Whew It's Hot Out Here: What To Do To Beat The Heat

It has been an excruciating couple of weeks here in the south. The temperatures have been in the 100s steadily with an occasional 99 thrown in. The heat index however has been off the charts. My family has said it is like being in a boiling pot stuck at the bottom. The heat hasn't been this bad for about 6 years. It has caused numerous cases of heat exhaustion and heat stroke and even deaths across the entire south. Recent news articles have highlighted the the number of  deaths and hospitalizations  Heatstroke: A Deadly Hazard.
My husband has been one of the sufferers. He works construction and has been outside on rooftops in the past week or so. He came home early one day with severe heat exhaustion symptoms( headache, nausea, and severe muscle cramping) and reluctantly went to work the next day not feeling much better. He said he had blacked out and thankfully fell up the roof and that is when he finally quit working for the day. He had been hydrating himself all day with water and electrolytes and it wasn't enough.  See here for details on Heat Exhaustion Signs and Symptoms and some helpful tips on heat related illnesses. We gave him fluids, alfalfa (for the sodium, potassium and magnesium it contains) and put him in a cool tub with Epsom's salts( because they contain sodium and magnesium for the body to absorb) and that helped with the cramping he was feeling all over, but he was still out of it for the entire night.
 My dear husband doesn't have the luxury of being able to stay home and recover because he has no sick time, vacation pay or paid days off  and I pray for him daily. Since, he is the only breadwinner of the family he continues to press on even after his body says quit. We are trying to do all we can to help him relax and cool of when he comes home.
Any suggestions for beating the heat, when you have to work out in it are greatly appreciated.

Artificial Sweeteners vs. Real Sweeteners: Which Do You Use?

Our family is on a journey of cutting down on our sugar intake(albeit some more willing than others). I am in awe of all the "options" of sweeteners on the market. A local supermarket trip showed a whole aisle dedicated to the various types of sweeteners available.

Are you aware of the artificial sweeteners?  Aspartame  (Equal, Nutrasweet), Sucralose (Splenda) and Saccharin (Sweet n Low) are the biggest marketed ones and there is a lot of information available that would make you think twice about ingesting them. Check out a well documented book and video here Sweet Deception. These big giants of industry like (Monsanto) also produce well known pesticides(Round Up), GMO seeds and pharmaceutical drugs for us. Check it out for yourself see Sweet Poison. Splenda has been associated with numerous problems and is the equivalent of pouring bleach on your sugar! Truth About Splenda.

So, bypassing the chemicals, side affects and incriminating evidence against ingesting of all these chemicals we started back to sugar. But, not even all sugar is the same. White sugar can be cane or beet. Cane is a better choice since Monsanto is the biggest producer of GMO seeds for sugar beet production. There is turbinado, raw, brown, evaporated cane and the list goes on and on. But for those wishing to watch their sugar intake it is bad for the diabetic and borderline diabetic. Some say it is more addicting than cocaine.

Honey is a natural sweetener with immune boosting qualities and a healthy alternative to anything artificial, but for the diabetic again it is a no no.

High Fructose corn syrup( made from GMO corn), is a manufacturers dream for cheap production at the expense of our health. Read 5 Health Dangers of HFCS. Don't be fooled by the commercials out there saying it is good for you, do your own research.

The search now brings us to two healthier alternatives stevia and xylitol. Both are plant derived and do not increase an insulin response in people and as a bonus the sweeteners add little or no calories and no chemical by products.

Stevia is a plant from Paraguay and the leaves are crushed to produce a white powder. This powder is what is used as a sweetener. It can even  be grown at home in a garden or a pot as an annual. All you do is dry the leaves and the powder falls from the leaves. A supplier I found that ships live plants was Herbal Advantage, although more local garden suppliers are carrying it due to high demand.

from stevia.net

 It has been suppressed by the FDA, in fact the FDA wouldn't even allow it to be listed as a sweetener only a dietary supplement. Also because it has no profit in the drug industry, since it is a plant and unpatentable. Learn more here stevia.net

iHerb has it for $5.95 and using code FAM191 gets you $5 off your first order (note: their labeling is in the process of changing so the bottle may look different but the product is the same)

Stevia takes very little to make something sweet. A pinch to a 1/16 of a teaspoon is the same as a teaspoon of sugar or 1tsp. of stevia is the same as a cup of sugar. It can be used in beverages, baking, cooking and anything that needs sweetening. Now includes a tiny scoop to measure it out. It has a little aftertaste that some don't like, similiar to aspartame but we have made up "sweet juice" from this video with a stevia explanation and recipe link here My friends blog has an article "Ever Try Stevia"  I found a great website with recipes using stevia here at Stevia.com.

Xylitol is a sugar produced from alcohol of fibrous vegetables and plants. Some is from birch trees and other comes from corn.It is low-glycemic meaning good for diabetics and a great natural cavity fighter and tooth whitener. Learn more here. Use it like regular sugar a tsp. equals a tsp. of sugar.  iHerb has it again for $6.20 for a pound . You can find it in toothpaste, chewing gum and nasal sprays as well as the crystalline form. It tastes the most like sugar and is used in equal amounts like sugar is used at only 10 calories a tsp. The only problem baking wise is that you can't use it to feed yeast in making breads and other yeast using products. The NOW brand uses it from certified no GMO corn. About NOW Xylitol

NOW brand xylitol

If anyone has any recipes to share using alternatives or testimonies on how it works let me know. I am in the testing and trying mode of alternatives myself. I will update on results later.

Helping Take Control of Your Family's Health

I can't stand it anymore!!!!

Scanning the headlines shows me how much the government has taken control of our lives. Never mind "Obamacare"; the AMA, public school systems, public health systems, departments of human services, UN rights of the child,"homeland insecurity", departments of agricultre and the FDA have already made sure that our children are not our own. They are wards of the state and the government supposedly has their best interests at heart. Are you informed on what is best for your children? Do you know the truth about actions you take for your family's health every day?

Today's news showed a headline on a parents right to choose vaccinations for their children.

It made me think of a website that helped us make informed decisions on vaccine choices for our children it is the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC).

 They are very informative on issues and aspects that the general medical professionals won't tell you. Here is a great place to start Ask Eight Questions.
I write part of this from experience, I watched my father die within four months of receiving a shot for the flu from Guillain Barr Syndrome. He wasn't in great health, with many heart issues, but he was improving until he got the shot to supposedly help protect him. We watched him go from walking, to using a cane, to not being able to move without help, and then completely bed ridden in pain. We also watched his mind go from alert to a severe alzheimers like state. It was like watching a full grown adult revert back to infancy. It saddened me to watch but it also made me search out answers.
I watched two of my sons get asthma after shots, with no family history of asthma. Do I have proof these incidents were vaccine related? No. What I do have now is knowledge and I am grateful to all that the NVIC has done to make people aware.
I have talked with dozens of families whose children have gotten autism shortly after receiving shots and wish they had known the truth beforehand. Look up SIDS deaths around the world in areas where vaccines are mandatory and where they are not Look at this transcript. Watch this  short video The Town of Allopath and you decide.

On your family's health issues it really is your decision, contrary to what the government may want you to think. Here is some information  from Dr. Mercola another man who has helped inform us about our family's health that can help if you have been trying maintain your weight despite diet and exercise Nutritional Typing. He also has done some great research on cancers such as  Common Over The Counter Pain Medication Link to Blood Cancer  and diabetes 1 in 4 Chance of Diabetes.

The last books I recommend on health was a couple of the first books I read for our family's health.Dr. Robert Mendelsohn.and Prescription for Nutritional Healing.

Our family's health journey started about 10 years or so, when our family was on the mission field in a third world country. We watched our family suffer from minor ailments to life threatening disease that almost to the life of one our sons. Being informed helped us to know what to do and how to react to all the experiences we faced. The journey still continues today and I want to be able to inform others that we are not helpless

I know some are thinking I must get some kind of kickback out of listing all these products or websites. But I have no affiliation to these sites nor any kind of payouts attributed to them. I just want to inform people to make their own decisions on matters and understand that there are options right now you can make for your family's health. In the future there may not be so many options open, especially under socialized medicine or Obamacare. Research for yourself alternatives because  the window of opportunity is closing and there may not be many pharmaceutical options available.