Exposure To Germs May Protect Kids From Disease

Natural exposure to everyday germs may protect kids from disease as adults. Gone are the days when play time for kids often meant getting dirty making mud "pies", splashing in mud puddles and creeks, and climbing trees — and when children washed their hands, mostly just before a meal, it was with plain soap and water.

Modern day parents often take pride in keeping their little ones squeaky clean and as germ-free as possible, dousing them with antibacterial soaps and hand sanitizers. But new Northwestern University research suggests that normal exposure to everyday germs is a natural way to prevent diseases in adulthood.

Remarkably, the study suggests exposure to infectious microbes in childhood may actually protect youngsters from developing serious illnesses, including cardiovascular diseases, when they grow into adults.

"Contrary to assumptions related to earlier studies, our research suggests that ultra-clean, ultra-hygienic environments early in life may contribute to higher levels of inflammation as an adult, which in turn increases risks for a wide range of diseases," Thomas McDade, lead author of the study, said in a statement to the media...

He added that humans have only recently lived in super clean environments and it could well be time to put down the antibacterial soap. That's because the new research suggests that inflammatory systems need a reasonably high level of exposure to common everyday germs and other microbes to develop and work properly in the body.

~Taken from NaturalNews, Dec. 21, 2009 by S. L. Baker, features writer

Cabbage

From a nourishing morning soup suitable for a farmer leaving for his fields, to an evening tea for the city man’s nervous strain, cabbage will serve you well. It's a life long guardian of health and a healer of wounds.

“Raw cabbage is one of the richest sources of essential vitamins and minerals. The eating of fresh raw foods daily should never be left to chance. Cabbage is of prime relief in rheumatism, arthritis, etc. It excels all other vegetables in drawing out pain of any inflammation whether internal or external.” Dr. Kurt Donsbach

Cabbage is enormously valuable in the diet for cirrhosis of the liver (especially caused from alcohol consumption), dysentery, intestinal disease, anemia, arthritis, and gout.

Cabbage is also hailed as an anti-ulcer vegetable. In a study, almost a liter of raw cabbage juice was given to 55 patients with gastric, duodenal, and jejunal ulcers. It healed all of them, and reduced the otherwise normal healing time 72%.

People who do not eat cabbage may be 3 times more likely to develop colon cancer. It is best eaten raw in order to preserve the enzymes. But in some people raw cabbage can cause intestinal distress because it is a sulfur food. The darker outer leaves have as much as 40% more calcium than the inside leaves.

Externally it is excellent for pain and inflammation and skin disorders. It has the ability to draw out infection and speed healing. Ideal for treating burns, insect bites, abscesses, boils.

For treating wounds, wash the wound with cooled boiled water, apply dressing of crushed cabbage and renew daily until healing is complete. For more serious wounds leaves should be plunged in boiling water, or cut out the central rib and iron until soft, or soak in olive oil for an hour to soften. This makes it cling better and increases antiseptic effect.

A hot compress made of well chopped cabbage, wrapped in muslin and applied to the painful area offers much relief for muscle aches, neuralgia, rheumatism, arthritis, pleurisy, liver attacks, migraines, colds and asthma.

As a juice or brewed as a tea it can aid sore throat (gargle), loss of voice and even nightmares.

~References: Divine Prescription, Gunther Paulien, page 167; God’s Pharmacy, MEET, page 16,17.