Ridgefield Wellness

OK… So, this time of year is technically the beginning of flu season.  I found this really cool map that google has created to track the Flu virus.  After playing with that website for a bit, my mind started to wander and I realized that everyone around me was sneezing and coughing and complaining about how sick they feel.  No one seemed to quite have the flu, but everyone definitely seem to have what I would call a cold.

So, if you have a cold.. what should you do?

1. Stay Home.  Seriously.  How many people go to the office or go about their lives ignoring the fact that they have a cold?  “Just a cold” - The common cold just loves to spread it’s wings and infect others.  If you stay home, it’s stuck with you and you don’t continue the cycle of passing it on to others.  Going to public places introduces more germs and give your body even more of a battle to fight.  Ever think about how many germs are on your computer keyboard? A conference room phone?  Gross.
2. Now that you have stayed home, get a whole lot of rest.  Stress impacts your immune system.  Lack of sleep impacts your stress levels (even if you think you are fine).  Take this opportunity to relax, sleep, watch TV, (don’t watch the news or sports or anything that can impact your stress - watch enjoyable non-sensical TV) and take a break from your everyday stress.
3. Drink water. A lot of water.  A little juice.  No Beer.  Drink as much as you can.  Flush the buggers out of you and keep your nose moist inside.  Boogies and nose goblins are there for a reason, they build a shield to all the little bad guys that you breath in.  Stuffy is not good, moist is what you are looking for.  Blow the bad guys out, just make sure your nose isn’t dry.
4. While you are drinking water, grab some of those Vitamin C packets.  Vitamin C supports immune function, is a great antioxidant and helps repair damaged inter-workings of your body.  Whenever I am feeling something coming on I take as much vitamin C as I can stand.
   

   photo by dewischindeler

   
    WARNING.  Too much vitamin C isn’t too bad for you, BUT it will have negative “irrigating” effects on your insides, and you might have to excuse yourself in a bad way.  Most packets have 1000 mg of vitamin C.  Personally, my threshold is about 5000 mg a day of vitamin C.
5. Drink Tea.  My favorite sick tea is ginger tea.  Ginger is really good for the immune system and it’s an anti-inflammatory. Use a micro-plane or a cheese grater to grate about half an inch of fresh ginger root into a mug. Add boiling water and “steep” for five minutes. Strain the ginger out of the tea and enjoy.  You can also sweeten the tea with agave nectar
   (best thing ever) or I know some people who enjoy a splash of cayenne pepper in there.

I’m one of those people who carries a water bottle around with them all day at work. I started doing this because I was sick of throwing out the cups they have at our cafeteria on a semi-daily basis.

More than 90 percent of the environmental impacts from a disposable plastic bottle happen before the consumer opens it.

I started buying a bottle of water and using the disposable bottle for about a week and then throwing them out. I was sitting at my desk one day and saw a tiny note on the bottle label that said “Not for reuse.” MMM… Why? A quick search on the internet lead me to the reason. The bottle plastic is made of Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET). PET bottles are used for water and soda and juice and pretty much every plastic beverage container. PET has been show to leach Bis(2-ehylhexyl)phthalate or DEHP. So what is DEHP?

Here is what Wikipedia has to say:
Due to its suitable properties and the low cost, DEHP is widely used as a plasticizer in manufacturing of articles made of PVC. Plastics may contain 1% to 40% of DEHP. It is also used as a hydraulic fluid and as a dielectric fluid in capacitors. DEHP also finds use as a solvent in lightsticks.

Um… I’m not really sure I want that kind of stuff in my body. I also came across this related article from the FDA.

OK,
So then I heard the hype about the PBA leaching camping water bottles. I have 3 or 4 of these bottles and have been carrying them around with me for over 10 years. (I wash them of course) These bottles are made of thermoplastic polymers known as polycarbonates. PBA is a synthetic hormone that has been proven to cause prostate cancer and can mimic estrogen supplementation. There has been a little more coverage on the PBA issue, so I will just point you to this article from Bloomberg.com, if you wish to learn more.

So, What should you drink out of?

You’ve got 3 options, 2 of which I feel are pretty practical, and 1 that is not so practical. I’ll start with the not so practical so we can get that out of the way. The best bottle material, in my opinion, is glass… no issues with glass except it breaks… so, I don’t want to talk to much about glass, let’s move on.

Aluminum water bottles, such as the bottles from Sigg. I use a Sigg bottle everyday, I just fill it up with tap water (as much as 40% of our so-called bottled water has been proven to be just tap water in disguise) and then carry it around with me. Here’s an interesting fact from the Sigg website:

Image by mbettik

More than 90 percent of the environmental impacts from a disposable plastic bottle happen before the consumer opens it, said Dr. Allen Hershkowitz, a senior scientist at the U.S. Natural Resources Defense Council. Oil for plastic, oil for shipping, oil for refrigeration and, in a small % of bottles, oil for recycling – sadly most PET bottles go to landfills.» As a rule of thumb, scientists say that you can fill a PET bottle ¼ of the way with oil to symbolize how much energy goes into every bottle.

Another good material to go with is stainless steel. The most popular reusable bottles made from stainless steel come from the Klean Kanteen company.

Does anyone have a favorite water bottle or any tips to share? Leave a comment.

Life expectancy would grow by leaps and bounds if green vegetables smelled as good as bacon. ~Doug Larson

Welcome to the new website!  I’m happy to announce the official launch of RidgefieldWellness.com.  This site has been created for you to research, ask questions, learn, share and enjoy all things related to making the most out of the life you have.

I am here to help you begin to understand how food and lifestyle choices affect the overall quality of your mood and health.

There isn’t a miracle diet that works for everyone, but this site will discuss various health, lifestyle, nutrition choices and concepts.  Features and content will be updated as the site grows organically. (HA! pun not intended)

If you have any quesitons, or if you would like to discuss or explore a specific topic, please comment or drop me a note.

Stay tuned for updates.