(HealthDay News) — While decorating for the holiday season, keep in mind that a live tree, electric lights, and some ornaments can pose safety hazards.

Here are suggestions from the National Safety Council on how to enjoy a safe holiday:

• Reduce the risk of fire by checking all light strands for broken bulbs or exposed wires.
• Never plug more than three sets of lights into one extension cord, and never leave Christmas lights turned on when you’re asleep or away from the home.
• Don’t place lighted candles near trees or other holiday decorations.
• Keep breakable ornaments high up on the tree, out of reach of curious children and pets.

With the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, it’s important to avoid stress. To prevent the parties, shopping, and family visits from taking their toll on your health, follow these suggestions from the National Safety Council:

1. Be realistic. You can’t do everything portrayed on TV or in magazines. If you try to do too much, you and your children will be too exhausted to enjoy it.

Be realistic about expectations of family and friends. No one is perfect and the holidays won’t suddenly make them so. Family members will be the way they always are. If siblings fight, they won’t suddenly stop just because it is a holiday. When choosing which friends to spend time with during this month, surround yourself with the supportive ones. There isn’t time or energy to spend with the ones who agitate you.

Help your children be realistic about what to expect as well. Model for them that the holidays are about more than gifts. Teach them how to handle envy when a friend gets the toy that they wanted. What should they do when family get-togethers are filled with tension or adults are arguing? Think of ways to help the child who is splitting time between two families in different households.

2. Reassess. As a family, decide which activities are important and which can be eliminated. Are there things that you do because you have always done them? Have you stopped enjoying them? Have your children outgrown them? Look at how you can do the activity differently or make this the year to let it go.

3. Start a new tradition. Find one activity the family enjoys and create a new tradition this year. Rituals that occur every year are comforting to children and help create positive holiday memories. Focus on the meaning of the holiday. Talk to your children about what is important to you during this season.

4. Prioritize. What has to be done and when? Plan ahead on how to use your time. If you plan and schedule activities, you won’t feel so pressured. Some parents find a calendar of holiday activities helpful. Include times to bake those cookies, or a chunk of time for gift wrapping. Start shopping early, so you aren’t trying to find something important the day before you need it. Make a shopping list so you won’t overspend on spur-of-the-moment purchases. Tell your younger children what the final plans are early enough to help them get ready for family visits, dinners or other big events.

5. Keep your routine. During this hectic time, changing the normal family routine can be stressful to children. As much as possible, stick to regular mealtimes and bedtime. If there is a big activity, make sure your child is rested and fed. Keep a snack handy for an afternoon activity that lasts longer than anticipated. Help reduce the impact of schedule changes by telling your child what to expect. If your child is slow to adjust, tell her what to expect, who will be there and how long you will stay. Once you get to the activity, stay close by until she feels comfortable.

6. Delegate responsibilities. Ask for help around the house or divide tasks among adults and older children. Can everyone pitch in to help bake the cookies? Make a production line, and you may start a new tradition. Let children wrap their presents for others. The gift may not be wrapped “perfectly,” but children will have fun in the process.

7. Simplify. Plan easy meals, especially on those days when there are other commitments. How big a holiday dinner do you have to cook? Suggest a potluck with your family and friends, instead of having one person do all the work. Cut down on how many gifts you give. For example, if you get gifts for all your nieces and nephews, consider one gift for the family (like a family board game). When wrapping gifts, choose one or two colors of paper. In our house, each person has a color. It makes it easier to wrap, and easy for all to know “which one is mine.” Do you have to send a holiday card to everyone you know? With so many people having e-mail, how about sending your holiday note electronically this year?

8. Plan for fun. What do you enjoy? Plan time to go to see The Nutcracker or drive around to see holiday lights or get together to go to a local tree farm. Visit the children’s museum or go to story hour at the library or local bookstore. What activities are low or no cost?

9. Explore how other cultures celebrate the season. What are some other holidays that are different than yours? Are there unique ways other countries or cultures celebrate the same occasion (like Christmas)? Check out a CD of songs from around the world, or learn a new recipe from another culture’s celebration.

10. Carve out time for yourself. This time of year, parents find themselves committing to others; but not scheduling time for themselves. Make a little quiet time - maybe a long bath or a walk by yourself or time to read. Make sure you are getting enough rest. A short nap may help you be energetic for that evening party. What about a special day or evening time for you and your partner or a good friend to reconnect? Children also need some unscheduled downtime to recuperate from all the running around. They too will enjoy time with a best friend to just play, without doing a holiday activity.

Finally, roll with the punches. Even though there will be days when things won’t work out as you planned, try to find the humor in the mishaps. One year, our family got to the woods to cut a tree and realized we had forgotten the ax. We ended up using what tools we had in the back of the truck. It is one of the more humorous stories that we still retell. And remember, in another month it will be over. Do what you can to make the holiday season a pleasant memory for your family.

There’s more than one way to overindulge during the holiday season. You can carol until you get a sore throat, or scarf too many cookies at the office party. You can stress over the perfect prime rib, or try to work off 5 pounds in a day so you can fit into that slinky cocktail dress that night.

Sometimes you go too far — and then comes the morning after. But don’t despair: We’ve come up with easy cures for almost every imaginable holiday hangover. Before you know it, you’ll feel ready to deck the halls all over again.

You don’t have to be getting married or making a commitment to get cold feet - some people have cold feet year-round. Often this is simply due to cold weather or exposed feet and toes, but some people experience cold feet even when the weather is warm.

If you tend to get cold feet, discuss your symptoms with your doctor to rule out any underlying medical conditions. Circulatory disorders, anemia, diabetes and Raynaud’s disease (a circulatory problem in which the hands and feet have hypersensitivity to the cold) may be to blame, and should be addressed if they are determined to be the cause. If no medical condition is found, try the following - each can help to prevent or lessen your cold-feet symptoms:

• Sprinkle a small amount of ground cayenne pepper in your socks and shoes.
• Make time to get regular physical exercise to improve your circulation.
• Quit smoking: Nicotine constricts blood vessels, disturbing normal circulation.
• Wear shoes that are comfortable and not too tight in order to avoid restricted circulation.
• Don’t forget the most obvious solution: A relaxing foot soak in warm (not hot) water followed by a pair of warm socks!

FDA released a warning regarding the use of Tamiflu, they warn of the potential risk for neuropsychiatric events associated with its use. These behaviors have been seen primarily in Japan with over 100 cases that have been reported. Effects of the medication include panic attacks, suicide attempts, hallucinations and delirium.

For many years Japan has closely followed and documented the effects of flu on their citizens. This explains why these cases have been noticed in Japan first, along with the higher use of the drug amongst the Japanese. Each year an estimated two million Americans take Tamiflu which has been shown to decrease the duration of the flu by a day or two. The flu season has not yet started in the US, so these cases have not been seen.

For more information:

WebMD

NPR - Includes Audio

Tired of all the new drug adds?

Take a look at this short funny video that describes the benefits and side effects associated with this natural medication.

Click Here.

Steam inhalation is a wonderful way to remedy respiratory problems such as chest congestion, sinusitis, bronchitis and bronchial cough. It is easy to do and very cost-effective: simply bring a pot of water to boil on your stove, then stand over it and drape a towel over your shoulders. Be careful not to get too close to the steam, and that the towel does not touch the flame or burner on your stove. Try to breathe through your nose if you have nasal and sinus problems; if you are too stuffed up, breathe through your mouth with your lips pursed. The steam will help keep nasal passages moistened and relieve some of the aches and pains associated with respiratory problems.

Once you have the steam tent set up, consider enhancing the effectiveness of steam inhalation with aromatic herbs. Some favorites are sage and eucalyptus, which can make the steam more soothing. These herbs are also antibacterial and using aromatics in this manner can help to reduce the chance of secondary bacterial infection when respiratory diseases are caused by viruses. You can add sage or eucalyptus to the boiling water by the whole leaf or as an essential oil - try a teaspoon of the oil, or a small handful of the leaves. Both are available at herb shops and natural food grocers.

If you were to ask those cute little penguins from “Happy Feet” the movie they would tell you the best way to prevent the flu is with a flu shot.  I have a feeling the pharmaceuticals that paid for the advertising would agree with them also, but CDC has something different to say about the effectiveness of the flu shot, for the report click here.

The Pharmaceutical companies have been very effecting in “educating” the American public of the danger associated with germs, like the influenza virus.  We are led to believe that everyday is a game of hide and seek from these little monsters.  These little monsters are everywhere and there is no hiding see my post Germs-You Can Run But You Can’t Hide.

The only way to prevent the flu is to keep your defenses up.  The immune system is responsible for protecting the body from foreign invaders.  When it is weak the opportunistic vaccines come in and set up shop. How does the immune system become weak?  Stress, lack of exercise, bad diet, smoking, drinking etc.  If that doesn’t sound like the holidays, I don’t know what does.  Viruses could care less what the temperature is outside.  The reason people get sick has nothing to do with the weather, it has everything to do with the state of your immune system.

Have you ever wondered why you get sick and your spouse doesn’t?  Did you know that there can be as many as 10,000,000 germs on your desk?  Germs are everywhere!

Simply put, exercise, eat well, decrease stress in your life if you want to prevent the flu.

At first glance it would appear that this is a silly question. Anyone who has experienced heartburn knows that it is caused by stomach acid moving into the esophagus (the tube that food travel into our stomach). This might not be as straightforward as we once thought.

Forty-four percent of the population suffers from some type of indigestion. This should come as no surprise, if you have turned on your TV in the last 10 years. Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, How do I spell relief etc. have become household phrases due to the ubiquitous nature of this condition.

The function of stomach acid is to add in the breakdown of large food particles that are ingested. In order to get the proper nutrients out of our diet, it is imperative that the food we eat is broken down prior to moving into the intestines. If there is too little stomach acid, the large food particles sit in the stomach for an extended period of time, instead of being passed quickly to the intestines for nutrient absorption. This undigested food will back up in the stomach and start to push its way up the same tube that it came in, created symptoms of burning and discomfort.

When symptoms of pain and discomfort appear, the most common corse of action is to take an over the counter alkalizing agent such as Tums or Rolaids to decrease the acidity of the stomach acid. This will decrease the symptoms, but it will not address the underlying issue if you are deficient in stomach acid.

How do you know if you have too much or too little stomach acid?

One test for stomach acid is called the Heidelberg Stomach Acid Test. This test is a high tech and performed in a physician’s office. In this test the patient swallows a capsule that measures the level of stomach acid and transmits the information back to a computer, for more information on the Heidelberg Test click here.

Another more low-tech test involves adding vinegar to your diet and watching your symptoms. Vinegar has a low pH, which means that it is highly acidic similar to your stomach acid. If you add a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar to your meal and your symptoms of indigestion decrease, it is likely that you have low stomach acid.

What can cause low stomach acid?

There are a number of things that can cause your stomach acid to decrease. Stress and long-term medication use are some of the most common. Also, as we age our stomach acid decreases, which explains why more people develop indigestion as they age.

Is this a serious condition?

Low stomach acid alone is not thought of as a serious condition, but the overall effects of this condition on the body are thought to be very serious.

Jonathan V Wright, MD, author of “Why Stomach Acid is Good For You: Natural Relief from Heartburn, Indigestion, Reflux, Gerd..” suggests a causative link between low stomach acid and depression, acne, food allergies, stomach cancer, ulcers and many more.

If you are experiencing the symptoms of indigestion seek the advice of a trained professional. Practitioners of natural medicine are likely to be your best resource for this type of help, although there are a growing number of medical practitioners who are specializing in this area. If you would like a referral to a practitioner please contact me.

The Following information was from Dr. Weil’s newsletter.

Gingivitis, inflammation of the gums with resultant recession of gum tissue and damage to teeth, is a common condition of middle-age. Often it necessitates painful, costly surgical treatment. If your dental hygiene habits aren’t the best, keep in mind that a little effort can go a long way. Maintaining a healthy diet, not smoking, and practicing good oral hygiene can prevent most gum disease. Try the following:

1. Get in the habit of using dental floss at least once a day (such as when you brush in the morning or evening). Use unwaxed dental floss if possible, and get it under the gum line to scrape the tooth surface. If you have the opportunity, ask a dental hygienist to teach you how to use it.
2. Whenever you have a chance, wash your hands and massage your gums with your fingertips. And you can stimulate your gums by running the end of a round wooden toothpick under the gum line.
3. If your gums are sore, mix hydrogen peroxide and baking soda to a paste and work this mixture into and under them with a toothbrush. Leave it on for a few minutes, then rinse.
4. Use a goldenseal mouth rinse.
5. Have your teeth and gums cleaned by a dental hygienist twice a year, and get treatment for any pockets of infection that are discovered.