Camping Herby Essentials

With the nice weather here, I thought it was a good idea to post some essential herby things for camping. First thing to mention is a bug spray! I use Bug Soother  gnat-ural bug repellent. (their pun not mine). Here's a link to a blog that has a few recipes to make your own. I haven't tried all of these myself so I can't say anything about them. Catnip is a good one I have used.
Next I should talk about burns sunburns, I already made a post on treating burns as sunburns here. But some key point to remember shade is your friend to avoid getting a sunburn. Hot water makes the itch and burn worse. Apply a chilled infusion of chamomile, elderflower, or lavender as a compress to the effected area.
Sickness prevention is easy a post on that can be found here. Taking some green tea for the morning and peppermint tea for before bed is a great way to boost your immune system while you're in the woods.
If you have trouble sleeping in the woods bringing rooibos tea to drink before bed is a great idea. Mixing it with the peppermint tea is great. Alternatively you can take Valerian root capsules.
In summation herbs you want to take with you to the woods are

• peppermint
• rooibos
• chamomile
• lavender
• elderflower
• aloe

and

• green tea

Cold and weather changes

We are transitioning from winter into spring and with that our bodies like to play tricks on us. The some times drastic changes in weather can confuse our bodies and causing our immune systems to weaken. You might find yourself more allergy sensitive and having more colds. So what do I do?
Well lucky for you I've covered this in earlier post coping with allergies and preventing sickness.  But here's the basic points if you don't want to read those posts.

• peppermint
• echinacea
• vitamin D
• oranges
• watercress
• honey
• nettle leaf
• and dietary changes

If you want to know how those things work to prevent sickness or help you cope with allergies follow the link to my blogs that explain it. Thank you!

Allergies

      Let me start this post with the story about how I found out I was allergic to my cat. I had  cat who had 8 kittens, one day I started having allergic reactions but I had no idea to what. So I when to have an allergy test and found out I was allergic to cats, pollen, and confirmed my allergy to latex. I was so confused, I've had this cat for 4 years! Why did I start having reactions now? After careful thought, I realized the only thing different was I hadn't eaten watercress in month. I used to eat watercress in a salad with salt and lime almost everyday. After some reach I found out watercress is a natural antihistamine! Crazy right?

     So, things that help with allergies; watercress, saline rinses, honey, nettle leaf, and dietary changes. Watercress is great in salad and is a natural antihistamine. 

     Like watercress, nettle leaf is a natural antihistamine, it is best to take in capsule form. Mixed with peppermint and red raspberry, nettle leaf makes a great allergy relieving tea. 

    Saline rinses are praised for working. The theory is the saline rinse will wash out allergens from your sinuses. I haven't used this method but I've read many good reviews and come doctor even recommend this method.

    Honey specifically local raw honey. The theory on this one is that the raw honey will have allergens in it in low doses and works like a 'shot'. So the idea is you de-sensitize your body from your allergens slowly. I don't know if this is true, but I do know honey helps with allergy symptoms.

      Dietary changes like adding fenugreek, thyme, and watercress have been known to help with allergies. Thyme and fenugreek have been known to help out more with winter allergies than summer allergies. I already talked about watercress but watercress is my favorite

     Thank you for reading this and please leave a comment to help me pick a topic for my next post. Thanks again.

Update

So it's been a while since I posted last. Well this is why http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01B8VGAXU?ref_=pe_2427780_160035660 I am now a published author!
"Every time Annie finds happiness something happened. Though things in her life had some downs she was finally generally happy everything was falling into place. So of course she would find out that her childhood nightmares were really repressed memories. As the father she thought was dead comes into her life and flips it upside down. Now she must learn to master her powers with the help of an old flame before the men in suits come for her."