Recently I heard that a family member in her early 50s was being seen by a doctor for DVT and that she was hoping that there was a more natural way of dealing with it than the medications her doctor was prescribing. When I had digested this scrap of family ''information,'' I thought about my own lax position (denial, really) and how it would make sense for me to make some changes in my life while I still have some shreds of health and potential fitness. And, of course, I have inherited my mother's compulsive pop reading habit (in my case, the Internet mostly). So, I decided to research and write an article that would incorporate some preventative and alternative health principles into my life that might make DVT somewhat less likely to catch up with me than is likely the case now. I would also like to see our family member above and others benefit from these principles if they decide that they want to. Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is a critical health concern that af
When I was a young girl I seem to remember my grandmother talking about "a poultice". To my ear it sounded like something to do with the "milk toast" that was part of Grandma's comfort food outlay when children were sick. I have no idea where the association came from between 'poultice' (A soft, moist mass of material, typically of plant material or flour, applied to the body to relieve soreness and inflammation)and 'milk toast' (a soft, milky mass of white toast and warm milk, butter, and sugar applied to sick children to relieve them of hunger and boredom). But just recently I began to be interested in the idea of poultices again. That is not to say that before this current interest I haven't read a little about poultices, seen some simple ones demonstrated, and even tried my hand a messy one or two myself. I have. The operative word has always been "messy". My husband and I use activated charcoal for a number of sit