Hormones: The Natural Approach

I have recently watched this video from David Wolfe on the subject of hormones and natural hormone health.  It is fascinating!  I have watched it twice and taken extensive notes.  If hormones are possibly a problem area for you or someone you care about, take the time to watch this and take notes yourself.  I am posting the link, but I am unsure how long the video will be available to watch.  Check it out soon!

Hormones: The Natural Approach

My First Home Birth

Sorry this has taken so long to get posted.  It seemed that whenever I had both hands free for typing, it was much more urgent to do laundry, wash dishes or something along those lines.  As always with a birth story, be warned!  This is a birth story and may contain details you don't really want to read about.  For those who are interested in real birth stories, enjoy!

My decision to birth at home actually began during my pregnancy with Gunnar.  If you have read my other birth stories you know that I wanted epidurals with my first two children, but was unable to have them.  This ended up being a blessing in disguise because it lead me to believe in natural childbirth.  With my third child I knew I would not be requesting any type of pain relief, so I did lots of research on natural childbirth and I read tons of birth stories.  It was from these stories that I became exposed to home birth.  At first I thought it was crazy, but the more I read, the more I seemed to identify with the birth experiences of those mothers.  I also watched tons of calm births to prepare myself for labor, and many of those videos were of home births.  By the time I was eight months pregnant with Gunnar, I realized that I wanted a home birth, but felt it was too late in the pregnancy to change my game plan.

I went on to have a relatively good hospital birth.  What sealed the deal was my friend Katie gave birth at home just a few days after I had Gunnar.  Seeing the pictures of her home birth made me feel brave enough to pursue a home birth for my next pregnancy.  Since I didn't get pregnant again for another year and a half, I had plenty of time to discuss things with Nate and he soon was a supporter of home birth.  His philosophy is "you do the work of labor, so you decide how you want things done."

Fast forward to last fall.  I waited until the end of my first trimester to start looking for a midwife.  After some research and talking with my friend, Katie, I decided to go with her midwife, Stacia.  I went to my regular OB around 14 weeks pregnant because I knew I could only have a home birth if everything was normal with the pregnancy.  At about 24 weeks, my doctor told me my ultrasound showed I had placenta previa.  With my placenta blocking the opening of the cervix, I would possibly have to have a C-section if it didn't move out of the way by the end of the pregnancy.  This was a little unnerving, and I tried not to worry about the outcome of the situation.  I continued to see both my midwife and doctor for the next few months.  Finally an ultrasound at 32 weeks showed the placenta had moved completely out of the way.  The home birth was a go and I quit seeing my OB.  I didn't want to order any of my home birth supplies until I knew I could have one, so for the next few weeks I got my supplies ordered and tried to have everything ready at home.

At 37 weeks I started having some false labor.  This didn't surprise me because I had false labor for 8 long weeks with Gunnar.  Through the last 3 weeks of the pregnancy I had about 5 episodes of false labor.  One night, at 6 days before I really went into labor, the false labor was so intense that Nate and I set up the birth pool and laid out all the supplies and towels.  At about 1 am the contractions stopped.  I was so frustrated.  I thought for sure it was the real thing.  Nate was sweet enough to put all the stuff away before I woke up the next morning so I wouldn't have to look at it!  We decided to keep the pool up, though, since I was getting close to my due date.

On my due date, we headed to church.  It is so funny to see people's reactions when they ask when you are due and you tell them "today!"  After church we headed out to Nate's grandma's to visit for a bit.  While at her house I noticed I was having some contractions and they were lasting longer than usually.  But they were about 20 minutes apart, so I didn't pay much attention.  My parents asked to come out that evening for dinner.  We headed home to meet them.  I told Nate about my contractions, but I told him not to get his hopes up.  Throughout dinner I noticed the contractions were still lasting longer and they were getting more frequent.  By 7 pm they were about 7 minutes apart.  I called Stacia and she said that Nate should fill the pool and asked me to call her if they got any closer together.

I went and sat on the couch to talk with my dad.  As soon as I sat down and put my feet up, the contractions almost seemed to go away.  After about 20 minutes I had a contraction and they continued, but were 12 to 17 minutes apart.  Here I started to get a little worried.  I had Nate filling up the pool, but I was starting to wonder if it was false labor again.  I decided to get up and do stuff around the house to see if I could get the contractions closer together.  Nate, my mom and I straightened up the house, ran the vacuum, wiped down the bathrooms and set out the birth supplies.  All that work got the contractions back to 7 to 9 minutes apart.  I was feeling tired, so I headed upstairs to lay down for a bit.  When I laid down, the contractions went back to being 15 to 20 minutes apart.  I felt very tired, so I laid there even though I knew I needed to be up on my feet to get them closer together again.  After a while I headed downstairs and shared the bad news with Nate and my mom.  I was sure this was false labor.

My mom and Nate weren't convinced.  Nate and I decided to head to Mejier.  We needed a few groceries anyway, and that way we could walk a few extra laps to see if it helped things along.  At the store, out of good faith I decided to purchase newborn diapers and nursing tea.  I showed Nate and told him I was buying those things having faith I was really in labor.  While we were shopping I went quite a while with no contractions.  By the end of our third lap I had a few good contractions.  At the checkout I had a real good one.  I think that one helped me believe this wasn't false labor.

We headed home around 10 pm.  We finished up a few things around the house.  At 11 pm I used the bathroom and noticed I had lost my plug.  I called Stacia and she said that she would head on over.  Stacia and her assistant midwife, Susan got to the house around midnight.  The pool was ready and I got in.  I had purchased a tank-style dress to wear in the pool to make sure everything was modest since my children and father would be present at this birth.  The water felt very good, but I noticed that once in the pool, my contractions spaced far apart again.  To help pass the time I asked Nate to put in a movie.  All the movies were in our bedroom where my father was sleeping, so I had my pick of the two movies we had downstairs: Amazing Grace or Bourne Identity.  I went with Bourne Identity.  I really like that movie, plus I knew Amazing Grace would make me cry.  Stacia and Susan settled in on the pull-out couch, my mom in the rocking chair and Nate headed to the living room to get some sleep. Nate's sister, Sarah, showed up right around that time.

I spent the next two hours, mostly in the pool, except for a 20 minute period where I got out to use the bathroom and noticed that my contractions got much closer together when I was back on my feet, so I stayed out a bit to help labor along.  A little after 3, Stacia could tell I was getting frustrated.  My contractions were getting more uncomfortable, but they were all over the place.  Sometimes I would have a few contractions right in a row and sometimes they were 15 minutes apart.  She offered to check me to see how far I was dilated.  I declined, telling her I would just be frustrated if I wasn't very dilated.  She suggested I get out of the pool, get back into my pj's and have Sarah massage my back for a bit.  Nate's sister is a massage therapist and had offered her help during my labor.  I did what Stacia suggested and Sarah massaged my back and hit certain pressure points while I sat on the birthing ball.  Sarah also brought along some of her spa music.  That was very helpful to have that soothing music in the background.

After what seemed about an hour of massage, my contractions were coming every 4 to 5 minutes and lasted about a minute or longer, so Stacia said it was fine to get back into the pool.  Getting back in the pool felt awesome, but once again my contractions spaced out.  At this point I didn't care.  I felt so tired I welcomed the long breaks in between.  At about 4:30 am I asked for Nate to be woken up because I wanted him in the room.  Even though the contractions were irradic, they were intense, so I figured it wouldn't be long.  Shortly after that I asked him to help my parents get the kids awake, as I felt birth could be soon.

My mom said she couldn't wake Layla up at first and then she finally said "the baby is coming" and Layla jumped out of bed and ran downstairs and was right by the pool's side.  Julius was a bit grumpy waking up and had to hang out in the living room for a few minutes before he was ready to come into the back room.  Gunnar was content to just be held and watch from a distance.  Layla and Julius gave me kisses when they saw me and Layla sat right by me and stroked my hair.

According to my midwife's notes, I told her I was ready to push at 5:01 am.  Stacia had just dosed off before I told her this.  She and Susan jumped right up and put on their gloves.  She asked me to not push yet at the next contraction because she wanted to hear the baby's heart rate one more time before I began pushing.  So I did my best to breath through the next contraction.  She said the heart rate was great and I could push.  Then I didn't have another contraction for several minutes and I actually fell asleep.  I woke up to the next contraction and began to push.  Throughout this whole labor, all my contractions had been very manageable and I had calmly been able to relax and cope with the pain.  But this last contraction made me a bit nervous, mostly because I was not sure I could stay quiet through it.  My children were present and I didn't want to scare them by making some awful sound. 

I decided that even if I made some noise, I had to push this baby out, so I went for it.  Fortunately I was able to do so with just some minor groaning.   I pushed her head out and told everyone " the head's out" and then pushed out the rest of her body before the midwife could even check for the baby.  As the baby floated to the surface, Stacia asked if I wanted to grab my baby and I told her I did.

Contessa Noelle was born at 5:07 am.  It was so wonderful to scoop my own baby up and bring her to my chest.  She was so beautiful and she started wailing instantly.  I noticed she had long fingers and toes and that her little fingernails were like talons, they were so long!  It was awesome to see the stunned looks on all the kids faces.  Even though we prepared them ahead of time, they were amazed that a baby came out of me.

After a few minutes I felt ready to birth the placenta.  Stacia asked Nate if he wanted to cut the cord.  He declined, saying he's done it before.  Hearing this, Layla piped up that she wanted to do it.  So with Nate and Susan's help, Layla cut Contessa's cord.  I had always pictured that I would get out of the pool to birth the placenta, but I felt very tired and decided to stay in the pool.  As soon as it was out, Stacia removed it from the pool to examine it.  Contessa was wrapped in a towel and handed off to Nate.  Stacia and Susan helped me out of the pool and helped dry me off and get me into a fresh nightgown.  I then headed to the pull-out couch to be examined.  The exam showed no tears and minimal blood loss.  Layla sat next to me and held my hand through the exam.  At one point she kissed my forehead and told me I was doing such a good job and she was proud of me!  That girl is such a sweetie!

Contessa was brought to me so I could nurse her.  She was a natural from the start.  Stacia and Susan emptied the pool, threw in a load of towels and packed up their things.  Before she left, Stacia then gave me a few doses of cottonwood bark oil extract.  It helps the uterus contract strongly and reduces your chance of hemorrhage.  Boy, were those after birth pains intense!  I think many of my after birth pains during those first 24 hours were worse than the majority of my labor pains.  But after the first day, they died off to a minimal discomfort. 

It was wonderful to have my children there to witness the birth of their newest sibling.  I believe they felt very included by being part of such a special event.  Plus, with past births, my children could only visit the hospital for short periods of time and they were always anxious the entire time Nate and I stayed at the hospital.  This time they didn't have to be separated from their parents for 3 days.  It was so wonderful to go into labor at home and be able to move about and do what I wanted to do and needed to do for my labor.  Not being hooked up to monitors or an IV was fabulous!  It's so wonderful to hold your new baby and not have a sore IV port sticking out of your arm or hand.  One of the best feelings to is to crawl into your own bed with your new baby and husband and sleep like no other.  Sure, I had to wake up a few times to feed Contessa and change her diaper, but the sleep is so good compared to the hospital setting.  No nightly vital checks that always seem to occur in between feedings.  Just cozy sleep in your own bed.

And some of the best parts of home birth occur before and after the birth.  For the last 5 weeks of my pregnancy, my midwife came to my home for my weekly appointments.  It was wonderful not to drag my big ol' pregnant belly out in all kinds of weather for those weekly visits.  All of my appointments with Stacia were usually around an hour.  You never get that kind of time, care and attention from an OB.  And since I have had the baby, I have had three follow up appointments to check on Contessa and I at my house and I will still receive two more visits from her over the next few weeks.  I have to say the appointments at home have been one of the biggest blessings.

So that is my home birth story.  While I appreciate the special hospital births I have enjoyed, I know I will always treasure the comfort and experience of my first home birth.

Naturally Fermented Vegetable Medley

As we continue our journey deeper in the world of fermented foods, Nate and I decided we were ready for a little spice.  Our first batch of sauerkraut was a dud.  It got moldy because we didn't watch the liquid levels close enough.  So that batch had to go in the trash.  The second batch of kraut turned out and we have already eaten it all gone.  We are anxiously awaiting a batch of fermented garlic-dill pickles.  They should be ready any day now.  Because it is winter and the house is colder, the pickles are taking closer to four weeks to ferment fully.  I made a batch in the summer in only two weeks, thanks to the warmer temps.  Nate and I threw together this beautiful vegetable mix to get another batch of something fermenting since it is taking so much more time.  We mixed cauliflower, daikon radish, carrots, jalapenos and garlic.  Looking back I probably should have added onion, too, but there will be more vegetable crocks in the future.  While we wait anxiously for our pickles, we have been feeding our fermented food needs with Topor's pickles from the store.  I love them because they are naturally fermented and they are less than half the price of Bubbie's pickles.  I will try and keep you updated on all of our fermented adventures!

Other posts on naturally fermented foods:

Naturally Fermented Sauerkraut
Boost Your Immune System Naturally

Green Smoothies to Start the Year Off Right

So whether or not you took your nutritional typing test yesterday, the fact remains that the majority of Americans do not get enough vegetables, raw food or good fats in their diets.  Sometimes a little creativity and concentrated effort can make a big impact on your health.  As we made our way through all the goodies, cookies, candies and hot chocolate of December, I could feel my body caving from too many carbs and too much sugar.  I immediately felt that I needed to get back to my "green smoothie days."

In the past I have drank a lot of green smoothies at different times for both health and weight loss reasons.  I first started when Julius was 5 months old when I felt I was not dropping the baby weight like I wanted.  Not only have green smoothies helped me lose weight and feel full for a good portion of the morning, they make me feel wonderful and energized.  My biggest problem has been consistency.  I have mainly only consumed them during warmer months.  At the end of December, I decided I could not wait for warmer weather because my family and I needed them.  More recently I have also discovered many foods that I wanted to incorporate into our family's diet and smoothies seemed like a perfect spot to sneak them in.  So in between Christmas cookies and gum drops I actually managed to make smoothies for the family during Christmas vacation.  Since school has started back up we have been having smoothies every other day or every two days.  That way I get a break from making them and no body seems to tire of them.

What's a green smoothie, you ask?  It is a smoothie that consists of both fruits and vegetables.  Some smoothie enthusiast actually like and prefer all-vegetable savory smoothies.  But around here we like them sweeter, so we stick to a ratio of 60% fruit and 40% vegetable.  I'll give you a run down of what's in our smoothie and why we chose those ingredients.

Our typical smoothie ingredients are:

• banana
• frozen spinach
• frozen mango
• frozen strawberries
• chia seeds
• sesame seeds
• ground flax seed
• coconut oil, melted
• raw honey
• filtered water
• homemade plain yogurt

I have no tried and true recipes, I just have experimented some and have learned ratios that make everyone happy.  I try and put as little honey in as needed and let the fruit be the main source of sweetness, but if you are used to a sweeter smoothie, a raw, natural and unprocessed form of sweetener will help you along.  Over time you may find you need less and less for your tastes.

My biggest food priorities in the smoothie are:

• Coconut oil
• spinach (or some other type of green)
• chia seeds
• sesame seeds
• ground flax seeds

These foods are my priorities because I have a harder time finding ways to incorporate them into our daily meals.  Fruit, yogurt, honey and water are easy to get in and don't have near the health benefits of the other ingredients.  What makes the above foods so special?

Coconut oil falls into that mysterious wonder food category with so many health benefits (amazingly good saturated fat, helps weight loss, blood sugar control, has antiviral and antiseptic qualities) it is hard to comprehend.  Head on over to Organic Facts to read more. Spinach or similar greens are packed with Vitamin K and other minerals that help strengthen bones.  Too much attention has gone to calcium through the years, and research has found that calcium is a dud if it doesn't have the proper vitamins and minerals working with it.  Greens provide those necessary complimentary nutrients to calcium.  Spinach and coconut oil work well together because it is proven that eating vegetables with a good saturated fat allows the body to better digest the vegetable and get more nutrients from it.  Most people are deficient in Vitamin K, so for that reason alone, greens added to smoothies are a big plus.

I have long heard the benefits of ground flax seed.  It is high in B vitamins, Omega-3 fatty acids, fiber and phytonutrients.  It is also cheap and readily available because of it's current popularity, so it makes a nice addition to a smoothie without hurting the pocketbook too much.  I can also get sesame seeds very cheap at my health food store.  Sesame seeds are high in copper, magnesium, manganese, and calcium.  They also have a high phytosterol content which helps lower blood cholesterol,  improve heart health, enhance the immune system and decrease malignancies.  The last little addition to our smoothies is chia seeds.  I have only recently heard of their benefits and now you can too!

7 Good Reasons To Start Eating Chia Seeds

1. Help weight loss. Chia seeds are popular for weight loss. They reduce food cravings by preventing some of the food that you eat from getting absorbed into your system. This blockage of calorie absorption makes them a great diet helper.
2. Feel fuller faster: They can also help your diet by making you feel full. This is because they absorb 10 times their weight in water, forming a bulky gel.
3. Hydration for athletes: They are also great for athletes because the "chia gel" can hydrate the body.
4. Reduce your blood pressure: There's evidence to suggest they can reduce blood pressure.
5. Omega-3: They are the richest plant source of Omega-3 (the vital fats that protect against inflammation—such as arthritis—and heart disease). In fact, they contain more Omega-3 than salmon!
6. Benefits for diabetes: Because chia seeds slow down how fast our bodies convert carbohydrates into simple sugars, studies indicate they can control blood sugar. This leads scientists to believe chia seeds may have great benefits for diabetics.
7. They are easier to digest than flax seeds, and don't need to be ground up.

So there you have it.  This post is very long and probably overwhelming.  I know I haven't even begun to give justice to the true benefits of such amazing foods.  The key is just to start somewhere.  If I recall correctly my first green smoothie had romaine lettuce and pears in it.  I just kind of expanded from there.  Most people have either made or drank a smoothie at some point.  Start by taking your average, full fruit smoothie and adding a handful of greens to it.  If that goes well, a tablespoon or two of melted coconut oil goes in pretty unnoticed.  After that is accomplished, experiment by adding a tablespoon or two of a healthy seed.  If you are worried about the taste, maybe these pics of little people sucking down their green smoothies will convince you that they can be quite tasty if done right!

Free Nutritional Typing

I was pretty excited today when I saw on Dr. Mercola's website that he now offers his nutritional type testing for free.  I have been very intrigued by this concept, but didn't want to shell out the $30 just to take the test.  Well, now you don't! 

Dr. Mercola offers this testing because he believes people require different diets or forms of fuel to help their bodies run at their best.  Some people require much more protein and fat in their diets.  Others require many more vegetables.  If you have been frustrated with your health, weight or overall well-being, the test only takes a few minutes and could point you in the right direction to make the changes you want.  The cool thing is the test comes with two free downloads.  One is a booklet explaining the nutritional types in depth, and the other is a cookbook outlining tons of recipes for each nutritional type.  All good stuff if you ask me.

I've already taken my test.  I came out as a mixed typed.  I require a pretty even amount of fats, proteins and vegetables!  What type are you?  Head on over to mercola.com to find out!

Naturally Fermented Sauerkraut

With some of my birthday money, I purchased two 2-gallon stoneware crocks, perfect for fermenting.  Our first project in the crocks is sauerkraut.  Nate graciously took the bull by the horns on this one and shredded all the cabbage in the food processor and packed it in the crock with plenty of salt.  All  I really had to do was clean up and take pictures!  It should be ready any day now.  I am excited about this, not only because we are learning to do this ourselves, but I have been paying over $5 a jar for naturally fermented sauerkraut.  A whole head of cabbage is less than half of that, and I dare say we will get several jars from that.  Don't know the benefits of naturally fermented, probiotic foods?  Here are a few links to check out.

The Healing Power of Probiotics Impresses Researchers
Fermented Foods: Top 8 Reasons to Eat Them
Proactive Probiotic Foods
Baby Step: Eating Cultured and Fermented Foods

Enjoy the reading.  I will let you know how the kraut turns out!

Blogger Hiccups

Yesterday and today I have tried uploading some pics for a blog post, and blogger won't seem to let me.  So, I am left with my words only.  If you haven't noticed I rely heavily on pics for much of my blog content, lol!  So after wracking my brain for a few moments this morning, I figured I could give an update on our homeopathic results with the kids.

Teething - Gunnar seems to be in the thick of teething, so we have relied heavily on Hyland's Homeopathic Teething Tablets and Gentle Naturals Homeopathic Teething Drops this past week.  They seem to take the edge off.  I see an almost immediate improvement in his demeanor, as he tends to be quite ornery when teething.

Nightmares/Anxiousness - For the past several months, Julius has been struggling with bad dreams at night.  This then can take a turn for the worse, as he can become quite irrational and unreasonable in the middle of the night.  I think it is a combination of him not always being fully awake and that he is just scared to go back to sleep for fear of the dream returning.  He will go to extremes of crying and screaming, doing his best to not let himself fall back asleep.  We have been giving him Nature's Sunshine Stress-J Liquid Herbs.  Nate and I have probably appreciated these results the most, lol!  He is still waking up with scary dreams, but he is no longer throwing temper tantrums and crying in the middle of the night.  Praise the Lord!  Now, he just wakes up from the dream, we make him use the bathroom, sometimes we will give him some more of the herbs if he seems more agitated, and he goes back to sleep.  A few nights he has not even woke up.  Very good results.  Our nights have been much more peaceful.

Leg aches - Layla and Julius have both taken turns with some leg aches this past week. We have given them a smaller dose of Borion's Arnica Montana.  When we usually have used Tylenol or Motrin in the past for leg aches, it took 10 to 15 for the medicine to take effect so the kids could fall back asleep.  With the arnica montana both kids were back asleep in 3 minutes or less.  The one night Julius did wake up a few hours later complaining that his legs were hurting again and he required a second dose.  Unlike conventional medicines, you can give multiple doses of homeopathic meds with no toxic side effects.  Within a minute he was back to sleep.  Layla said the arnica took away the pain quickly.

Fever - Thankfully we have not had to use anything for fever.  I have Borion's Belladonna and Nu Age Ferrum Phos Tissue Salts on hand for the next time we need to treat a fever.  I have read good things about these and I trust we will get similar results to the what we have already experienced.

Hope this information is of any help to anyone out there.  We are happy with these alternative treatments we have tried and we have plans to pick up a few more remedies for things such as digestive issues, headaches and possible nightmares.  Have you tried alternative methods with any success?

A Different Way

I was becoming increasingly bothered about our rather frequent usage of Tylenol and Motrin for the kids.  While we tend to not treat fevers in our house until they get over 101, I was having to give the kids a pain reliever for either teething issues and leg aches on a pretty regular basis.  Uggh!  It was frustrating enough that I began to look into more natural alternatives.  This past week we purchased a few herbal and homeopathic remedies for anxiety, leg aches, teething and fevers.   Julius has been using some stress relieving herbs the past few days to help with his bad dreams and night time anxiousness.  The baby has been using the teething tablets and drops.  Last night when Julius woke with leg aches, we got to try the pain relieving remedy.  So far we have been pleased with the results and the Tylenol and Motrin have stayed in the medicine cabinet, only to be used for more emergency type situations.

If you have never looked into the concerns with Tylenol and Motrin, I encourage you to do so.  Not only have they had recent problems with contamination, but there is plenty of evidence of liver damage and other health concerns related to these medicines.  I appreciate these medicines' ability to reduce fever and treat pain, but because of their side effects, I would rather reserve them for times when other, more natural remedies are not effective.  If you are interested in more natural ways to treat yourself and your family, head on over to Keeper of the Home.  Stephanie and other contributing writers have written numerous articles this month on natural remedies, treatments and alternatives. 

As I stated earlier, we are just beginning to try out these natural methods, so I will try and keep you posted on how they are working over a longer period of time!

Boosting Your Immune System Naturally

While I don't have time to go into great depth on this subject, I thought I could at least bullet some ways to help boost your immune system. As we enter the fall/winter season, it seems that we become more vulnerable to colds, flues and other viruses. Dr. Mercola recently posted a video on many ways to naturally boost your immune system, so I thought I would share some of his tips. I respect the quality of his information and trust his opinion on most health topics. So here we go!

So, your throat may be feeling scratchy, or your stomach doesn't feel quite right. What do you do?

1. Eliminate sugars - Sugars are proven to impair your immune system, so at the first sign of symptoms, cut your sugars for a few days. This will give your immune system a hands up in fighting the infection.

2. Go to bed - Our immune systems function best when we get 6-8 hours of sleep. So if you aren't feeling so good, try not to burn the midnight oil for a few days. Do your best to minimize interruptions during the night(parents with young children, good luck!).

3. Deal with your stress - Research is showing that stress has a much bigger impact on our physical and mental health than we have ever before realized. While we can not eliminate stress completely, at the first signs of sickness, try and lessen your stress load. Delegate some responsibilities to others. Spend some time in prayer and relaxation. Turn off your cell phone, computer and TV for a few hours. Just let the unimportant things slide for a few days.

4. Probiotics - In our modern day society, new research is showing many people's bodies to be deficient in important good bacteria. This is due to our very sterilized food chain, overuse of antibiotics and antibacterial agents, and the lack of naturally fermented foods in the Western diet. A quality probiotic supplement or probiotic foods and drinks such as yogurt, kefir, kombucha and naturally fermented pickles, salsas and sauerkraut can deliver much needed good bacteria to your digestive tract. It is now believed that your digestive tract makes up 85% of our immune systems, so if we take care of our digestive health, we are taking care of our overall health.

5. Eat healthy, unprocessed foods - Again, to take care of our bodies, we need to be putting the good stuff in. Healthy unprocessed foods deliver the most nutrients to our immune systems, which provide the fuel to fight off infection and disease.

6. Vitamin C - While it is easy to get Vitamin C, many doctors in the natural health circles are recognizing the importance of taking Vitamin C that is derived from a natural, whole food source. Synthetic, isolated forms of Vitamin C are not as beneficial. Dr. Mercola stated that he prefers Vitamin C from Acerola cherries because they tend to have 80X the Vitamin C of other foods.

7. Oil of Oregano - This supplement is shown to be beneficial in fighting off infection. Dr. Mercola said to look for Oil of Oregano with a high concentration of carvacrol. The higher the carvacrol concentration, the greater the antimicrobial effects.

8. Olive Leaf Extract - Research shows that Olive Leaf Extract has amazing antimicrobial actions without any toxic side effects.

9. Elderflower Extract - It is shown to support your immune system.

10. Vitamin D3 - There is tons of amazing research on the effects of Vitamin D3. If you have the time, check it out for yourself. Dr. Mercola stated that a daily dose of Vitamin D3 produces 200 to 300 antimicrobial peptides, which is basically your body's natural antibiotics.

Dr. Mercola also stated that Peppermint powder and Yarrow are also affective in boosting your immune system among other natural supplements. His main recommendation was that all supplements need to be high quality, made with raw material and processed in a way that doesn't harm the useful qualities of the ingredients.

I thought that these were a good starting place for anyone looking for natural ways to help their immune systems. On a daily basis, whether we are healthy or sick, we drink Monavie(one of the blends that contains probiotics) and take a probiotic supplement or eat some form of probiotic food. When we get sick, I try and add some additional natural supplements to our diets to help us fight and recover from the infection. We have been utilizing many of these ideas, but I will definitely have to give a few more of them a try the next time we start getting sick. I hope these are helpful, but I pray you won't even have to use them because you will remain in excellent health!