Kombuchat

This Congressman wants everyone to meditate

Representative Tim Ryan, of Ohio, engages in a practice that helps him get through the tougher congressional sessions: meditation.

According to Rep. Ryan:

Properly used, he said, it could lower blood pressure, improve children’s test scores and help veterans returning from the war cope with post-traumatic stress disorder. He even cites studies indicating that it can help people speed recovery from psoriasis, a common and sometimes debilitating skin condition.

The Representative sees meditation as the key to helping out Americans. He’s since published a book on the subject, and hopes to encourage more to pick up the practice of meditation and find ways to infuse it into their daily lives.

So, whether on the floor of Congress or on the floor of a yoga studio—there are places across the country where meditation is being embraced.

What does WebMD have to say about Kombucha?

As an ancient tea, Kombucha has been used to treat a variety of medical ailments for centuries.  Now that it’s regaining popularity, some of these cures are being rediscovered.

Kombucha is so widely regarded as a healthy supplement that it’s featured on WebMD, who shows that it’s used for:

memory loss, premenstrual syndrome (PMS), joint pain(rheumatism), aging, loss of appetite, AIDS, cancer, high blood pressure, constipation, arthritis, and hair regrowth. It is also used for increasing white cell (T-cell) counts, boosting the immune system, and strengthening the metabolism. Some people apply kombucha tea directly to the skin for pain.

Gee, it seems like there are few things kombucha is not used for.

Personally: it helps me to settle my stomach, relax, relieve headaches, and provides a slight energy boost similar to a cup of coffee (without the jittery feeling and the caffeine dependency).  I usually drink a full glass of water with it as well, because it’s a pretty strong diuretic.  I’ve even used it as face toner when I ran out, and it worked in a pinch (I haven’t heard this elsewhere, but the chemical balance of the ‘buch works out better than just pure rubbing alcohol).

even facemasks!

It’s clear that there are so many uses for kombucha. What do you use it for, and how has it helped you?

Do back pain steroids cause meningitis?

Meningitis, a fast-spreading and painful illness, is sweeping the country due to “a tainted steroid used to treat back pain — that has sickened more than 400 people in 19 states and killed at least 31”.

Back pain treatments are becoming more and more common, and pharmacological cures are more often being sought.

Now that the steroid has been recalled, many people are turning to non-invasive treatments, such as chiropractic treatments, to heal the pain.

The statistics over back pain are dire:

[it’s} the second most common neurological ailment in the United States behind headaches, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. More than a quarter of adults experienced lower back pain in the last three months, according to a recent report by the National Center for Health Statistics.

As a result, traditional chiropractic methods were pushed aside in favor of injectable treatments, like steroids.

Since the outbreak, steroid treatments have dropped dramatically in usage, and back pain sufferers are rediscovering chiropractors to drug-free and pain-relieving result.

Gallbladder problems? Try this cure…

Apple cider vinegar is known for a variety of pain relief.

One blogger, Nancy Ging, notes how it helped her overcome severe stomach pain, which well-known naturopathic doctor, Dr. Jean Layton, attributed to low stomach acid and gallbladder blockage:

[Dr. Layton] quickly noted a pattern, informed me that my stomach wasn’t producing enough acid, and said the result was that protein molecules were not being broken down into small enough pieces, and the overly large pieces were obstructing my gall bladder…
“You just need to take a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar diluted in a little water before each meal,” she said.

And the result?

According to Nancy: “It’s been nearly two years since I started taking the vinegar, I haven’t had a single recurrence of the attacks. From my point of view it’s been miraculous.”

To get the benefits of Apple Cider Vinegar, you don’t even need to take it in straight spoonfuls.  In fact, Nancy uses it in a recipe for sweet-and-sour sauce as a substitute for rice or other vinegars.

It’s another testimonial to the health benefits of ACV. Sometimes, when traditional treatments (heartburn medications and the like) just don’t work, ACV may be the solution to give you some relief.

You won’t believe this amazing use for Apple Cider Vinegar

Many apocryphal claims of vinegar’s historical benefits exist.

Hannibal used it to dissolve limestone rocks, allowing his troops a victory against Rome in 218 BC.

During the Dark Ages, four French graverobbers avoided catching the plague due to inhaling vinegar beforehand.

These claims may be far-fetched, but there is a great deal of fact to vinegar’s health benefits.

For blood sugar:

Dr. Carol Johnston at Arizona State University has shown that a couple of teaspoons a day may help improve blood-sugar control in Type 2 diabetics. It seems acetic acid inhibits some of the enzymes that digest sugar and starches, meaning that these are more likely to pass through the digestive tract without being absorbed and therefore have less of an impact on blood sugar.

For fat loss:

In a properly controlled double-blind study of 155 obese patients, [Dr. Tomoo Kondo and the Central Research Institute in Japan found] that about four teaspoons of vinegar a day over three months resulted in a weight loss of about a kilogram, and a reduction in waist size of about 1.5 centimetres.

We’re in an obesity crisis.  What’s little spoken of is the fact that we’re also in a diabetes crisis, with Type II diabetes reaching epidemic proportion and growing with the same persistence as obesity.

Imagine if Apple Cider Vinegar helped just 10% of people lose weight and control blood sugar.  It would be the safest, most successful health product on the market.

Of course, regulatory authorities have cracked down on vinegar’s claims as a cure all.

But the testimonials are out there. Apple cider vinegar has provided a great number of people with relief.

And it’s about as cost-effective as cures come.

Don’t take THIS woman’s kombucha

We love our Kombucha.

We invest time and energy (if we make it at home) or money (if we buy it at the store into it). We’re devotees. We’re evangelists for its health and wellness benefits.

But suppose somebody just…up and left with our ‘buch?

How far would we go to spite the existence of its stealer? How much would it zotz our Zen?

This woman provides a window into the probiotic-addled mind when she noticed someone took her kombucha from the office fridge, with a series of…office-wide emails.

First, some mild hexes upon the heister:

I hope that you do NOT achieve the re-energizing that you sought. And that the bottle exploded on you and your clothes as you opened it.

Then, some idle threats:

Whoever you are, I certainly hope that you are overrun with probiotics to the extent that you get thrush-mouth from having binged on my Kombucha(s.)

And finally, outright promises of violence:

You ought to know that I have been dubbed the person most likely to kick someone’s ass, by a member of senior management who shall remain anonymous.

Eventually, she relents as someone not only leaves her a kombucha on her desk (after threatening email number three) but a kombucha starter kit as well.

Would you have reacted similarly if someone burglarized your ‘buch?

 

Kid brings kombucha to school…you won’t believe what happens next

The Kombucha Wars are in full swing.

The most recent battleground: Ensign Intermediate School in Newport Beach, CA.

The offender: an 11-year old, seventh-grade boy.

The offense:

having a glass bottle in his lunchbox on Oct. 9. School officials noticed that the label on the bottle of fermented tea said it contained less than 0.5 percent alcohol by volume. District policy states that anyone who possesses products with even trace amounts of alcohol could be subject to discipline.

The punishment?

the boy was questioned by the vice principal the next day, with a school resource officer from the Newport Beach Police Department present. The boy was told that the consequences of possessing alcohol could include a referral to a program to treat youth substance abuse. The vice principal initially recommended a five-day suspension, but officials later decided against any such punishment.

The reaction:

The mother met with the vice principal, Mary Jo Vecchiarelli, later that day, but it didn’t go well. ‘My meeting with her made me feel, ridiculous, confused, outraged, ridiculed and blamed,’ the mother wrote on her own blog, called Fresh and Free in OC…After the meeting with the vice principal, Leslie G. took her story to Sarah Pope, who writes the Healthy Home Economist blog. Pope’s blog post Friday unleashed her army of readers. It has generated 19,000 Facebook “shares” and nearly 400 comments on the post alone, many of them brimming with outrage for the school administrators and their actions.

My verdict:

The kid gets treated like some kind of deviant–all because he brought a bottle of tea to school.  How much time out of the Vice-Principal’s day did this cost?  How much money are we wasting on this?

It’s another ridiculous overreaction by a school. Keeping a kid out of class for a day for a BS reason like this is proof positive that schools are becoming less and less about learning and more and more about behavioral control.

Let the kid have his ‘buch!

Does your child need a chiropractor?

The latest thing after school activity for your kids may be a trip to your friendly neighborhood chiropractor.

Childhood illnesses like the sniffles, ear infections, and sinus problems are now being treated by chiropractors, who use gentle pressure to help kids get back to tip top shape.

The key is to not use heavy, manipulating pressure, but pressure “so gentle it’s almost like the pressure you would put on a tomato to dent it”.

According to chiropractors, they “want the body to do what it needs to do to heal itself”, and kids can also benefit from their therapy.

Pregnant moms also can benefit from going to the chiropractor. According to Dr. Lona Cook, “[t]he spinal development of the baby while it’s in the mom’s tummy and obviously if the baby is positioned correctly…[it] betters the baby developing [in] the mom.”

Always check with your local chiropractor and pediatrician to make sure it’s safe for your kids to attend.

What is Kombucha?

Whether you’re a newcomer to the ‘buch or a seasoned, fermenting veteran, it’s nice to know exactly what kombucha is and what it can do for you.

Kombucha is, essentially, “fermented green or black tea comprised of…organic acids, vitamins, minerals, enzymes and nutrients.” It’s known as a “probiotic” because it “contains healthy bacteria in the form of Lactobacillus Acidophilus, as well as a dozen other probiotic strains.”

The touted benefits of kombucha are that it “improves digestion, boosts energy, improves circulation, prevents acid reflux, improves sleep, and it boosts the immune system”.

When making kombucha at home, you’ll notice people calling a large mass of matter at the top of the jar a “mushroom”. In actuality, this is “cellulose which ultimately accumulates on the surface layer and actually forms like a gasket on the surface, which is almost completely impervious”. These “mushrooms” can be used to produce batches of kombucha time and time again.

Known as the “Wonderdrink” in Russia, studies in the early 1900s showed that “people consuming kombucha…had no instances of cancer, and had healthy immune systems”.

There exists a deep fissure in the kombucha kommunity over bottled vs. homemade/locally-produced; locally-produced advocated argue that “[m]ainstream kombucha available on store shelves are all pasteurized, therefore killing off all the beneficial bacteria.”

No matter how you drink it, one thing’s for sure: kombucha can be a stellar addition to your everyday diet.

kombucha