
Mouth Ulcers
If you have a painful mouth ulcer, you can try oil pulling with cold pressed sesame seed oil or coconut oil. Swish the oil in your mouth taking it between your teeth and around the ulcer for about five minutes every day and spit it out completely. Then brush your teeth and gargle well making sure not to swallow anything. This should help heal the ulcer. Alternately, you can swish your mouth with cooled sage tea or warm water that has a few drops of chamomile essence or warm water that has chamomile flowers soaked in it. This will also help cure the ulcer.
Bad Breath
If you suffer from bad breath and are unable to cure it with mouthwash or toothpaste, try yogurt. Yogurt has live culture, which can affect the pH balance of the mouth favourably. So eat a few spoons of yogurt, swish your mouth with some water and you are set to face the world!
Brittle Nails
Do your nails keep cracking or breaking off, and nothing really seems to help? Try good ‘ol vegetable oil or vaseline on your nails. Just massage your nails with a couple of drops of the or Vaseline every night and it will keep your nails well moisturised and stop them from turning brittle.
Achy Soles
If you spend half your life (or more) in heels or if your day requires you to be on your feet a lot, chances are you will be suffering from achy feet by night. Getting a massage every night is definitely not possible, so before going to sleep, get a tennis ball and roll your feet over it. It acts on the pressure points on your feet thus, reducing the pain and giving you relief. (It definitely does not beat an actual foot massage, but it’s a life-saver otherwise.)
Toothaches
So the next time you suffer from a toothache and are trying to muster up enough courage to visit a dentist, try cloves. Cloves are rich in Eugenol, which is a powerful antiseptic and anesthetic and helps kill germs. You can either use clove oil directly on the painful tooth, or finely ground clove powder. Put a pinch or two of the clove powder on and around the affected tooth and let your saliva slowly blend into that. The pain will diminish drastically. You can also use whole cloves directly on the spot and wait for your saliva to soften it so you can bite it a bit to release the oils further. And after doing this, work on yourself and get the courage to visit a dentist asap!
Hiccups
If you are bothered by hiccups, try swallowing a teaspoon of fine granulated sugar. This overwhelms the vagus nerve that connects the brain to the stomach, which in turn signals the brain that something more important has come up and thus stops the diaphragm from spasming. The only issue here is a lack on consensus on whether the sugar is best taken dry or with a little bit of water.
Eczema
If you suffer from eczema, try olive oil on the flare-ups. The antioxidants found in olive oil are very helpful in moisturising the skin and reducing the flare-ups as well as the itching. Your clothes may smell a bit of oil (depending on where you are applying the oil), but it still sure beats having to use topical steroid creams to reduce eczema.
Toe Jam
One of the worst smells ever is toe jam and for people suffering from it there is normally very little respite. If such people take off their shoes in a public place (like planes and trains) they get the dirtiest stares and comments. Personally, we hate being around anyone suffering from this problem. The one solution that does work for this mostly is Vodka!! Saturate some cotton with a few drops of any clear vodka and rub it between the toes and soles. Its antiseptic and drying properties helps in drying up the feet as well as the bacteria and fungus that thrive between toes, thus eliminating the odour.
Like we said, these are not makeup tips or beauty secrets, but these tips can definitely come in handy where your general well-being and health is concerned!
Till later…
XOXO
little red tote
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Written by Fleur Xavier and Nethra Raghuraman on 20th Jun 2014