Holistic from head to toe

Decided to start posting again, and might as well start on this blog.  I've got a pretty brutal cold and am not working on any bike projects over at Bur's Biker Blog so this one gets updated first.  This is the first cold in awhile that caused me to lose my voice-probably because on day two or three of the cold I worked a full day (including meetings, briefings and my usual socializing) then proceeded to teach for four hours or so.

So there went my voice!  Fortunately Wednesday was the usual slow day at a military command before Thanksgiving and I only had to speak to about three people.  Yoga class went well, and made me feel a bit better.  While I'm taking my usual over-the-counter medicines, I've also looked up all sorts of holistic voice-saving and recovering tips.  Here's the one's I'm using:

Steam.  Lots of it.  Turned the bathroom into a sauna twice a day and not running the vent fan during/after my showers as I normally do.  That's helping.

Chamomile tea, and soon with honey.  We were out of honey after the old honey crystallized and my wife threw it out.  (side note-I had re-liquified it a few times already....).  I've used up all the chamomile tea we had, so after drinking a few cups of Earl Grey I picked up some more tea and fresh honey.

Water.  Self-explanatory.  Especially with all the coffee I drink, I have to always drink water too.

Yoga and breathing.  yeah, it stinks trying to breathe deeply when you can barely breathe, but it really does help.  As one article said, "Keep tissues handy".  Do you really want more info? (TMI! TMI!)  And since I'm working on inversions/headstands anyway, I've kept it up at risk of pounding sinuses (Sinai? tee hee), but it really does feel better when resting in child's pose afterwards and for the next half hour or so.

So why holistic from head to TOE?  As I've earlier posted, I've been doing the Listerine and vinegar soak for toenail infection, but seemed to hit a wall.  So two Sundays ago (the 15th) I began doing the Vick's treatment to each nail twice a day.  For the first week I didn't soak them, but am doing both now.  It looks like some more fungus died, but due to how progressed my toenail fungi is, this is going to be a long-term treatment.  Still no picture, as it's pretty gruesome.

Hope you had a good Thanksgiving and are enjoying all the leftovers like I am!

White Vinegar and Listerine for Toe Nail Fungus

I have had toe nail infections for a long time.  Both the Navy docs and civilian medical "practitioners" have prescribed strong anti-fungals.  The drawbacks to these pills were two-fold:  They are incredibly toxic to our livers and in my case could not kill all the fungus (fungi?) dead enough not to come back when I stopped the pills.

So after years of just having ugly toe nails and getting closer and closer to losing them from the infection, I decided to give the internet home remedy of white vinegar and Listerine a try.  Starting on July 29th, I mixed a 50/50 mix of generic white vinegar but Listerine brand mouthwash and began soaking my left foot and applying a wet paper towel to my right foot little toe.  That one nail is the only truly infected nail on that foot, but after a month I decided to put both feet in the tub I use to soak my piggies.  I have soaked them on average every two days for 20-30 minutes.  I haven't used some of the other home remedies like Vick's Vapo rub at night.  I am happy to report that all the nails are improving.  A healthy pink color has returned to some lightly yellowed areas, the infected/dead nail is growing out, and the worst nails seem to be re-attaching to the toe.  The worst nails have some streaks still present to the cuticles.  This is an improvement though-as these nails were almost completely "dead" when I started.

Some posts talk about throwing out the mix every time you soak, but I keep mine sealed in an old vinegar bottle and use it for about two weeks, adding some vinegar or Listerine as needed.  I bought some store brand anti-septic mouthwash for this month and will see if the results change.  While Listerine isn't terribly expensive if I can save a few bucks and still treat my nails, why not?  My recommendation to those considering using white vinegar and Listerine for toe nail infections is GO FOR IT!  While not a very fast method, it has almost no negative side affects and is working well for me.

Just a quick post to say I'm alive

Haven't posted much in quite awhile or really worked out.  Need to get back into the gym, enough rest for some injuries.

Been doing some yoga, light cals and stretching.

Just wanted to post a quick note for my few readers, the search engines, SEO crawlers etc.