In our ‘information overload’ world of social media and the internet, I was surprised at how little there was out there when I was looking for support groups, pod casts and other areas of support after bereavement.
Any other topic and you are overwhelmed with articles, blog posts, books, groups, forums, but with ‘bereavement’ there was very little and this surprised me - and was one of the reasons I set up the FAB group.
The group is still in its early days of development – as I am still working out the details of how to support group members but with keeping our personal stories personal.
The person (or people) we have lost are indelible to us – which means that they are not able to be forgotten by us – ever.
Read more...
This blog is about a supplement that ‘supports joint comfort and helps maintain joint mobility’.
The supplement has only 2 main ingredients in it! Just 2! MSM – you may have heard of before this stands for METHYL SULFONYL METHANE and the other ingredient is LYCIUM BARBARUM which is the Latin name for the Chinese wolfberry also known as goji berries and mede berry.
So the MSM – sulphur is an extremely important mineral – the body needs sulphur to survive.
As we get older we undergo a certain amount of wear and tear especially the joints in our knees and knuckles – everyone can benefit from MSM – even your dogs and cats and whilst recommended for everyone over 50, your joints start to wear down in the 30s, so if you are very active then it’s never too early to start supporting your skeletal system. In America and other parts of the world Sulfurzyme comes in powder form and capsule form. In Europe we can only get the capsule form – which is good as the powder form contains Stevia – and this you definitely cannot give to your animals – but we don’t have to worry about that as there is no stevia in our capsule form.
It is important to also drink plenty of water when desiring the support of healthy joints, ligaments, bones and muscles. Simply drink half of your body weight number in ounces. For example, if you are 200 pounds, you would strive to drink 100 oz of water every day.
In addition to supporting joint comfort and mobility Sulurzyme also strengthens hair, nails and skin, and reduces inflammation and supports gut health. Goji berries are a prebiotic. Many people take PRObiotics every day – which is great, especially after a course of antibiotics, but if you are not then taking in your diet prebiotics by way of fermented foods and drinks like Ninxia Red, it’s sort of a waste of time as the job of prebiotics is to feed the probiotics - the good bacteria in your gut.
The important thing is that once you start with MSM – or Sulfurzyme, you need to continue it – I have had dozens of testimonials to say that when people forget to take it, their joints soon remind them! Human studies have shown that MSM enters the blood very quickly and will start working within 30-45 minutes. Most people will begin to notice the effects of Sulfurzyme within two weeks of supplementation, but individual results may vary and are dependent on serving size and formulation.
The formulation of Sulfurzyme, with the additional wolfberries as a prebiotic, puts this supplement in my top 5 supplements which the over 60s should be taking every day - and also forms part of my :
Joint & Mobility Health Protocol which is part of my Savvy Seniors VIP group!
Hello! This blog post is a continuation of last week when I was answering questions about diffusing in general and I said that we would start this week with the question........
Can I diffuse essential oils if there are pets in the house?
So this answer is about diffusing only, not using the oils directly on pets, I’ll cover that in a different Q&A. So, yes you can diffuse essential oils if there are pets in the house. However, some animals are sensitive to essential oils and some, especially cats, do not have the necessary enzymes in their liver to process essential oils high in phenols (found in such oils as Clove), and terpenes - found in Tea Tree and citrus oils. You also need to ask yourself another question in this regard and that is what chemicals are being used in the house already that could be more harmful than essential oils – hairspray, bleach, harsh cleaning materials, perfumed candles, plug ins? – all of these will do you pets, and you, more harm that the essential oils from a water based diffuser could ever do! So if they have survived years of chemicals, a diffuser will do no harm.
Here is a picture of Sasha - my cat who is over 20 years old (pictured May, 2020) and has lived her whole life with essential oils diffusing in every room of the house! Just make sure there is an escape route for your pet – so leave the door open so they can leave and go into another room if they wish.
Is it okay to diffuse two blends at the same time – for example Thieves and RC?
Each of these blends were blended for a specific reason – so if you mix two blends together you ae getting a watered down effect from using them alone – does that make sense? Do you are not getting the full benefits of Thieves as you’ve mixed it with something else, and therefore changed the synergy of the blend, and you’re not getting the full benefit of the RC as you’ve mixed it with something else again changing the synergy – so I would strongly recommend you use the blends alone – the YL blends already contain sometimes up to 10 single oils – that’s enough! If you feel you absolutely have to add another oil, then I would choose one that is already in the blend so for Thieves, you could add a further drop of lemon for example, or for RC you could add a further drop of lavender for example.
Can I put my diffuser on natural wood table? It’s a common mistake and many of us have put our diffusers onto a wooden table because in time when the water and oil droplets lands on the table it will leave a mark where the diffuser has been. A way around this is to buy a clear glass chopping board and put your diffuser on that, to the clear glass isn’t taking away any of the beauty of the table – but it’s protecting it.
An interesting fact that I’ve encountered many times in the past, is that I’ve introduced 100% pure essential oils into someone’s life, and they have said ‘oh, I’ll use my other oils up in the diffuser’ - NOOOOOO - the diffuser isn’t just to make the room smell nice, you are actually breathing in the tiny molecules of essential oil that the diffuser is putting into the air – so any non pure essential oils should definitely not be ‘used up’ in the diffuser – I would recommend you ‘use them up’ in cleaning products.
Watch my IGTV Video on this topic here
Hello! This is Part 1 of a 2 part Blog post! Here are the first 3 FAQs
How many drops of essential oil should I use in my diffuser?
I wish I could just give you a number, but it’s not that simple! It depends on many things - the size of your diffuser, how much water you put in the well of your diffuser, the size of your room you are diffusing in and for the person or people you’re diffusing for.
As a rule of thumb use 1-4 drops per 100ml of water! so the Desert Mist diffuser holds 200mls of water in its well so you could use a maximum of 8 drops if you filled the well up to its maximum level – and a diffuser with this size well is ideal for a room of about 10’ x 10’ or 3 x 3 meters. The 'Feathers the Owl' diffuser shown on the right also holds 200mls of water in it's water well.
You would also need to consider the essential oil – so if you chose Geranium, you would choose the lesser amount of drops as Geranium is very overpowering for a small room, but if you chose Lavender or Frankincense you could choose the maximum amount of drops as lavender and Frankincense aren’t anywhere near as overpowering as Geranium.
Another consideration is the age of the recipient – if you are diffusing for a child or a senior and the diffuser is next to their bed, you could choose the smaller number of drops if the purpose of diffusing were for a calming atmosphere, or you may choose a higher number of drops (still within the 1 – 4 per 100ms of water) if you were diffusing to stay alert.
I want to use both Orange & Cedarwood in my diffuser – should I put them in the water separately or mix them together first?
When you choose to diffuse a combination of singles say Orange & Cedarwood in this example– the choice is yours - some people put 2 drops of Cedarwood and then 2 drops of Orange separately into the diffuser well – this is okay but you are not getting the real synergistic effect of these two oils - in my opinion, it would be more beneficial to blend the orange and Cedarwood together first, then add your drops of that blend into the diffuser well. - Once you find a blend you love – you could make a batch bottle – so in a 5ml bottle – that holds approximately 100 drops – you could put 40 drops of Cedarwood and 60 drops of orange (or whatever combination you like) then drop the number of drops you want to use in the diffuser – so 2 – 8 drops of this blend of two oils into your 200mls of water for the Desert Mist diffuser.
I have a blend like this using Orange and Cedarwood - I call it my Christmas Blend and use it all year round. So if you were using 8 drops of this blend in your diffuser, your 5mls bottle that contains approximately 100 drops would be good for about 12 diffusing sessions (that’s 96 drops! If you are checking my maths!).
Do I really need to clean my diffuser? Yes, you really do! And it only takes a few seconds. It’s all in the instruction book you received with your diffuser (your guarantee could be invalid if you don’t follow the instructions) - which state that the only substance you can use to clean your diffuser is rubbing alcohol. and should be cleaned every time you change the essential oil.
There appears to be some confusion regarding diffusers and their safe use, so here are some Q&As that may help to explain some areas to you.
- the size of your diffuser
- how much water you put in the well of your diffuser
- the size of your room you are diffusing in
- the essential oil itself, and
- consideration for the person or people you’re diffusing for
No amount of tooth brushing will remove stained teeth. The coffee, tea and red wine over the years have ingrained into our teeth and sadly brushing alone will not remove them. However, it has been shown that oil pulling has good results.
Oil pulling, also known as "kavala" is an ancient Ayurvedic technique that dates back over 3,000 years and involves swishing oil in your mouth, effectively using oil as a mouthwash!
Oil pulling can be described as a remarkably simple, completely harmless and inexpensive oral hygiene treatment and is a technique taken very seriously by thousands of people all over the globe - although there are no scientific studies on it.
The most obvious result of oil pulling is improved dental health and it’s an amazingly effective way to not only make your teeth whiter but to make your gums pinker and healthier looking and leaving your breath fresh, all making this natural remedy worthwhile. But what is remarkable is that the benefits don’t stop there. Many other health problems, like congested sinuses appear to improve too but which can’t be explained scientifically or otherwise!
Oil pulling is believed to help in the excretion of toxic heavy metals from your body via saliva. The squishing activates salivary enzymes which absorb toxins such as chemical, bacterial and environmental toxins from the blood and which are then removed from your body when you spit the oil out.
How do you do it - you very simply put a teaspoon of coconut oil in your mouth – but any oil can be used - many people use coconut oil or sesame oil or a combination of both.
If you suffer from gingivitis (bleeding gums) you could add 1 drop of lemon essential oil. (This needs to be a 'food grade' one, like Lemon Plus). Lemon essential oil is a haemostatic. Haemostatics help to stop bleeding by speeding up the coagulation of the blood. So by adding just 1 drop of lemon will not only help the gingivitis but it will add more anti-bacterial components to the oil mixture and give it a much nicer taste making it much easier to swish,
Oil pulling best done first thing in the morning on an empty stomach so before you eat or drink anything. If you have never done this before, then I recommend you start with just 2 minutes!
When the oil is in your mouth, you simply swish it around your mouth, teeth and gums. Once the two minutes are up, spit the oil out in some kitchen towel, and dispose in the rubbish – do not spit it in the bathroom basin or any other basin really! as it will clog up your pipes and drains!
Once you can do 2 minutes gradually build up to 5 minutes and longer and longer until you reach 20 minutes.
At the same time as you lengthen the time you are squishing, you are going to increase the amount of oil from a teaspoonful to a dessert spoonful and finally a tablespoonful. You could do your oil pulling whilst lying in the bath, or when under the shower or whilst waiting for the kettle to boil or reading a book (reading a book is good once you hit the 20 minutes) but remain mindful of what you are doing so you don’t swallow it.
If you do swallow it, it won’t do you any harm, but it will defeat the objective of doing it in the first places, which is to take harmful bacteria and other toxins out of your system.
When the oil blend is in your mouth it will double in size over the time you squish, it doubles in size because of the saliva you will produce. If it gets too uncomfortable, you can spit some of it out in kitchen towel and then carry on swishing until your time is up.
Don’t be alarmed of the colour as the saliva and oil squished together will change to a white colour - the longer you squish, the whiter it will become.
Everyone can benefit from oil pulling – it's not just for whitening teeth, there are so many other benefits - so if this interests you, go and do some research, and let me know how you get on!
There are lots of articles online and many books on it in Amazon.
I started a 30-Day challenge on 29 April - I took a photo of my teeth and will take another one after 30 days and post the difference!
Here is my Instagram IGTV on this subject
- The way you heat your home
- How you cook your food
- Poor ventilation
- Damp
- Chemicals in cleaning products
- Chemicals in personal use products
- Plug Ins and cheap candles
- Pets
- Air conditioning
- Carpets and Rugs
- Buy beeswax candles, yes they are much more expensive than the cheaper ones, but they do last much longer and they don't emit harsh synthetic chemicals like the cheaper ones can.
- Bring the outside in with houseplants - Cheese Plants in particular are well known to purifying indoor air.
- Unplug and immediately throw away Plug Ins and aerosol air fresheners which saturate your home with synthetic chemicals which you breath in.
- Invest in a good quality diffuser - choose one with a metal mechanism not plastic.
- Choose only the very best essential oils to diffuse in your beautiful diffuser - cheap essential oils often are contaminated with synthetics and if you diffuse these you are breathing in the contaminants compared to the beneficial effects of diffusing top grade essential oils like Young Living.
- Open your windows, even in winter, for at least 20 minutes every day.
- Reduce and eventually eliminate the use of harsh synthetic chemical cleaning products both in the kitchen and bathroom, and replace with non-toxic products.
- Outdoor shoes should be left either outside or by the front door and only wear indoor shoes in the house, or slippers or just socks.
- Air vents should be cleaned regularly on air conditioning units
- Always use the cooker hood over your hob if you have one.
My favourite diffuser is the Feathers the Owl diffuser designed for kids, but loved by adults too! 
Welcome to my Blog! I'm Suzie Webb you can read more about me 
