The humble cranberry, which is a close relative of the blueberry, is a small red berry with a tart flavour that for years was almost exclusively used as the basis for a sweet sauce to accompany roast turkey or chicken.
However, this small berry is packed full of goodness, not the least of which are powerful antioxidants, which help in the fight against cancer.
Cranberries, or the juice made from them also contain an antibacterial agent called hippuric acid along with other compounds that reduce the ability of E. coli bacteria to adhere to the walls of the urinary tract. This reduces the chances of contracting urinary tract and kidney infections enormously.
There are other lesser known qualities of cranberries.
It also acts as a powerful natural antibiotic and in the case of urinary tract and kidney infections has been used successfully to replace standard antibiotics.
The October 2004 issue of the Journal of Science, Food and Agriculture published studies that show that a phytonutrient isolated from cranberries is effective against the herpes simplex virus (HSV-2), the cause of genital herpes. The antiviral compound proanthocyanidin A-1 found in cranberries, inhibits the attachment and penetration of the herpes virus in a similar manner to the way it prevents urinary tract infection by E.coli. It has to be noted that tests have not as yet been trialed on human subjects.
Cranberries also have the ability to act as a natural probiotic, supporting the health-promoting friendly bacteria that grow in the human gastro-intestinal tract while at the same time killing off the bacteria that create infections and food-borne illnesses.
Further studies have found that compounds isolated from cranberry juice dissolved the aggregates formed by many oral bacteria and were effective in reducing the level of Streptococus mutans in saliva, which is the major cause of tooth decay.
The quinic acid found in cranberry juice is not broken down in the body but is left unchanged in the urine. The slight rise in acidity level has been found to help prevent the formation of kidney stones.
More test tube research has shown that the antioxidants contained in cranberries could protect LDL cholesterol from oxidation. Animal research has provided evidence that cranberries can also decrease the levels of total cholesterol and LDL (low density or “bad” cholesterol) while at the same time increasing levels of HDL (high density, or “good” cholesterol). A recent human study has also corroborated these positive results.
Enough reasons, then, to go out and buy some delicious cranberry juice and make a point of drinking a glass a day. Preferably in place of orange juice, for reasons I’ll go into in a future post.
Ok, I can hear you thinking “…but Vicks isn’t natural at all…”
Well, that’s true but this is such an off the wall use for the stuff, I just had to add this, because I have it on good authority (my partner!) that it works. And it is definitely alternative!
An alternative cure for night-time coughs!
If you have ever suffered from this incredibly annoying complaint, you’ve probably consumes gallons of powerful so-called cough remedies and mixtures and then spent all night coughing away like a forty-a-day smoker! Well, my partner went through all the usual attempts at stopping the cough but nothing even came close until one night she was recommended by a friend to try Vicks.
The way to use it is to rub the stuff liberally on the soles of your feet and then put on a pair of thick socks - wool is best! Then go to bed as normal.
Where before this, the cough started up as soon as my partner laid down and continued unabated until she finally got up in the middle of the night so sit drinking herbal tea, this time the cough lasted for about five minutes then stopped. For the whole night!
This alternative cure has been repeated since and has worked every time. No one knows quite why this works, but it does and it’s completely safe to use. This is so much better for your children than giving them strong cough medicine that could contain dangerous chemicals. As a completely safe alternative cure for night coughs, Vicks is a winner!
So next time your child has a fit of the night coughs, put some Vicks on their feet and give them (and you) a sound night’s sleep!
I know I’ve already blogged about green tea some time ago, but I feel that this mini series of posts about natural remedies wouldn’t be complete without at least giving it a mention.
Green tea has several health benefits that we in the West are only just beginning to understand. It’s main benefit is in it’s powerful antioxidants and their ability to knock out cell damaging and carcinogenic free radicals, thereby reducing our risk of contracting various forms of cancer.
The other benefits can be read about in my previous post - here’s the link if you don’t want to bother trying to find it: Green Tea
What I will go into in a little more detail in this post are the benefits I can personally see after weaning myself off black tea and coffee and substituting them with three or four cups of green tea throughout the day. At first I found it a little strange drinking green tea and tended to brew it quite weak at first. But as I got used to the taste, I began brewing it stronger and after a few days was quite happy to leave the teabag in the cup while I drank the tea, thereby getting the full health benefits of the tea.
Sitting in front of a computer for long hours can get tiring on the one hand and make the body tense on the other due to the static sitting position and repetitive movements of the arms and hands.
I’ve found that drinking green tea not only helps me concentrate better, thanks to the moderate level of caffeine, but it also relaxes me. So when I do stop working to get up and walk around, I don’t feel so stiff. The aches and pains that seemed to have crept in with age have definitely been reduced quite considerably.
As I’m not doing much else differently than I always have, I can only attribute that improvement in my own state of health to the drinking of green tea. So from personal experience over the last few weeks, I can say with confidence that green tea has improved my health, my ability to concentrate for longer and helped to relax me better.
So ditch the coffee and switch to green tea. It is so much better for you!
Well, more to the point, what have I done with this blog?
If that’s left you scratching your head, then I’ve done a good job of it.
Why?
Because you can’t see the join! Let me explain…
This idea’s been simmering away inside my brain for a while now and I finally decided to stop simply thinking about it and go ahead and do it!
Do what?
Move the blog, of course.
Move it where, exactly?
That’s what I hope you’re thinking. I’ve moved it to the homepage of this website. But I’m hoping nobody noticed… It should have been a nice smooth, transparent slide from it’s old home at www.alt-cures.com/blog to its new home at www.alt-cures.com - in other words I dropped the original static homepage of this website in favour of this very un-static blog to welcome new visitors to the site.
Why?
Well, a static homepage can get a bit boring. Once you’ve read it, that’s it. It’s been read and it probably won’t change for a month of Sundays. So apart from it being a welcome to this website page, it doesn’t do much else. My idea was to make the entry page of this site into an interesting, constantly updated, readable and entertaining webpage. And the best way of doing that was to make it a blog. This blog!
But as a reader of this blog, it shouldn’t make any difference to you where it is, as long as you can find it, right? So I’ve kept the old url and made it a redirect to this page, so you’ll always be able to find it again without updating your bookmarks. You have bookmarked this page, haven’t you? Only kidding!
So I’ve taken a short break from the Natural Remedy Tips to bring you this earth-shattering news that you probably couldn’t care less about, but that’s ok. It’s really just in case you noticed the page name was a bit different. I’ll post the next Natural Remedy Article very soon, so do come back and have a look!
Terry Didcott is a qualified hypnotherapist and web designer among other things, but what truly inspired him to create this website was his life changing experience about thirteen years ago. Read the full article HERE
