Posts filed under ‘Skin "Tips"’
Make your own Calendula Cream
Calendula ointment or cream can be used for many skin ailments. If you can grow calendula officianis (Marigold) in your backyard, you can easily make your own calendula extract.
Use it for:
Insect bites
Very dry skin
Cuts and scrapes
Psoriasis
Eczema
and many other skin problems.
Here is what you need:
Calendula Officinalis: This is a type of marigold. Your gardening store can help you get the right one.
Four cups of Oil: Olive oil or grapeseed oil
One quarter to one half cup of Beeswax for thickness
A few drops of lavender oil as a preservative.
Now put it together:
1. Crush the Calendula in a blender.
2. Use a cloth or colander to extract the juice.
3. Mix the liquid into the oil.
4. Add lavender
5. Heat – very low so that the mixture does not boil to warm the ingredients so that the wax melts, stirring
occasionally.
6. Once melted, pour into smaller containers and let cool.
7. You are done. Keep cool – refrigerator is OK up to a year.
Anti Bacterial Hand Sanitizer or Not
I talk to many people in the health care industry. They wash their hands constantly through the day as they are dealing with people with diseases or children. Most also use an alcohol based sanitizer to help fend off bacteria and viruses. The biggest complaint that I hear is that it dries the skin on their hands out terribly. Nurses show me hands where skin is cracked at the fingertips and between the fingers. The constant washing dries out the skin to some extent but the addition of alcohol makes it many times worse. Most just have resigned to live with this.
I was showing a young mother the Thentix product at a trade show and I mentioned the anti bacterial qualities and at first she misunderstood me and thought that we had added some sort of chemical sanitizer to the product. I assured her that we had not. Her concern was that she didn’t want her children to grow up in a completely sanitized environment. This somewhat startled me but got me thinking about the general paranoia that is promoted in our society today regarding clean hands and germs. The mother made sure that her children kept themselves clean but didn’t want to prevent them from building up anti-bodies in a natural way.
There is no doubt in my mind that general hygiene being better today that it was 100 or 200 years or a millennia ago has kept us all much healthier. That said from the research that I’ve done I don’t know for a fact that anti bacterial sanitizers make all that much difference. I think a person should wash their hands regularly – before food preparation and at other times – when dealing with the sick, etc. But alcohol based hand sanitizers have not been proven to make that much difference. I implore you to take the time research online and find the facts. There is a lot of information about the pros and cons but get the information so that you can have some judgment. There have been instances where children have reacted adversely to the alcohol in some of these products.
As for Thentix: A Touch of Honey – you will find honey and calendula. Honey has anti bacterial properties as it slowly releases hydrogen peroxide – bacteria won’t grow in the presence of oxygen. Using hydrogen peroxide out of a bottle is too powerful – it kills some of the skin as well. Calendula has anti viral properties as well.
Varicose Veins, Honey and Calendula
Varicose veins can be unsightly as well as painful. Medical treatments can be unpleasant as well. Some natural solutions that can help relieve some of the pain, swelling and increase the strength and flexibility of the veins are shown here.
Dr Jarvis of ‘Switchel’ fame (Switchel is a mixture of honey and vinegar in a tea like mixture) suggest putting undiluted cider vinegar on the affected area in the morning and at night. Drinking Switchel (vinegar and honey) daily will also help with the varicose veins. It may take several weeks to see the results, so persist.
A poultice of cod liver oil and honey – wrap the affected area with this inside a bandage and leave overnight. Do not wrap the bandage too tightly.
Make a compress of marigold (calendula) and place over the varicose veins or spider veins. Use the herb marigold or a calendula ointment. You can make your own. You can even take the flowers of the calendula officianis (marigold) and place them on your varicose veins to great benefit.
Shaving with Thentix
I was recently asked this question:
“Well, my order finally arrived today and I am really looking forward to using the Thentix. I plan to use it mainly as an aftershave because I get some red and sore areas on my chin after shaving. Do you have any more suggestions on how I could use the Thentix in relation to shaving or general facial use? DP “
My reply:
“I use the Thentix to shave my scalp and face. I wet the surface of the skin and then put a little – very little – on my hands to spread. If the skin is wet the cream will not get readily absorbed and I get a very comfortable shave and condition the skin at the same time. I have sensitive skin on my neck and this works fine. I do use very little though – you will have to practice a bit; I find that if I use too much, it is too slippery. Everyone is different though.”
More Tips for Preventing Dry Cracked Heels
Prevention of Dry Cracked Heels:
1. Exercise – Either walking – some suggest doing this barefoot – but some kind of exercise for the feet on a regular basis keeps the circulation up and the skin healthy. Anyone researching physical problems will find a common theme of exercise. One does not need to join a gym to get exercise – start slowly and simply. One could just sit on the floor or a chair and do some stretching and isometrics with the feet a couple of times a day. Keep it simple.
2. Nutrition: The skin needs certain nutrients to be healthy. Omega-3 fatty acids are very important. These can be obtained from flax seed amongst other things. Try some in your orange juice every day. Zinc and calcium are also needed for healthy skin – can be found in yogurt – try plain yogurt with a bit of flax seed and some honey to sweeten. Not everyone will be able to ‘stomach’ this so a smoothie may work better. Vitamins are also important, particularly vitamin E. These nutrients can all be gotten from supplements but if you get them from food as well then you will tend to eat better food which will prevent you from eating crappy food.
3. Use some sort of moisturizing cream regularly before the skin on your heels gets so dry it cracks.
Raw honey for acne
Honey has anti-bacterial properties. It is also an anti-septic. It slowly releases hydrogen peroxide which kills bacteria. Apply pure honey directly to your acne for relief. Honey has been used for wounds and burns for thousands of years for its healing properties.
How to prevent windburn
Windburn is actually a drying effect of the skin. The skin has lost it’s oils as a result of exposure the the wind and dryness in the air. Much like sunburn. To prevent this from happening as much as you can figure out how to keep the natural oils and moisture in your skin. If you wash or shave just before going out when it is well below freezing then you have that much less protection. Either keep the skin covered or put something on the skin that helps prevent loss of moisture. Some moisturizers can do this and sometimes something as simple as coating your skin with petroleum jelly will do the trick.
As with sunburn, if you can keep the skin hydrated so that it doesn’t burn and can do this more naturally, then you end up having to use more chemicals such as those in sunscreens and sunblocks.
Treatment for Mosquito Bite itch
Here are a couple of ideas for a mosquito bite itch:
Baking soda and water mixed together into a paste applied to the bite should relieve the itching very quickly.
Let a tea bag steep for a few minutes in hot water then apply to the area of the bite.
A dab of honey(pure, raw honey preferably).
Mom used to use a dab of spit – that worked sometimes…
Good luck.
How to treat a burn with honey.
First thing you want to do with a burn is cool the area so that it does not continue to ‘cook’. Use cold water – do not use ice to freeze the area. With a very light burn one could use a cloth cooled with water but for a more sever burn just use cool running water. Once cooled, apply clean raw honey over the affected area. Honey releases hydrogen peroxide very slowly which helps disinfect the burned area. Make sure the area is fully covered and cover the honey with some sort of plastic ‘cling’ wrap. This technique can also be used for more major burns but in this instance I would suggest consulting with your physician as well. If he or she is knowledgeable in the benefits of honey and its healing properties, then all the better.
