All the talk, lately, about avoiding swine flu reminds me of how horrible flu is. A few years ago I got flu and that developed into pneumonia. It was an expensive business; the doctor visits and medication added up. I also was unhappy about not being able to teach my children properly, I missed out on events, and I felt bad. But something good came out of it when I realised that I only got sick in winter when it was cold, so I experimented with keeping warmer. We invested in even more warm clothes, and we kept the house warmer. We were more comfortable, we stayed healthy and we were happier. And the extra cost of electricity was much less than the cost of medical bills. This winter we’ve been putting a spoonful of manuka honey on our porridge at breakfast time; that’s a tasty and easy way to get the protection of manuka honey in winter time. I think that adding these things to hand washing and remembering how flu is spread won’t guarantee no flu or illnesses, but they all help to reduce the risk of catching something, and they may even help in a speedy recovery. And now, spring is just around the corner…
Stephanie
Hello Stephanie,
You might remember me from many years ago when you ran one of your courses at the Mountainside Lutheran Church in Ellerslie. We have since moved to Tauranga and it was with great interest that I found your email addressed to nathalie from the KatiKati homeschoolers.
Anyway, I am so pleased that we can now all access the valuable information that you are so willing to share with homeschooling families. Thanks for your website. You will see I have signed up for the newsletter and I look forward to receiving them in future.
Now the real reason I write is that I am so pleased you have been discussing Flu’ at your house. the European influence in my life has always been adamant that one needs to stay warm in winter. You need warm bedrooms, warm living spaces (to the point of stuffiness) and warm clothes – especially warm feet. I always used to think these were old wives tales…until I remembered the days when I used to work in the Virology labs at a medical university. We used to grow viruses for diagnostic purposes.
When we grew viruses like herpes for instance, the samples would be incubated at body temperature – 37 degrees C. However, all flu virus samples did not grow at this temperature…. we needed an extra incubator at a temperature of 25 degrees C to encourage flu virusses to grow.
It took me years to put these facts together…. keep your lungs at 37 and the air you breathe warm – the flu virus will probably not be able to grow.
As far as I am concerned this gives the “old wives tale” “scientific evidence” for having value.
Thanks for letting me share,
Kind regards
Ingrid
Hi Stephanie – I just wanted to congratulate you on your site (found the link from a nz homeschool biz link) It is refreshing to visit, love the colours and easy navigation. All the best and thanks for sharing. Hey, just a thought – what about a section on homeschooling and running a home business – maybe for the future eh?! Cheers, Jane
I think keeping your immunity up by eating well and taking supplements at any time of year is key to keeping those bugs at bay. I’ve noticed that whenever we have relaxed e.g at a family or childrens party, and let the children eat too much junk they inevitably get sick because their immune system is compromised. Now that we have seen the anecdotal evidence of this I am more vigilant at these events and can discuss it openly with the children and they have more ownership and responsibility for their own health.
I agree with you that eating well is really important for good health. In fact, I believe that sugar lowers your resistance to infection by quite a large percentage.