Thursday, October 29, 2009

Changing the Subject

Lets go from Gross and disgusting to something better. In my email inbox this morning, I recieved a message being forwarded around. This one came from a customer here at work, from another state. No I won't name names and get anyone in trouble.

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In 1919 when the flu killed 40 million people there was this Doctor that visited the many farmers to see if he could help them combat the flu. Many of the farmers and their family had contracted it and many died.

The doctor came upon this one farmer and to his surprise, everyone was very healthy. When the doctor asked what the farmer was doing that was different, the wife replied that she had placed an unpeeled onion in a dish in the rooms of the home, (probably only two rooms back then). The doctor couldn't believe it and asked if he could have one of the onions and place it under the microscope. She gave him one and when he did this, he did find the flu virus in the onion. It obviously absorbed the bacteria, therefore, keeping the family healthy.

Now, I heard this story from my hairdresser in AZ. She said that several years ago many of her employees were coming down with the flu and so were many of her customers. The next year she placed several bowls with onions around in her shop. To her surprise, none of her staff got sick. It must work.. (And no, she is not in the onion business.)

CNJ in- No idea who or which shop this is so don't bother to ask me.

The moral of the story is, buy some onions and place them in bowls around your home. If you work at a desk, place one or two in your office or under your desk or even on top somewhere. Try it and see what happens. We did it last yearand we never got the flu.

If this helps you and your loved ones from getting sick, all the better. If you do get the flu, it just might be a mild case... Whatever, what have you to lose? Just a few bucks on onions!!!

Now there is a P. S. to this for I sent it to a friend in Oregon who regularly contributes material to me on health issues. She replied with this most interesting experience about onions:

I don't know about the farmer's story...but, I do know that I contacted pneumonia and needless to say I was very ill...I came across an article that said to cut both ends off an onion put one end on a fork and then place the forked end into an empty jar...placing the jar next to the sick patient at night. It said the onion would be black in the morning from the germs...sure enough it happened just like that...the onion was a mess and I began to feel better.

Another thing I read in the article was that onions and garlic placed around the room saved many from the black plague years ago. They have powerful antibacterial, antiseptic properties.

CNJ in- I know garlic and onions planted in spots in the garden will help keep pests and insects OUT!



Then I got this one concerning the H1N1 virus. Thank You Fern Valley.

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Dr. Vinay Goyal is an MBBS,DRM,DNB (Intensivist and Thyroid specialist) having clinical experience of over 20 years. He has worked in institutions like Hinduja Hospital , Bombay Hospital , Saifee Hospital , Tata Memorial etc.. Presently, he is heading our Nuclear Medicine Department and Thyroid clinic at Riddhivinayak Cardiac and Critical Centre, Malad (W).

The following message given by him, I feel makes a lot of sense and is important for all to know


The only portals of entry are the nostrils and mouth/throat. In a global epidemic of this nature, it's almost impossible to avoid coming into contact with H1N1 in spite of all precautions. Contact with H1N1 is not so much of a problem as proliferation is.

While you are still healthy and not showing any symptoms of H1N1 infection, in order to prevent proliferation, aggravation of symptoms and development of secondary infections, some very simple steps, not fully highlighted in most official communications, can be practiced (instead of focusing on how to stock N95 or Tamiflu):

1. Frequent hand-washing (well highlighted in all official communications).

2. "Hands-off-the-face" approach. Resist all temptations to touch any part of face (unless you want to eat or bathe).

3. *Gargle twice a day with warm salt water (use Listerine if you don't trust salt). *H1N1 takes 2-3 days after initial infection in the throat/ nasal cavity to proliferate and show characteristic symptoms. Simple gargling prevents proliferation. In a way, gargling with salt water has the same effect on a healthy individual that Tamiflu has on an infected one.. Don't underestimate this simple, inexpensive and powerful preventative method.

4. Similar to 3 above, *clean your nostrils at least once every day with warm salt water. *Not everybody may be good at Jala Neti or Sutra Neti (very good Yoga asanas to clean nasal cavities), but *blowing the nose hard once a day and swabbing both nostrils with cotton buds dipped in warm salt water is very effective in bringing down viral population.*

5. *Boost your natural immunity with foods that are rich in Vitamin C (Amla and other citrus fruits). *If you have to supplement with Vitamin C tablets, make sure that it also has Zinc to boost absorption.

6. *Drink as much of warm liquids (tea, coffee, etc) as you can. *Drinking warm liquids has the same effect as gargling, but in the reverse direction. They wash off proliferating viruses from the throat into the stomach where they cannot survive, proliferate or do any harm.

I suggest you pass this on to your entire e-list. You never know who might pay attention to it - and STAY ALIVE because of it.


CNJ in- So get out you onions and garlic, rinse and gargle with salt water frequently and wash your hands. Hopefully we can all get through this winter and feel well enough to get our daily stuff done.

23 comments:

  1. Now, that's brilliant.

    So glad there is a good use for onions and garlic.

    Watch, there'll be a run on onions and garlic, CNJ!

    Buy your commodities futures now!

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  2. We need all the help we can get , with the media screaming PANDEMIC the people at the flu clinics are lined up out the doors , often leaving those who are Priority and higher risk unable to get the vaccine . I was imunized as a Health care worker we take some priority , but we are done separate from the flu clinic. My mom who is immune suppresed (due to transplant) is required to stand (or in her case sit in W/C ) in line for however long it takes . When these simple cmmon sense remedies would be perfectly reasonable for youi average healthy adult.

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  3. I'm sorry, the onion thing is an old wives' tale.

    http://www.snopes.com/medical/swineflu/onion.asp

    The only way I can think of that they could help is that placing a bowl of sliced onions next to a sick person would keep the healthy ones away!

    To keep from catching it, the Indian doctor's advice is good.
    You don't have to use a neti pot; Niel Med sells bottles for squirting stuff in your nose, and packets of mix. (They're easier on your nose than just salt.)

    The best way - IMHO - to keep from giving people the flu is to wear a sanitary mask when you feel sick.
    I used up a heck of a lot of sick leave, because sick people wouldn't stay the heck home!!!

    Ruthie, grumpy because it's been snowing for almost 24 hours.

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  4. Ruthie- The guy I got the onion thing from, I'm sure sent it to their guy in the Chicago branch. Mr. Chicago runs Everything through Snopes. He catches and sorts through a lot of the BS stuff.

    The girls go ttheir shots on Tuesday. 4 of them for the checkup and all the wellness stuff. Vivi couldn't stand the Dr's office at all- really fussy and whiny. Didn't want to sit on the table and pretty much had to be held the entire time. Lilli didn't even flinch until the 2nd shot then, Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...

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  5. Sat in Urgent Care on Sunday. I was surprised on how many non-sick people came in. Then there were 2 extremely sick people. B/C of the "non-sickies" I got to sit w/projectile vomit Vicki and Flu Florence for a couple of hours. At least Vicki go up and vomitted outside..in the little "puke" bags the RN gave her.
    ----------------------------
    So do you cook the onions after using them as "anti-flu"? I mean times are tough..in this economy you shouldn't be throwing good food away

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  6. That's astonishing!

    To my husband's chagrin, I will instantly place my faith in an old wives' tale of several hundred years' vintage rather than in any sort of "western medicine," (as I call it, with a certain look on my face.)

    I think I can vouch for the hot drinks being anti-viral. . . despite working in an international resort, which has already played host to a certain virus for at least six months, I have not had a sniffle - possibly since I all I consume is hot coffee!

    But I'll add onions to the shopping list.

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  7. CnJ, you said,
    "Mr. Chicago runs Everything through Snopes."

    So do I. Here's the Snopes
    link again.

    C3D, I wouldn't ant to cook them after they've become all black, would you?

    Besides, they're not good for dogs in even moderate doses, and my gang would swipe them in a second, the piggies. I don't need a giant vet bill right now...

    Ruthie, on behalf of the brindle git, the deaf git, and the giant speckled git - my dogs.

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  8. I HATE HATE HATE onions.

    I LOVE LOVE LOVE garlic. Had me some pasta with garlic & olive oil tonite!

    I must say, this all looks fishy except for the Indian doctor's advice. I work at a small college, and we've made several fun posters about covering your cough etc. I expect it will be a nice series.

    Picasso got his Blue Period, I get a Flu Period. :P

    I loves my Neti Pot. I use plain cheap sea salt and a little rosemary oil if I'm stuffy. If I'm feeling VERY BRAVE or headachy, I add a few drops of Spirit of Peppermint. That'll wake you up!!!

    I'm sick of all the Kooky Kristian Home Skoolers who won't vaccinate their kids. My horse-to-be is coming from such a place, so I have to get him ALL his shots... his very nice owners don't believe in them. At least they warned me...

    There are also a lot of people in my area who are convinced that H1N1 is a government plot, and/or the vaccine will make them sick and/or their kids autistic.



    *sigh*

    I fucking HATE bad science. Or pretend science.

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  9. Speaking of home remedies, I have a great book somewhere of old Hoosier Home Remedies compiled by a Purdue professor. My favorite is for the Common Cold:

    Ingredients:
    A Hat
    A Bedpost
    A Bottle of Whiskey

    Hang hat on bedpost.
    Start drinking whiskey.
    When you can see two hats, stop drinking. You will feel better soon.

    And speaking of urban legends (Rural legends??), is it true that a ziploc bag filled with water and a penny will repel flies when it;s hung in a barn?

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  10. Just another old wives tale that is worthless. The doctor in 1919"saw the virus in the onion." With what??? A virus is so minute that you need an electron microscope to view it. The electron microscope was invented in 1931 but was not perfected until seven years later.

    And the "doctor" saw bacteria on the onion. That's nice... bacteria don't cause the flu. And there are all sorts of bacteria in the air that you breathe each day, Good, bad and benign.

    Come on people, get smart. We have decades of great scientific knowledge to rely on and you're think and onion can prevent the flu???

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  11. The Amish are big on garlic as a remedy. I know a girl who had pneumonia for .... MONTHS .... because all her family would give her was fresh garlic or garlic capsules, because supposedly garlic is an antibiotic.

    If it is, it's a pretty weak one. Though nothing's better when you've got a cold or sinus infection than super duper garlicky homemade chicken 'n' noodles.

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  12. Better to give the non-science people something else to worry about. I don't even have onions or garlic in my house.
    Don't plan to start.
    Hate them both.
    But I AM a witch:)

    It's the media brouhaha that's got everybody terrified. It's the flu, people!
    Lock up your children!
    Better yet, feed them well, keep them clean, and let them PLAY!
    In the DIRT!
    Yes, then you can wash them again.

    anti-over-reactionary
    and out.

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  13. Ruthie- I am guessing he sent the email to me as well as on to Mr. Chicago, who would have looked it up on Snopes.

    Odessa- don't you just love things like that? Dr. Quack spotted this and that. By the way the sky is falling!

    C3D- if the onion did suck up cold & flu viruses and germs, why would anyone consider eating it afterwards? Cooked or not! Yuck!

    CP- with a lot of animals, if fed properly with good, nutritious food- the immune system will build itself up and remain strong and the animal will be healthy. But when boarding, showing or trail riding are concerned and the horse is traveling or in contact with others who are, then yes, doing what you can to help boost their immunity is a given. But some people don't see things that way.

    GL- ahhhhh the power of dirt and Mother Earth. I dated a guy who was nearly Mr Clean. Imagine his horror when after cleaning stalls and handling the manure fork handle, I washed my hands before eating- by dunking them in the freshly cleaned water bucket.

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  14. Haha.... my mom is the Queen of Lysol & Bleach. She can't help it - my grandma was the same way, and then Mom became a nurse.

    She was always horrified by the grubby state of most horsepeople's kids.... but my laid back 4H leader always told her "There are no germs at horse shows." ;-)

    I took my kid and dog out for a hike in the muddy woods yesterday. It rocked, and my kid came back nice and dirty.

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  15. CnJ, I did check it on Snopes - I always do. (In fact, Snopes is the 2nd link on my bookmark toolbar.)

    Onions & Garlic Don't Work.

    Snopes posted about the Indian DR.'s advice yesterday. Here's the link:

    http://www.snopes.com/medical/swineflu/prevent.asp

    She says none of the major health places (like CDC and WHO) recommend any of the last four.

    I just hope this old wive's tail doesn't run up the price of onions.

    Speaking of which...

    Ruthie, off to load the Crockpot

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  16. Wow...was this a civilized hen fight or what?
    Science vs. Mother Nature???
    Man "practicing" medicine?
    OMG!!!
    Say it isn't so!?!
    Live cell vs. killed cell vaccines and practitioners unwillingness to declare which one they were using caused us to look long and hard at what our kids would be injected with.
    I may very well put an onion in every room.
    I may even group them in my good silver bowls instead of apples and pine cones.
    Because I am a contrary bitch.
    And because I do not always buy into the media hype.
    And 80+ deaths from the flu vaccine in children this year???
    I guess they made that up too.
    Damn media...

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  17. "And 80+ deaths from the flu vaccine in children this year???"

    Dena, where's your source?

    Also... I would hazard to guess that deaths from flu will vastly outnumber deaths from vaccine.

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  18. A good interview with doctors NOT from the EEEEBIL GUBMINT:
    http://www.pbs.org/newshour/insider/health/july-dec09/h1n1vaccine_10-26.html

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  19. My source Cattypex? Right on my yahoo news page.
    And that was the numbers from September until like October 20th or some such.
    It has also been on the nationwide news too I hear.
    I wouldn't know as I do not watch.
    And I don't think the government is evil.
    Just paracitical.:)

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  20. "I may even group them in my good silver bowls instead of apples and pine cones.
    Because I am a contrary bitch."

    ROFL - good silver bowls with cut onions in them! What a picture...

    Watch out, though. I think onion tarnishes silver. I'm not sure.

    As for hype, hey, with the internet, you can find hype about any point of view. I even found a site that sells designs for tinfoil hats.

    And even a broken watch is right twice a day.

    I'm not too worried, though. I survived West Nile a few summers ago. And its "imitator" virus. Not my best summer!

    Ruthie

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  21. Ew Ruthie!

    I had honest-to-goodness flu in college. It was awful. Like 10,000 hangovers + bronchitis.

    I had Epstein-Barr one fall. The virus that causes mono. That was just grueling, too. Walking around in a thick fog of inertia.

    As soon as H1N1 vaccine is available to the gen. public here, I'm getting it. So's my daughter. She's had no problem with the other flu shots.

    Onion DOES tarnish silver! I forgot about that. Of course I don't have silver bowls lying around to test that theory. Just crystal..... (long story)

    Are onions toxic to horses? Did I read that somewhere? Goodness, I must brush up on all that now!!!!

    :D

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  22. Everything tarnishes silver. As, I am contrary I persist in having silver bowls and candlesticks.
    I figure if I have to spend that much time rubbing anything it had better not prove to be brass.
    Crystal is not a working answer for my family.
    *crash*bang*tinkle* Oooopsie.
    And I agree even a broken watch is right twice a day.LOL
    Cattypex I will pray for you and your's.
    How confident are you feeling now in that shot? Just Kidding.

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