Permission to Feel

Last week was nothing but pure hell. It started with Drake, my 7-year-old son, after his karate class when he said, “Mommy, my body hurts.” Then, a deep 5-day fever quickly set in with all the accompanying lethargy, depressed appetite, nasal discharge, cough, headache, etc. All I could do was keep him hydrated, give him herbs and supplements for acute immune support, provide lots of hot baths, rest, simply be there with him and most importantly, NOT do anything to interrupt his body’s healing process.

As expected, he got better and pulled through without any complications and then it hit me. Fuck.

Fuckity fuck fuck fuck. All my hard work: no sugar, no alcohol, 9 hours of sleep a night, restorative exercise, weekly floats, massage, acupuncture, supplements, herbs, etc and still, here I am – suffering.

Look, I need you to understand something about me: when I get sick, I get mad. Yeah, yeah, yeah…I know I have a chapter in my book devoted to being sick in peace, but that’s just a bunch of bullshit when my fever is 102 degrees.

So here I am moping around the house with a bottle of Broncafect under my arm, asking myself, “Can I EVER be sick and not be mad about it?” I mean, I teach people to celebrate acute illness. This is where the juice is! This is where the body heals! Your mucus membranes are rocking it! This is a sacred fucking space of self-care!

Embrace the pain.

Relish the rest.

Leave the world behind.

Stick it to the man.

And then I had an epiphany. What am I doing? I don’t need to make my anger wrong. We are complex human beings. We can hold more than one emotion at a given time.

I can be sick and rage about it.

I can be sick and cry.

I can be sick and grateful.

I can feel whatever I need to because that’s what’s there for me. It’s all good. And with that realization, I was free…to simply be sick in all of its horrendous glory. To let all the emotions just move through me and of course, to get in bed or watch another movie.

So next time you’re sick and angry (or anytime you’re making your emotions wrong), this is your permission slip: you can feel anything and everything all at the same time and that’s totally cool. You’re not wrong for it. You’re simply more human and more alive.

Be sick in peace, my friends…or not.

Love,

Charlotte

PS: I have two more things I want to share with you.

One is a short article from a hospital that addresses the myths and facts about fever. There is no reason to be scared of your or your child’s fever. Check this article out. I promise you’ll learn something! And then share it with a friend.

Second, try this next time you or someone in your family gets sick: the wet-sock treatment, also known as the warming sock treatment, is indicated for sore throat (or any inflammation or infection of the throat), neck pain, ear infection, headache, migraine, nasal congestion, upper respiratory infection, cough, bronchitis, and sinus infections and works best if repeated until you feel better.

Supplies

1 pair white cotton socks

1 pair thick wool socks

Towel

Bowl large enough to hold soaking socks

Several ice cubes

Enough water to fill the bowl

Directions

Soak the cotton socks completely in the cold water. Wring the socks out thoroughly until they do not drip. Warm your feet. (This is very important! The treatment will not be effective and could be harmful if your feet are not warmed first.) Warming can be accomplished by soaking your feet in warm water or taking a warm bath for 5-10 minutes. Dry your feet and body with a dry towel. Put the cold wet socks on your feet first and pull the wool socks on top of them. Go directly to bed. Avoid getting chilled. Keep the socks on all night. You will find that the wet cotton socks will be dry in the morning and you may sleep better.

I purchased my wool socks online through The Vermont Country Store. As a side note, this is a great store for 100% cotton clothing. They are called 30-Below Merino Wool Socks. Here is the link.

The Wet-Sock Treatment came from The Metabolic Approach to Cancer: Integrating Deep Nutrition, the Ketogenic Diet, and Nontoxic Bio-Individualized Therapies by Dr Nasha Winters and Jess Higgins Kelly, p169. Great book.

I did this the entire time Drake was sick, as well as for myself. I know the whole thing sounds strange but it works. Try it.

Thanks for reading and “see” ya next week!

Recipe: Nuts for Rosemary

Before we go nuts, let’s take a closer look at rosemary…

Like many of our herbs, rosemary isn’t just a flavor or a fragrance – it’s a medicine!

Known as the “herb of remembrance,” rosemary improves memory, concentration and mental performance. The Eclectic physicians practicing herbal medicine in the late 1800s and early 1900s used rosemary for “cerebral anemia,” which is the technical description for a pale face. Sometimes this type of person gets fatigued in the afternoon and as a result, suffers from a headache. Overall, tension headaches and debility (a state of being weak, feeble, lacking strength and vigor) are specific indications for rosemary. Rosemary may help restore blood flow to the head and improve well-being.

Rosemary doesn’t just go to your head, it also goes to your liver where it aids phase II liver detoxification. I think we can all agree that our detoxification pathways are overwhelmed in our modern world, and what happens for many people is that they become “pathological detoxifiers,” which means that their phase I liver detoxification gets backed up. This is akin to bringing your trash to the curb, but no one comes to pick it up! Phase II detoxification is like the garbage man who takes the trash away, so you can see how rosemary could be your liver’s best friend if your detoxification is sluggish.

In addition to being a circulatory stimulant and protective to the liver, it also relieves gas in the digestive tract and exhibits antimicrobial and antioxidant properties. In Texas we had rosemary bushes all around our house. I remember after giving birth to my son Drake, I would take rosemary baths to soothe my vaginal tissue and help to prevent any infection. It doesn’t take a medical degree to go into your backyard and harvest some rosemary sprigs, now does it?

That said, I do have a few favorite products that harness the medicinal power of rosemary:

Bacopa Complex contains rosemary leaf essential oil with schisandra berry, bacopa herb, and eleuthero root. This formula is designed to support a healthy nervous system with a brain that can focus, concentrate, recall information, and have good long-term memory. It’s great for students or anyone who places a high demand on their cognitive function. It helps create a calm state of alertness and vitality that we are all looking for.

Vitanox contains rosemary leaf with green tea, turmeric rhizome, and grape seed extract. This formula is aimed at improving your body’s own production of protective compounds and exhibits strong anti-inflammatory activity. It protects against environmental toxins (including electromagnetic fields), helps to prevent cancer, and even plays a role in a healthy microbiome. This is an herbal multivitamin for living with the stress of our modern world.

LivCo contains rosemary leaf with schisandra berry and milk thistle seed. This formula supports all phases of liver detoxification. Poor liver function may look like headaches, allergies, skin problems, food intolerances, nausea and/or constipation. Many people get concerned about taking herbs long-term to support detoxification, thinking that they are a strong, temporary solution to detox. This is not that. Rosemary, Schisandra, and milk thistle come together in this formula to gently support the 24/7 daily function of the liver and can definitely be used long-term. I particularly think of LivCo whenever someone’s job involves a lot of chemical exposures, like a car mechanic, hairdresser, or painter, but the reality is that we are all exposed to toxic chemicals, no matter what our occupation, and these plants can help our bodies cope.

These three products come to us from MediHerb which is available through qualified health professionals like myself. They are all dehydrated water/alcohol extracts made into tablets which means that they are highly absorbable and effective for getting in the bloodstream and getting the job done.

Now, let’s move out of my natural medicine cabinet and back to my kitchen. By now, I think you’re ready to fully appreciate what rosemary has to offer. Here’s a great recipe for you:

Nuts for Rosemary

2 cups raw organic almonds

2 cups raw organic brazil nuts

1 cup raw organic pecans

1 cup raw organic walnuts

2 Tablespoons ghee, melted

2 Tablespoons fresh rosemary leaves, chopped

2 teaspoons Celtic sea salt

1 teaspoon onion powder

¾ teaspoon garlic powder

¼ teaspoon paprika

In a slow cooker, add the nuts, then pour in melted ghee and toss. Add the rosemary, salt, onion, garlic, and paprika powders, then toss again. Slow cook on low for 3 hours, then 1 hour on high uncovered.

Remove and bake in the oven for 10 minutes at 350 degrees until dry. Store in an airtight container in a cabinet for up to two weeks.

I can tell you right now that these didn’t last two weeks in our home.

Enjoy your rosemary in peace, my friends!

Love,

Charlotte

PS: Please sign up for my weekly newsletter here and never miss a beat...or a good eat!

By the way, this recipe was adapted from The Keto Diet: Slow Cooker Favorites magazine October 2019, p 71.

Sick Like a Rock Star

Winter is coming...

You’re going to get sick with a cold, flu or stomach bug. It’s inevitable. Getting sick is a healthy part of being human. It’s just that our entire culture is fucked up about it. We get sick and think that something is wrong, that we have failed and we focus on how inconvenient it is. We run to the “good doctor” to get drugs and lower fevers when the body should be left to handle it on its own with the help of the right foods, herbs and lifestyle interventions.

Plus, money makes the world go round and when you’re sick, you can’t work. I don’t want to minimize anyone’s financial stress with acute illness. But that we have an economic system that doesn’t allow space for being sick beyond pisses me off. Until we stop valuing productivity more than healthy immune function, then we can continue to enjoy our dysfunctional bodies in the form of chronic inflammation, including allergies, autoimmune disease and cancer.

Look, many cultural shifts often happen when enough individuals change. So let me ask you this…

Are you up for celebrating your mucus membranes this fall and winter?

When you get sick, can you set your ego aside and really lean into it? Effectively saying, “I’m not a goddamn machine! I am a human being!”

Can you engage in one of the most holy acts of resistance against capitalism and the patriarchy by staying in bed and caring for yourself? This isn’t weakness; this is great feminine strength!

If you’re a parent, can you let your child have a fever or cough or whatever…can you tolerate your child being miserable or do you just want to make it all go away?

Can you embrace the reality that when you get sick and do it right, you and your child are really getting stronger and that you haven’t failed?

Well managed acute infections in childhood can set the stage for a healthy a immune system in adulthood. If you fuck this early stage up, you may not be able to fix it later.

So I don’t want to talk about prevention right now. We know how to prevent illness: good clean air and water, nutrient dense foods, less carbohydrates and sugar, minimal alcohol, the right amount of movement, avoidance of food allergies, stress management (whatever the fuck that means), rest, and appropriate nutritional and herbal supplements (please note the absence of vaccines). Yep, we know what prevention looks like…until our healthy habits get compromised and the body becomes hospitable to a bug. Then what? That’s what I want to talk about: how to be sick like a motherfucking rock star.

Ok. Are you ready? Are your mucus membranes all pumped up about getting exercised? Good.

Here’s how we ensure that we make the best of acute illness:

Stay hydrated. I know - boring! But this is a necessary reminder that the best part of your immune system resides in the mucus membranes which are moist. Your mucus membranes are performing a barrier function AND sending important messages to the rest of your body. If you’re dehydrated, then they can’t do their jobs properly. We want that mucus to flow! So drink plenty of room temperature water and hot herbal teas. My favorites include organic peppermint, Equal Exchange Vanilla Rooibos, Rishi’s Turmeric Ginger and Organic India’s Holy Basil.

Calcium Lactate powder. Calcium lactate comes from beets and is dairy-free. This form of calcium is highly absorbable and supports the 1% of calcium flowing through your bloodstream that performs an immune function. Calcium lactate is able to call the white blood cells into action and many people are deficient in it. When trying to understand this product, you can also think of the role that calcium plays in nature: it provides a protective shell and it’s going to do the same for you. I like adding a teaspoon or two to my electrolytes, which plays right back into my first suggestion: consume more fluids.

Andrographis Complex. This tablet is a combination of andrographis herb, echinacea root, and holy basil herb and essential oil. This formula is designed for acute infections and clears heat. Wherever there is heat in the body, there is the opportunity for stagnation, particularly in the liver which has to clear all the immune complexes formed in the blood. This formula is not only boosting immune function, it’s helping with detoxification. It helps the body manage its inflammation without interrupting the process, ultimately helping you feel better than you would without it. 6-8 per day is recommended and if you take too much, your stomach might get upset. No problem just reduce the dosage and carry on with your mission.

Broncafect Phytosynergist. This is a liquid herbal blend of echinacea root, licorice root, pleurisy root, thyme leaf, ginger rhizome, and white horehound herb. You can use this to manage fevers and move the fuck out of mucus. It’s primarily for wet coughs, but you can also use it for the sinuses. It will warm you UP and empower the body to move the pathogens OUT. I always have at least two bottles in my stash because all of these things are useless if you don’t have them when the bug hits! I like to turn Broncafect into a tea, putting 5-10 mLs in a glass of room temperature water and drinking it slowly. 5 mLs is a metric teaspoon and during an acute situation, I might push the dose up to 6-9 teaspoons per day.

And while I sip on my Broncafect tea, I bathe my sick ass in Dr Singha’s Mustard Bath. This gem of a creation contains: baking soda, mustard seed powder, and essential oils of wintergreen, eucalyptus, rosemary, thyme and gum benzoin. Again, you are warming your body up and relaxing! Have you watched Stranger Things? When the shadow monster from the upside down invades Will’s body, it likes it cold. So it goes with an infection. Heat makes you inhospitable to the virus. Burn that shit out.

Essential oil steams. This looks like filling your sink with boiling hot water, placing 2-3 drops of your favorite essential oil in it, covering your head with a towel, and breathing deeply for 5-10 minutes. It’s awkward as well, but worth it. My favorite essential oil is tea tree oil because it is highly antimicrobial and not irritating...to me. Because that’s the thing with essential oils, what you like can be very personal. So go with what you like! They all have antimicrobial properties and this steam inhalation allows you to reach the most affected mucus membranes: the sinus cavity and the lungs.

If you are hungry, eat. If you are not hungry, don’t eat. Pretty fucking simple, heh? Your body is smart; it will tell you what to do if you let it.

A commitment to doing nothing. Both literally and figuratively, not doing is probably the most important of all. The Western medical model prides itself on interventions. The entire system is built upon the idea that man can do it better than Mother Nature. I call bullshit. The most crucial thing you can do when you’re sick is NOTHING and let your body do the work. It will hurt. You will be uncomfortable. It will be hard. But I have faith that you can handle it and come out of the other side that much stronger. Learn to do this well in your body, and you can pass the gift on to your children.

Be sick like a motherfucking rock star in peace, my friends!

Love,

Charlotte

PS - If this conversation about fevers scares the shit out of you, please find a health professional who can walk you through the process and be there to support you. There are medical doctors who understand the value of a good fever - find them!

Just a reminder that the Standard Process and MediHerb products listed above are available through licensed health professionals who have been trained in how to use them.

Last but not least, I am excited to be attending the first Electromagnetic Fields Conference 2019 Diagnosis and Treatment: Effects of EMF Exposure and The Impact of Today's Wireless Technologies next weekend. I just finished another book on the subject matter titled Would You Put Your Head in a Microwave Oven? by Dr Gerald Goldberg. Compelling:

"In terms of the point of this book, one should ask oneself, how could everyone across different regions of the country be getting sick at the same time? Also how is it that the number of ill people seems to be increasing in numbers! Focus on the common link. There are not many things in nature that can affect individuals across broad geographic areas. Microwave radiation exposure is the singular unifying link till proven otherwise. There should be no debate. Apart from all the other environmental toxins and pollutants that we are exposed to microwave radiation will act as an accelerant of illness" (p35).

From his perspective, we are all cooking. So think about this next time you put your cell phone anywhere near your body.

Sorry to end on such a depressing note. Thanks for reading!