Happy Autumn everyone! This is the time of year that I start seeing a lot of folks with sinus infections, colds, and flu bugs. I get many emails each week asking for advice for clearing sinuses just before they require antibiotics to treat an infection. The best way to treat a sinus infection or a cold is to prevent one. The sinuses and nasal passages are two of the seven areas of the body that can become areas of dysbiosis, or imbalanced microflora. Healthy, balanced microflora is the key to good health, whether in the digestive system, urinary tract, bronchioles (lungs), nasal passages, mouth, or sinuses. The best way to keep a healthy balance of beneficial bugs is to feed them what they need. A diet high in carbohydrates, alcohol, sugars (of all kinds), and starch will feed the NON-BENEFICIAL bugs that do us harm and cause inflammation. Our bodies need a variety of fermented foods to keep many different strains of beneficial microbes populating and aiding our bodies. Today I went crazy in my kitchen making some of these foods. I started a batch of fermented vegetables going, some new kombucha tea, coconut milk kefir and a batch of coconut milk yogurt. I also roasted a turkey for dinner and started the carcass cooking with apple cider vinegar and water to make bone broth and put a whole chicken in my crock pot to cook for the next couple of days for another variety of bone broth. By tomorrow morning I will have kefir with my breakfast. The next day I will have yogurt. Mid-week will be some soups made with bone broth and by the end of the week my kombucha will be ready to sample. In two weeks I will have some lovely fermented vegetables. All of these foods are wonderful for preventing illnesses. Below are some links you can use to find out how to make these very simple foods:

To make Kombucha click here 

To make coconut milk kefir click here

To make coconut milk yogurt click here 

To make fermented vegetables click here

To make bone broth click here  

If you find you get sick, please come into the clinic quickly and pick up my Sinus and Upper Respiratory Infection Protocol in the waiting room. Hopping on treating the very first symptoms of illness is the key to avoiding antibiotics. If you cannot avoid antibiotics this fall and winter, please use our Fern Intensive probiotics to replenish your gut flora.

Here's to your health!