Green Health

Home Remedies for Hives

Hives are very common, affecting around 20% of the population at some time, so there are many people searching for home remedies for hives. Hives or urticaria come in many types and can have many causes.  Often, the cause is the key to the treatment.  In many cases, hives are a reaction to allergy.  This may be a food allergy or a reaction to a substance in the environment.  Common foods that may cause allergy include shellfish, nuts, eggs, wheat, soy.  Hives caused by food allergy form very quickly and are usually easily traced back to the allergen.  If you are not sure what you may be allergic to, you can have a test at the dermatologist's office. Hives occur when the capillaries in the epidermis below the skin leak fluid.  The fluid gathers to form a hive or wheal below the skin.  In most cases, the body will reabsorb the fluid after a certain length of time and the hives disappear naturally.  However, this can take several weeks.  Some people even have chronic hives which never seem to go away.  In any case, while hives are present they are red, inflamed and often intensely itchy, so many people seek out home ...

Home Remedies for Poison Ivy

It is always worth knowing about home remedies for poison ivy.  You or your kids may come across this nasty plant at any time, and if you do not take action, it spreads.  So what is poison ivy and what can you do about it? Poison ivy and its friend’s poison oak and poison sumac contain a substance called urushiol which is responsible for the allergic reaction that most people have when they touch one of these plants.  Not everybody is susceptible; a few people are genuinely immune to urushiol.  However, in most cases the immunity will not hold through prolonged or repeated exposure.  Even if you don't react to poison ivy the first time you encounter it, you may the second, third or tenth time. The usual response is a rash that looks like hives, forming on any part of the skin that has been in contact with urushiol.  This is a greasy substance that stays on the skin and is easily transferred either to another part of the body or to another person, especially if it gets on the hands.  The rash often does not develop immediately but may take a few hours to several days to appear. So the first ...

Is There A Remedy For Stomach Flu?

Desperately seeking a remedy for stomach flu is natural if you are suffering from this depressing disease, whose technical name is viral gastroenteritis.  It is not really flu at all, but stomach flu makes you feel just as bad as any other type of flu, while at the same time you have vomiting, diarrhea or both. The good news about stomach flu is that the body will cure it within a few days.  Exactly how fast you can expect it to clear up depends on how healthy you are in general, and how you act when you have it, whether you take enough rest, for example. You probably will not want to eat when you have stomach flu.  You can go with your feelings on this and avoid solid food for the first day or until you are beginning to feel better.  When you start eating, begin with food that is easy to digest such as a nutritious soup, toast, rice or bananas.  Some foods should be avoided until you are completely well again.  These include dairy products (except live yogurt), spicy foods, processed foods, caffeine and alcohol. It is vital to drink plenty of liquid such as water or fresh fruit juice ...

Jet Lag Remedies

Looking for jet lag remedies?  There are times when you cannot afford to take time out after a trip, but need to be running right off the plane and keep running. Jet lag can take many forms.  Sometimes you are completely wiped out for a day or two after your long distance plane trip.  Other times you may feel fine for the first couple days, but just as you are thinking that it hasn't got you this time, it hits and messes up a whole week with sleepless nights and drowsy days. And it's not just sleep.  You may also have digestive disturbances, headaches and possibly some depression. The medical term for jet lag is desynchronosis.  It happens when there is disturbance to the natural circadian rhythms of the body that tell us when it is time to sleep and when it is time to be awake.  These relate to daylight and they are adjustable, so if we cross time zones in a car, for example, we usually do it slow enough for our body to adjust.  But a plane can cross several time zones in one day, and that can take a while to recover from. On average, the recovery time is about ...

Remedies for Tinnitus or Ringing In the Ears

There are almost as many remedies for tinnitus as there are causes of this debilitating condition.  Tinnitus is very common and while it may be a temporary condition associated with ear infections or other problems that can easily be cured, it is sometimes more serious. While it is often called 'ringing in the ears' it is not always experienced as a ringing sound.  It may be a hissing or buzzing sound.  It may be in both ears or just one.  It may be more noticeable at certain times of day.  Sometimes there is pain in the ear and sometimes there is not. The first thing to understand is that having tinnitus does not usually mean that you are going deaf.  While it is sometimes associated with hearing loss, there are many other causes too. These include: - Ear infections - High blood pressure - Low blood pressure - Allergies - Ear wax buildup - Thyroid problems - Stress As you can imagine, many of these conditions are easy to treat and the tinnitus will usually go away as soon as the problem is solved.  Some of them, like high blood pressure, can have serious consequences if untreated, so you should see a doctor to establish the cause and remedies for ...