How do you decide how weird is too weird? And if it is too weird, should you let people know? Especially when you are not sure who reads your blog, and who doesn't. But I think I will share this, because someone else shared it with me, and I think it has helped.
I have been sick since last Monday. It started out with exhaustion, followed by aches, chills, and head aches. I didn't feel bad all day every day, or I would have gone to the doctor. But I am usually pretty healthy, so I assumed this would pass quickly. It did not. By Saturday morning I was feeling desperate. The sickness had progressed to what I assume was a sinus infection. I didn't recognize it as such, because I had none of the typical cold-like symptoms. By Saturday, I could feel the pain spreading from the left side of my face to the right side. I didn't want to go to the doctor on a weekend after enduring an entire week, so I resorted to a home remedy. I went to the store, bought juicing carrots, apples, beets, and garlic. I juiced everything but the garlic, and drank it throughout the day. And in an act of desperation, I used my blender to blend 3 cloves of garlic with warm water. Garlic has been recognized for its anti-bacterial effects for centuries. I usually take odorless garlic tablets as soon as I feel myself getting sick, and it seems to help. If it is only a placebo, at least it is one that helps. So why blend garlic in warm water, you ask. To release the compounds that give garlic its healing properties, it must be crushed. The anti-bacterial compounds in the garlic are the same ones that give it such a distinctive and lovely aroma. I did not want to lose any of the benefits that come from from eating a whole raw clove. I also did not want to eat a clove by itself. So I mixed it up, drank down as much of it as I could as quickly as I could. It was not a task for the faint hearted. The drink was nasty - hot and bitter. But I got it down. All that was left to do was to sip my much better tasting juice and wait to see if there were any effects from it. I know there will be skeptics, but I have to say that I could tell within a couple of hours that the congestion was beginning to break up. The soreness in my neck began to leave. Today I am feeling a lot better, although not completely healed. So there you have it. I know that some will say that after a week, it was going to get better on its own. Maybe so, but it didn't feel like it was getting better. I believe the garlic was the turning point in my recovery. I would not use this on children, and would only suggest it as a possibility for adults. But as for me, I am convinced of the benefits of garlic. The downside; I am not allowed to go out into polite society until the garlic smell surrounding me subsides :-)
