My Top Three Practical Health Tricks

I keep thinking I want to work these three tips into other posts, and I keep not having the opportunity to do so, so before I forget, here are three ideas from which I have gained much personal benefit. I thought I’d share, on the off-chance that they benefit you, too.

Magnesium water (some call it magnesium oil) is easy to make! On your stove top in a small pan, heat equal parts magnesium chloride hexahydrate flakes and filtered water. Stir until the flakes dissolve. Let cool and it’s ready for use. I prefer to keep mine in a spray bottle.

So what’s it good for? Aches and pains, mostly. Now, I’m not talking bruises, but more muscular pain. I have arms that ache from repetitive motions (such as milking goats). A little spray takes it away. I had what I thought was TMJ pain–basically a deep ache in my jaw by my ear. This spray takes that away, too. Muscle cramps? Also gone. When various children have come to me complaining of what seems to me like growing pains–those nighttime leg aches–I can take it away by applying magnesium water into their skin.

I’ve gotten to where I put a few sprays into my palm and lather it on like lotion before bed. What can I say? I think it improves my skin. The only precaution I’d give is that if you’ve just shaved your legs watch out! It might sting a little. Also, the mixture was too alkaline for one of my children and I had to water hers down. If you try it, you might want to test it on a SMALL patch of skin before trying it on your whole body.

For me, magnesium oil has seemed like magic. I thought I was getting old already, but it turns out a little magnesium makes me young again.

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I’ve made a lot of homemade toothpaste, and I like it. But sometimes I don’t want to bother with making batches of it, and I didn’t like my recipe so much in the summer because the coconut oil makes the mixture (which I made in the winter, granted) too runny.

I finally ran out the other day, but didn’t have time to make a new batch before I needed to brush my teeth, so I looked around to see what I could cook up on my own and ended up with a winner!

All I did was dip my toothbrush in a tub of calcium carbonate powder. If you look at most toothpastes, calcium carbonate is a major ingredient on the label. I did some research on this when I decided to be weird make my own toothpaste. Turns out some researcher somewhere proved that putting calcium in toothpaste helped remineralize teeth. Once that was known, most toothpastes added it. I consider it the most important ingredient on my list.

My dentist says that it helps more if you leave it on your teeth rather than rinsing your mouth. This is only safe to do if your toothpaste does not have fluoride. Obviously, you wouldn’t want to swallow fluoride; it’s a neurotoxin.

In addition to the powder, I’m only using one other ingredient: two drops of Uncle Harry’s Tooth and Gum Elixir. This is basically a mix of a bunch of essential oils, oils that are called for in my toothpaste recipe. It’s easier for me to just use a couple drops of this premade mixture, which I love, rather than making my own. By the way, I’ve found this to be very helpful in restoring gum health. I had some issues start with my (previously healthy) gums when I was struggling with my health a year ago. I’ve been trying to find something I thought actually improved them, and this is the only thing that has made a noticeable difference.

This is my new go-to toothpaste solution!

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Do any of you have picky eaters? Well, years and years ago I had a couple children that I was trying to train to eat a bigger variety. Unlike their older siblings, they were not easy to train. I started researching to find solutions and came upon some research stating that vegetables taste bad to that people with zinc deficiency.

I decided to do a zinc challenge. This usually requires the use of zinc drops. Here’s the deal with zinc, especially the liquid zinc designed for this sort of challenge: if it tastes bad, you don’t need it. In other words, you’re not deficient. But the converse is also true: if you can’t taste it, or if it tastes good to you, you are deficient. The same is true for your children, your spouse, or any other picky eater in your life. In general, picky eaters are zinc deficient — but not always, which is why the challenge test is important. If you use the drops I linked above, there are instructions on the bottle to explain how to do the challenge.

Once I knew who in the family was deficient, I started giving them Zinc Liver Chelate by Standard Process. Now, these can be swallowed whole, but I requested they chew them — at least on occasion — because once it started tasting bad, I knew they were no longer deficient.

So: no more picky eaters at our house, and I attribute this to the zinc. My child who was the pickiest was also the most deficient. He now loves Brussels sprouts and salad.

Sadly, my husband still does not like black olives.

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So there you have it. My top-three practical health tricks — stuff that actually works in my own personal life. I’ve tried other weird things, but never noticed that they made a difference, so I’ll spare you the details. If you try any of these ideas, let me know how they work for you!