Last week we were talking about toxins to avoid when you’re trying to conceive . This week we’ve got another toxin on the docket. The toxin is acetaminophen, the main ingredient in Tylenol (known as paracetamol in Europe). No doctor should ever recommend Tylenol again. Not to pregnant women. Not to newborns. Not to small children. “But my doctor says Tylenol is safe.” I am a doctor myself and a nice southern girl. I don’t like to criticize other doctors but I’ll be honest with you: your doctor does not know what he does not know. Tylenol has not been shown to be safe for children. If your doctor would spend just half an hour reviewing the peer-reviewed medical literature about Tylenol, your doctor will realize it has not been proven safe. Acetaminophen may very well be a main trigger for certain childhood neurological disorders, including autism, as well as childhood asthma . Just ask a team of research scientists and medical doctors from Duke and Harvard Universities whose...

If you get the flu, odds are you will survive.  About 1000-3000 die annually out of over 300 million patients so you will likely be fine.  If you have fragile health or getting worse instead of better, then you should seek care.  Otherwise stay home and do some self care.  Here are the tips I would do  (and have done the one time we had it) for my family. First of all, there is no need for Tamiflu.  Studies show it may shorten the flu by 3/4 of a day.  It isn't worth the risk of psychiatric side effects for such little benefit.  Several studies show no benefit at all.  So here are several things you can do.  I recommend to get these items before flu season just in case so you don't have to go out sick and share it with everyone.  See my flu prevention blog to try to ward it off. Elderberry syrup is a great anti viral.  Email sweetsyrup@gmail.com or call 704-98902156 for some organic, locally made elderberry syrup by one ...

In general, most parents are worried about ear infections in kids.  There are inner, middle, and outer ear infections and this blog is referring to mostly middle ear infections. Most middle ear infections are viral and will resolve themselves but that doesn't help the worried parent watching their child suffer in pain.  So I will tell you the tricks used by many parents to avoid the need to see the doctor. During summer time with swimming pools, the outer ear or swimmer's ear infection is more common.  Just tug on the ear and if it hurts, it is probably swimmer's ear.  You can use colloidal silver ear drops or mullein garlic ear drops and that can often do the trick.  Best is to do prevention with a little alcohol in the ear after swimming to dry up the ear. If that is not the issue and they are complaining of pain, then it may be a middle ear infection.  With my kids, I would do the wet sock trick http://bastyr.edu/news/health-tips/2009/11/dive-fe...

Fever is totally normal with illness and is the body's way of healing the body.  It should not be suppressed as that slows healing by stopping the action of fever which is the body’s natural response to sending the little healing factors.  I would reserve use of ibuprofen (not tylenol-longer story there) for when they are miserable and you can’t get them comfortable by other means.  Ibuprofen is not recommended under 6 months of age.  Don’t even put tylenol in your house. Reasons to worry about fever where you should go to the ER:   *Fever in an infant under 2 months of age.   Fever is 100.4 rectally *Fever with mental status changes.  Most kids get sleepy with fever and want to sleep more but this refers to strange behavior or strange eye or limb movements.   *Fever with seizure- febrile seizures alone are not dangerous generally but the first time, you need to be checked out and to make a plan with a doctor. *Fever over 105 ...

So when my kids get fever and congestion, and I make sure they don't have anything dangerous of course, I like to treat with as little medicine as possible. I admit that I don't typically worry too much but easy for me to say right? First of all, I do not use acetaminophen or ibuprofen for fever and never aspirin in a kid.  I must digress a little here...  Fever is a natural process that shows the body is doing its job.  Acetaminophen and ibuprofen stops or slows down that process. I could do a whole complicated blog on this one but trying to keep it simple.  I swear my kids got better faster when I learned this!  If your child is under 3 months of age, be sure to see your doctor right away. Babies can be tricky recognizing signs of serious illness.  Depending on the doctor, you may not want to treat the fever in your infant prior to seeing the doctor so they can verify it prior to doing potentially more extensive evaluations. My favorite treatment is t...

This is the handout I give to my patients.  I would love to hear your stories and your tips.  We haven't found the cure to the common cold but there are many things we can do to support us while we have one. What Is A Cold? A cold is a viral sinus infection- “too much snot”, coughing, facial pain, sore throat, headache, ear popping or pain, pain in the sides of neck- glands feel “swollen”, coughing all night (like in the Nyquil commercials). A chest cold is when the drainage gets into the chest.  It can feel like you have a fist in front of your chest or you can’t take in a deep breath (but it should not feel as though you are short of breath).   Studies show we treat colds too quickly as sinus infections and we are not allowing your body to heal itself.  Even mild bacterial sinusitis does NOT typically need antibiotics.  The more antibiotics that you use now, the less effective your immune system will be and the less effective the antibiot...

There are so many ways to stay well during flu season that it will be impossible to cover all the possibilities, so I will cover the ones I have experience with.  The flu vaccine is rarely effective (a few years ago it was 19% effective) and I will post about that in another blog, so we need to focus on more natural ways of staying well. First and foremost is your diet.  Sugar lowers your immune system and simple carbs like bread, cookies, crackers, etc turns into sugar so cleaning up your diet will go a long way.  Eat a majority plant based diet and include good protein sources like beans, lentils, fish, chicken, lean meats and eggs (organic and free range when possible).  Add in a cup or two of daily bone broth as it helps with gut function and immune system.  That gelatinous stuff on top when it cools is really good stuff for you so don't scoop that off. Eat plenty of garlic and oregano as they have natural infection fighting properties.  Get plent...