Vaccination Detox Part 3: Using Oils

Today's post covers one of the more infrequently discussed detox tools: oils. 

Coconut Oil - Although this isn't specifically intended for detoxing, it is a vital part of a healthy diet. As pointed out in Part 1 of this series, starting out healthy is crucial to the fight! (Read more on this at The Healthy Home Economist.)

Oil of Oregano - I ran across this for the first time in Healing Spices (which I highly recommend). It is safe, very purifying and available for purchase online through places like Vitacost and Wilderness Naturals. 

Thieves Oil - A popular immune booster, this oil isn't cheap but it goes a long way. Many people swear by it. (Available through Radiant Life or Amazon.) 


Fermented Cod Liver Oil - Available as gel caps or liquid, straight or flavored with kid-friendly essential oils like peppermint and cinnamon, this is a fantastic immune booster and detoxer! Don't let the price fool you - a very little bit goes a long way! It's worth noting that the benefits of fermented cod liver oil far outweigh the regular stuff you see on store shelves, so consider investing in the good stuff, even if you only use during detox.

Using Oils

Obviously you should read the dosing instructions that come with whatever oil you choose to use. Some are recommended to take straight, and if you get them in gel cap form it's a no brainer. Others, like coconut oil, can be drizzled into your morning tea/coffee or stirred innocuously into breakfast options like oatmeal. Don't be afraid to get creative if you need to, but remember that heating (as in cooking) the oils will diminish their impact.

Purchasing Notes:
1. You'll notice I've given online purchasing links for most of these. Chances are you won't find good quality options at your local stores, unless you are blessed with an especially awesome health food store. To save on shipping and simplify your life, I recommend selecting the options you think are most appropriate for you/ your family and ordering them all at once. Stick the box in a closet or cabinet (nowhere too safe - you want to be able to find it again!) and clearly label it "detox". That way, when the time comes that you need it, there's no scrambling or temptation to shell out for more when you can't find something.

2. I am not making money on any of these supplier links. They are simply the most reliable purveyors I am familiar with, and I felt it was worth sharing. I do recommend starting with Vitacost; they don't have everything, but they do boast an excellent search feature that allows you to omit products with common allergens like soy and wheat. They also tend to run free shipping and frequent coupons and we can all use to save money where we can!


Tomorrow's post: Fighting Back With Food

Vaccination Detox Part 2: Supplements & Soaks

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, one of the keys to detoxing from a vaccination is planning ahead. You can't use what you don't have, after all!
There are a handful of supplements you can purchase ahead of time and keep on hand that will help your body fight back against the viruses, bacteria, heavy metals and other undesirables found in vaccines.


Vitamin C - big doses of Vitamin C for a week after being vaccinated (and even beforehand if possible) help flush nasty toxins from your system, specifically the mercury which is extremely important!


Milk Thistle extract - Protects and detoxes the liver. (Credit is due to the Amazing Glutathione website on this one, as I have not seen it listed anywhere else.)


Colloidal Silver - I've heard great things about this in general as an anti-bacterial and immune supporter, and it seems very appropriate here.

Sunshine - Technically this isn't a supplement, and you can't buy it bottled anywhere (I wish!). But sun exposure directly promotes your body's production of Vitamin D, which is a great immune booster and body/mood balancer. So, if at all possible, get some extra sun!

In addition to supplements, saunas and soaks can help your body detox faster.

Saunas - Half an hour in a sauna will cause your body to sweat out a lot of the heavy metal toxicity. Just remember to drink plenty of water before and after! (Note: I realize that not everyone has access to a sauna, and that they are not appropriate for everyone. I felt it was worth listing, however, and encourage you to use your best judgment.)

Soaks - Take a bath with epsom salts or soak your feet in an epsom salt solution. The salts will pull toxins out of your body, and you'll get to relax besides! Bonus points if you throw a few drops of a soothing or clarifying essential oil in while you're there. 

That's plenty to think about for today! If you thought there were some oils missing from the supplement list, it's because they're featured in tomorrow's post on using oils!

Vaccination Detox Part 1: Planning Ahead

Our rainy spring is beginning to roll in to summer (finally!), but it's a comment I heard recently about fall that has been nagging at the back of my mind. It was an innocent comment, really – just a passing note that mass vaccination days are already being planned for this fall. My husband is in the military which means, among other things, that opting out of getting vaccinated is not a choice for him. At least once a year, he comes home from work have been shot full of viruses, bacteria and heavy metals.

And that bothers me. A lot.

We eat a very clean, very healthy diet and my husband is in excellent physical shape. But I still wish every year that I could do something to actively fight back against this threat to his health. So this year, I did something!

I collected all the little bits of information I've seen various places on how to detox from a vaccination and wrote them down in one easy-to-reference spot. Then, I went online and bought a couple things that I don't tend to keep in the house but will want on hand specifically for this purpose when the time comes. I feel tremendous relief knowing that this time I'll be prepared.

I know that nurses, teachers and others may find themselves in same boat we do – unable to refuse vaccination and keep one's job – and I want to make the information I've found available so that you, too, can be prepared before next fall's vaccination season starts.

Because I found a useful tips, I've decided to break this up into a series of posts rather than one huge long one.

First, let's start with this awesome comic on the subject from xkcd. I had to laugh because I literally know people just like this!

Second, it is worth knowing that nearly all vaccinations are now combination shots. Most including two or three often very different things. It is worth asking beforehand exactly what you're getting so you can be informed and make good choices.



Okay, now the detox info: only one tip today, because it's important enough to merit the emphasis - detox starts before you ever get vaccinated!

Dumping toxins into an already overloaded, overtired and under-fueled body is bad news. Summer is an ideal time to start cleaning up your diet and giving up bad lifestyle habits, because the sun is (usually) shining and the farmers' markets are piled high with fresh, nutrient rich (and delicious) summer produce. If you're not already on the road to eating clean and getting healthy, start now! Being healthy to begin with is the best possible foundation from which to launch a detox campaign against vaccination toxins.

Check back tomorrow for Part 2: Supplements
 

The Irony of Computer Passwords

Many thanks to my wonderful brother for introducing me to this comic from xkcd about the irony of computer passwords...

Insult & Injury: Teen Editions of Popular Christian Books

I've read more than my share of self-improvement and Christian lifestyle books. Some have been useless; others have been incredible. But, to be perfectly honest, very few were a challenge to read. Unlike works I've read in other genres, I never needed a dictionary and I rarely needed to figure anything out via context. As a category, self-improvement / Christian living books tend to be written in fairly simple language.

So I've been baffled by the "teen editions" of some of the genre's biggest sellers flooding the market lately.
It makes perfect sense from the production end, of course. For almost zero new effort they can vastly expand their sales.

But from a consumer standpoint, I have to wonder why people aren't at least indignant at an arrangement that costs them money and hurt their teens in the bargain. Let's take a minute to look at the facts, shall we?

1. Teen editions are a prime example of planned obsolescence. They are designed to be replaced by the adult version of the book as the recipient ages, prompting people to unnecessarily pay for the same material twice.

2. Teens want (& need) to be challenged. (See the amazing book Do Hard Things, which covers this in depth if you haven't read it.) Teens want to matter, and they want respect. Being given a teen edition of a book is like being told to sit at the kiddie table at Thanksgiving dinner - it's all the same food, but the message that you're not big/old/smart enough to be included in adult conversation comes through loud and clear.

3. Failure to read adult books robs teens of prime learning opportunities. During their teen years most people begin the move from blind acceptance of the faith with which they were raised towards a place individual faith. This almost always includes searching and wrestling with tough questions. What better time to teach them how to ask the right questions and sift out the truth with discernment? While they still have ready access to parents and trusted youth leaders is exactly when we want materials in their hands that will stretch them. This is when they should be laying the foundation of Bible study and utilizing Christian living resources that they'll use the rest of their lives... an unlikely event if they're breezing through a simplified, brightly colored booklet!

4. Teen editions amplify the age divisions in churches. This subject is much to big to handle effectively here, but the short version is that there is no precedent in the Bible for the modern practice of dividing church services and Bible study by age. This practice is much more likely caused by the overflow of Victorian/ industrial revolution era educational theory (reference Now You See It). This age division does not help churches but there is plenty of evidence to suggest that it hurts them; teen editions only aggravate this existing situation.


5. Continuously lowering the reading level of Christian literature  pushes valuable classics increasingly out of reach. The KJV Bible is typically considered to be on a twelfth grade reading level, The Message estimated to be barely at fifth grade level, and the NIV around an eighth grade level. Using that as a rough guide, your average Christian living/ self-improvement book runs between sixth and tenth grade reading levels, with a few maybe reaching a twelfth grade level. Now think of the classics like the Screwtape Letters, St. Augustine, or the sermons of Jonathan Edwards that have informed Christian belief and debate for decades (or longer). If we give this generation everything - including their Bibles - at a tenth grade reading level or lower, how long do these valuable older texts have before they are ignored altogether as "too hard to read" and their wisdom discarded?

Am I just overreacting? Maybe. Are all teen editions a bad thing? Probably not. But it's well proven that people rise or lower themselves to the level of our expectations; maybe, then, we would be wise to raise our expectations when it comes to the books we hope will help us find truth and live well.

Menu Idea Monday: Kitchen Tips

So, today is short and sweet but I read a couple things over the weekend that I had never heard before, but that seem to handy not to share.

Tip 1: If you have a food processor, coffee grinder, spice grinder, etc. (especially the grinders that can be hard to clean or that aren't supposed to be exposed to water) that you find is starting to accumulate oils or an off smell, there is a cheap, simple way to fix it: grind/pulse some white sugar or rice!

It will absorb the off odors and excess oil and leave your grinder fresh and clean.

Tip 2: If you buy a mortar & pestle, don't get a wooden one! Pay the extra to get stone - preferably marble. Wood is porous and will absorb volatile oils - not what you want!

I don't know how I managed to never see these tips before, but now I know. And so do you. You're welcome.  :)

Holidays: Good, Bad or Just Confusing?

Way back in January, I decided that one of my goals for the year would be to celebrate more. That decision has had a rather unexpected effect; I've started thinking a lot more about what we celebrate and why. (Not that I have gotten around to posting many of those thoughts here in timely fashion.) So, in the spirit of better late than never, I thought I'd share some interesting
thoughts on Easter.

I used to love to dress up for Easter, just like every little girl does. When I got a little older, I enjoyed going to a Sunrise Service Easter morning. I didn't really put much thought into the holiday until last year, though.

When I read The Liturgical Year (much more interesting than it's title suggests), I was amazed to find out that Easter - rather than Christmas - is the linchpin of the orthodox Christian calendar. Having been raised Protestant, I really had no frame of reference for Liturgy. (I have to tell you that after reading the book I almost wanted to be Catholic - the whole endless cycle thing seemed elegant and reverent in a uniquely beautiful way.)
 
So imagine my surprise, while mulling over the idea of Easter as being central, when I came across the assertion that Easter isn't actually a Christian holiday at all! I feel like I've heard that before somewhere, but it's one of those things you just tend to brush off as the mutterings of disgruntled atheists. The pastors presenting the idea this time around, however, had clear and logical points well backed up and compassionately presented. Perhaps most surprising was the suggestion that Good Friday and Easter Sunday aren't actually the days of Christ's death and resurrection at all.

There are lots of schools of thought on celebrating Christian holidays, from celebrating only what the disciples/ ancient church celebrated to celebrating everything with an intentional point-towards-God twist. I'm not interested in judging what other people choose to do, but I believe there's a lot of value in the debate and soul searching.

Do we dishonor God by celebrating made-up holidays with good intentions? Does it matter if the day is invented as long as we use it to glorify a real and worthy God? What does it say about us as a modern community of faith that we are so little acquainted with the roots of our practices? All valid questions worthy of our consideration.

While my answer will certainly not work for everyone, I have found that my standard practice continues to please me best of all the options I've seen: I celebrate what has meaning to me, and let the rest go. For me, that means that Easter gets relegated to the realm of un-celebrated days.

Instead, I celebrate smaller things. Things that come with no baggage or no fanfare, but that turn my eyes just as surely to the evidence of grace and reasons for thankfulness in my life.

What about you? Do you celebrate Easter? Does it's questionable provenance make any difference in your decision?