Herbal Remedies and Alternative Medicine Information

The SBA has a bunch of podcasts available on their site. I haven't had a chance to listen yet, but the titles sound enticing. Lots geared toward startups, including:

Check List for Starting a Business
Financing a Small Business
Creating a Business Plan

There are also transcripts for the non-casters.

Small Business Administration Podcasts

Ear infections occur primarily in the middle ear or to say ear canal. This is primarily caused due to cold where eustachian tube between ear and throat swell and due to swelling it is closed. Due to the closure of the tube, fluid enters the ear and bacteria grow. Body immune system tries to fight [...]

Ear infections occur primarily in the middle ear or to say ear canal. This is primarily caused due to cold where eustachian tube between ear and throat swell and due to swelling it is closed. Due to the closure of the tube, fluid enters the ear and bacteria grow. Body immune system tries to fight with the infection due to which pressure builds which is the main cause for the pain.

If this infection is not treated in time the eardrum could rupture. A single rupture of the eardrum does not causes loss of hearing but multiple rupture could cause it.

Children get more infections like this as their eustachian tubes are easily blocked due to colds which often occur to young children.

Symptoms for ear infections:

• Runny nose
• Fever
• Headache
• Dizziness
• Earache
• Fullness in ear
• Hearing loss
• Ringing in ears

Preventions of ear Problems:

• Keep away your child from children suffering from cold.
• Do not let milk to seep into child’s eustachian tubes. Feed him in upright position. Do not feed children while they are asleep.
• Breast fed babies have fewer ear infections.
• Prevent children from getting exposed to cigarette smoke as cigarette smoke causes more ear infections.

Home Remedies for Ear Infections:

• Applying heat to the ear eases pain. Use heating pad or warm washcloth set on low heat.
• Take rest. Body immune system does great job in fighting with these type of infections.
• Nasal decongestants could help in ear pain too. Avoid nasal decongestants which contains anti histamines.
• Increase the intake of fluid.

Note: Consult your doctor immediately in case of any type of ear infections. Ear infections can sometimes be dangerous and could cause a temporary or permanent hearing loss. These home remedies ear infections could only give light relief from pain and doctor’s advice is a complete must.

Confession: I’ve always dried my clothes in a dryer. Even as a child, my family had a well-utilized laundry room with no outdoor clothesline in sight. There really was no excuse for this as we lived in a very temperate area of Northern California, where the summers are typically sunny and warm and the winters are quite mild. I think it really all boils down to laziness and lack of knowledge.

Recently I was faced with a serious laundry dillemma… our dryer ran out of gas and my two children and husband were simply running out of clean underwear and socks. While I waited on my husband to have the gas tank filled, I was pondering what to do about this situation when my lightbulb went on.

We are having an unseasonably warm and dry winter in Northern California and, although if we don’t see some rain soon, we will surely be facing drought conditions in the summer, I decided to use this Spring-like weather to our advantage and created a makeshift drying line that would hence dry our clothes.

For an entire week my children and I were forced to hang dry our clothing, which is precisely how long it took my husband to get the gas tank filled. But we enjoyed the experience so much that eventhough I now have my dryer back, I haven’t even been using it.

What did I learn in this eye-opening experience? Yes, it is more time and consuming. But it is really quite simple and there are so many positive reasons for drying your clothes outdoors on a line rather than in a dryer. I’ve done a bit of research and here is what I’ve discovered.

The average household will spend approximately $100 - $200 dollars per year on drying clothes in a dryer. Thus, using a clothesline saves money. It also saves a significant amount of energy and reduces pollution. Your clothesline-fresh wardrobe will smell better, feel more natural,  be wrinkle-free (no matter how long they hang out) and will actually last longer as well, since they are no longer being subjected to a harsh, hot and tumbling dryer.

Hanging your clothing outside also gives you a great opportunity to expend some your own energy, ie. get some exercise, and enjoy being outside soaking up some sun at the same time. In addition, it is an activity that you can enjoy with your  kids. I know my 4 and 7 year-olds had a great time helping me to hang our clothes out, then collecting them at the end of the day. We felt like a family in Little House on the Prairie! It has been a nice learning experience for the whole family and truly is worth the extra time and effort. So, unplug that dryer and Hang “Em Dry!

Clothesline Your Laundry, Dry Clothes for Free, Family, Home, Natural Health

I just finished Lisa Rohleder’s book, The Remedy: Integrating Acupuncture into American Health Care. I’d discovered her book and Working Class Acupuncture, via the Integrator Blog a while back, and she was kind enough to shoot me a copy of the book to review.

If you’re NOT an acupuncturist, let me grab you before you go: this book is a good read for anyone in the CAM profession. If you’ve wondered from a business perspective about the viability of chasing solely mid-to-upper class dollars, or about how to transition to a volume practice, this book is a must read. If you’ve ever felt the ethical twinges of focusing all your efforts on the small demographic segment that can afford your services, Lisa makes a rational, sensible case for more broadly affordable health care.

Still here? Good. Rohleder’s position is that acupuncture as a profession is screwed (my words). Despite 4-5,000 new practitioners entering the market each year, the number in practice continues to hold steady in North America at about 15,000. Of those, many have second jobs and supportive spouses, or suffer from stress and burnout. Acupuncture is a profession in jeopardy.

The solution in The Remedy is to return, from a business perspective, to the Taoist roots of acupuncture. Before your eyes glaze over, let me tell you this is far simpler and more comprehensible than it sounds to the non-TCM practitioner. Essentially, it involves acupuncturists lowering their prices (to a sliding scale of $15-35 per visit), seeing more patients, and building a community-based practice.

In business terms, it means making your money on volume, not on high prices. In health terms, it means more accessible health care that works better.

If you’re a struggling (or not) CAM practitioner, I’m sure your first question is the same as mine: can you make a living lowering your prices?

As Lisa says in the book:

"Incidentally, I make a lot more money now than I ever did when I charged $65 per treatment.”

I believe it – volume business can be good business. Think of Wal-Mart.

It got me thinking, though, about the practical transition from higher-priced boutique clinic to volume practice. What if you’re on the financial edge right now? How do you cut your prices by 75% or so, and hang in there until the volume kicks in?

So I asked Lisa.

“Even people who were very nervous about losing money during the transition said that they initially made the same amount, and over time gradually began to make more. Those folks also reported that their job satisfaction went way up, and both their stress and total hours worked went way down, immediately after they made the transition, so they were happy.

One way around that problem might also be to have a hybrid practice for a while -- keep seeing the patients who want one-on-one, and just add "community hours" two afternoons a week. One initially nervous practitioner started out that way, and a year later her practice is 95% community acupuncture.

But I guess I would say that if a practitioner is truly freaked out about losing money, they probably shouldn't be doing this anyway. Passion is an important ingredient, and if you have more fear than passion, this is not for you.”

So let’s see. More money, more satisfaction, less hours worked. Sounds like the American (Acunpuncture) Dream.

A volume practice might not be for you, though, and that’s fine. My belief is that there’s a niche for everyone doing something that they love. Personally, I like the idea of volume and higher prices together, but that’s a challenging position to reach and hold in the market for any length of time, and it doesn't make services more accessible.

If you’re struggling or just plain curious, The Remedy is a good read. I know from our discussions that Rohleder’s got some strongly held anti-classism values, but they’re well presented – she can write, and well. This is a thought-provoking book, well grounded in solid business experience, with some cool Tao Te Ching verses along the way, which makes the book an interesting yin-yang package in itself.

If you’re interested in a copy of Lisa’s book, you can get it here:
http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fAcctID=660094