Zero Waste and the Common Cold

I tend toward illness twice per year, when the weather changes from cold to hot in the Spring, and from hot to cold in the late Fall. This isn't a consistent pattern, I have skipped through a whole year or so without getting sick, but I definitely get at least one minor cold every year.

This year, my partner and I are experimenting with finding our pace with zero waste lifestyle. We're already hippy enough to be doing a lot toward that end, but we decided to step up our game and be more mindful about the waste we are generating.

In years past, when I had a cold I would run to the pharmacy and pick up a bunch of cold medication for relief. Not only have studies shown that these over the counter medicines don't do much for colds, but they are very wasteful. Tons of non-recyclable packaging goes into these products. I think their main point is to make you sleepy enough that all you want to do is nap! Which is a great practice for sick days, but there are better ways to handle it that don't tax your body as heavily.

I've had my little change-of-seasons cold for the last few days and it is transitioning out of my system faster than normal. I've been doing a LOT of things differently this time around, and I think the change has helped. So, I will share with you what I've been doing.

Here's how the cold cycle usually goes for me with OTC's:

Day 1 - itchy nose and throat

Day 2 - post nasal drip, clearing throat a lot, sneezing

Day 3 - nasal congestion, ears congested, and sore throat on one side

Day 4 - same, but on the other side

Day 5 - nose runs like a faucet, sneezing, throat pain is killer, coughing begins

Day 6 - nose clears up, but ears still congested, cough is worse, lung congestion

Day 7 - coughing up a storm!

Day 8-14 - recovery, all symptoms slowly disappear

That's a long time to wait for a cold to go away.

For this cold, I decided to avoid OTC's entirely. I went with completely zero waste solutions instead. Disclaimer: THERE IS NO ONE REMEDY THAT WORKS TO ALLEVIATE ALL OF YOUR SYMPTOMS ON ITS OWN. The strategy I employed this time was to attack the cold from every angle I could think of, relentlessly. I have been drinking 2 kinds of medicinal tea throughout the day (which I'll share later), I have been using one cloth hanky per day instead of tissues, I have been hydrating like it was summer in Tucson, I have taken daily baths, I have used a neti pot to irrigate my nose 2-4 times daily, I gargled with salt water, I ate nothing but nutrient rich food, I used copious amounts of vitamin C, I used raw honey instead of cough syrup, I have stayed off my feet as much as possible, and I practiced a whole day of silence to save my aching throat. I also used Chinese medicine for symptom relief in the form of tea pills and acupuncture. As you can see, I've been doing lots of things, and the combination of all of these things has sped up the cycle of this cold significantly. This cold is on its way out already, and it's only been 4 days! I anticipate being fully recovered by the end of the weekend. Which is good, because I have finals coming up.

Here's the breakdown for this run:

Day 1 - itchy nose and throat (treated with teas, vitamin C, and slippery elm lozenges)

Day 2 - post nasal drip, clearing throat a lot (neti pot & gargle, tea, lozenges, honey, rest)

Day 3 - nasal congestion and sore throat, cough begins (neti pot & gargle, tea, lozenges, honey, acupuncture, tea pills, rest, silence)

Day 4 - nose clears up (woah!), throat clears up (woah!), ears clear up (woah!), coughing is minimal and clearing (WOAH!) (tea, lozenges, honey, tea pills, neti pot & gargle, rest, partial silence)

So let's break it down a little further. 

Every day, I've been eating nutrient rich food, cutting down on sugar and junk. I've been resting as much as possible, I took baths to clean myself and relieve tension, and I've been hydrating my body. When you're sick, your body is trying to cleanse itself of the microbes or toxins that are causing the illness. Hydration, rest, and flooding the body with nutrients is the best way to help that process along. FYI, I used a home spun saline solution for the neti pot and gargle. This is 1/8 tsp. salt to 8oz. of water. And for the neti pot, only mix this solution with boiling water in the neti pot itself (this kills dangerous water-born microbes, no really, they can kill you). The following is the daily breakdown of the other remedies I used.

On Day 1, I drank 2 kinds of tea (recipes below), one for my symptoms and one for my immune system. I used 4,000mg of vitamin C; 1,000mg with each meal, 500mg upon waking, and going to sleep. I also used Thayers Slippery Elm Lozenges as needed throughout the day. I made sure I ate well, and rested a lot. 

Day 2, I began using my neti pot to irrigate my nasal passages and wash out any bacteria that might be hiding out there. Neti pots have been a game changer for me over the last year, they really do a lot to clear up nasal congestion, sneezing, and post nasal drip. When my throat started hurting, I gargled salt water to ease the pain, swallowed 1tsp. of raw honey to soothe it further, and used the slippery elm lozenges whenever I needed them. 

Day 3, I added silence to my treatment. I didn't talk for 12 hours. That helped the pain in my throat a ton, and kept me from coughing. That afternoon, I went and got acupuncture for my tendonitis (something I've been doing for months) and to relieve the cold symptoms. I also started using Jade Dragon Advanced Cold tea pills. These pills are a Chinese medicine formula called Yin Qiao Jie Du Wan, and they are to be taken when the cold has "advanced" into the lungs, resulting in a dry cough (symptoms are Wind/Heat).

Now, hang on just a minute... How is taking pills from plastic bottles zero waste, you say? Well, it isn't. There is a foil/plastic seal and a desiccant packet in each bottle that gets thrown away, but the bottle and lid can be recycled. Sidenote, I use the cotton stuffed in the bottles for fire starters when I'm camping.

Day 4, which is today, I'm continuing everything from the day before. I am speaking today, but being very mindful of when and why, and what I choose to say. My recovery has blown me away. I wasn't prepared to feel this good today! So, I'm basically going to continue doing what I've been doing until all traces of my symptoms are gone. Hopefully it takes less time than the other method does. It has already proven to be superior with how well it has dealt with my symptoms.

My conclusion is that practicing radical self-care when you are feeling under the weather is the key to a fast recovery. If everyone took the time off work to care for themselves when they were sick, they would be sick less and for less time. And wouldn't that be nice!

Now, as promised, here are the herbal tea blends I used to treat my symptoms. Your local herb store should have all the dry herbs in stock, hopefully in bulk.

Symptom Soothe Tea

1 part Mullein

1 part Tulsi

1 part Shredded Licorice Root

1 tsp. Honey (raw preferred)

Use 2 tsp. of tea mixture in a strainer, and steep in boiled water for at least 10 minutes in a tea cup for full potency. Take this throughout the day (at least 4 cups).

Ginger Burner Tea

Disclaimer: This tea is VERY SPICEY.

1-1.5 inches fresh ginger root, sliced thin

1 lemon

1 Tbsp. Honey (raw preferred)

Slice 1-1.5 inches of fresh ginger root thinly. Put 4 cups of water into a small pot, add the ginger, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and let simmer (just under boiling) for 30-45 min. If you have to add water to keep it simmering, that's okay! Reduce the mixture until you have 2 cups of liquid left. Strain out the ginger, add lemon juice and honey. Drink 1 cup now, and 1 cup later! Up to 4 cups per day. Want to boost this tea? Add 1 inch fresh turmeric root for pain relief or a pinch of cayenne for extra BURN (just kidding, it's an expectorant).

Update

It's finally Spring! No more snow or frosts this year. I've planted squash, beans, and carrots. We'll see how they turn out. I'm hoping to receive tomato plants from my friend Esther once they get big enough. We have mint taking over one of the planters, green onions, sage and cilantro. Good eats!

I'm gearing up for Fairyworlds in Eugene, OR. Natasha, Maria, a few others and I will be manning a booth and selling all manner of wonders and trinkets. There will be art, masks, jewelry, books, clothing and more! Fun for all!

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately, mostly about my current direction. Circus is taking over my life and I didn't want it to, so after this performance season, I'll be scaling it back significantly. The only performing I'll be doing will be with the band. Fire up in Flagstaff is just too much of a hassle. I'll be learning some new and interesting skills like fire meteor, dart, and fire breathing/eating. And I'll be keeping up with the juggling. But just to dabble. Maybe something awesome will come out of these experiments, but I'm not banking on it. I just want to have fun with it. More trumpet, more painting, less stress, happy Kim.

I'll be celebrating my 1 year anniversary in a couple weeks. My how time flies when your in love. : )

I can't wait until my self-imposed 2 years is up on my job. I'm ready to be more creative and actually get paid real money for what I can do.

Diabetes management is improving. I discovered to my dismay that all the ratios in my insulin pump were completely off and I have been working to get things back on track. Vision is improving with my blood sugars, and I've hooked up with an excellent diabetes educator who doesn't scoff at my dreams of curing my disease or participating in clinical trials to that end. The next step is finding a like-minded endocrinologist (a requirement for most of the clinical trials). I think I may be conducting interviews for that position. I really want my new doc to be on board for curing me, not treating me. I have faith.

On the injury front, I've started light work-outs that include stretching, balance and equipment-less exercises (push-ups, crunches, pull-ups, etc.) that use my body as its own weight system. I've decided to track my progress and see how I improve month to month. Maybe I'll be a flier yet! Stretching and moving feels really good. I'm doing it right.

I'm donating a painted adirondack chair to my Mom's Soroptimist Club for a raffle in Phoenix. It's a desert-scape with prickly pear cactus. I'll be painting it today. I had another, more epic idea, but she told me to stick with something simple. Next year, I'll be painting it a Dia de los Muertos theme with a skeleton mother and a skeleton embryo and flowers and bright colors and yay!

Motorcycle, gallery showings and paintings are in the works.

End of line.

Healthcare Reform

Nothing makes me feel more helpless than the issue of healthcare in America. As a person with a preexisting condition, diabetes, this issue directly impacts my life. At present, I am a healthy, talented human being who contributes to society by having a job, participating in politics, and spending what little money I have on housing and basic necessities.

I also live in poverty, dependent on the state for the basic necessities of food and medicine. If I chose to have a job that would make me enough money to bump me up a tax bracket or two, I'd lose my medical coverage and I'd be faced with a huge, new set of problems. Problems like having to fork over $700 per month in insurance costs and medical expenses in addition to paying for rent, utilities, food, and other basic needs.

If I had a "real" job that covered all of my normal expenses, it would still cost me $33 per day just to keep breathing; that's the daily cost of my medication, the means to inject it, doctor's visits, and minimal food. That's $231 per week, and $924 per month. Individual insurance doesn't help me. In fact, with an average $450/mo policy and a minimum $5,000 deductible, paying out of pocket almost SAVES me money.

I've called for policy quotes from insurance companies many times. They have a list of questions that they ask. After determining your age and sex (and whether or not you are pregnant), they ask personal questions about your medical history, "do you have or have you ever had cancer/stroke/heart attack", "do you smoke", "do you drink alcohol", etc. At about the 4th or 5th question, they ask if you have diabetes. Then the questions stop. Once you confirm that you are diabetic (or have any other kind of chronic illness that needs medication for upkeep), they give you a quote between $450 - $550/mo with a high deductible between $5,000 - $10,000/yr. Even insurance companies that claim the cheapest rates never dip below a $400 monthly cost.

With the amount of money I have to spend on medical costs, I could be renting a 3 bedroom house and a small studio space outside of that, and still have money for utilities and food. Instead, I've been reduced to poverty and food stamps by a government and country that believes that one can only be sick and alive if one is rich. The alternative is to be either sick and poor, or dead. And with the audacity that the insurance companies display in their rising rates and premiums, their opinion is obvious; the sick do not deserve to live. Hospitals and pharmicutical companies share that opinion by refusing full and adiquate treatment to the uninsured, and with the high, rising costs of medications and medical supplies.

You might be asking yourself why I don't get a job somewhere, anywhere, with health insurance. The answer is simple, I am not guaranteed any sort of coverage that way. If I cost the insurance company too much, I will be forced to pay a higher rate to keep my coverage. The insurance company can also choose to drop me and cancel my coverage or simply refuse to cover me in the first place. This is not unheard of, nor is is uncommon. In fact, insurance companies are notorious for discontinuing their coverage if a healthy client falls ill. Also, the company I work for can also choose to not cover me. This is a little less common, but if I make it more expensive for the company to cover ALL of its employees, it can happen.

Writing about this issue is hard for me. Being objective and not losing my cool and screaming obscenities is the most difficult part. I wonder, who are they to tell me that I don't deserve to keep breathing? Who are they to tell me that I am an inferior human being? Words like "liability" and "high-risk" that are used to label the sick and disabled are insulting, demeaning, and thrown around by insurance companies as if they are harmless. I've made many a phone call for quotes that has ended in tears of hurt and frustration. Their negligence and ignorance are more harmful than any healthy person can realize.

The continuation of this line of conversation goes into the topic of how healthy people simply don't understand what it is like to be sick. This is a very basic observation, but you'd be surprised at how much it clouds their judgment and impedes the progress of reform. But I digress, and I'll refrain from going any further with this line of thought.

There are so many people in America who cannot afford insurance. There are still more who can't afford the medications that they need to live. If the government were to start regulating and charging for air, we'd all be in the same boat. Fortunately for us all, that won't happen any time soon. (Could you imagine oxygen insurance?)

The point I'm trying to make is this; our current method of health care in the United States IS NOT WORKING. It needs to be reformed, rethought, and radically changed. Even if it is done by baby steps over the next 75 years, it needs to be done, and it needs to start NOW. Discrimination against pre-existing conditions must STOP. And the impersonal treatment of the sick and disabled must end.

Write your congress people, both the senate and the house need to know your thoughts and concerns. Tell the house to pass the senate's bill, even if it does not include a public option, it may just be the baby step toward reform that people like me, people like your friends and relatives, pray for with every breath, every pill, every injection.

Healthy people of the free world, unite and help the sick. We need your support for the changes that must be made. Brothers and sisters with diabetes and the host of other invisible chronic illnesses, unite for change and reform. Together, we can make a difference and make breathing easier for everyone.

A Short Update...

I didn't complete my Bird Shaman costume in time, but I got the skirt and top done and went as an Amazon woman instead. I'll post a picture when I finally get one.

I've been sick and recovering. I've taken a break. I'll be back on the ball soon.