Today my diligent dd15 went to school in spite of my strong recommendation she stay home another day until she was fully over the flu. She insisted she felt fine and needed to get back to school, so that she wouldn’t miss too much material.
But the weather today shifted from warm and balmy to cold and rainy, and she came home definitely sick. Tonight dh suggested that she do a steam head bath, something I had prepared for him a while back when he had a head cold.
This is a simple but effective remedy that will help clear head and nasal stuffiness, as well as chest tightness. You boil a pot of water, then pour it into a large bowl. Add a few drops of essential oil to the mixture – tonight dh used eucalyptus oil, but tree tea oil or anything else with camphor-like qualities would also be good. These help clear the sinuses out, and can be found in most health food stores.
[There’s a lot of hype around the quality of different essential oils, and though I happen to use the ones that many people claim are the best (Young Living – because I was able to barter 60 pounds of spelt for a few bottles of these oils before moving!), I personally have some skepticism about that claim. I think for this kind of steam treatment, most oils that you find in the store will be helpful.]
After adding several drops of essential oils to the bowl of boiling water, lean over the bowl and drape a towel over your head to hold in the steam. When I do this, I try to breathe with my mouth open to let the vapors into my lungs (I do this when I have tightness in my chest that makes it hard to breathe). If you feel it’s getting too hot, lift the towel very briefly for a couple of seconds or totally emerge from the towel. I try to do this for as long as there’s still steam remaining but it really depends on how you’re feeling – when you’ve had enough, then stop.
When you finish, either pat your face dry or rinse your face with cool water (to close your pores). Also, have a couple of cups of water to replace any fluids you may have lost during the steam inhalation. There will usually be a noticeable improvement in how you’re feeling!
Avivah
(This post is part of Monday Mania and Real Food Wednesdays.)
Wearing my health/wellness coach educational hat now….wanted to make a couple of points:
1. Regarding camphor-like oils, one must be aware that menthol, camphor, eucalyptus and peppermint counter-act the effect/impact of homeopathics on the system. So if one is also taking homeopathic remedies to alleviate the symptoms, it would be best to use a neutral oil such as tea tree to get the benefit of the steam bath without counteracting the benefit of other therapeutic agents.
2. Young Living is considered to be very high quality essential oils because it is THERAPEUTIC GRADE. There is A LOT of information out there about how the oils are processed, quality assurance, standards, etc. Yes, there are other good companies out there, especially from Europe, particularly France (where some of the Young Living products are produced). I am not familiar with a lot of the other product lines out there precisely because Young Living is very well recognized as the standard bearer in the industry. (And I am not in located in Israel or Europe!) I agree, often one can use health food store grade essential oils, especially for topical use. However, one should insist on thereapeutic grade essential oil if one is planning to orally ingest the oils. Be aware that the health food store oils degrade rather quickly. In my experience, the Young Living essential oils have a much longer shelf-life.
Thanks for the point about homeopathics, Rena.
About YL – I don’t care for all the MLM hype surrounding their products, which I find a turnoff. That might just be me, but when I hear so many people online parroting the promotional material…yuck. I got them because someone I trusted recommended two specific products she was very happy with( who wasn’t selling them), and then I had the opportunity for a barter before I moved with someone who was a distributor. If I were buying them, I’d probably purchase through Mountain Rose Herbs, whose prices are better and their oils are also therapeutic grade.
I definitely agree with the point about only ingesting therapeutic grade essential oils.
I’m doing it as I read! Only I’m using a method that can be used anywhere, anytime.
A friend recommended licorice tea for a cough. I put 2 tea bags of Egyptian Licorice tea (by Yogi company) into a travel mug that has the little sipper hole. While it was still way too hot to drink it, I held it under my nose and just breathed it. I had one of those tickly-itchy cough things starting and it tamed it right down! Then when it became possible to drink, I sipped until it was gone. I did this a few times and that cough hasn’t settled in.
I mentioned that it could work with echinacea, eucalyptus, even mint tea, and while my friend agreed based on the idea that even plain steam would help, she insisted that licorice is tops especially for coughs.
This method could be used for those who don’t want to put their whole head under, although I agree that is really good.
I’m really late to the party but it dawned on me last night while I was falling asleep how helpful this could be for the flu, too. My sister got swine flu a few years ago in a cluster of cases in the Southwest and it really hurt her lungs. Otherwise it was like a normal case of the flu where all you can do is hydrate and let the fever take its course, but she was short of breath for months. This would be the perfect intervention for something like that. I’m going to keep this in my mental toolbox, thank you!
I’m always glad to know a tip I shared was of use to someone else!