Spice Up Winter Festivities :: Holistic Healing

Spice Up Winter Festivities
by author Bev Gray, RA, CH

Winter holidays can be fun and relaxing–getting together with friends and family to eat, drink, and make merry. Aromatic botanicals are traditionally a significant part of winter celebrations, from aromatic mulled wine to spicy gingerbread cookies.

Scents of Tradition

Mouth-watering spices like cinnamon, cardamom, and ginger are yummy in holiday baking. Essential oils of these spices can be used to scent a room or added to a bath or carrier oil for massage.

Cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum) essential oil gives a room a spicy, fresh-wood scent which helps arouse the physical senses and creativity. It is warming and stimulating and is useful in strengthening and toning the respiratory, circulatory, and digestive systems. The essential oil of cinnamon is very powerful and should not be used directly on your skin without a carrier oil. When blending cinnamon essential oil, remember it is a base note which holds the blend together but does not overpower.

Cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum) is a wonderful spice. It has a pleasing camphoraceous scent that is sweet and spicy. The essential oil is comforting, refreshing, and uplifting. Cardamom oil is an aphrodisiac and relieves cramps and flatulence. It can be added to the bath with a carrier oil such as sunflower oil. Or add a couple of drops to your aromatherapy diffuser to make a room smell like holiday baking is in the oven.

Ginger (Zingiber officinalis) essential oil smells almost identical to fresh ginger root. Ginger targets the digestive and immune systems and is probably best known for relieving indigestion and flatulence. It is also helpful for arthritis, rheumatism, muscular pain, cold and moist conditions, and poor circulation.

Oils for Spirit, Strength, and Courage

When the Christ child was born, it is said that three wise kings knelt down beside Him and offered gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Frankincense is known as the oil of spiritual calm, while myrrh amplifies strength and courage.

Frankincense (Boswellia carteri)
Known as the oil of meditation, frankincense’s aroma helps produce a heightened awareness of spiritual calm and can assist in fortifying and quieting a busy mind, while encouraging deep breathing. In the face of adversity or hardship, frankincense helps to reduce tension and give strength. It can also be used in a diffuser for symptoms of colds and flu such as coughing and congestion. Added to carrier oil such as sunflower or olive oil, frankincense can be used topically to help alleviate flatulence. Simply massage over the lower abdomen.

Myrrh (Commiphora myrrha)
Myrrh resin has a spicy-balsamic scent. It is purifying and restorative, amplifies strength and courage, awakens the spirit, and calms fears. In ancient times it was commonly used as a perfume, incense, and medicine. Myrrh is an anti-inflammatory and antiseptic, which makes it great for treating skin conditions and infections. It is also helpful for treating respiratory infections, catarrh (nasal discharge), chronic bronchitis, colds, and sore throats. Topically, myrrh oil can act as a digestive tonic to help with diarrhea, flatulence, hemorrhoids, and loss
of appetite.

Enliven your home and family with these scents of the season.

An Ancient Tradition

Traditionally, Christmas trees were considered a symbol of new life and hope. Their greenery was seen as a sign of life when all other plants lay dormant for the winter. The first Christmas tree in Canada was recorded in 1781 in the home of German settlers. It wasn’t until the late 1800s that the Christmas tree became a popular family tradition in this country.

Today many families choose to use an artificial Christmas tree. Essential oils of spruce, pine, or fir can be sprinkled onto the tree or into an aromatherapy diffuser to make the whole house smell like a Christmas forest.

Oh, Christmas Tree!

4 drops spruce (Picea mariana)
4 drops fir (Abies balsamea)
4 drops pine (Pinus sylvestris)

Add essential oils to your aromatherapy diffuser and enjoy the Christmas tree aroma in every room of your house.

Holiday Spice Room Spritzer Blend

Spray this blend of essential oils around your home to liven up your holiday season.

20 drops orange (Citrus sinensis)
10 drops clove (Eugenia caryophyllata)
8 drops cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum)
1 tsp (5 mL) vodka
1/2 cup (125 ml) distilled water

Add vodka to empty spray bottle, add essential oils, and then add distilled water. Shake well before use. Avoid contact with eyes.

Bev Gray, RA, CH, is a skilled herbalist, registered aromatherapist, and educator who loves to share her passion for medicinal and aromatic plants. She owns Aroma Borealis Herb Shop in Whitehorse, Yukon (aromaborealis.com) and is the recent recipient of the Yukon Business Person of the Year Award.

Source: alive #278, December 2005

Home Spas Beat February Blahs
February is the perfect spa month. It's the time of the year when you need a pick-me-up-right in the middle of winter with barely a spring bulb in sight. Mark Spa Night on your calendar and circle the special date in red. First choose the location-a bathroom with a lock on the door is best.

Aromatherapy For Children
Childhood is a time of bumps, bruises, scraped knees and other afflictions. Applied externally, aromatherapy can help minimize many of these common ailments.

Magnificent Myrrh
Myrrh (Commiphora myrrha) essential oil, steam-distilled from the crude resin of myrrh, is a dark reddish-brown with a dry, acrid scent reminiscent of its desert origins. Due to its ability to stimulate menstruation, myrrh should be avoided during pregnancy. Myrrh oil finds one of its largest uses in skin care..

Lovely Lemon Verbena
Lemon verbena (aloysia triphylla) is a positive, uplifting oil--a splash of sunshine for the rainy skies of November. It has a light, lemony-fresh scent with herbaceous undertone.

Soothing Christmas Scents
Do you remember when Christmas holidays were actually holy days and a time for relaxing and visiting with friends and family? Probably not. For most of us, Christmas means balancing work and family schedules while trying to do extra baking, gift shopping, house decorating and entertaining.

Cleaning Your Mind, Body and Soul
The way to health is to have an aromatic bath and scented massage every da.

Essential Oils
An Aromatic Perspective We have just completed a century marked by specializations in almost every field and profession.

Aromatherapy An Essential Experience
What finer treasure is there than one that provides soothing comfort during this hectic holiday season? Aromatherapy offers some ideal solutions.

Choosing a Gift Just Got Easier
For those of you who cringe at the thought of braving the malls this Christmas, your local health products store has transformed itself into a boutique of health and wellness. Health food retailers are aware that their products are not the first things consumers think about when purchasing gifts.

Warming Winter Spices
In Watership Down, Richard Adams wrote, "Many human beings say that they enjoy the winter, but what they really enjoy is feeling proof against it.

Soothe Inflammation
Inflammation is associated with a wide range of chronic and acute diseases.

Healthy Holiday Fun
This time of year is often filled with excesses: calories, spending, and parties.

Natural Fragrances
Imagine anointing yourself every day with a fragrance you created, one without chemicals, one designed not only to perfume your body, but also to stimulate creativity, ease your headaches, or help you through grief.

Spice up the Holidays
Discover how ancient spices can improve your health by using them in your everyday cooking. In this article, we will explore three of the most powerful spices exhibiting the greatest healing properties: cinnamon, turmeric, and cloves.

Spiced Apple Punch
Greet your guests with the wonderful Christmas aroma of cinnamon, cloves and anise. Makes four quarts (four litres).

Holiday Honey Loaf
A holiday favourite in the former Czechoslovakia, this moist and delectable loaf is sweetened with the natural goodness of honey and filled with wholesome nuts and fruit. Makes one cake.

Kefir Snowballs with Plum Filling
Apricot compote or ground nuts can also be used as filling. Makes 10 to 12 balls.

Cinnamon Lebzelten (Gingerbread)
Lebzelten preparation is a bit elaborate, but a treat for gourmets. Yields 40 cookies.

Spicy Honey-Gingerbread
The rolled dough can be cut into plain squares or fancy cookie forms. Depending on the size, this recipe yields 25-50 cookies.

Spekulatius (Spiced Cookies)
One of my favourite Christmas recipes, spekulatius are spiced cookies moulded into delightful shapes. If you do not have the wooden spekulatius forms (from the Netherlands), look for ceramic cookie forms in kitchen stores.

Savoury Brussels Sprouts
A member of the famed cabbage family, brussels sprouts are loaded with vitamins A and C, folic acid, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, iron and of course, fibre. Serves four.

Cheese and Potato Perogies
This recipe brings back fond memories of traditional Ukrainian Christmases with the grandparents. It's easy to make and a great way to bond with relatives. The more people helping you make it, the better. Makes three to four dozen, depending on size.

Butternut Squash Stuffed with Spiced Pears
Feel free to substitute other squash to suit your taste!

Cinnamon Baked Squash

Baked Camembert With Cranberry Preserves

Acorn Squash

Royal Snack Mix

Home-Roasted Nuts
Nuts can be gently roasted at home by warming them in a fry pan until golden or placing them under the broiler for five minutes. They can also be placed on a baking sheet and placed in the hot oven for five to 10 minutes.

Nine Radiant Months
Whether it's your first child or your tenth, the worries of pregnancy can definitely affect your stress level. To assure your baby's well-being - and your own - it's important to take care of yourself to reduce stress. Stress affects the body negatively by building up toxins, lowering energy levels, and weakening the immune system..

In Pursuit of True Aromatherapy
Aromatherapy is a potent and effective branch of natural medicine that is barely recognized in North America. In Europe, medical doctors prescribe pure oils for a wide variety of medical conditions.

Aromatic Aphrodisiacs
Spice up your love life this Valentine's Day by evoking the spirit of Aphrodite, the Goddess of Lov.

Aromatherapy Detox With Essential Oils
Detoxification is a natural and constant bodily process. We are continually eliminating excess toxins through our digestive, urinary, integumentary (skin), circulatory, respiratory, and lymphatic systems.

Smell Comfort
Undergoing treatment for cancer can be extremely stressful, as well as taxing on the immune syste.

Pure Aroma
Essential oils aren't always essentially what is on the label. Essential oils can be tampered with anywhere along the distribution chain, from the farmer's field to the company selling the oils.

Scented Serenity
Childbirth is an exciting time in a woman's life and one of her most natural and primal experiences. It can also be stressful and exhaustin.

Aromatherapy Apothecary
Therapeutic essential oils have a well-deserved place in your first aid kit or home apothecary. They are powerful botanical medicines that can fight fungi, bacteria, viruses, and inflammation. They can also help to manage stress and promote relaxation..

Hot-Spiced Apple Juice
This fragrant holiday favourite contributes a delightfully welcoming aroma for when guests arrive. I like to use my crock-pot to slowly heat the juice, and then people can just help themselves with a ladle. This drink is a refreshing change from alcoholic beverages and pop at parties.

Three Sisters Harvest Squash
This traditional recipe featuring the "three sisters - corn, squash, and beans - takes on a modern twist when served in Mediterranean style. It adds the wonderful healing herbs of parsley - which is high in vitamin C, chlorophyll, calcium, and iron - and basil, a tasty digestive aid.

Spiced Apple Cider

Festive Pomegranate, Barley, and Wild Rice Salad

Essential Oils
Since ancient times, people have used the quintessence of plants to optimize their health, and they have done so with the help of essential oils, which are concentrated aromatic liquids extracted from various species of plants, flowers, leaves, grasses, fruits, roots, and trees.

True to You
Anticipation of the holiday season seems to awaken before the Halloween moon has begun to fade. Appetites shift from ghoulish, sugary treats to rich Christmas foods consumed over many weeks. Wrapped candy surprises give way to more expensively wrapped gifts. Up go the lights, the calories, the spending, and the stress.

Eucalyptus From Head to Toe
Green eucalyptus leaves are sweet, with a fresh, woody aroma. The genus name "eucalyptus" is derived from "eu," meaning well and "kalyptos," meaning cover. Aromatherapists and herbalists may interpret the name to mean "that which covers well a variety of common conditions."

In the Spirit of Giving
Is pervasive yuletide background music reverberating in your head along with thoughts of holiday gift lists and interminable trips to the mall? Are visions of sugar plums and dancing fairies turning into nightmares before Christmas as you contemplate the holiday season?

Gentle Ginger
Drinking ginger root tea on these wintry days is like wrapping yourself in a down comforter. Its warming qualities are both gentle and thorough. Ginger root tea is so easy to make. Boil a few slices (two to ten, depending on how strong you want it to taste) of fresh ginger root in a few cups of water for one to three minutes, steep, and drink.

Emerald Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Consider leaving the peel on your potatoes as this significantly adds to the fibre you'll receive. Adding garlic helps build the immune system at this critical time of year, and why not squeeze in some greens? When chopped finely and swirled into the potatoes, they are a real crowd pleaser.

Easy Traditional Elegance
This December I've put together some traditional favourites that are easy to prepare so you have more time to visit with friends and family. These recipes are also done the low-fat way, to give them a new, healthier twist.

Green Christmas
The Christmas tree is up and decorated, filling the house with fresh fragrance, but it's already turning dry and dropping needles everywhere. After all, a tree begins to die the moment it's cut down. Many people have turned to plastic trees for convenience, but they can seem so ... plastic.

Create the Holiday You'd Love to Have
Take two weeks in December to break yourroutine-travel, overeat, overdrink, under-exercise, and undersleep (with relatives inclose quarters)-and you have the potential for disaster. Oh yeah, add a NewYear's celebration in there, too.

Be Kind to Your Liver This Holiday Season
Nothing leads to a diminished metabolicrate faster than regular alcohol consumption, and for many people alcohol is a bigpart of holiday season celebrations.

Yams with Pineapple
Extra vegetables and fruit can add loads of colour, fibre, and vitamins to any meal. Add pineapple as a natural way to sweeten yams and to add exotic flair to the festive table. Of course, it also squeezes in a fruit serving, fibre, and vitamin C.

Cornbread Stuffing
For the vegetarians in your gathering, make a stuffing that is protein rich by adding a meat substitute such as seitan strips (a wheat-based meat substitute available in health food stores).

Cranberry Pecan Salad
The health benefits of eating fresh nuts are widely recognized. Nuts are a rich source of nutrients and contain monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats as well as proteins and carbohydrates. Fresh nuts also provide a wide selection of vitamins and the minerals iron and zinc.

Treating SAD
Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) seriously affects thousands of Canadians during our long, dark, cold winters. The lack of sunlight can cause symptoms like fatigue, oversleeping, sadness, depression, irritation, decreased sex drive, and loss of pleasure and interest in life.

Protection Against Viral Epidemics
Experts from around the world agree that if the bird flu mutates, millions could die. According to Dr. David Nabarro, Senior United Nations System Coordinator for Avian and Human Influenza at the World Health Organization, "it's like a combination of global warming and HIV/Aids, 10 times faster than it's running at the moment.

Essential Oils for Travel
I can't go anywhere without essential oils! Even driving to work, 40 km down the South Klondike and Alaska Highway to Whitehorse, I have essential oils going in my handy plug-in car diffuser.

Profile of Dr. Andrew Weil
Andrew Weil is definitely changing the face of medicine. His familiar, white-bearded face has beamed at us from the cover of TIME magazine twice in the last nine years, most recently last October when his new book, Healthy Aging (Knopf, 2005) hit the stands.

Soaking Up the Relaxation
Long-term emotional or environmental stresses can be hard on the body, mind, and emotions. Quality essential oils have powerful yet subtle effects on emotions and can help relieve stress and anxiety when used in baths, massages, or in an aromatherapy diffuser.

Essential Oils
Essential oils are very concentrated and powerful plant extracts that are 40- to 100-percent stronger than herbs. For example, 10,000 pounds of lemon balm (Melissa officinalis) yields one pound of pure essential oil.

Essential Oils for Children
With the lazy days of summer coming to an end, children are returning to their busy routines of school, friends, and extra curricular activities. Back at school, children are confined to classrooms full of other kids, which can lead to stress and susceptibility to colds and flu.

Moving on Up!
Just about everyone goes through an occasional bout of feeling down. Along with a better diet and daily exercise, adding a few tried and true mood boosters to your nutritional and herbal supplement program often makes a noticeable difference in a short period of time.

Essential Oils
There are few better agents to reduce the spread of viral and bacterial illness during the cold and flu season than essential oils. A cabinet of wisely chosen, high quality essential oils can provide an effective natural pharmacy.

Spice It Up!
With the safety of traditional anti-inflammatory medicines recently being questioned, many individuals are turning to natural supplements including ginger and turmeric for relief from pain, swelling, and inflammation.

Ginger Garlic Gourmet
Ginger and garlic are the dynamic duo of good health. Their medicinal properties have been recorded by diverse ancient cultures. Recent research studies praise them both as safe and effective natural remedies.

Goodness Gracious Gifts
I always find it difficult to think of the right gift for people, but as life goes on and friends give gifts that truly please me, I think I'm beginning to get the hang of matching the gift to the person. The secret to making an inspired choice.

Scent-Sational Christmas Gifts
Giving aromatically can be as close as your local natural health store. Many of the ingredients to make your own all-natural gifts can be found in the bulk herb, spice, and cosmetic aisles. Look for any or all of these essential oils, from the tangy scent of orange to the fresh scent of pine.

Stimulate Better Health
Peppermint oil is a mental stimulant. Rosemary oil increases energy. Citrus oils work on improving mood and uplifting your spirits, while floral oils such as geranium, orange blossom, lemon balm and camomile all help alleviate stress and minor depression. If you're feeling angry, use rose oil to help your disposition..

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Foods high in magnesium lower diabetes risk

Wild or farmed?

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No need to ask for directions

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Sunshine: an immune booster

Massage miracles

Far-Infrared therapies resonate within you

Virus Protection

Manuka Honey

Scent-Sational
Want to stand out from the crowd? Want to be good to yourself and the planet? Why not create your own personal aromatherapy perfume using pure essential oils?

Serving Up Sustainability
As you plan your holiday table this year, make this a festive time for your guests while you raise a glass of red to a green planet.

Give More by Giving Less
The holiday pursuit of material goods is frustrating for many. Who hasn't spent a frantic afternoon in a mall, buying last-minute gifts and inevitably blowing the budget? The overspending and mass consumption that we engage in every year takes its toll on our stress levels, our wallets, and the planet.

Christmas Morning Brunch
Most people overindulge on Christmas Day, chowing down on more calories than a gold medal marathoner. It's no wonder many of us nod off into a post-dinner coma after the big feast.

Dreaming of a Green Christmas
A live Christmas tree or an artificial one-which is less of an environmental burden? This has become the inconvenient holiday conundrum for eco-conscious consumers.

Time Travel
Remember the smell of summer? The scent of wildflowers on the breeze, the dew lifting off the forest floor, and the smell of rain. If you long for the easy warmth of summer instead of the cold of a Canadian winter, then invite uplifting essential oils into your life.

Summer Drinks
The hot and lazy days of summer just beg for icy cold drinks. But many traditional recipes for summer drinks are made with simple syrup, a sugar and water mixture that is boiled, cooled, and then refrigerated until needed.

Supplement Support for Glucose Stability
Balancing blood sugar levels may not be sexy, but it's important for the prevention of diabetes, a disease affecting more than 2 million Canadians.

Make a Difference
The next time you hear bells jingling and see a Salvation Army volunteer, reach for your wallet and be generous.

Giving Green
Holiday giving can be just as much fun as receiving. For those on your list who want more than just their two front teeth, giving green doesn't have to be boring-or costly! Here are some gift ideas that will have your family and friends rocking around the Christmas tree.

There's More to December Than Santa Claus
Decorated evergreen trees, images of Santa Claus, and colourful lights are familiar symbols of the Christmas season.

Spice Up Your Holiday
'Tisn't just the season for sugar plums and candy canes. There are many more ways to spice up your holiday season, and the good news is that these spices can also jazz up your health quotient.

Seasonal Stress-Busting
The holiday season can be a time of comfort and joy, but it can also be a time of stress as we cope with overeating, overspending, traffic jams, holiday travel, office parties, and family dramas.

Edible Christmas Gifts
Blame it on my hormones, but the older I get, the more it seems to me that Christmas has become a commercialized gift-giving extravaganza.