Tag Archive for: essential oils

Natural Cleaning Products

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Clean With Natural Cleaning Products

We clean and clean and very soon we clean again. We like to clean with natural cleaning products. There are lots of chemicals that help us clean but what are they doing to our bodies and environment as we use them?

What did people do before chemical cleaning products, did they just live with dirty things? I don’t think so.

Today we will find some good natural alternatives to chemical cleansers.

Essential Oils

Some essential oils work as great natural cleansers. Fortunately we don’t have to discover what works and what doesn’t for ourselves as someone has done that for us.

Young Living is a company that grows, distills and formulates genuine essential oil products. They have a product line called Thieves that has a nice variety of all natural cleaning products.

Thieves Household Cleanser

This is a great overall cleanser that is safe to use. There are four ingredients that I wasn’t familiar with so I had to do a little research.

Sodium Methyl 2-Sulfolaurate – This sounds scary but is really not. This is a mild, non-drying cleanser made from coconut.

Alkyl Polyglucoside is made from sugars and fatty alcohols.

Disodium 2-Sulfolaurate is another mild cleansing agent similar to sodium methyl 2-sulfolaurate

Tetrasodium Glutamate Diacetate is a vegetable based ingredient is commonly used as a chelating agent in personal care products. It is not a toxic chemical.

The rest of the ingredients is a proprietary blend of essential oils known as Thieves oil. This blend includes clove bud oil, lemon peel oil, cinnamon bark oil, eucalyptus leaf oil, and rosemary leaf oil and lemon peel oil.

Thieves Spray

This is a spray that is made with pure grain alcohol, de-ionized water, Thieves® essential oil blend, fractionated coconut oil and soy lecithin.

Eucalyptus oil is great for cleaning combs and brushes. Just mix 1½ cups water, ½ cup distilled white vinegar, and 20 drops of one of these oils together in a container and soak the combs and brushes for about 20 minutes. Rinse them with water and leave them to dry.

Tea-tree oil is great for scuffed floors. Just apply a 2 to 4 drops of oil to the spots and rub in distilled white vinegar. You can also use 2 teaspoons tea-tree oil and 2 cups water in a spray bottle to clean toilets.

Orange oil is great at removing gum encrusted items from various materials. Apply with a cotton ball.

Lemon oil is great for shower doors. Wipe glass doors with a few drops of lemon oil twice a month. It will protect them from grime buildup.

Lavender or lemongrass oil is great for cleaning windows. Use a mixture of 2 ounces water and 10 drops of either oil. These oils may repel flies.

Other Natural Cleansers

Liquid Castile Soap is a gentle plant-based soap that is great for loosening dirt and grime from surfaces. This can be used for floors, marble counter tops, sinks, showers and ceramic tile among other things.

Borax is a white mineral found in some alkaline salt deposits, used in making glass and ceramics, as a metallurgical flux, and as an antiseptic. This is one of the ingredients in the Happy Healthy Living laundry soap and can be used for a variety of cleaning projects. It also is quite alkaline and kills mold and fungus.

Vinegar is a great cleanser and is used often for cleaning tarnished items, soap scum and mineral deposits in coffee makers, drains, floors, glassware and more. Distilled white vinegar can help inhibit the growth of mold, mildew, and some bacteria.

Baking Soda is another very common natural cleanser. Use baking soda when you need an abrasive cleanser. Common applications are the cleaning of garage floors, garden tools, stove burner grates, deodorizer for refrigerator and upholstery, and scuffed walls just to name a few.

Salt can be used as a cleanser. Table salt is great for absorbing spills like wine on the carpet, oven spills and excess grease in pots and pans.

Conclusion

As you can see there are many natural alternatives to harsh chemical cleansers that are inexpensive and have a variety of uses. We would love to hear what you like to use as a natural cleaning product. Please leave your comments below and connect with us on Facebook.

How To Reduce Inflammation Naturally (2020 Update)

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Natural Anti-Inflammatory Foods (2020 Update)

Today we are talking about natural anti-inflammatory foods and how they are used to create better health. We will discuss inflammation and what it is, medications and natural alternatives to medications.

What is Inflammation?

Inflammation is the activation of the immune system in response to infection, irritation or injury.

Characterized by an influx of white blood cells, redness, heat, swelling, pain, and dysfunction of the organs involved, inflammation has different names when it appears in different parts of the body.

Most allergy and asthma sufferers are familiar with rhinitis (inflammation of the nose), sinusitis (inflammation of the sinuses), and asthma (inflammation of the airways), but inflammation is also behind arthritis (inflammation of the joints), dermatitis (inflammation of the skin), and so on.

Note that they mostly have the suffix ‘itis’, if you get a diagnosis with that ending in means inflammation.

You may think that only your joints are affected by inflammation, but inflammation actually affects all of your major organ systems and therefore affects everyone. Because inflammation management is linked to whole-body health, a supplement that promotes a healthy inflammation response may be fundamental to your entire well being.

Anti-Inflammatory Medications

There are many anti-inflammatory medications on the market today. Several of them have side effects that you don’t really want but can’t do anything about.

The most common side effects are nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, decreased appetite, rash, dizziness, headache, and drowsiness. The most serious side effects are kidney failure (primarily with chronic use), liver failure, ulcers and prolonged bleeding after an injury or surgery.

Natural Lifestyle Solutions

Studies have shown that there are many lifestyle choices that contribute to inflammation on a daily basis.

  • Sleep deprivation – reduced sleep and insomnia does not allow the body time enough to repair and heal during the night.
  • Stress and anxiety – reducing your stress or anxiety also helps reduce the inflammatory response in your body.
  • Diet – eating a healthy diet with plenty of water, fruits, vegetables and complex carbohydrates reduces inflammation. Adding healthy fats such as omega 3s and olive oil to your diet will also help.
  • Detoxification – detoxing the lymphatic system of pollutants and chemicals.
  • Exercise – Exercise removes toxins from the lymph system and reduces inflammation.
  • Supplements/Vitamins – Choose a whole food vitamin and mineral supplement, not one that is synthetically made. Folic acid, B vitamins, and vitamins C, D and E have anti-inflammatory effects for the body.
  • Immune System – support your immune system with probiotic and enzyme supplements for a healthy intestinal tract.

Natural Anti-Inflammatory Foods

Herbs and Spices

Extensive research conducted within the last two decades has indicated that phytochemicals present in herbs and spices can safely and effectively promote a healthy anti-inflammation response.

There are many natural products available on the market today. Turmeric is one of our favorites as it has some amazing anti-inflammatory properties. You can learn more about using turmeric powder and other herbs and diet to control inflammation in this book The Anti-Inflammatory Diet & Action Plans: 4-Week Meal Plans to Heal the Immune System and Restore Overall Health by Dorothy Calimeris

Essential Oils

Another great way to reduce inflammation is to use essential oils.

Essential oils contain many different medicinal properties that are documented to help the physical and emotional body. They easily penetrate the skin and can be carried throughout the blood and tissues within minutes.

Oils that are high in carvacrol, a phenol, can be very effective as a natural anti-inflammatory. Carvacrol can be found in Oregano, Thyme , and Mountain Savory Essential Oils. Also Copaiba (pronounced “Ko-pah-ee-bah”) essential oil is potentially the highest anti-inflammatory substance known to man either natural or synthetic.

A study published in the January 2010 in the Journal of Lipid Research found that 6 essential oils reduce inflammation very effectively. In this study, it was found that the oils suppressed the COX-2 enzyme, which is responsible for the inflammatory process in the body, by as much as 75 percent!

Thyme essential oil ranked number one out of six different oils tested and there are over 50 different oils that show natural anti-inflammatory properties.

CBD Products

You can also use CBD products and they are becoming more and more popular and for a good reason. One of the main reasons to take CBD supplements is that it has amazing natural anti-inflammatory properties.

“Overall, the research literature indicates that cannabinoids, including CBD, could potentially be very effective anti-inflammatory agents for nervous tissue inflammation, inflammatory bowel disease, arthritis, vascular inflammation and certain types of cancers that are triggered by chronic inflammation” ~ Jeremy Riggle, Ph.D.

The use of CBD is a great way to naturally start using natural anti-inflammatory products.

Conclusion:

If you have inflammation in your body and are concerned about your health, there are several natural products to help reduce your inflammation as well as lifestyle changes that you can incorporate easily.