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Blog: On Health. On Writing. On Life. On Everything.

Care Of Unsightly Fingernails

A physician can tell much when she looks at your nails – if she was trained well. The nails can show fungus and other specific nail diseases. But many internal diseases show also at your fingers and nails – and other than the tongue, which in Traditional Chinese Medicine is used to diagnose diseases, the fingers are usually not hidden, and I don’t have to ask a patient to show me his tongue. By the way, Sebastian Kneipp used to gauge the health of a person by ear diagnosis – also freely to be inspected. One anecdote goes that he gave Pope Leo XIII another nine years, when the Pope already was at the ripe age of eighty-eight. Sure enough, the Pope died at ninety-seven – and had a chance to implement some of his social-minded reforms. Leo XIII was one of the most progressive of popes. Of course, fingers, tongue, ears – there’s no hocus-pocus involved: Any part of your body is affected by the same age, the same experiences, the same nutrition and, usually, by the same disease. No wonder then that an experienced observer can tell much from them. Some of the diseases I recognize by nails: Liver disease, iron deficiency, chronic autoimmune inflammation, arthritis, psoriasis, gout, a bad infection or severe stress that happened months ago, circulatory diseases, Kawasaki disease, a sluggish or overactive thyroid, certain heavy metal poisonings, skin diseases (even sometimes a melanoma under the nail – so-called subungual melanoma), vitamin B12 and C deficiencies, lung and heart disease, impaired kidney function, folate deficiency, malnutrition (protein deficiency), nail injuries, use of certain antibiotics, and so on. Having said this it is obvious that we doctors don’t encourage artificial nails and nail polish – it takes an important diagnostic tool away from us! This list also alarms you that changes in your nails should be examined by your doctor. But sometimes one has only “ugly” nails, with now apparent reason – perhaps brought simply on by the aging process or dirty work. Here is a nice simple method to make your nail beautiful again: • Keep fingernails short by filing with an emery board, never by cutting (toenails should be cut straight). • Wash and brush hands and nails with a soft brush and a non-harsh soap. I prefer olive oil soap. • Apply tea tree oil to the nails thinly; rub it in. • Apply olive oil with rosemary essential oil (other essential oils like oregano, lavender, myrrh work the same way) to hands and nails. • If your hands are rough, apply coconut oil (the same organic grade that you use for cooking) regularly. Read More 
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Season’s Bliss

• Give your spare coins freely to homeless people • Buy hat and mittens for a poor child • Give to Amnesty International or another worthy charity; the one that gives most money to its clients and least to its CEOs is the Salvation Army) • Visit a homeless shelter • Knit socks for a soldier • Take a child to a museum or a zoo – don’t buy anything to eat since the event is what you are showing the child • Visit a nursing home, caroling • Collect money and donate it to an, preferably not to the rich city organizations, but to a rural needy one • Find inexpensive unusual gifts, preferably from Third-World places • Wrap your presents in newspaper – or don’t wrap at all • Cook a healthy meal for a neighbor who is house-bound • Read a Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanza story for the children in • For people who have everything already: Make named gifts to charities • Bring toys to a collection place that serves underprivileged children; stick to old-fashioned wooden toys, dolls and board games • Bake some gluten-free low-sugar cookies and serve them to every visitor this time of the year, including the mailman • Come up with at least three more ideas than I did – and tell us! Read More 
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Offerings And Gluttony

Bad news: The holidays are terrible for your health. Good news: The original thought behind the present shopping frenzy was divine: Be grateful for the offerings life hands you out all the time. This season always overwhelms me, and to survive it seems to get harder each year. This is what helps me – it can be done anytime, anywhere: Sit or stand with your palms turned up. Breathe in, breathe out. Notice how the Universe is there for you with all its plenty. Take the air into your lungs as a present. Take the water from your faucet as a present. Take your family and your friends as a present (as exasperating they might feel at times). If there are no family, no friends in your life, open your eyes: There are bound to be some – at least one – among the ten billion people on Earth who is destined for you (but you might have to go searching for them – the magi didn’t wait for the Star of Bethlehem to come to them). There are always people who are needier than you, as dire as you might see your situation now. Be grateful for the tiniest thing: That is the message of the holiday season. Take the offerings, and share them. AND the other problem linked to the season: gluttony. For this one high feats in the year, allow yourself gluttony. Enjoy it! It was invented for that: so that the rest you the year you can endure the drab and being reasonable. In olden times, naturally, starvation set, with scarce resources, and set the balance right. Nowadays, we have to use our brains because starvation is not likely to come to our help. Here a few survival rules: 1. Don’t start a new diet big time around this time of the year! Instead celebrate with all your heart, and with all your friends and the whole bunch of your family. You don’t want to stand around munching on a lettuce leaf while everyone else is having a ball. 2. Don’t do second helpings – just DON’T. NEVER. Sample every variety, but don’t go back. 3. If you overeat, overeat on meat and fat – not on simple starches. Cut down on cookies, candy, cake, ice cream, and so on. Listen: I said: Cut down! Not: Avoid them altogether. After all, this is a wonderful season. 4. If you overeat meat: Drink lots of hot water or tea because the protein might otherwise hurt your kidneys. 5. If you eat fatty things, make sure that the fat is healthy: Nothing fried, nothing processed, nothing hydrogenated. Olive oil and coconut oil are actually good for you. Best, of course, is you cook your holiday meals from scratch – then you know what went in. 6. If you want to be extra goodie-good: Overeat on vegetables: Green beans, red cabbage, colored peppers, purple kale, red tomatoes, orange carrots. They will help you to get through the holidays. By the way: There are no restrictions on vegetables – you can have as many helpings as you want! 7. And after each heavy meal, take friends and family for a walk. 8. And against the gifting stress: It is always good to keep it simple: self-made jam, if you still have some. The old stand-byes: Books, music, flowers. The new stand-byes: charities and gift cards.And if you have no money, offer your time: a voucher for a back rub, baby-sitting, dog-walking, garden work is always appreciated. Read More 
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