hearing this, probably just like you because I'm like, everybody says this, blah, blah blah. But it really is true. We get the building blocks for our body from what we eat. So the healthy foods matter, the nourishing foods matter, the fruits and vegetables and the bone broths and all of those healthy whole foods do matter. And this is the one I don't like reducing sugar. I have a sweet tooth and I do eat sweets. I will confess right now I am not a purist against sweets, but um, when I know my body is fighting something or I need to keep my immune system strong, I can literally feel the difference. If I'm eating a bunch of sugar, I can feel it knocking my defenses down, I just don't feel as good. I've even had instances where I felt like I was coming down with something, got this scratchy throat, the goopy nose. It was just kind of starting to take hold and I could feel my body fighting it off for awhile until, you know, I did something stupid like drink a Coke or go have cake at a party and then boom, the next morning I wake up and the sore throat is there, the runny nose is there. So sugar, it really will make a difference if you can just keep that reduced while you're trying to keep your immune system boosted up. Okay. So those are my, my two little preachy points, the non non-glamorous ones. Okay. Now, we can get into this stuff thats a little more, I want to say, I think it's interesting if you're a health nerd like me, but okay, here's something that I have discovered the last couple of months and I'm kind of obsessed with it and I'm telling everybody I know so naturally I thought I should tell you as well. But I have been taking vitamin C, lots of it and not your typical vitamin C supplement, like the little pill you get at the Walmart over the counter vitamin Shop, not that kind. I've been taking something called lipophyllic vitamin C and I will post a Amazon link to the one I've been getting. I am not affiliated with that, this company, I don't work for them or anything, but I heard about it through a friend of a friend and I had been taking it solid ever since. Um, so here's scoop on lipophyllic vitamin C. when we take your typical like powder or you know, the little, the little regular pill vitamin C, a lot of that just passes through our body. Our body can't absorb a whole lot of it. And if we really upped the dose of those sorts of vitamin C, we get major tummy upset, like our, our digestive system doesn't love it. And so it's kind of an issue. But we know that vitamin C is really beneficial for boosting our body's immune function. So the way that we can work around this issue of most of it just being passed out of our body s waste, is this idea of lipophyllic vitamin C. So this company has taken vitamin C and wrapped it in lyposomes so it protects the vitamin and get, like when it goes through your digestive system, the vitamin is protected and it takes it into your bloodstream so your cells can absorb it more thoroughly. So you're getting a way higher concentration of vitamin C, you don't have the tummy upset and it can actually do some good in your body. So the company I've been getting it, there's a couple of different brands out there, but some of them I've heard are kind of being dishonest in their labeling and labeling it. Like it's, I think another word is liposomo or lipophyllic. Anyway, the label it like that, but it's not actually true. Lipophyllic vitamin C. So the company I've been using is Livon and I, like I said, I'll post the link, but it's in this weird, it's this weird little gel pack. It's not a pill. This little packet, it's like a gel. It looks like it's going to taste really good. It does not, it does not taste good. It's weird. It's not super bitter. It's just not a happy taste. So what I do is I will take just a swallow of water or kombucha or something that's a strong flavor and I'll put it in a cup and I will squirt the gel pack into the cup and just take it like a shot super fast and try not to let it touch your taste buds, which is easier said than done. But that's how I take it. It's pretty painless once you figure out your routine and I am extremely impressed with it, so I'm kinda screaming it from the rooftops. So there you have it. Okay. Along with the vitamin C. I really have been obsessed with gut health the last few months. Honestly, what started it was I got strep in October and then I ended up getting strep two more times after the initial strep in October. And I could not get it to go away. And yes, I did end up going to the doctor. Um, they put me on penicillin the first time and it did not cut it, so they had to go to a heavier antibiotic. And I know like, I don't love antibiotics. I, I know it's not good, but I didn't really have a choice. And so, ever since then I've been really focused on how can I make sure not only my gut can recover from the antibiotics, but also to keep it just bolstered because we know that our immunity begins in the gut and when we have our gastric system, our digestive system working like it should, it's pretty darn good at being a defense against any junk that may get into your body. So it's, it's less about, like I said earlier, it's not about taking something that's a cure all for the flu or a cold. It's, it's not about that. It's about what do we need to do to get our body working. Like it was designed to work. And so to focus on my gut, I have been taking every single day a really good probiotic and some digestive enzymes. Now both of these are doTERRA products. I will link to them in the show notes. There's other companies that offer them. But obviously probiotics put all the good bacteria in your gut and when you have the good bacteria, it helps to fight off the bad bacteria. That's kind of, I feel like a little more common knowledge. The digestive enzymes are something that I didn't use to really think about as much, but I've started to see how beneficial those can be because they're making sure you're getting all of the vitamin and minerals out of your food and just keeping your everything just working and digesting and operating the way it should. And so I take those every single day. I do notice a difference in just my digestive system when I am doing both of those things. I think it's really good and the more gut health the better, I say. There are a couple, a couple, there's a lot of articles I found a good one on Dr Oz's website about how digestive enzymes help our immune system. And honestly it's kind of beyond the scope of what I usually dispense here on the podcast. Cause I, I just don't like to do a ton of scientific research and try to regurgitate it to you and then mess it up. But if you want to Google like digestive enzyme, immune health, there's a lot of good info out there, in case you're curious. Okay. So we got our vitamin C, we've got our, Ooh, I forgot to tell you. I take one to two packets of that a day. If I'm struggling with a certain thing, I might up that to four packets a day. But then for maintenance I'm just down to one or two and benefit, it's actually really good for your skin and collagen production as well. So a little little side note there. All right, so vitamin C, we got the gut stuff with the probiotic and the digestive enzymes and then little extras that I've been doing. The doTERRA on guard soft gels I think pretty much knows about long guard, but in case you don't, it is a blend of five herbal oils. Let me see if I can rattle them off. Eucalyptus, Rosemary, clove, cinnamon, wild orange and they are all proven to help with immune function and I'll take one of those, one or two of those a day, especially if I feel like we're exposed to something particular and I will definitely take those or maybe even increase that. And another thing you can do though is elderberry syrup, which I honestly, I don't know why I haven't done a ton of elderberry syrup in my life. I've done different seasons where I've made it occasionally, but you could also make batches of that, there's tons of recipes online about elderberry syrup and take that on a daily basis. That can also help with immunity. Although I will say, I think my theory is that if you are trashing your body with bad food, bad sleep and your guts a mess, all of the OnGuard or all of the elderberry in the world is not going to do you much good. Right? And it's, it's hard because we want that quick fix. We're used to that quick fix with a lot of our pharmaceuticals and this is more of a long longterm game, right? It's so much better for you, but it's a little bit of a longer game to get that body where it needs to be. And then the last thing, that we've been doing really religiously is, let me preface this by saying I'm not a germaphobe, I don't even like hand sanitizer, like not a fan. Just give me soap and water. And honestly if I'm out like riding horses or playing in the barn, and someone brings a cookie out or we eat lunch on, on the trail or whatever. Like I'm not even that worried about my hands, like whatever. We won't die from a little bit of natural dirt. That being said, during this time of year when everyone is coughing and hacking, what I've been doing with myself and the kids is before we go into a public place, I have them put on, uh, we have this OnGuard same blend as the soft gels. This OnGuard hand sanitizers spray, we'll put it on before we go in and we'll continue to put it on while we're there. And the reason I do this in this weird way is I saw a study that showed when on guard, this is essential oil blend, It's all it is, is put on a surface like a countertop or whatever it continues, like if, if bacteria lands on that surface, let's say two or three hours after it's applied, it still will kill off that bacteria. So we know that it has that effect. So my conclusion would be, well, maybe if I put it on their hands ahead of time. Sure, some of it's just gonna get wiped off cause they're always touching her face and touching their clothes. But maybe if they get something that lands on their hands, it will help fight it off before it has a chance to get stuck stuff up their nose or rubbing eyes, cause children, that's how they roll. So anyway, I think that does help as well. So anyway, that's what we're doing. I'm not saying any of these are the magic bullet or any of them are foolproof. And honestly as soon as this publishes, we all could come down with the black plague and I could totally be eating my words. But, I think it definitely helps and we're doing the best we can and that's all we can do. So I hope that was helpful. There's a lot of information, especially about essential oils and I know a lot of you have questions about how you can add essential oils and things like them into your homesteading routine. So what I've done is I have a little ebook. It's free. That has all of my best essential oil tips, whether it's for DIY bug repellent or how to use oils in your garden or for your cows or your chickens, or your, y ou k now, medicine cabinet. And you can grab it for free over at theprairie homestead.com/essential-homestead-ebook. And I realize I made it extremely complicated, a URL there. So I'll go ahead and drop it in the show notes and then all you have to do is click it and don't have to remember that jumble of words. So anyway, that's it for this episode, my friend. If you enjoyed it, I would be so honored if you go over to your favorite podcast player, hit subscribe and leave a quick review. And that is all. But thanks for listening and I'll chat with you more in the next episode of the old fashion on purpose podcast.