The healing powers of vinegar

It's cheap and may not be glamorous, but the vinegar you put on your salad can protect against heart disease and cancer, and even help us age more slowly.

Vinegar not only tastes great on chips, dresses up a salad and makes glassware sparkle, but it is also a storehouse of important vitamins, minerals, essential amino acids and enzymes and has a host of amazing healing powers.

New research means doctors and scientists are calling it one of the 'functional' foods - foods that are not only nutritious but help prevent and protect against disease.

Follow this guide for the type that's right for you.

Apple Cider

This vinegar, available in supermarkets and health food shops, is the most potent and health-giving of all vinegars.

It contains the same important nutrients as apples - including pectin, beta-carotene and potassium - plus enzymes and amino acids formed during the fermentation process.

Its high potassium content encourages cell, tissue and organism growth, and the enzymes help boost chemical reactions in the body.

It also contains calcium, which maintains healthy bones, helps transmit nerve impulses and regulates muscle contraction, and iron, essential for healthy blood. Magnesium is another component, with many beneficial effects on the body, especially the heart.

Low potassium levels can make us feel permanently tired, and potassium-rich foods help prevent age-related illness.

It also enables the stomach to produce hydrochloric acid, which aids digestion. We lose acid as we age, but apple cider vinegar can help prevent common digestive disorders as we get older.

Red wine

Red wine vinegar has been used for centuries as a cure-all, and its benefits are now being confirmed by scientific research.

It has even been credited with helping the Roman army succeed.

Latin historian Spartianus apparently recorded that vinegar mixed with water was the drink that helped soldiers survive battle, as well as the various alien climates they encountered.

Medical experts agree that the healthier you are, the younger your body stays. Not only is red wine vinegar full of anti-ageing antioxidants, it is cholesterol free, sodium free, and fat free.

Without doubt it can help stave off age-related ailments such as heart disease and cancer.

Like wine itself, red wine vinegar is flavanoid-rich and can help lower your cholesterol levels, which again lessens the risk of heart attacks, strokes and high blood pressure.

Vinegar acts as a substitute for salt, and a low fat, low sodium diet is important for a healthy heart as we get older.

Red wine vinegar adds flavour to low-fat, heart-healthy foods such as beans, vegetables, fruit, pasta and whole grain cereals.

Balsamic and herbs

In Italian 'balsamico' means balm and in previous centuries, balsamic vinegar was used as a gargle, tonic and air purifier against the plague.

Traditionally it was made from Trebbiano grapes allowed to ripen until they are supersweet on the hills around Modena, Italy.

High in antioxidants and potassium, it also makes a particularly tasty vinaigrette.

Its sweet, full flavour means it can even be used over vanilla ice cream.

Thyme vinegar

This vinegar contains iron, magnesium, silicon and thiamine and acts as an antiseptic and general healing tonic. It can subdue coughing and relieve intestinal ailments.

Oregano vinegar

This is both antiseptic and anti-inflammatory. It kills bacteria, viruses, fungi and other germs and fights cold and flu.

Sage vinegar

Recommended for the gum disease gingivitis and sore throats, due to its natural astringent and antiseptic properties.

Rosemary vinegar

This contains extra calcium, magnesium and potassium, all of which help balance fluids surrounding nerves and heart tissue. Rosemary may also help to lower blood pressure.

Ten more therapeutic uses

1. Heal burns: To minimise inflammation and swelling, apply apple cider vinegar straight out of the bottle to burns. It should also help alleviate smarting and soreness and prevent blisters.

2. Clear congestion: Inhale the vapour from a steaming pot of water containing several spoonfuls of apple cider vinegar.

3. Lose a headache: For a tension headache, dampen a cloth with herbal vinegar, put it on your forehead and lie down. For migraine, mix equal parts of vinegar and water in a pan and bring to a boil. Lean your head over the pan and inhale for 75 breaths.

4. Soothe a sore throat: Gargle with a 50-50 solution of warm water and vinegar.

5. Relieve sunburn: Apply cold vinegar compresses to sunburned skin to relieve discomfort and prevent blisters. antiseptic properties. (Pregnant women should avoid it.)

6. Stop hiccups: Sip a glass of warm water mixed with a teaspoon of vinegar.

7. Swat insect stings: Make a paste from vinegar and cornstarch and apply directly to insect bites or bee stings, but not wasp stings.

8. Alleviate athlete's foot: Rinse feet several times a day with plain, herbal or apple cider vinegar. The acid content of the vinegar helps stop fungus growth and relieves itching.

9. Fight off night sweats: For menopausal night sweats, or sweats caused by flu, try sponging yourself down with apple cider vinegar before going to bed.

10. Avoid morning sickness: Drinking a glass of water containing a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar, first thing in the morning, should alleviate early pregnancy nausea, and is safe for the baby.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-37317/The-healing-powers-vinegar.html

How to Heal a Cold Sore Quickly

Abstract: A number of home remedies to get rid of cold sores using household herbs.

"Applying ice as soon as you feel that first tingle or itch will greatly reduce or delay the cold sore."

Detail: Cold sores are caused by the herpes simplex virus. The first infection may have the symptoms of swollen glands, a general feeling of being unwell and painful mouth ulcers.

Subsequent attacks occur mostly when the person is run down and they start with a tingling and itch on an area around the lips and nostrils, then tiny blisters appear. These blister break and weep. They then crust over and gradually disappear. Scratching will spread the virus and it can lead to a bacterial infection. The virus lives permanently in the nerve endings of many adults and children.Cold sores or Lip Herpes are contagious and care should be taken not to spread them to other parts of the body or to other people.

There are several cold sores home remedies that are known to be effective. Individuals who are prone to having cold sores should benefit from these natural cures. Treating cold sores should be taken seriously because they can cause a great deal of pain and discomfort.

The following may activate the virus:

Poor diet (even if only in the short term), dietary triggers such as chocolate and peanuts, mental or physical stress and fatigue, rubbing or chafing of the skin, illness, menstruation, depleted immunity or being 'run down'.

What you can do to treat cold sores

Knowing how to heal a cold sore quickly could be critically important if you have an important event in the near future.

There is no good time to have a cold sore. But why do cold sores always seem to happen at the very worst possible time?

Most often, cold sores occur because of physical or mental stress. Anxiety about an upcoming wedding, job interview, or other special event in your life will create stress. This stress will affect your pH balance, your hormones, and your immune system. Quite often illnesses such as cold and flu will also trigger a cold sore.

The herpes virus has an early warning system because it lives in your nerve cells. It can sense the slightest change in your temperature, stress levels, immune strength, and pH balance. When the conditions are favorable, the virus will head to the surface along your nerve fibers. Once at the surface, it will create new virus through its replication procedure thus producing the cold sore blister.

Your body knows how to heal a cold sore and will do so without any additional help or expensive cold sore treatment. Provided you do not get a secondary bacterial infection, the duration of your cold sore could be three to four weeks. If you are like me, you do not want to suffer that long. The quicker you heal your cold sore, the sooner you can get on with your life.

The cold sore virus needs three things to successfully replicate.

1. The virus needs plenty of arginine in the cell.

Arginine is a protein that is a critical building block for creating new herpes viruses. Lysine, another protein, has proven helpful in healing and preventing cold sores. Lysine does this by replacing some of the arginine in the cells, thus reducing or preventing the cells ability to create clones of the virus.

Basically, if the herpes virus gets to the surface and cannot find enough arginine in the cells, it often retreats. Many folks eat high lysine foods prior to or during a cold sore event, and avoid high arginine foods. For many folks, healing cold sores fast has been as simple as taking 1,000 milligrams to 3,000 milligrams of lysine in capsule supplements during an outbreak.

High lysine foods to eat are most meats and dairy products. Cheese, milk and yogurt are excellent. High arginine foods to avoid would be nuts, seeds, grains, and chocolate. You need to find your own personal balance here for healing cold sores.

2. The cold sore virus also needs a warm, moist environment.

Applying ice as soon as you feel that first tingle or itch will greatly reduce or delay the cold sore. Delaying the cold sore just a few days can get you through that important event. Any cold object will do - such as a can of Coke. The quicker, the better.

3. The herpes virus prefers an acid environment.

When in tip-top health, your pH balance should be around 7.4, which is slightly alkaline. When it drops below 7 on the pH scale, then your system is turning acid. Any stress, flu, colds, or too much sun will cause your body to move toward the acid side of normal. Avoid eating acid foods, such as tomatoes, citrus, carbonated soda or anything with vinegar if it will touch the cold sore area. You want nothing acid around that sore. Following this rule alone for healing a cold sore, along with continual cleaning of the wound with alcohol or hydrogen peroxide, could cut your cold sore healing duration by 50%.

When treating cold sores it is important to boost the immune system - thus assisting the body to combat the virus.

• Cleanse your body of toxins so that the immune system is able to function at its best.
• Make sure that you eat a diet with plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables including broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, brussel sprouts and kohlrabi, garlic and onion, chili, ginger, sprouted seeds and beans and use cold pressed seed and vegetable oils. These all assist the immune system.
• Have plenty of garlic or use a garlic supplement or other natural antibiotic such as olive leaf extract or grapefruit seed extract.
• Take vitamin C (specifically calcium ascorbate - this is a non-acidifying vitamin C).
• Take a good multivitamin and mineral supplement.
• Manage your stress levels. Progressive relaxation and creative visualisation will be of assistance with stress anxiety or depression. There are also many herbal remedies that you can use to deal with stress.
• Direct application of lemon balm or extract is also one of the cold sores home remedies. Lemon balm or extract is effective in reducing the symptoms associated with these. Furthermore, lemon extract has properties that are known to help increase the healing process of blistered skin.
• Salt can also relieve and treat cold sores. Using your slightly moistened index finger, apply common fine salt directly on the cold sores by gently pressing on them for about 30 seconds. Pressing the fine salt on the affected area can help you treat the blisters more effectively. To achieve faster relief, follow up this procedure with application of aloe vera or any topical oil directly over the area.
• One of the commonly used cold sores home remedies is ice. Application is simple. Apply ice along the affected area. Treat them by slowly rubbing the ice for a few minutes to the infected area of the skin. Repeat application every hour.

The following herbs will support your immune system and should be taken in conjunction with the recommendations above:

echibacea, golden seal, cleavers, plantain, bayberry, burdock, huang qi, nettle, wormwood, calendula, myrrh, poke root, dandelion root, licorice

The following herbal formula will be most useful:

• 2 parts cleavers
• 2 parts echinacea
• 1 part oats
• 1 part poke root

Combine all the ingredients. Take 1 teaspoon of the herb blend and place into a suitable sized saucepan and add one cup of boiling water. Allow this to stand for 10-15 minutes. Strain out the herbs. Drink 1 cup of this tea twice per day.

The following can also be applied externally:

A lotion of echinacea with or without myrrh.

You can also try melissa oil, lavender oil, calendula tincture, myrrh tincture, and golden seal tincture.

Another choice for cold sores home remedies are tea bags. Simply apply the tea bag on blistered skin within several minutes. Repeat after one hour. Doing this on an hourly basis maximizes its effect. Modify this method by gently pressing the warm bag over the affected area or blisters for about half an hour.

Cold sores are an infection of the herpes simplex virus. They are an indication that the immune system is not functioning as effectively as it could. These are many things that you can do to deal with cold sores but the most important are to cleanse the body of toxins and boost immunity.

http://www.disabled-world.com/medical/alternative/homeremedies/cold-sore-remedies.php