Dogs can actually catch your cold or flu. Who knew?? Like us, they can come down with a whole slew of respiratory bugs: cold viruses, flu viruses, bacterial respiratory infections such as kennel cough (Bordatella). Dogs even have a doggie-specific flu virus, “canine influenza virus” and the symptoms are similar to our own annual people version of the flu…achiness, fatigue, fever, runny nose, wet cough.
For those of us with cold winters, cold fingers and toes are often a problem when we’re outside playing or working. For lots of us, this can be downright painful, aside from the fact that our hands don’t seem to want to work properly when cold.
It doesn’t even have to be winter to notice poor circulation to the extremities. Some folks seem to always have cold hands and feet. I’ve even had elderly clients whose frigid feet kept them up at night.
Stomach cramps and bloating are uncomfortable at best, and downright painful at their worst. Almost all of us are familiar with dull pains that originate in our lower abdomen and cause us to curl up, swearing to avoid dairy or roasted garlic for the rest of eternity.
Exploring our ancestors’ use of natural remedies is a fine way to rediscover the forgotten traditional uses for several herbal combinations and tonics.
Stuffed noses, itchy throats, and puffy red eyes tend to be the accessories of choice this time of year. Most people turn to pharmaceuticals to get instant relief and while these certainly have a place, knowing how to deal with late spring allergies holistically may prove to be a better long-term solution.
Growing herbs is often the gateway to becoming a gardener and eventually starting a vegetable garden.
When I was little, I would suffer from terrible stomachaches in school. They were so bad that I would have to go to the nurse’s office at times and even be sent home. It turns out I was lactose intolerant—that coupled with having high anxiety did not mix very well.
In the northern hemisphere, we’re coming into the darker time of year when the subconscious likes to make more of an appearance. Sometimes, this manifests as nightmares. And, while nightmares can be informative in terms of issues we may need to examine, especially if they’re recurring, sometimes they’re just plain problematic…causing distress and sleep disturbances.
If you have ever been in the backseat of a car on a winding road and started to feel nauseated, dizzy, and just plain awful, you have experienced motion sickness. We often feel symptoms of motion sickness when we are on a boat, a train, and even when flying on a plane. Children can sometimes get motion sick when playing on swings at the playground or when on rides at the fair, such as a spinning ride, or one that has you hanging upside down.
Say the word “menopause” and you might create extreme fear. Night sweats, hot flashes, mood swings, and even depression are all symptoms of this very common, and generally inevitable, issue. Menopause affects most women over the age of 50, and is more clearly defined once a woman has stopped menstruating for at least one year. Along with the loss of menstruation comes a decline of hormones—specifically, estrogen and progesterone, as Dr.