Dr. Curtis McElroy

Tag: natural remedies

  • Natural Remedies For Aching Feet

    Foot pain is something that we have all experienced in our lives. After a long day at work, shopping, or yard work your feet can be tired, achy, swollen, and heavy. This achiness happens because when you are on your feet, there is a significant amount of stress being put on your feet.

    However, you aren’t doomed to suffer this pain with no relief.

    Below are some natural remedies that will ease your sore feet and have you feeling great again.

    Alternate Hot And Cold – Alternating hot and cold baths alternately dilates and constricts blood vessels in your feet, which boosts circulation and reduces the swelling and achiness in your feet. To do this exercise, fill one basin up with cold water and one up with hot water. While sitting comfortably, place your feet in the cold water for five minutes. Afterwards, switch to the hot water. Switch back and forth for a total of thirty minutes for maximum effectiveness.

    Elevate Your Feet – Elevating your feet for fifteen to twenty minutes after you are on your feet for any length of time will increase the circulation in your legs and feet and help to reduce and pain and swelling.

    Epsom Salts – Epsom salts are made of magnesium sulfate heptahydrate. Magnesium is known to help reduce swelling and therefore ease the pain. There are two ways you can use Epsom salt to reduce the swelling in your feet. First, you can fill a basin with hot water, add Epsom salt and soak just your feet or, if you are looking to relax your entire body, you can fill your bathtub with hot water, add Epsom salt, and soak your whole body for forty-five minutes to an hour.

    Soak In Essential Oils – An alternative to Epsom salts is to use essential oils, which can help to increase blood circulation and reduce swelling. Essential oils are used in the same two ways as Epsom salts. The best essential oils to use to increase blood flow are peppermint oil, clove oil, eucalyptus oil, and rosemary oil.

    Vinegar Soak – If you don’t have Epsom salts or essential oils in the house, a final alternative for a foot soak is vinegar. Vinegar helps to reduce inflammation and can be used in two ways. First, you can fill a basin with hot water and add two tablespoons of vinegar; it is additionally beneficial if you add some salt to the water as well. Soak your feet for about twenty minutes.

    Second, you can put equal amounts of water and vinegar into two basins. Make one basin cold water and one basin hot water. Soak a towel that is big enough to wrap around your feet in the hot mixture and squeeze out the excess liquid. Wrap the hot compress around your feet for five minutes. Repeat the same process using the cold mixture. This process is thought to be the most effective because you are getting the benefits from the vinegar as well as from alternating hot and cold on your feet to maximize blood flow and reduce3 swelling and achiness.

    Sore feet are not something that you must accept as a necessary evil when you are on your feet for any length of time.

    Taking preventative measures, such as investing in a good pair of shoes and stretching your feet throughout the day can help minimize the amount of time you spend with sore feet. However, if you do find your feet achy and swollen after a day out, use the tips above to quickly ease the pain and be ready to go again.

  • Dealing With Insomnia Naturally

    10 Natural Ways To Deal With Insomnia

    Almost all of us suffer from insomnia at some point in time.

    Insomnia can be transient and related to everyday stressors. It can also become chronic, so that nearly every night you have problems getting to sleep or staying asleep throughout the night.

    6 to 10% of the US population suffers from some type of insomnia.

    Women experience this condition two times more than men do.

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    Lack of sleep can lead to serious health problems and consequences including, heart disease and diabetes. It is also a contributing factor to obesity and can increase chances of work and driving related accidents.

    Anyone who has ever experienced insomnia or even poor sleep knows that the day after can be pure misery and can affect work, relationships, and social life.

    The following are ten ways to help yourself get some sleep and avoid the long-term consequences of sleep deprivation brought on by too many nights without proper sleep:

    1. Set a sleep ritual. This means you go through the same behaviors before going to sleep at the same time of night. Rituals train the mind, which regulates the body, and a nightly ritual can go a long way to facilitating a healthy sleep cycle. Your sleep ritual can involve self-care like brushing your hair and teeth, putting on some soothing music, taking a bath with aromatherapy candles, and reading by candle light or even fluffing your pillows before sleeping.

    2. Use a white noise machine. White noise machines are all natural methods to elicit sleep and to ensure a healthy sleep pattern. These machines emit white noise to block out extraneous noises that might interfere with your sleep. There are also those that offer the sound of waterfalls, the ocean, or a babbling brook. Choose a sound that appeals to you and go to sleep with that sound playing all night long or just for a half hour to 90 minutes, depending on whether or not your machine has an automatic stop timer.

    3. Practice meditation. Many people meditate before going to sleep. Meditation involves having a strong mind-body connection, focusing on your breath, relaxing all of your muscles and calming the mind. When your muscles are relaxed completely, you will have less musculoskeletal pain and will sleep better. Meditation is very effective for reducing anxiety, which is a major contributor to insomnia.

    4. Practice hypnosis. Self-hypnosis is similar to meditation except that with self-hypnosis, you will focus on a specific goal, such as getting a calm night’s sleep. You work with your subconscious in order to bring about a state of relaxation conducive to sleep.

    5. Drink lavender or chamomile tea. Both of these herbal remedies can help you feel more rested and ready to sleep. Lavender can be drank in tea form, taken as a capsule containing the dried plant components, or used in essential oil form in an aromatherapy diffuser.

    6. Try qi gong. Qi gong is an ancient Chinese martial art that involves gentle and graceful movements attached to deep meditation and breathing. This can be learned at a health club or from a home DVD. Just about everyone has the skill it takes to do this soothing form of exercise right before bedtime.

    7. Avoid large meals before bedtime. Eating too much before you go to bed can make it uncomfortable to get a full night’s rest. Eat at least 3-4 hours before bedtime, reserving nighttime for a small pre-sleep snack.

    8. Practice Tai chi. Tai chi is an ancient Chinese martial art form that has become a popular exercise for better health. It is a bit more stimulating when compared to qi gong but involves similar movements. Tai chi should probably not be done right before bedtime, instead, do tai chi about 4 hours or more before going to sleep.

    9. Try passion flower. Passion flower is a well-known herbal sleep aid that can be taken alone or used with other herbal sleep aids. It relaxes the mind and frees it from anxieties that plague your nighttime hours. Take it as a tea or use standardized capsules containing dried passionflower.

    10. Practice yoga. Yoga can be a good exercise to do right before bedtime. Yoga involves various poses while concentrating on breathing and mindfulness.

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                   Treating Insomnia With Yoga

    There are several poses, which specifically help to induce sleep and aid with insomnia:

    • Utthan Pristhasana (Lizard Pose)
    • Salabhasana (Locust Pose)
    • Uttanasana (Standing Forward Bend)
    • Prasarita Padottanasana (Wide-Legged Standing Forward Bend)
    • Janu Sirsasana (Head-of-the-Knee Pose)
    • Savasana (Corpse Pose)
    • Paschimottanasana (Seated Forward Bend)
    • Supta Baddha Konasana (Reclining Bound Angle Pose)
    • Parsva Upavistha Konasana (Side Seated Wide Angle Pose)
    • Supta Virasana (Reclining Hero Pose)
    • Supta Padangusthasana (Reclining Big Toe Pose)
    • Savasana (Corpse Pose)
    • Setu Bandha Sarvangasana (Bridge Pose)
    • Viparita Karani (Legs-up-the-Wall Pose)
    • Siddhasana (Adept’s Pose)

    Take a yoga class to see if you like it or purchase a yoga DVD. Establish a routine that you can implement as a nightly ritual before retiring to sleep.

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