Natural Treatments for Air and Motion Sickness

There are various homoeopathic treatments for motion sickness that you might consider using as an alternative to the medical drugs highlighted earlier. After all if they are good enough for the royal family they are good enough for me!
The most common of these homoeopathic treatments are as follows:
Cocculus Indicus: This is probably the most common homoeopathic remedy for motion sickness, especially for sufferers who experience nausea which gets worse when they see or smell food. It is common for Cocculus to be given to travelers who commonly feel weak and experience a hollow or empty feeling in their stomach as a result of suffering airsickness. This is a remedy that is also very well suited to people whose condition is made worse by feeling cold, from moving about or from a lack of sleep.
Rhus Toxicodendron: Is probably better known by the more common name poison ivy but fortunately, in very small doses, it is not going to kill you! However, what it can do for anyone whose airsickness usually exhibits itself through nausea and vomiting (whilst there is also a lack of appetite at the same time) is help calm their condition down.
Often people who suffer these kinds of symptoms will feel weak and lightheaded because there is a distinct lack of nutrition inside them, so they might feel dizzy when standing. Sometime this feeling will be accompanied by an intense headache and your child might feel like their 'hair hurts!'
Tabacum: This solution would be a suitable homoeopathic remedy for anyone whose airsickness is most commonly identified by them feeling nauseous and faint, with a green tinge or extremely pale color to their skin. Most commonly, these obvious symptoms would be accompanied by a sinking feeling in the pit of the stomach and possibly a severe headache that feels as if there is a very tight band wrapped around the head.
There are also a number of herbs that can help motion sickness and air sickness. Many studies have indicated that ginger appears to be more effective than a placebo in reducing the adverse effects of motion sickness. For example, in one study, a group who were given ginger extracts reported significant reduction in nausea, vomiting and cold sweating when compared with the control group who were taking a placebo.
Therefore dosing your kid or yourself up with ginger capsules before and during your flight might help to reduce the severity of the motion sickness problem if it does not get rid of it completely.
A combination of peppermint and black horehound has been used by some herbalists as an effective method of treating nausea, so whilst it is not specifically used as a treatment for motion sickness, it can certainly offset some of the worst effects of having your kid or yourself feel violently ill on a plane.

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Causes of High Blood Pressure in Women

As high blood pressure in women is such a horrible stealthy killer I thought it might be of use to look at the causes of the condition in the first place. Of course it looks like it can all be prevented with basic lifestyle changes.
There are two different types of high blood pressure, essential or primary hypertension and secondary hypertension. According to the American Heart Association, there is no single identifiable cause of primary hypertension, although the causes of secondary hypertension are usually relatively easily identifiable.
However, in the case of primary hypertension, there are many factors that are known to make the condition more likely, and it is a combination of these factors that most commonly causes high blood pressure. These factors include:
Being seriously fat! It stands to reason that the greater your body mass is, the harder your heart is going to have to work to pump blood around it. Consequently, there is an increase in pressure on the arterial walls as more blood is produced to supply the necessary oxygen and nutrients throughout your bigger than normal body mass.
Snoring! Sleep apnea – brief periods when you stop breathing whilst asleep – is also considered to be a contributory factor to having high blood pressure and is something that overweight people are particularly susceptible to.
Being a couch potato. Activity levels can also be a contributory factor. If you are relatively inactive or do not take any exercise, it tends to increase your heart rate, meaning that your heart works harder to pump blood around the body. And of course, it follows that if you are completely sedentary and do not take exercise, this is likely to exacerbate your weight problems as well.
Family history or genetics. It is a fact that high blood pressure can often run in particular families, with the condition being seen generation after generation. If therefore you have a family history of high blood pressure, it is quite likely that you will have a similar problem.
Tobacco use. Certain chemicals in cigarettes and tobacco itself can cause damage to blood vessel walls, thereby increasing the work that your heart has to do to pump blood around your body.
Stress can be a big contributory factor as far as high blood pressure is concerned.
Sodium intake. Excessive sodium intake can result in increased fluid retention, which in turn leads to increased blood pressure.
Potassium intake. Taking on board excessively low levels of potassium can result in elevated levels of sodium in body cells because potassium and sodium seek a natural balance in those cells. If one is therefore in the ascendancy, its characteristics are also more likely to be seen.
Excessive alcohol consumption can increase the risk of heart problems, particularly if this excessive consumption is continued for a significant period of time.
Secondary hypertension problems are generally caused by pre-existing medical conditions such as renal stenosis or some other form of renal disease or heart problems such as aortic coarctation.

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