Friday, January 11, 2013

Getting Caught Up In The Flu Bug Season - A Bad Situation for Many Beginning the New Year

I have been so "under the weather" and felt as if I was "underneath a train" over the past 3 days, that I feel guilty about not being "here". I had posted a few days back thinking that the dramatic change in our weather here had brought on some terrible aches and pains in my joints. It tends to do that when we have pressure changes, changes with thunderstorms, humidity and so forth. It reeks havoc with those that have any type of joint, bone and even muscle issues. there is just something about the barometric pressure rising or falling, and then I always blame the drastic change in humidity that will make someone that feels just fine one day, be able to tell you 3 days before a bad storm strikes that it is coming in.
Actually, we could use joints on people such as mine to more accurately predict the weather than our own weather people now days. Kind of like it was when the first of the "Farmer's Almanac's " came out, (if you have never seen one, you should pick one up for the new year and keep up with it), there are all kinds of different things that can be dealt with, figured out, and so forth, from things like the pull of the moon, when it is full, or at all of the different phases, the soil, the temperature, the growing seasons, illnesses and different "remedies" that have been passed down from generations that have helped many not die honestly. In fact just this morning, I read an extremely interesting post on a friends page on one of the big places such as FB. It was about just this thing, involving onions. there were several really good stories about onions, and if you know about onions when you use them in cooking and so forth, those things make sense. Not only do onions "put off" a strong odor, they also tend to "absorb" things quickly. Smells, or different things even cooked with them, the onions tend to take on other items. Thus the idea of onions as a preventative for things such as the flu, or almost like a healing source to "pull out" an illness makes sense to me. Here is the stories:

ONIONS! I had never heard this!!!
PLEASE READ TO THE END: IMPORTANT

In 1919 when the flu killed 40 million people there was this Doctor that visited the many farmers to see if he could help
them combat the flu...
Many of the farmers and their families had contracted it and many died.

The doctor came upon this one farmer and to his surprise, everyone was very healthy. When the doctor asked what the farmer was doing that was different the wife replied that she had placed an unpeeled onion in a dish in the rooms of the home, (probably only two rooms back then). The doctor couldn't believe it and asked if he could have one of the onions and place it under the microscope. She gave him one and when he did this, he did find the flu virus in the onion. It obviously absorbed the bacteria, therefore, keeping the family healthy.

Now, I heard this story from my hairdresser. She said that several years ago, many of her employees were coming down with the flu, and so were many of her customers. The next year she placed several bowls with onions around in her shop. To her surprise, none of her staff got sick. It must work. Try it and see what happens. We did it last year and we never got the flu.

Now there is a P. S. to this for I sent it to a friend in Oregon who regularly contributes material to me on health issues. She replied with this most interesting experience about onions:

Thanks for the reminder. I don't know about the farmer's story...but, I do know that I contacted pneumonia, and, needless to say, I was very ill... I came across an article that said to cut both ends off an onion put it into an empty jar, and place the jar next to the sick patient at night. It said the onion would be black in the morning from the germs...sure enough it happened just like that...the onion was a mess and I began to feel better.

Another thing I read in the article was that onions and garlic placed around the room saved many from the black plague years ago. They have powerful antibacterial, antiseptic properties.

This is the other note. Lots of times when we have stomach problems we don't know what to blame. Maybe it's the onions that are to blame. Onions absorb bacteria is the reason they are so good at preventing us from getting colds and flu and is the very reason we shouldn't eat an onion that has been sitting for a time after it has been cut open.

LEFT OVER ONIONS ARE POISONOUS

I had the wonderful privilege of touring Mullins Food Products, Makers of mayonnaise. Questions about food poisoning came up, and I wanted to share what I learned from a chemist.

Ed, who was our tour guide, is a food chemistry whiz. During the tour, someone asked if we really needed to worry about mayonnaise. People are always worried that mayonnaise will spoil. Ed's answer will surprise you. Ed said that all commercially-made mayo is completely safe.

"It doesn't even have to be refrigerated. No harm in refrigerating it, but it's not really necessary." He explained that the pH in mayonnaise is set at a point that bacteria could not survive in that environment. He then talked about the summer picnic, with the bowl of potato salad sitting on the table, and how everyone blames the mayonnaise when someone gets sick.

Ed says that, when food poisoning is reported, the first thing the officials look for is when the 'victim' last ate ONIONS and where those onions came from (in the potato salad?). Ed says it's not the mayonnaise (as long as it's not homemade mayo) that spoils in the outdoors. It's probably the ONIONS, and if not the onions, it's the POTATOES.

He explained onions are a huge magnet for bacteria, especially uncooked onions. You should never plan to keep a portion of a sliced onion.. He says it's not even safe if you put it in a zip-lock bag and put it in your refrigerator.

It's already contaminated enough just by being cut open and out for a bit, that it can be a danger to you (and doubly watch out for those onions you put in your hotdogs at the baseball park!). Ed says if you take the leftover onion and cook it like crazy you'll probably be okay, but if you slice that leftover onion and put on your sandwich, you're asking for trouble. Both the onions and the moist potato in a potato salad, will attract and grow bacteria faster than any commercial mayonnaise will even begin to break down.

Also, dogs should never eat onions. Their stomachs cannot metabolize onions.

Please remember it is dangerous to cut an onion and try to use it to cook the next day, it becomes highly poisonous for even a single night and creates toxic bacteria which may cause adverse stomach infections because of excess bile secretions and even food poisoning.

Please pass this on to all you love and care about.

— with Adonain Danny Rivera."


I am not sure exactly where the person got  this, but I found it extremely interesting, especially in these times of "medications" that we tend to take for granted as being the "fix-all" thus we just the because the doctor tells us they will help, rather than at least looking them up to see what they are, what they do, how they do it, do people benefit from the medications, or do they have horrible side effects??? I can't say a word because I have such an "empire" of medications that I take daily, along with more I take on a weekly basis. Yet, I have questioned each one of them. I have done my research on them. I know the side effects, and if the "good things" they do outweigh the bad side effects they can cause. And although with chronic illnesses, we are put on often lots of medications, then we put ourselves on different supplements etc, I still go through my own wide array of scripts periodically checking them out again, and making sure I feel they are doing what they should be. 
After reading this about the onion though, it took me back to those times when the majority of medications did not exist. there were very little, maybe an antibiotic, disinfectant, and some type of pain medication. So, most of these were used only on the very ill, or for surgery, etc. If you were ill with a flu, cold, ear ache and so forth, you were given the home remedies passed down from the generations to be used for the regular illnesses. There we no such things as immunizing against illnesses such as polio, pertussis, measles, mumps, chickenpox and so forth. I would imagine many of these now "known" illnesses were not even named back at that time. they knew they were "contagious" because often entire towns became ill or even died from one of them, but back then they may not have known what it was that caused the illnesses themselves. We have come a very long way in our medical knowledge, yet there is still so much more we often do not know when it comes to things we are genetically predisposed to. 
I just read the article about one of the competing women for the title of Ms. USA will be undergoing a complete double mastectomy right after the pagent next week. She had watch breast cancer ravage her Mom, Grandmother and Aunt I believe the article said, so she is going to not take a chance with her life. She has decided to take this what many feel is a drastic step, but one that will more than likely save her life. This story is even more something to think about, because a portion of her life, is about her "body". Or up until now, being able to be seen in a bikini, and all kinds of beautiful clothing, evening dresses and so forth, is what has brought her this far to winning the Ms. USA pageant. So, what a tremendous decision to have to make, but often they win these pageants up until this point, and from here, they go onto college, and to make a life, "after pageant" life years. So, it makes total sense to me, but still it is a sad and very difficult thing to deal with at 24 years old, pageant Queen or not. I commend her for her decision. 
So, from "flu" to Lupus, to "Breast Cancer"... pageant Queen's and daily life... we dwell in all types of "happenings" and steps in our lives... I big you wellness for you and your family... praying you are not dealing with the flu.. My daughter called and my Grandson, only running fever yesterday, not yet showing real signs of feeling bad, but he does have the flu. So, the "symptoms" or lack thereof are vast for this one this year.

Take care of you... and each other... Rhia

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Rhia is the best weather predictor in Dallas - perhaps on the entire West coast!
I typically know when a storm/bad weather is coming up to 3 days in advance just by seeing how much pain she is in and where it is located!

As for pain, medications and onions...

Pain: Pain is pain. It sucks. Rhia is immersed in pain. She deals with it the best she can. I can do very little but watch her suffer, day in and day out. Life goes on...

Medications: Rhia is like a walking encyclopedia when it comes to ailments and medications! She spend hours every day/week looking up symptoms, articles on Lupus (or related articles in any way) and information on medications. She is by no means one of those "self-diagnosing" types that always thinks there is something terribly wrong with them. Instead, she takes the information she finds, cross-references it with other information she has found and finally asks the doctors about possible problems or diagnoses. Based on all that, she then forms her own conclusions. Most of the time she is spot on with the doctors, or sometimes the doctors are wrong and she is right - we try and stay away from the last group!
Usually, the doctor, if they are any good, appreciates what she has to say/offer, again because she is not coming in to the doctor's office convinced that she has some rare disease of some sort but instead comes in with relevant, good information that often times actually helps the doctors!

Onions: Well, let's just say this story has been around since the early 1900's. To read more about it, visit http://www.snopes.com/medical/swineflu/onion.asp

One last thing. With all that goes on with Rhia's health, I continue to find time to love her, with all my heart - She is an amazing, incredible woman!

Rhia's Autoimmune Arthritic Life said...

LOL!! Well first of all, I have to thank my very first commentator, or whatever you might call someone that has placed a comment on your blog posts.2nd of all, being that is it Jim, the love of my life makes it even more special. He seems to be a "first" in so many ways in my life, in a good way. I will never forget the "1st" thing he taught me about "life". We had only been seeing one another about a week, and I was trying to use my lighter, probably for a cigarette in the car. It had already had it, and was out of fluid, but I had kept fighting with the damned thing for a day or so. I had just not stopped to get another one. At the stop sign, he asked me to hand it to him, and he pitched it out the window promptly, right out on my side of the car in a field. I kind of looked funny at him,as he handed me another lighter, and said that lighter and life are the same. The lighter was not worth the "stress" and distress it was causing me, and pieces of time here on Earth that are best just "flung" it out the "window of life" and go onto the next thing. That"piece" was not worth the stress it was causing. Each time something in a day of life starts really getting to me, I think back about that lighter out in the field, and decide if what I am stressing on was like that lighter, not worth the stress is it causing me, and just throw it out in that "proverbial" field of things we rally don't have to deal with. They are just not that damned important. As far as the "snopes" and the "onion" information, I have to agree, even without gong to read it, I do not see onions "drawing" illness out if they are put in jars by someone ill in the bed. But, I DO agree onions, like garlic and other natural sources, do have healing properties, that have helped people to stay well, or get better, through pastes, salves, drinking some things etc. way before all of our "man made" medications came along. Now, as far as the "pain" and myself, all a long story, of which the essence of what this blog, and my book that I am writing will be about. Not JUST the pain, but the ways I know to try my best to overcome what I can of it, and make the best out of a very crappy situation life decided to hand me. I do not know why, and probably will never know why I am "plagued" with the illnesses I am, but I have tried for the most part, and on most days, (although there are some that really cause me grief) to accept what I have. Life is life... it is truly what you make out of it,kind of like the old "lemons" story. You can have plain old "lemons" or with a little bit of ingenuity, you can have lemonade. No matter whether you are ill, or very well, in pain or never known an ache, chronically not well or have never had even a headache, life is truly what you put in it. You can be he healthiest and wealthiest person in the world, but if you choose to be miserable you will be. So, I close this comment with a huge hug to Jim, and a even larger thank you for posting to my blog. Hopefully that will get others to follow.... Love Rhia

Unknown said...

I'm still waiting for my "Huge Hug" ... :-)

I remember the day of the lighter well. You were getting SO frustrated with the lighter not lighting. The more you tried to get it to light, the more you got frustrated. Believing that we have control on what has the ability to "distress" us, I took the lighter and threw it out the window. With the lighter went Rhia's stress - as easy as that!

For those of you who don't experience the pain associated with Lupus, both physically, mentally and emotionally (or any autoimmune or chronically painful disease), it may be hard to appreciate something as small as Rhia being able to post here at all.

She does, day after day, trying to get her "story" out there in the hopes of it helping someone else going through a similar situation.

When it comes to her disease and everything she does centering around it (like this blog, posts elsewhere and her poetry book - and the next one coming out later this year) , Rhia spends a huge amount of her energy (even on the days when she has no energy to spare!) trying to "Get her words" out there. If you didn't know, she does this from a truly "selfless" part of herself, honestly hoping to help, even just that one person, that on that day and time needed to hear what she had to say.

I know she is not alone and that many people with a disease similar to Lupus do what they can to help others. I think those of us lucky enough not to have this disease should reach out and "Give a hug" to those that do and let them know that their "selfless" contributions ARE greatly appreciated and helping others out there!

Thank you Rhia for your selfless contributions of reaching out to others :-)