August 7, 2012
Home / herbal / natural remedies for people stranded at home due to floods, or people without access to medicine

If you’ve been exposed to the floods, or you’re stranded at home due to the flooding, and you’re feeling under the weather, or you have no access to medicine / pharmacies, here are some things that may help your body at least until you have access to a pharmacy or doctor. Hopefully you already have one or more of these items in your household.

Above all, remember that a positive attitude and good humor constitute a strong psychological defense and can also help your body through this stressful time. Stay safe and dry, everyone!

Please let me know if you have any corrections/additions. Thanks!
I’ll continue updating this post based on your feedback. Feel free to reblog/share!

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Garlic - Antibiotic— strong. Take orally, but not on an empty stomach.

Cane Vinegar / Cider Vinegar / White Vinegar - Antibiotic, antiseptic. Helps with sore throat / phlegm; disinfects minor wounds. Drink with water + wild honey, or gargle with water, or apply topically (use a diluted solution of 1 part water + 1 part vinegar). Cane or cider vinegar is preferable.

Virgin Coconut Oil - Antifungal, antibacterial. Effective on rashes, minor wounds and burns, and other skin problems. Apply topically. You may also swallow small amounts of VCO as a nutritious food supplement.

Wild Honey - Antibiotic. Take orally or apply topically. May be used in combination with herbs or vinegar.

Ginger - Antibiotic. Soothes sore throat and fever. Drink as tea.

Warm Water + Salt - Antibacterial. Helps relieve sore throat / phlegm / cold / cough. Gargle. Saline solution is 1/2 teaspoon salt to a glass of water.

Warm Water + Calamansi (or lemon, dalandan, lime) - Vitamin C. Helps with sore throat / phlegm. Generally soothing, too. Drink liberally.

Tawa Tawa - This common local “weed” can be brewed into tea to battle dengue effectively. Read my cousin’s personal story for details.

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When you’re able to, you should take probiotics (such as organic plain yogurt) to repopulate the good microflora in your system after taking antibiotics (including natural ones— garlic is especially powerful).

I’ve used most of these remedies myself even when I have access to medicine. I can personally attest to their effectivity, and I believe that traditional natural remedies are generally safer to use because we’ve been using them for generations. (Coconut water is even used as dextrose in situations when medical supplies are scarce!) I actually rarely buy anything at the pharmacy these days, but then again, I’m lucky enough not to face extreme / emergency situations such as floods.

I believe the body has ways of healing itself, helped along by these natural remedies, especially with a history of good healthy lifestyle and diet habits.

However, please remember that severe, stubborn, urgent cases of disease or injury should be addressed with professional medical attention.

—- —- —-

Leptospirosis and doxycycline have been getting a lot of press. Please use medicine wisely. Doxycycline is a PRESCRIPTION drug with risks to children, pregnant women, etc. Please read and share this informative blog entry about the proper use of doxycycline.

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Sources & additional information:
http://honeyonmylips.tumblr.com/post/9990626223/cure-for-dengue-tawa-tawa
http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=612536&publicationSubCategoryId=67
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/health/28real.html?_r=1
http://www.livestrong.com/article/62136-types-natural-antibiotics/
http://www.livestrong.com/article/556171-apple-cider-vinegar-antibiotics/
http://www.livestrong.com/article/489317-how-much-garlic-equals-an-antibiotic/
http://voices.yahoo.com/garlic-as-antibiotic-four-mistakes-avoid-3714732.html?cat=5
http://www.livestrong.com/article/320227-how-to-use-coconut-oil-for-infection/
http://www.livestrong.com/article/387156-what-can-i-use-coconut-oil-for/
http://voices.yahoo.com/six-natural-antibiotics-11526794.html?cat=25
http://www.ehow.com/how_4422453_use-vinegar-first-aid.html
http://www.pureinsideout.com/natural-benefits-of-vinegar.html
http://www.vinegarbook.net/Medical_Uses_for_Vinegar.shtml

Home remedies for dogs and cats

Safe Drinking Water Guidelines

Red Cross Emergency Kit Guidelines

Flood Safety Guidelines

Relief & Evacuation Centers

Relief Centers Organized By Location

Where To Donate / Volunteer

Google Crisis Response to 2012 Philippines Flood

Quick Ways To Donate

Relief Goods Needed

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People in the South (Alabang, BF, etc.) who want to help out, follow @alabangbulletin and @SouthSnippets for nearby relief center info, here are a few:

CCF Alabang and B1G South accepting donations. Biggest needs: toiletries, medicines, USABLE clothing, blankets, banig, no cook food like biscuits and tetrapacks. Ground Flr, CCF Alabang Bdlg, Prime St., Madrigal Business Park, Alabang, Muntinlupa. Contact 09178866645 (chris) or 09189267392 (francis). Volunteers needed starting tomorrow August 8.

Anthony Sayuno (09189089720) is setting up a relief goods base at 155 Apitong St. Ayala Alabang Vill starting tomorrow August 8, donations and volunteers are welcome.

St. James The Great Parish, Woodrose School, and De La Salle Zobel School, all in Ayala Alabang Village, also accepting donations. Gawad Kalinga to set up at SM Southmall tomorrow August 8 to receive donations.

10:36pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Zs1qQyQx8LJD
(Notes: 26)
  
Filed under: advocacy emergency 
August 3, 2012

Ray Anderson was already a middle-aged, rich, and powerful CEO when he read an environmentalist book in the 1990s. He proceeded to overhaul his carpet company— dominant in the global market— from a petrochemical intensive operation to a sustainable technology driven one. He doubled profits and generated priceless goodwill at the same time. His company attracted the best and brightest workers. Ray passed away last year (he gave this talk in 2009), but I believe his company continues onward to the goal he called “Mission Zero”— no carbon footprint— something he considered feasible in a few decades. Even though he didn’t live to see that goal, he lived long enough to teach others the economic and ecological value of sustainable business.

Ray Anderson on sustainable business

9:46pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Zs1qQyQgK6u4
Filed under: advocacy 
August 1, 2012

AWESOOOME. Stephen Fritz keeps telling us, “I’m not a farmer. I’m a teacher.” He’s been teaching his students— most with learning disabilities and handicaps, most from foster homes, most living below the poverty line— how to grow vegetables, green walls, urban gardens, green roofs, flowers. This school is in the poorest Congressional district in America— the South Bronx. But this teacher and his kids have been making serious money and a serious difference with their “green graffiti” gardening approach. Now they’re feeding the homeless, supplying their own cafeteria, doing design work for upscale clientele. And student attendance went from 43% to 93%. It’s social entrepreneurship + education + organic farming + sustainable livelihood development + green design + GOOD VIBES ALL THE WAY. I love it!

Stephen Ritz: A teacher growing green in the South Bronx

12:33am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Zs1qQyQTmxn0
Filed under: advocacy 
July 29, 2012
If a person poisoned my food, air, or water, they would go to jail. Why can’t we stop companies who poison the Earth’s food, air, and water?

If a person poisoned my food, air, or water, they would go to jail. Why can’t we stop companies who poison the Earth’s food, air, and water?

3:56pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Zs1qQyQK6LRL
(Notes: 1)
  
Filed under: quote advocacy 
July 28, 2012
The Outstanding Filipino Award » Sister Eva Maamo, nun & surgeon

“While in Lake Sebu, she built a crude bamboo infirmary and treated T’bolis, Manobos, Muslims, B’laans, and other hill folk from nearby mountains.

“Her faith led her to make do with whatever she could use, even substituting coconut water for dextrose.

“She also trained tribesmen and women who never had access to education, to serve as her “barefoot” doctors by providing medical aid to those in need…”

On Sister Eva Maamo, nun & surgeon, recipient of The Outstanding Filipino Award, 2003

—- —- —-

I have the highest regard for missionary workers of all faiths, because of the extraordinary personal sacrifices they make, with their time, energy, intelligence, faith, and compassion, in order to serve and care for the most marginalized and most ignored of our fellow human beings. Their vocation primarily calls them to evangelize and heal people’s souls, but because these missionaries have such big and generous hearts, they end up doing so much work on practical issues as well— food, shelter, medicine, and development of sustainable livelihoods.

It is unfortunate that some groups of Catholic nuns actually receive criticism from the Vatican for being “too busy” with charity work or being “not vocal enough in opposing gay marriage / reproductive health education”.

3:15pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Zs1qQyQG0mAP
Filed under: advocacy health coconut 
July 24, 2012

My boyfriend JM’s awesome original song to raise awareness on air pollution :)

Bumubuga Nanaman - JM Quiblat (by josequiblat)

9:05pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Zs1qQyP-LoEH
(Notes: 1)
  
Filed under: advocacy 
July 24, 2012
Why the big fuss over Haagen Dazs leaving?

We have awesome ice cream brands that are proudly Filipino made, such as Arce Dairy (made from carabao milk) and Pinkerton Ice Cream (lovingly homemade). #BuyFilipinoGoods

5:47pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Zs1qQyP-2KSK
(Notes: 3)
  
Filed under: advocacy food 
July 23, 2012
"Repost if you, too, dream of a small simple indie live music venue that’s smoke-free, crowd-free, traffic / parking hassle free, and just focused on the music… I’m not alone in this, right? Just two hours of pure music and good vibes on a laidback bohemian afternoon. If you share the dream, as a musician or music-lover, let me know, because I’ll work on something for us. ♥"

— Feanne (via feannekitty)

9:13pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Zs1qQyPwyb59
(Notes: 14)
  
Filed under: advocacy 
July 20, 2012
feannekitty: A Picture Of Our Planet Earth from 6 Billion Kilometers Away - it’s a speck of dust The “Pale Blue Dot” photograph was among the last images captured by NASA’s Voyager I, in 1990, at the request of Carl Sagan, before the spacecraft’s imaging system was shut down. It’s the farthest-away picture we have of our planet. Voyager I was launched in 1977 and continues on its journey towards interstellar space today (NASA says it’s getting there within the next few years). It will continue sending us information until its instruments finally run out of power in 2025-2030. Here’s what Carl Sagan wrote about it: —- —- —- From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of any particular interest. But for us, it’s different. Consider again that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity – in all this vastness – there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. The Earth is the only world known, so far, to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, the Earth is where we make our stand. It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known. —Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space, 1997 reprint, pp. xv–xvi

feannekitty:

A Picture Of Our Planet Earth from 6 Billion Kilometers Away - it’s a speck of dust

The “Pale Blue Dot” photograph was among the last images captured by NASA’s Voyager I, in 1990, at the request of Carl Sagan, before the spacecraft’s imaging system was shut down. It’s the farthest-away picture we have of our planet. Voyager I was launched in 1977 and continues on its journey towards interstellar space today (NASA says it’s getting there within the next few years). It will continue sending us information until its instruments finally run out of power in 2025-2030.

Here’s what Carl Sagan wrote about it:

—- —- —-

From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of any particular interest. But for us, it’s different. Consider again that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity – in all this vastness – there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. The Earth is the only world known, so far, to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, the Earth is where we make our stand. It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.

—Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space, 1997 reprint, pp. xv–xvi

8:23pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Zs1qQyPkUHmQ
(Notes: 7)
  
Filed under: quote advocacy 
July 19, 2012

“Trying to live eco-perfectly in today’s system is like trying to swim upstream, when the current is pushing us all the other way. But by changing what our economy prioritizes, we can change the current so that the right thing becomes the easiest thing to do.”

—- —- —-

Annie Leonard nails it in this short, sweet, simple video that explains how we can create big change in the world. She tells us that we must start by making wiser choices and being good examples in our individual daily lives, but we can’t stop there. We must push to change the rules at the government policy level & change unethical business practices of big corporations.

More excerpts—

—- —- —-

“But when it comes to making change, this story of ‘going green’ – even though we see it everywhere – has some serious shortcomings.

It says that if I become a smarter shopper, and tell my friends to do the same, I’ve done my part. And if I don’t buy all this green stuff, then it’s my fault that the planet’s being destroyed.

Wait a minute. My fault? I didn’t choose to put toxic products on the shelves or to allow slave labor in factories around the world. I didn’t choose to fill stores with electronics that can’t be repaired and have to be thrown away. I didn’t choose a world in which some people can afford to live green, leaving the rest of us to be irresponsible planet wreckers!

Of course when we do shop we should buy the least toxic and most fair products we can, but it’s not bad shoppers who are the source of the problem, it’s bad government policies and bad business practices.

…

Making real change takes all kinds of citizens – not just protestors. When you realize what you’re good at and what you like to do, plugging in doesn’t seem so hard. Whatever you have to offer, a better future needs it.

So ask yourself, ‘What kind of change maker am I?’ We need investigators, communicators, builders, resisters, nurturers, and networkers.”

—- —- —-

Thank you to all of you who are CHANGE MAKERS, who devote time & energy to creating a sustainable, peaceful, creative, educated human world ♥ you inspire me!

(Source: storyofstuff.org)

10:37am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Zs1qQyPemRNS
(Notes: 1)
  
Filed under: advocacy