Summer relief

Summertime, and the living is easy ... until burns, bites and motion sickness get the best of you. Keep your hot-weather activities healthy with our seasonal wellness kit designed by Marilyn Shaw, M.S., professor of holistic health at Chaffey College in Alta Loma, Calif. These remedies are all available from your local health-food or vitamin store. Check with your doctor before using any treatment options.

(1) Keep the boat from rocking your stomach with ginger Munch on crystallized ginger slices or take Jarrow Formulas Freeze Dried Ginger capsules to calm the queasies on winding country roads or airplane trips.

(2) A rose thorn is a rose thorn is a rose thorn. Clean wounds with a natural antiseptic like diluted grapefruit seed extract. Try NutriBiotic liquid concentrate.

(3) When the bees do more than buzz, apis mellifica is a homeopathic remedy that soothes the redness and swelling of insect bites and rashes. Boiron offers tinctures, tablets and other formulas.

(4) Give diarrhea the boot with a spoonful of chocolaty carob powder from Health Best.

(5) Let bromelain ease muscle strains and sprains from summer sports. Dig into a fresh pineapple or try Jarrow Formulas Bromelain 1000.

(6) Keep your cool at the family reunion with Bach Rescue Remedy, or add a few drops of lavender essential oil like Young Living Lavender to your hand cream for a soothing massage.

(7) Soothe and moisturize sunburned skin with tea tree oil. Massage a diluted extract or Tea Tree Therapy Antiseptic Ointment into reddened skin to speed healing.

(8) If the stimulation of traveling leaves you too exhausted to sleep, take melatonin from GNC or the homeopathic remedy coffea cruda from Boiron for a good night's rest.

(9) When beach volleyball leaves you bumped and bruised, lessen the soreness and discoloration with arnica. Look for a gel or take a homeopathic tablet like Boiron's Arnica Montana.

(10) Protect cuts and scrapes from infection with a calendula and comfrey salve. Both these herbs promote wound healing and can be found in Wise Woman Herbals All Purpose Salve.

what's in your kit?

NATURAL HEALTH reader Kathy Soverow is an avid runner and outdoor enthusiast who stocks an integrative wellness kit with alternative and conventional treatments, especially for potential aches and pains from her physical activities.

* Emer'gen-C, a vitamin-based energy booster

* Advil

* Salonpas Hot Capsicum and External Pain Relieving Patches

* Traumeel, a homeopathic anti-inflammatory

* Turf-Skin, for blister protection

* instant cold packs

* antiseptic towelettes

* gauze

* waterproof sport butterfly bandages

* salt, for sinus washes

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