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3 Natural Sunburn Remedies That You Can Find in Your Kitchen

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Summer is fast approaching! Even though many of us are still sheltering-in-place, getting outside and enjoying nature is one of the healthiest, most uplifting things you can do. We all know that too much sun can leave your skin damaged. I personally have to really guard against this because I’ve always been prone to sunburns. So let’s talk about how you can help your skin naturally if you get too much sun. But real quick, I want to let you know that I am offering a free webinar next week (Tools to Thrive During COVID & Beyond–see the details on the right under “upcoming events”).


 
Your skin has cells that produce melanin–a dark pigment that protects the skin from the ultraviolet rays. When you stay under the sun for a long time, your skin cells produce a lot more melanin–That’s how a tan happens.
 
But too much of anything is not good, right? Prolonged exposure to the UV rays causes damage to your skin cells’ DNA. Your skin cells can run into trouble when they can’t produce enough melanin quickly enough to protect you.
 
This can predispose you to sun damage, sunburns, and even possible skin cancer over time.
 
There are certain factors that affect the severity of your sunburn: your skin color and the harshness of the sun. It’s usually extremely hot during midday, so if you are fair-skinned, your skin can get sunburned even when you expose yourself to 10-15 minutes.
 
You may see redness on the sunburned area 3-4 hours after exposure to the sun because the blood vessels in your skin dilate. The increased supply of blood in your skin is an attempt to repair your damaged skin cells.
 
The best prevention for sunburn is to not overdo your sun exposure. Wear hats, protective clothing, and non-toxic sunblocks (we’ll talk more about this next week), but let me be clear, the sun is really good for your health in a lot of ways (bone health, heart health, immune system, etc). It’s not healthy to overdo sun exposure and get sunburned, so that’s what we want to avoid. And if you do get burned, here are three natural sunburn remedies that you can easily grab from your kitchen. Your skin will thank you for this!

Apple cider vinegar

Apple cider vinegar is made from fermented apple juice and contains 1-11% of acetic acid. Since it has antiseptic properties and a cooling effect, it soothes sunburns and speeds up the healing process.
 
You have to dilute it with water, though, so it doesn’t irritate your skin. There is no specific vinegar-to-water ratio, but if you tend to have sensitive skin it’s recommended to dilute it more. You can put the dilution in a spray bottle and spray it on your affected skin. You can also take a tepid bath with some apple cider vinegar mixed with the water.
 

Baking soda

Bicarbonate of soda is also antiseptic. It reduces itching and inflammation in sunburn. You can make a paste and apply it on your burned skin, or again, take a cool bath using water with a few handfuls of baking soda.
 

Oatmeal

There’s a reason why a lot of lotions and beauty products have oats in them. Oats have been long known to be one of the best home remedies because of their anti-inflammatory effects. Oatmeal applied on your burned skin can reduce inflammation and relieve pain.
 
The sunburn appearance may only be seen 24-36 hours after your exposure, but healing takes about 3-5 days. Make sure to soothe it well with those home remedies to speed up your skin’s recovery.
 
Stay tuned next week!  I’ll be giving natural sunscreen alternatives and more health care tips!
 
It is my passion to work with people like you whose health symptoms are getting in the way of you living life fully and with a sense of freedom in your body. I can help you to regain your health so you can feel great and free to enjoy life fully.
 
If you’re ready to discover where your best health has been hiding, I’d love to connect with you!
Apply for a complimentary Unstoppable Health Discovery Session. http://bit.ly/schedulinghealth (subject to availability).
Until next time, I’m wishing you unstoppable health!

~Rebecca

How to balance your immune teeter totter!

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Today I’d like to talk with you about in internal teeter totter you might not have even known you had…and that’s between your gut/immune system and your detoxification system.
Now, we could keep this simple or get really complex. I don’t know how you’re doing with our current pandemic, but chances are, your mental bandwidth is a bit tapped out at the moment, so I’d like to keep today’s health tip nice and simple.


 
You know by now that the gut is the root of your health. It’s where roughly 80% of your immune system is.

All your systems work together to keep you alive (and hopefully healthy). They all require energy to run. When one part is under more demand, your body will divert energy to deal with that increased demand. For example, if your body was working on detoxifying some chemicals that you had inhaled (i.e. pollution) and you all of a sudden accidentally cut yourself or fell down and hurt yourself, your body is going to shift priorities!

Likewise, if your body is busy building more white blood cells and addressing an infection and you take in toxins through your diet (i.e. sugar, processed flour, vegetable oils, pesticides), your body is going to shift some energy away from your immune system to address those toxins. Like a teeter totter, both sides aren’t going to be all the way up at the same time!

An action that you can take to balance and support your immune system right now is to reduce the work that your body has to do to detoxify by eliminating or limiting the amount of toxins coming into your body on a day by day basis.

3 tips to support your immune system teeter totter

  1. Drink plenty of filtered water daily. Water helps to flush toxins AND support your immune system…but not if it’s full of toxins. Check here for what toxins were tested in your local water supply.
  2. Eat clean, unprocessed food. Processed foods are full of energy-draining chemicals (trans fats, vegetable oils, sugar, food coloring, pesticides, synthetic additives)…and they are deficient in the vitamins and minerals your body needs to function properly. The more simple you can keep your food, the better. Eat whole foods rather than processed versions (chicken versus chicken nuggets).
  3. Set up mealtimes rather than eating all day. Digestion takes a lot of energy and your digestive system needs a break! If you are eating more often than every 3 hrs, you may need to make some adjustments to what you are eating. I know that in the past when I ate a lot of carbs and not enough fat (for my body), I was constantly hungry! When I tested myself and discovered that my body needed a different approach and then made those changes, I got much better results.

I hope that these tips are helpful for you to keep your body strong and healthy!
 
If you’re ready to discover where your best health has been hiding, I’d love to connect with you!
Apply for a complimentary Unstoppable Health Discovery Session. http://bit.ly/schedulinghealth (subject to availability).

Until next time, I’m wishing you unstoppable health!

~Rebecca

Potassium Broth for Immunity and More!

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With the threat of the corona virus going around, I want to share with you a simple recipe to boost your immunity. Potassium broth is a powerful elixir to promote your immune health.
 
Potassium is an electrolyte that works together with sodium to regulate your fluid balance, control your heart rhythm and blood pressure, regulate digestion, and maintain nerve impulses, muscle contractions and pH balance.

 

With that being said, potassium is very important for your body to maintain its vital functions. Lack of potassium results in fatigue, weakness, and constipation. These symptoms can go worse to paralysis, respiratory failure, and painful gut obstructions.
 
Since your body doesn’t produce potassium, you should be getting it from your diet. It is recommended that adults consume 4,700 mg of potassium per day. Sadly, though, less than 2% of Americans meet the RDA.
 

Potassium Sources

You can take potassium supplements, but food sources are healthier. The best food sources of potassium are fresh foods (versus canned or processed).
There are a lot of foods that contain potassium:

  • Bananas, oranges, and avocados
  • Parsley
  • Mushrooms
  • Cucumbers
  • Peas
  • White beans
  • Sweet potatoes
  • Potatoes
  • Lentils
  • Lima beans 


Potassium Broth Benefits

Another way to get potassium is potassium broth.

Potassium broth can:

  • Strengthen your immune system.
  • Help prevent you from catching colds and flu (and get over them more quickly). 
  • Fights cancer and diseases.Potassium broth is prepared from vegetables that contain phytochemicals, chemical compounds in plants other than vitamins and minerals. These phytochemicals serve as the plants’ defense against predators, pathogens and competitors. If they can do so for themselves, it means they can also fight pathogens and diseases in our body.
  • Rejuvenates and hastens recovery. Moms who have just given birth or people who have been ill or just came out of surgery need this tonic to regain their energy and aid them back to health.
  • Prevents muscle weakness, twitching, and cramps. For pregnant women and the elderly, leg cramps are very common. A sip of potassium broth every night is a great home remedy for this problem.

A not-so-secret ingredient to increase the absorption of potassium and minerals in the gut is a tablespoon of liquid whey in a cup of potassium broth (omit if you are sensitive to dairy).

Now here are 3 potassium broth recipes you don’t wanna miss:

It is my passion to work with people like you whose health symptoms are getting in the way of you living life fully and with a sense of freedom in your body. I can help you to regain your health so you can feel great and free to enjoy life fully.

If you’re ready to discover where your best health has been hiding, I’d love to connect with you!
Apply for a complimentary Unstoppable Health Discovery Session. http://bit.ly/schedulinghealth (subject to availability).

Until next time, I’m wishing you unstoppable health!

~Rebecca