7 Ways to Get Your Home Clean Without Harsh Chemicals

250+ Examples of Natural Remedies Beating Pharmaceuticals

You hear a lot about 'natural healing' these days, but did you know that a sizable body of scientific literature actually supports the idea that natural medicine is safer and more effective than conventional, drug-based medicine? 

One of the greatest if not the greatest triumph of biomedical science today is its role in validating ancient healing modalities that long before the advent of science, and even recorded history itself, were passed down "orally" from generation to generation in the vast body of folkloric medical knowledge that still forms the basis for the majority of the world's primary health care system.

These so-called "natural" or "alternative" modalities, which our species owes its present day survivorship to after eons of dependency on them, are increasingly gaining the attention of men and women in white lab coats intent on unlocking the mysteries of how they work, and in many cases, why they work better than patented, synthetic, chemical-based medications.

As you may already know, at GreenMedInfo.com, we now have over 10,000 database sectionsdedicated to finding scientific support for natural alternatives, with six main indexes: Natural Substances, Ailments, Therapeutic Actions, Problematic Actions, Pharmacological Actions, and Problem Substances. You'll find about 47,000 study abstracts distributed across these databases, with new research added on a daily basis. You can take the dashboard for a spin by clicking the icon below: 

Check out the new GreenMedInfo Research Dashboard (a byproduct of 12 years of development)

One section, however, you will not find in the aforementioned six indexes. It is titled, “Superiority of Natural Substances vs. Drugs,” and is part of another database I am developing called Keywords, and which will be released on our site in a few weeks. These include random and salient threads of thoughts, concepts, and themes that I ran into as I gathered, curated, and indexed all the research on GreenMedInfo.com over the past seven years, but do not naturally fit into the six major indexes.  

In this database Keyword alone, there are listed over 180 natural substances which have been demonstrated, mostly in preclinical research (for reasons discussed elsewhere), to be superior to their conventional drug counterparts in over 270 different diseases. Take a look at this remarkable, and always growing, resource below:

Screenshot of one of over 10,000 GreenMedInfo database nodes: Superiority of Natural Substances vs. Drugs. 

We also have a section called “Natural Substances versus Drugs” with an additional 292 studies relevant to 242 diseases where there is established at least an equi-potency between the natural and conventional treatment.

It is extremely encouraging to the natural health movement to know that research actually proves the potential superiority of ancient, natural interventions versus conventional ones. The point of bringing this information to the attention of the public is to show that, at the very least, there is a legitimate place for natural medicine alongside the conventional, drug-based form, and that this is not based strictly on subjective or anecdotal experience (which is valuable), but also the scientific evidence itself, which many critics of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) often claim does not even exist.

If you like what you see here, please consider supporting our research project by becoming a member, which provides significantly enhanced features intended to expand and optimize the evidence-base of their health practice(s) and/or advocacies. Learn more here. 

Originally published: 2016-06-23 

Article updated: 2019-05023

Sayer Ji is founder of Greenmedinfo.com, a reviewer at the International Journal of Human Nutrition and Functional Medicine, Co-founder and CEO of Systome Biomed, Vice Chairman of the Board of the National Health Federation, Steering Committee Member of the Global Non-GMO Foundation.

3 Keys To Understanding Candida | Dr. McCombs Candida Plan

There are 3 keys to understanding candida and its complex mechanisms in the body that don’t lend themselves easily to online chat groups and simplistic discussions.

Modern medicine, composed of poorly trained physicians with fanatical devotion to archaic principles and dogma, have very little to offer most people and people are awakening to this fact.

The hope of alternative medicine’s ability to provide better solutions has driven doctors and hospitals to aggressively promote alternative therapies. The requisite knowledge of how the body functions however is still absent and eventually doctors return to ineffective choices and problematic medicines.

There are 3 keys to understanding candida as a major factor in the health of individuals worldwide.

• Antibiotics are the number one cause of fungal candida and many other imbalances.
• Fungal candida maintains imbalances created by antibiotics and inhibits the recolonization of the Lactobacillus bacterial species.
• Lactobacillus species are a keystone bacterial species that impacts the health of the body in numerous ways.

Antibiotics

Key #1 – Antibiotics

Antibiotics are the #1 factor in fungal candida overgrowth. They are also the number one choice of doctors for a wide variety of conditions for which they were never approved.

Antibiotics create a permanent shift in bacterial ratios that has a tremendous and deadly impact on health and longevity. Whether someone took antibiotics last week or decades ago, the permanent shift is created and needs to be corrected for.

In 5 to 7 days, antibiotics can wipe out all the bacteria in the body. (1)

“Candida albicans infections often occur during or shortly after antibacterial treatment.” (2)

“…antibiotic therapy has been reported to precede disseminated candidiasis in children.” (3)

 “Antibiotic treatment has also been shown to increase the rate of C. albicans isolation in stool. (4)

“Oral antibiotic therapy in humans often leads to colonization and over-growth of the GI tract by C. albicans” (5)

Antibiotics decreased the total population levels of the indigenous bacterial flora, and predisposed mice to gastrointestinal overgrowth and subsequent dissemination by Candida albicans, C. parapsilosis, C. pseudotropicalis, C. tropicalis, and Torulopsis glabrata.” (6)

“Antibiotic treatment decreased the total population levels of the indigenous bacterial flora and predisposed hamsters to gastrointestinal overgrowth and subsequent systemic dissemination by C. albicans in 86% of the animals.” (7)

It is no accident that antibiotics are the most cited cause of fungal candida growth dating back to the introduction of antibiotics in the late 1940s.

Antibiotics Cause Candida

Antibiotics induce fungal growth in at least 10 different ways

– loss of bacterial inhibition, especially that of Lactobacillus species.

– loss of nutrient competition.

– establish alkaline pH by elimination of acid-producing bacteria such as Lactobacillus species.

– direct stimulation of candida from yeast to problematic fungal form.

– degrade mucus proteins that protect intestinal cells and inhibit candida.

– alter immune response towards one that favors fungal candida growth.

– suppress immune system responses.

– eliminate the microbiome and its effect on immunity.

– suppress acute-phase proteins that make iron unavailable for candida growth.

– destroy bacteria and cause the release of substances that directly trigger the growth of fungal candida.

Other than antibiotics, chemotherapy can also induce many of these pro-candida changes, but its limited use does not compare to the widespread use of antibiotics.

Other factors that are occasionally cited – estrogen, steroids, birth control – do not create the necessary changes for fungal candida overgrowth and are more likely to stimulate overgrowth that has already been established by past antibiotic use.

Fungal candida

Key #2 – Fungal Candida

Understanding candida is more complex than most doctors and people grasp.

Fungal candida drives the same Th-2 dominant immune response that antibiotics do, thus maintaining an immune response favorable to candida growth.

Fungal candida drives inflammatory cytokines that limit the function of many pathways in the body.

Candida and antibiotics both degrade mucus cells leading to leaky gut and the spread of candida.

Fungal candida inhibits the colonization of the Lactobacillus species that in turn would inhibit it.

“the presence of C. albicans resulted in a long-term reduction in Lactobacillus spp.” (8)

“The presence of C. albicans in the antibiotic-disrupted bacterial community of the murine cecum was associated with suppressed regrowth of Lactobacillus populations.” (9)

Candida has been associated with over 125 different conditions. (15)

Lactobacillus

Key #3 – Lactobacillus

Lactobacillus bacteria are considered to be a keystone species in the intestinal microbiome. Just as understanding candida is important, so to is understanding the bacteria that are affected by it.

A keystone species is a species that has a disproportionately large effect on its natural environment relative to its abundance. Such species are described as playing a critical role in maintaining the structure of an ecological community, affecting many other organisms in an ecosystem and helping to determine the types and numbers of various other species in the community…Without keystone species, the ecosystem would be dramatically different or cease to exist altogether. (10)

The female genital communities are always totally dominated by Lactobacillus. The dominance of Lactobacillus in the vagina ecosystems is well known and also its ability to keep the stability and resistance of the community against colonizers  (11)

Important Functions:

While Lactobacilli in the vaginal tissues are not a true “keystone” species, it is the dominant species whose absence means collapse of proper function in the vaginal flora.

Among the many other functions of Lactobacillus species, these are some very important ones:

– Preservation of tight junctions between intestinal cells that prevent leaky gut.

– Regulation of the immune system’s cytokine expression to help control inflammation.

– Regulation of Tregs, the primary immune cells that create immune system tolerance and reduce inflammation.

– Coordination of immune defenses of the gut for protection of mucosal surfaces. (13)

– Prevention and treatment of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (14)

– Competitive exclusion and antimicrobial protection against fungal candida and other pathogens.

– Maintenance of the intestinal barrier by stimulating mucin production and butyrate production.

– Significantly reduce elevated fasting blood glucose and triglyceride levels. (12)

– Induction of nitric oxide synthesis for normal function of the pyloric valve of the stomach and overall digestive function.

– Prevention of dental cavities.

– Lactobacillus species help to recover the age-diminished Nitric Oxide (NO) pathway by synthesis of NO. Nitric oxide helps to ensure cardiovascular and brain health and proper digestive function.

These are just a few of the many functions that Lactobacillus provide for a healthy gut, healthy immune system and overall body health.

These 3 keys to understanding candida form a foundation that over 65,000 studies on PubMed support. They can save a lot of time, money, and frustration when it comes to bringing the body back into an optimal state of health.

References:

1) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2134008/?tool=pmcentrez

2) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18608929

3) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC315286/pdf/jbacter00585-0178.pdf

4) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC260558/pdf/iai00091-0028.pdf

5) http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/30113658?tokenId=KxZI8GrRjXWed9JhIfFv

6) http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00362178385380051

7) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC261235/pdf/iai00114-0202.pdf

8) https://iai.asm.org/content/80/10/3371.long

9) https://iai.asm.org/content/80/10/3371.long

10) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keystone_species

11) https://www.nature.com/articles/srep15920

12)

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/285785710_Oral_Administration_of_Lactobacillus_acidophilus_restores-nitric_oxide_level_in_diabetic_rats

13) https://mmbr.asm.org/content/72/4/728/figures-only

14) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17637082?dopt=Abstract

15) https://www.candidaplan.com/120-common-candida-symptoms/

Get started today with Dr. McCombs Candida Plan and enjoy a vital, productive, and long life!!!

A. 5 Mistakes To Avoid When Treating Candida – https://www.candidaplan.com/5-mistakes-to-avoid-when-treating-candida/

B. Candida Diets: 8-part Series – https://www.candidaplan.com/candida-diets/

C. Candida and Cancer – https://www.candidaplan.com/candida-cancer-2/

D. Candida and Pregnancy – https://www.candidaplan.com/candida-and-pregnancy/

E. Candida Diet Trip, Tricks, and Hacks – https://www.candidaplan.com/candida-diet-tips-tricks-hacks/

Dr. Jeffrey S. McCombs, DC, is founder of the McCombs Center for Health, the Candida Plan, the Candida Library, and author of Lifeforce, The Everything Candida Book, and The Everything Guide to Autoimmune Diets. Check out our podcast, “The Candida Chronicles” on iTunes and SoundCloud.

Follow us on:

https://www.instagram.com/thecandidaplan/
https://twitter.com/DrMcCombs
https://www.facebook.com/groups/candidaplan/

Raw Food Diet

The raw food diet is a food plan that can have great benefits. After a few months of following our recommended whole foods diet, one can then transition into a high level raw or 100% raw food diet, as desired. This diet is composed of raw and live foods only, and includes a wide selection of raw fruits, vegetables, soaked and sprouted nuts and seeds and sea vegetables, in a wide variety of creative combinations. If choosing a raw food plan, we highly recommend daily consumption of fresh green juices, made from an array of green vegetables, such as celery, romaine lettuce, spinach, carrot, kale, parsley, with an ever rotating seasonal selection of other organic veggies. Daily salad meals, dehydrated flax crackers, seed and nut pates, blended soups, smoothies and marinated vegetable salads, often mixed with soaked sea vegetables are the base for the raw diet. Since little to no cooked food is consumed, a raw diet has the advantage of instant elimination of many common allergens. No cooked wheat, wheat byproducts or grains (generally) are consumed, and very little, if any, dairy products. Raw foodists may include small quantities of dairy, typically as cultured raw goat or sheep’s milk yogurt or kefir, usually homemade (these products can occasionally be found online or from local sources).

Raw food generates rapid results because of its ability to thoroughly detoxify and liberate your body’s previously untapped energy. Dr. Gabriel Cousins, at the Tree of Life Center in Patagonia Arizona, endorses the raw food plan as the ultimate healing diet, and offers delicious 100% raw food meals at both the café and all of the healing retreats he offers.

We recommend the raw food diet for long term cleansing and detoxification. Eating primarily raw food for three to twelve months can be an incredible experience to help increase energy, detoxify your body, support you in letting go of long time food addictions, and throughout your diet you will naturally be a major sponsor for organic produce. Most of us eat a variety of addictive foods, from sugar to pasta. The addictive nature of these foods is often overlooked, even in the healthiest of food plans. When eating raw, these items are automatically eliminated, hence freeing up energy the body can use to heal.

What is important to note when choosing a raw food diet is the issue of trade-offs. You might miss cooked foods, though you will not miss your disease, and more times than not the raw food diet is an incredible tool that can be used to help shift serious health challenges into greater health and well being.

Toxic Tap Water

In tap water there are a lot of dangers like chlorine and pesticides and believe it or the fluoride in tap water is bad for you. The toxins start to slowly shut down your bodily functions one at a time until your dead! For more info go to www.fluoridealert.org and http://www.watercure.com/

HOW TO CLEANSE THE COLON

Body Odor

From www.naturalcures.com Body odor refers to unpleasant smells emitted from the body.  Eccrine glands are located almost everywhere on the body and produce body-cooling sweat that’s mainly water.  The apocrine glands, primarily located in the armpits and in the groin, are responsible for producing waste removing sweat and it is here where the problem of body odor stems from.  Bacteria feed on the waste products and produce the foul smell.  That is why when you first sweat after a workout, you don’t notice the intense smell but after some time has passed and the bacteria has got to work, then the smell is very obvious and off putting.

The degree of the odor a person produces depends on two factors, how much sweat their glands secrete and the amount of bacteria on the skin.  People with intense underarm odors have three times as much underarm bacteria as other people.

There are two ways of dealing with body odor, externally or internally.  External methods rely on masking the odor or keeping it at bay.  Internal methods focus on dietary and lifestyle changes to reduce the bacteria in the body.

Natural Cures for Body Odor

Ayurvedic Medicine

Ayurveda believes that body odour is the result of ama (toxins in the body).  When ama accumulates in the system, it is released through the skin, creating unpleasant-smelling perspiration.

As always the fastest most effective way to receive tailored advice to your own situation, you should visit a local licensed practitioner. Find your closest Ayurvedic practitioners here

Here are some remedies your practitioner may recommend:

Following a natural, whole foods diet, drink plenty of warm water throughout the day and avoid cold drinks.

Exercise daily – walking, swimming and yoga are all recommended.

Consume herbs such as alfalfa, parsley and rosemary that have antibacterial properties and therefore tackle body odour by reducing bacteria.

Take tiphala – an Ayurvedic treatment made up of three fruits to cleanse and strengthen the digestive system and thereby reduce ama.

Traditional Chinese Medicine

In traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), excessive underarm sweating is a sign of heat accumulation and is related to the liver and heart meridians. The heat accumulation may result from poor diet, stress, lack of sleep, or malfunctioning organs. When this heat affects the liver or heart meridians, it is transmitted to the armpits, which in turn sweat profusely. TCM addresses the problem by clearing the heat from the appropriate meridian and organ so that internal harmony can be resumed.

To receive bespoke advice based upon your own situation you should visit a local licensed practitioner. Find your closest Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioners here

You may wish to discuss the following with your practitioner:

General – kombucha – a fermented Chinese tea, high in probiotics and “system purifiers.” Eliminates toxins and body odor.

For liver deficiency and heat accumulation –anemarrhena rhizome, amur corktree bark, oyster shell (calcined) and ephedra root.

For heat accumulated in heart meridian – ginseng , dwarf lily-turf tuber and schisandra

For damp-heat irritation – astragalus root, white peony root, cassia twig and vinegar.

For yin deficiency leading to internal heat –rehmannia root & dwarf lily-turf tuber

Aromatherapy

Certain essential oils are well known for anti-bacterial properties as well as their lovely fragrance.  Effective oils for body odor are: bergamot, lavender, lemongrass (very strong so ensure it is well diluted in a carrier oil), peppermint, tea-tree.  Never put the oils directly on the skin under the armpits, as the area is very sensitive.  Always blend with carrier oil (such as coconut oil) before direct contact with skin.  They can also be added to bath water and included in a homemade deodorant.

Homeopathic Medicine

Owing to the principles behind homeopathy it is essential you see a licensed practitioner to receive your own personalized prescription.  Find your closest Homeopath here

Hepar sulph and Sulfur may be suggested, as both are popular homeopathic remedies for treating unpleasant body odor.

Herbs

Drink a cup of sage tea daily.

Peppermint – the ingestion of peppermint freshen breath, eases digestion, helping to metabolize foods and other toxins, which improves overall body odor.

Use fresh rosemary in your cooking – it is a good source of zinc which plays a role in reducing body odor.

Include parsley in your diet – it is rich in odor neutralizing chlorophyll and contains other antibacterial elements.

Add oregano leaf to meals – is a high anti-oxidant food which fights odor causing bacteria.

Other

Exercise:

It is important that you exercise regularly to boost circulation and encourage the elimination of toxins.  A fantastic form of exercise is rebounding (jumping on a mini-trampoline) it doesn’t create excessive sweating but it does work your body on the inside as well as the outside.  It is a fantastic way to detox the body and a great way to relieve stress.

Juice Therapy:

Drink fresh-squeezed, organic vegetable juices once or twice a day.  Find recipes here: www.juicemaster.com/recipes.

Lifestyle:

Wash your entire body twice daily with a natural antibacterial soap such as a tea-tree oil soap (or make your own.  Pay special attention to problem areas and dry yourself thoroughly (bacteria thrives more in a moist environment).

Recipe for tea-tree oil soap:

• 2 cups of glycerin soap base (source natural variety with no added nasties)
• 2 tablespoons of tea tree oil

Combine melted base and herbal oil. Stir until blended, then pour into molds and cool.

Shaving the armpits regularly has been found to help body odor control in the underarms.

Get rid of old sweat stained clothes that still hold a sweaty aroma.  Always ensure that your clothes are cleaned regularly and avoid wearing the same close fitted clothes between washes.

Flower remedies

The Bach Flower Remedy Crabapple aids in cleansing and detoxification.  It is the most popular flower remedy in treating skin conditions.  It can be taken orally, with 3 drops added to water 3 times a day.