Apple Cider Vinegar

I have several friends who are fairly in to "alternative" medicine. With a degree in microbiology, alternative, just isn't something I gave a whole lot of credit to. I vaccinate my kids for everything, as long as they are not sick and don't have a fever.

Then last year people started freaking out about the whole swine flu thing and people literally ran to the clinic for their shot because they all thought they were going to die. By the time I got around to calling to get my kids the shot, they were out of swine flu and regular flu vaccines. So we didn't do them, and guess what? No flu and we are all still alive. I started researching into the swine flu vaccine, and I learned a lot. Probably wouldn't have vaccinated them anyway had I done my research before hand (that is saying a lot for a former microbiologist!). Regardless of that, it sort of opened the door for me to look a little more at some of this so called fringe medicine. (By the way, I still think it is important to vaccinate your children for the majority of the diseases there are. It would be dangerous for everyone in the world to not vaccinate, because of something called herd immunity. The majority of people are vaccinated and have Ab response to diseases which thus prevents it from getting out into the population at large. If everyone stopped vaccinating you wouldn't have that, and diseases would make a much larger and aggressive come back. I know some of you probably disagree with me in a big way, and that is okay, but this is my blog, so I say how I feel!)

Anyway, onto Apple Cider Vinegar. I seem to have all of these random, bizarre health issues that aren't really bad, but mostly annoying. A friend of mine suggested drinking apple cider vinegar, but it had to be the raw, unfiltered type that costs $4 for a teeny tiny bottle. So I, in my naive type of thinking thought no sweat. 2 teaspoons of apple cider vinegar a day? I got it covered. Then I opened the bottle and actually smelled the stuff. So I started reading the directions and it said to mix with 8 oz. of water. I did that. Cold water . Let me tell you, I probably could not drink 8 oz. of cold apple cider vinegar water to save my life. I gagged the whole time I tried to drink it. Then I tried to not breathe and chug it down. Didn't work. So, I decided to forget mixing it, I was going to drink it straight up- 2 tsp. of straight apple cider vinegar down the throat. It burns like crazy. Especially for someone who used to have GERD, and is still prone to excessive heartburn issues. I would drink 2 tsp. and then chug a bunch of Gaviscon as a chaser.

Then my sweet aunt said you have to warm it up, add a little honey and drink it like tea. And you know what? It is much better warm, I think I actually might be able to do this! It is supposed to help with all sorts of ailments from woman problems, to skin issues to just about anything you can think of. My one girlfriend has those little, white bumps on the tricep part of her arm. She rubs it on the outside in the shower, and those bumps have totally gone away. This makes me a little nervous as I am drinking something that makes skin bumps go away, but I am going to roll with it. Ask any person older than 70 and they will tell you this is nothing new to them. I am surprised at how many people in that age range have done this for years.

Now I have started to take things like fish oil, and flaxseed and cranberry supplements. I find that I want to know some of this alternative medicine! I do think that I actually feel better now that I am doing all this stuff. Could be the placebo effect, but who cares if it works!