FitSugar

Got Seasonal Allergies? Eat the Local Honey

FitSugar — Wed, 16 May 2007 17:15:00 -0700

Honey is all the buzz. Not only does it taste like summer, but it has some amazing qualities that help your body.

It's antimicrobial because of its high sugar content, so it's great for treating cuts and burns to prevent scarring. You can keep a jar in your medicine cabinet for years - it's slightly acidic, so it never goes bad.

I've also heard that honey can be used to treat seasonal allergy symptoms. In order to understand why, you need to know how honey is made.

Honey bees (the female worker bees) travel from flower to flower, drinking nectar, and storing it in sacs in their little bee bodies. Then they buzz back to their hive and use their "honey stomachs" to regurgitate and ingest the nectar a number of times until it is partially digested. They then store the nectar in the honeycombs, fanning it with their wings to evaporate the water, and turning it into the thick sweet honey we know and love.

The reason it may help with seasonal allergies, is because honey contains a bit of pollen from the plants. So if you eat the sweet treat that is made by bees in your area, the honey will often act as an immune booster, reducing your allergy symptoms to the local flowering plants. It's a good idea to take 2-3 spoonfuls each day for several months prior to pollen season.

Fit's Tips: Eating local honey works for some people, and may not for others. It's a folk remedy, with no scientific research to back it up, but if you suffer from seasonal allergies, it's worth a try. If it doesn't help with your sniffles and sneezing, well at least you're getting vitamins B6, thiamin, niacin, riboflavin, pantothenic acid and minerals like calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, potassium, and zinc. Honey also contains antioxidants and vitamin C. All that and it tastes good too!

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What's the Deal With Bee Venom Therapy?

FitSugar — Mon, 11 May 2009 08:00:00 -0700

I have an irrational fear of bees and was certainly surprised to learn that some people choose to be stung in what is somewhat euphemistically called bee venom therapy. The procedure works like this: a bee, raised solely for therapeutic reasons, is picked up with tweezers and held against skin until it stings. Some people undergo 80 stings a day or more.

It's hard to believe anyone would purposely subject themselves to this kind of pain, but bee stings are thought to ease the symptoms of a variety of conditions. Bee venom contains melittin, an anti-inflammatory substance said to be 100 times stronger than hydrocortisone. Melittin can also help activate the body's adrenal glands enhancing the natural healing process. Also found in bee venom, adolapin is a powerful pain reliever.

People suffering from arthritis, multiple sclerosis, tendinitis, and fibromyalgia claim they've benefited from the healing power of bee stings. Do you think you could handle bee venom therapy?

Bee Sting Treatment? Too Painful To Imagine

FitSugar — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 15:15:00 -0800

Yikes! No way would I ever have thought anyone would let a bee sting them on purpose. For Liu a Chinese man suffering from diabetes, it was either bee stings or amputation.

Liu went to Xizhihe hospital in Beijing, where bees were placed on his foot and provoked to sting him, in an effort to rejuvenate the blackened, rotting flesh by flooding it with a rush of protein-rich blood.

Apparently in China, doctors believe this 3,000 year old practice of using bee venom can repair damaged cells, stave off bacteria, and ease inflammation.

Doctors at Xizhihe believe they can even cure liver ailments, diabetes, and cancers. But they admit that they don't really understand how it works.

And it only costs about $2.50 per sting, so bee sting treatment offers a cheap (yet painful) alternative to mainstream medicine.

But does it work? Well, after several bee stings and a course of orally-taken bee venom, Liu's foot is healing.

And since health care is so expensive in this area, customers are heading to small, private clinics like Xizhihe, where relief may be as cheap as a few bee stings.

"Stayin' Alive" Keeps Man Alive

FitSugar — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:03:40 -0700

A seemingly silly public service announcement helped Debra Bader save her husband's life. The couple was walking in the woods when 53-year-old Christopher Bader suddenly collapsed from cardiac arrest, the same heart problem that recently led to Michael Jackson's death. Thankfully, Bader recalled the American Heart Association's campaign from last year, teaching people that the Bee Gees song "Stayin' Alive" has a perfect tempo to match the recommended pace of chest compressions. So she called 9-1-1 and started singing.

"I sang the song and gave directions to the EMTs at the same time. It was like, 'Stayin' alive, stayin' alive - take a right here, take a left here - Stayin' alive, stayin' alive - take this path down here - Stayin' alive, stayin' alive,' " Bader remembers.

For 15 minutes Bader, who had never taken a CPR class, beat on her husband's chest until the ambulance arrived and the EMTs delivered a shock to his heart with a defibrillator. Christopher Bader survived, even though 95 percent of people who go into cardiac arrest die before they get to the hospital.

Wow! What a heartwarming story, and don't you love hearing that a funny PSA actually worked? Perhaps it helped that an episode of The Office also featured a riff on the "Stayin' Alive" connection. Want a laugh? Check out the clip.

When Was the Last Time You Were Stung by a Bee?

FitSugar — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 04:30:00 -0700

Picnicking on the beach after an open water swim, I was stung by a bee and it still smarts.

The bees were interested in our food and a little aggressive. Flowers, bees typical food source, disappear as the seasons change and bees become more daring in their search for sustenance. Most often, bee stings just cause swelling and irritation, but they can be deadly in the case of an allergic reaction. Yikes.

I hadn't been stung in years, and needed a little refresher course in how to treat the sting. Things like using tweezers to remove a stinger can cause more venom to be released. I was wondering about you all . . .

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Burt's Bees: On Your Lips and in the News

FitSugar — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 02:00:00 -0800

As I've said before, Winter can be brutal on your skin. The wee bit of humidity in the air evaporates when we blast our heat, and we're left with itchy, dry skin. The dry manufactured heat also does a number on sensitive lips. You need a soothing lip balm like this one from Burt's Bees. Made with all natural ingredients including beeswax, rosemary extract, and peppermint oil, this balm soaks into your skin providing cooling relief immediately. It also contains comfrey root extract, which helps heal dry or cracked lips.

I fell in love with this lip balm many years ago when Burt's was a small company, and you could only find their products at health food stores. In case you hadn't heard though, Clorox bought Burt's Bees. Want to hear more about it? Then read more

Burt's Bees sold for almost $1 million, and some environmentalists are appalled and worried that this big company won't maintain Burt's Bees environmental practices. Others are hoping that by purchasing this all natural company, Clorox will become greener. They've already been reshaping their practices, and have recently introduced a line of all natural household cleaning products called Green Works, that are labeled 99% natural. I think it's great that so many big companies are making choices to positively affect our world. I'm definitely a little wary about this, but hopefully Clorox will continue on its path to greendom. Even though Clorox now owns Burt's Bees, I'm optimistic that it will continue to make all natural products.

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Burt's Bees Buzz

FitSugar — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 02:20:05 -0800

Burt's Bees is a unique earth-friendly company that started with one man and you guessed it - some bees. Burt uses only the most effective and natural ingredients in his products.

Even cooler, most of their packaging is made from recycled materials or can be recycled, like the aluminum containers they use for their lemon butter cuticle creme.

Burt's Bees also take pride in the fact that none of their products are animal tested. A few of their products contain ingredients derived from animals such as beeswax and milk, and for those, they give their thanks.

They make tons of products including Lavender Mint Toothpaste, Tinted Facial Moisturizer, Milk & Honey Body Lotion, and Apricot Baby Oil for baby bees.

Fit's Tips: Make sure your lips are covered with Burt's Beeswax Lip Balm. It seeps right into your skin and brings healing relief. Get one to keep in your purse, car, desk drawer, and nightstand. Believe me when I say that nothing compares. It's outstanding.

CPR + Bee Gees = Stayin' Alive

FitSugar — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 03:00:00 -0700

I love the rare occasion when pop culture overlaps with medical news, especially when it involves a lot of consonants. We all know from exercising while listening to playlists that the beats per minute in songs can help you reach the desired beats per minute of your heart rate. It looks like the same holds true for cardiopulmonary resuscitation, otherwise known as CPR.

The Bee Gees song coincidentally titled "Stayin' Alive" provides the correct timing for the manual chest compressions used in CPR. The tempo of the song syncs perfectly with the recommended pace of the chest compression - 100 beats per minute. On a serious note: when properly performed, CPR can at least triple survival rates for victims of cardiac arrest. It is said that many people fear performing CPR because they are not confident about the rhythm for pumping the chest. Hopefully the Bee Gees can help.

If you need a little refresher course on how the song goes, check out GiggleSugar's celebration of this musical health headline. If you need a little refresher course on CPR, the American Heart Association offers classes nationwide.

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Spring and Bee Stings

FitSugar — Wed, 02 May 2007 08:45:00 -0700

Spring is the season of the birds and the bees, and unfortunately bee stings are a part of the season. According to the Mayo Clinic the range of reactions to the venom of a sting is variable depending on how sensitive you are, but that only a small percentage of folks experience severe (read: anaphylaxis) response to stings and bug bites in general. Most of us experience itching, a stinging sensation and mild swelling that disappears after a day or two. Occasionally, there is a delayed response to a sting or bite that includes: fever, hives, painful joints and swollen glands.

First thing you want to do if you are stung is scrape off the stinger with the flat edge of a credit card or the back of a knife. If you pull the stinger you risk the chance of releasing more of the icky venom, and you don't want to do that.

Next, you want to calm the swelling with ice, this will help with the pain too. Applying 1% hydrocortisone cream or calamine lotion will help the symptoms subside. The home remedy of baking soda paste has always worked for me. Mix 3 teaspoons of baking soda with 1 teaspoon water and apply directly to the sting multiple times a day until the symptoms subside.

If you experience a severe reaction including facial swelling, difficulty breathing and shock call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room.

Don't forget to stop and smell the roses this spring, but check for bees first.

Protect Your Lips From the Sun

FitSugar — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 10:51:46 -0700

When you go outside to enjoy the warmth and sunshine, you've got to protect your lips from the sun's harmful rays. That skin can get sunburned too, and excessive exposure could cause lip cancer.

Just as you apply sunscreen to your skin, you need to apply sunscreen to your lips. Many lipsticks, lip glosses, and lip balms contain SPF, so check those labels ladies.

Here's a list of some of my favorite protective lip balms and lipsticks. Beeswax lip balm from Burt's Bees is still my all time favorite even though it doesn't contain any SPF, so I just reserve it for nighttime use if my lips feel dry after spending a day in the sun.

Kiss My Face Certified Organic Lip Balm, SPF 15	Tinted Lip Balm SPF-18, TerraTint Blaze
Neutrogena Whisper Pink Lipstick SPF 20	SPF 15 Vanilla Lip Balm by Ecco Bella
Eco Lips Organic Sport Lip Balm	Buy Burt's Bees Beeswax Lip Balm