Homestead mailing list

[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

On Apr 17, 2008, at 11:53 AM, Lisa K.V. Perry wrote:

> That said, when we have a cold, in addition to eating homemade  
> chicken soup
> filled with garlic and ginger, we also take Vitamin C, garlic,  
> Astralagus
> and a couple of other supplements. The cold we were coming down with  
> goes
> away. Was it the soup, the supplements, both together--perhaps  
> combined with
> getting more sleep?

Lisa, first ask why you got a cold? Best probabilities are stress,  
negative thoughts and an incomplete diet. I am not sure how many years  
now that I have not had a cold. If I feel one coming on I do one  
thing: I stop eating. It works.
> I believe there is a place for good quality supplements and believe  
> they can
> assist a person to be healthy or become healthy.

I think that if someone is for some reason unable to obtain a good  
diet, then certain supplements might ward off illness.
> Here's a for instance for you:  I take 1 mg. of time-release Melatonin
> almost every night to help me fall asleep and stay asleep in the  
> middle of
> the night (in my case it's more the issue of waking in the middle of  
> the
> night). Why? Because at my age I'm perimenopausal (more info than you
> needed) and 'sleep issues' often come with the territory. Melatonin  
> is a
> chemical manufactured in the brain that diminishes with age. Since I  
> began
> taking Melatonin the quality of my sleep has improved dramatically,  
> back to
> how it used to be (most nights), thank heavens.

Hm, now that is one I used to take but don't now and in fact my sleep  
the last couple years has become very irregular, some nights I sleep  
right through, other nights I wake up after three or four hours and  
can't go back to sleep. I suspect that I need less sleep. Naps do  
work. I'm working on it. Perhaps I should follow Edison's example.