Ask any parent who’s lived through a young child’s ear infection. You may hear a wish for a way to skip this scourge of early childhood that’s marked by pain, crying, irritability, and sleeplessness.

Acute otitis media, or ear infection, may come on suddenly when the narrow eustachian tubes, which connect the middle ear to the throat, swell and impede the flow of mucus out of the ear.

More common in children than adults, an ear infection may go away on its own, but physicians often prescribe antibiotics to speed the process along.

A better approach may be to ward off the condition altogether.

Preventing Ear Infections

While about 80 percent of otitis media infections in children clear without antibiotics, researchers continue to search for alternative preventives and treatments.

Be sure to discuss with a healthcare provider any supplements that you intend to introduce into your child’s diet.

• Try Xylitol

  This naturally occurring alternative to sugar “has been found in some studies to help prevent ear infections but not treat them,” according to Dana Sparks, writing on the Mayo Clinic News Network.

  A Cochrane review of clinical trials found “quite convincing evidence on the potential benefit of xylitol” for reducing the risk of ear infection.

  Sparks also noted that effectiveness depends upon high doses and that side effects include diarrhea and abdominal discomfort.

• Use Probiotics

  A literature review and meta-analysis of clinical trials found that the use of probiotics reduced instances of ear infection in healthy children if not in those who tended to suffer from recurrent infections.

  This finding is corroborated by data drawn from the Japan Environment and Children’s Study, which found that “risk ratios for otitis media incidence decreased with higher frequencies of yogurt intake.”

• Get Enough Vitamin D

  Children with recurrent ear infections participated in a randomized clinical trial in which they received either vitamin D or a placebo.

  Dosages of vitamin D that restored serum values of the vitamin were associated with a reduction in the risk of uncomplicated ear infections, according to the authors of the study published in Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal.

• Feed Babies with Care

  Staff at the Mayo Clinic suggest breast-feeding infants for the protective antibodies it provides.

  Alternatively, a parent should hold a bottle-fed baby in an upright position while feeding, rather than allowing the baby to lie down.

The mineral magnesium is vital for our health.

It’s linked to more than 700 important body functions, ranging from energy production and blood pressure regulation, to heart health and muscle and nerve function.

Food Sources of Magnesium

This mood mineral can be found in:

• dark green, leafy veggies, like:
  • spinach
  • kale
  • collard greens
• legumes and peas
• whole grains
• nuts, especially:
  • almonds
  • cashews
  • peanuts
• milk and yogurt
• dark chocolate

Magnesium Deficiency

Despite magnesium’s widespread availability in food sources, medical research has shown that Americans consistently struggle with magnesium deficiency, not getting the daily recommended amounts.

Part of the reason is that modern soils have been depleted of this mineral. Another factor is that there is too much reliance on processed foods in American diets. Conditions that increase likelihood of a deficiency include obesity and diabetes.

Diagnosing Magnesium Deficiency

However, some people may not be aware of their magnesium deficiency because the mineral works inside cells, not while coursing through the bloodstream.

A deficiency often won’t show up in a blood test, so diagnosis is a challenge.

Although difficult to discover, magnesium deficiencies are common: Up to 80 percent of Americans do not get enough magnesium.

In addition to dietary shortages, deficiencies can also be caused by overactive stress hormones or too much calcium.

Symptoms of Magnesium Deficiency

Low magnesium levels can lead to medical issues including:

• cardiovascular disease
• osteoporosis
• high blood pressure
• Type 2 diabetes
• muscle cramps
• immune system issues

Low magnesium levels are also linked to Alzheimer's disease, migraines, and ADHD.

Other symptoms of magnesium deficiency include:

• loss of appetite
• nausea
• fatigue
• weakness
• numbness
• tingling
• abnormal heart rhythms (arrhythmias)

Who is at Risk?

People who are particularly at risk for low magnesium levels include:

• those who drink alcohol regularly
• those with gastrointestinal diseases
• postmenopausal women
• the elderly

Supplementing with Magnesium

Taking a magnesium supplement is an easy way to get the recommended daily intake.

However, most multivitamins contain less than 100 milligrams (mg) of magnesium, so taking a separate magnesium supplement may be the best way to reach the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA).

The National Institutes of Health RDA recommendations are: 310 mg for women 19-30; 400 mg for men 19-30; 320 mg for women 31 and older; 420 for men 31 and older.

Pregnant women need higher levels of magnesium: 400 mg for ages 14-18; 350 mg for ages 19-30; and 360 for ages 31-50.

There are different forms of magnesium that perform differently in the body.

Research indicates that some people who take magnesium supplements may experience significant improvements in lipoproteins, C-reactive protein, fasting glucose, and insulin resistance.

Magnesium for Calm

It’s also known as “the mood mineral” because it helps decrease feelings of stress, anxiety, and depression.

The Washington Post listed magnesium as one of the ten nutrients that can "lift your spirits," due to the large role it plays in the development of serotonin, a hormone linked to feelings of happiness and well-being.

It has also been called an antistress mineral as it can help prevent feelings of nervousness or irritability.

PsychologyToday.com reviewed scientific studies of the mineral and labeled it the “original chill pill,” because of evidence supporting its health and calming benefits.

Nine out of ten Americans’ diets don’t hit the bare-bones baseline recommendations for key vitamins and minerals, particularly:

• potassium
• vitamin D
• calcium
• magnesium

Multivitamins can’t make up for bad dietary choices, but they can help close the gap on nutrient deficiencies.

Even Americans who aren’t technically deficient in a particular vitamin or mineral (for example, getting enough vitamin C to prevent scurvy) may not be getting optimal levels for vitality and well-being.

Choosing a Multivitamin

No one multivitamin works for everyone, but in the sea of choices, you’ll easily find one that’s perfect for you.

• Find Natural Ingredients

  Check out the fine print!

  Look for ingredients like d-alpha tocopherols (versus synthetic dl-alpha) for vitamin E and natural carotenoids under vitamin A, which will be better utilized by the body.

  Avoid synthetic flavors, colorings, and preservatives in the “Other Ingredients” list, and avoid adulterated supplements.

• Potency and Quality

  Sometimes a lower-potency multivitamin easily outweighs a mega-dose tablet because the lower-potency one offers high-quality forms of each ingredient.

  If this doesn’t it your budget, stick to a basic once daily multivitamin.

  • High-Quality Forms

    Consider paying more for the multivitamin with higher-quality vitamins and minerals, such as:

    • co-enzyme B vitamins

    • methylcobalamin B12 (instead of cyanocobalamin)

    • the selenomethionine form of selenium

  • Food-Sourced Vitamins

    Consider food-sourced, fermented, and/or organic multivitamins (but expect lower doses of each vitamin). These forms are generally better utilized by the body and cause less digestive upset, but they’re not cheap.

• Easy to Swallow

  Glance at the pill size if possible (rattle opaque bottles) to make sure it’s something you can comfortably swallow, opting for smooth edges.

• Breaks Down Well

  Capsules break down more easily but don’t hold as much as tablets. Pop a pill in water with a splash of vinegar to get an idea of how well it breaks down.

• Timing and Dosage

  Look at the tiny print under “Supplement Facts” to see how many pills you’re expected to take per day to get the doses listed for each vitamin and mineral.

  • Multi Daily

    The more pills per day, the more optimal those levels should be—especially for bulky ingredients like calcium and magnesium.

    (You’re usually better off taking an additional cal-mag supplement regardless of the amount offered by your multi.)

  • Once Daily

    If you know you’re not likely to take more than one pill per day, stick with a “once daily” vitamin, which will give you more optimal levels of micronutrients like B vitamins, vitamins C and D, and microminerals in one pill.

• For a Sensitive Stomach

  • Control Your Dosage

    High doses of B vitamins and zinc make some people queasy.

    Choose a two-(or more)-a-day multi so you can divide the dose, or choose a food-sourced brand.

  • Don't Take on an Empty Stomach

    Always take your multivitamin with food, ideally a solid breakfast.

• For Specific Groups

  • Men and Older Women

    Multis geared toward men and older women usually don’t contain iron and often offer additional ingredients such as lycopene and targeted herb blends (in low doses).

  • Pregnant Women

    Prenatals target healthy fetal growth with more folate and iron and less vitamin A.

    For the most nutrition support or for sensitive stomachs, choose a prenatal with several pills per day. But if you know you’re apt to take only one, go for a once-daily formula.

  • Seniors with Meds

    Some multivitamins for elders are less likely to interact with meds, but always check with your healthcare practitioner.

  • Vegans / Vegetarians

    Seek vegan or vegetarian multivitamins if you want to avoid animal ingredients.

Herbs and supplements can make a difference when it comes to controlling stress and anxiety.

Supplements for Stress

• The Ray of Sunshine You Need is Found in Vitamin D

  Supplement with vitamin D3. Sunlight can be scarce during the winter, depleting our vitamin D reserves.

  There is quite a bit of evidence that vitamin D deficiency plays a role in Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), which is just another term for the wintertime blues.

• Improve Your Mood with Vitamin B

  B vitamins can also help control stress and depression.

  One clinical study showed that supplementation with B complex over three months helped people improve mood and reduce stress.

Herbs for Stress

There are a wide variety of herbs that also help combat stress. Here are a few stress relieving herbs to look into.

• Find Balance with Ashwagandha

  An Ayurvedic herb, ashwagandha, also known as Indian ginseng, has been shown to reduce cortisol levels for people with chronic anxiety.

  It also helps control stress, balance hormones, and improve cognition.

• Passionflower for Relaxation

  Passionflower influences GABA, a neurotransmitter which promotes relaxation.

• The Calming Effects of Lavender

  Lavender is a wonderful herb that can calm anxiety and act as a sleep aid.

  The flowers can be used in tea, whereas lavender essential oil is highly concentrated and should only be used externally on the skin (diluted with a base like almond oil), added to a bath, or in an aromatherapy vaporizer.

• Honokiol is the Anti-Anxiety Antioxidant

  Another great recommendation is the extract honokiol. An active compound derived from magnolia bark, honokiol also works on GABA receptors, providing calming mood support.

  Numerous preclinical studies have demonstrated the significant anti-anxiety effects of this compound, without side effects.

  The botanical is also a powerful antioxidant, 1,000 times stronger than vitamin E.

  In addition, honokiol actively promotes cellular health of the breasts, prostate, lungs, and other areas, and fights inflammation, which often occurs after intense exercise.

The herb lavender has been used for centuries for therapeutic reasons.

General Uses for Lavender

Abundant in perfumes, potpourris, and bath and body products, lavender’s flowers are also edible and found in the famous seasoning ingredient Herbes de Provence.

Lavender essential oil can be used as an ingredient in homemade cleaning products, including disinfecting the toilet bowl.

Therapeutic Uses for Lavender

This herb has many other benefits, including analgesic, antibacterial, antidepressant, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, antiseptic, sedative, and more.

• Topical Care

  • Skin Care

    Applied topically, undiluted lavender essential oil can help treat acne, athlete’s foot, and bee stings.

  • Calming Effects

    Rubbing lavender cream onto the legs before bedtime significantly reduced anxiety, stress, and depression in pregnant women, according to a 2015 study.

    The women applied the cream for 10 to 20  minutes each night for eight weeks. Some of the women also included a warm foot bath in their nightly routine. The women were 25 to 28 weeks pregnant at the start of the trial.

• Tea for Body Care

  Lavender tea can be used as a mouthwash to eliminate bad breath or as a footbath to relieve fatigue.

• Aromatherapy

  • Stress and Depression

    Simply smelling lavender’s scent can help relieve feelings of stress and depression. Inhaling lavender has been shown in studies to significantly lower anxiety levels (but not blood pressure).

  • Sleep and Anxiety

    The use of lavender essential oil was found to lower overall anxiety and improve the sleep of cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy treatments.

• Soothing Baths

  To soothe cranky children (or yourself!), add lavender herb oil to bathwater. The uplifting scent of lavender might be a great tool to help fight low mood and feelings of anxiety during the winter months.

• Massage Oil

  Added to massage oil, lavender can help treat sore muscles, cellulite, and rheumatism.

Sweet news! Many plants and their extracts can help treat or prevent Type 2 diabetes.

While effective, people on antidiabetic medications should discuss the use of any herb with their healthcare practitioner.

Botanicals for Blood Sugar

Well-known botanicals with positive effects on blood sugar include:

• cinnamon
• fenugreek
• maitake mushrooms
• turmeric

Three more to add to the list are bitter melon, garlic, and gymnema.

• Bitter Melon

  Also known as ampalaya or bitter cucumber, bitter melon is available as tea, juice, powder, or capsules. It is not recommended for pregnant women. 

  Bitter melon reduces blood sugar and improves glucose tolerance, making it an effective supplement for people with Type 2 diabetes.

  How It Works

  Such individuals don’t produce enough insulin, so they have an impaired ability to convert sugar in their blood into energy in their muscles.

  Exercise is part of the treatment for Type 2 diabetes because it activates the enzyme AMPK, which helps move glucose from the blood into muscles and other tissues.

  In laboratory research, scientists have identified compounds in bitter melon that, like exercise, activate AMPK.

  Safety

  Diabetes drugs do the same thing, but they can have side effects.

  “The advantage of bitter melon is that there are no known side effects,” says Jiming Ye, PhD, who was involved in the study that identified bitter melon’s glucose-mediating compounds.

  “Practitioners of Chinese medicine have used it for hundreds of years to good effect.”

• Garlic

  Garlic appears to lower glucose levels and improve insulin sensitivity, but its benefits for people with diabetes may go well beyond that.

  How It Works

  Researchers fed garlic oil to rats with diabetes and saw beneficial changes associated with protection against heart damage.

  The changes appeared to be linked to garlic’s potent antioxidant properties.

  Garlic and Cardiomyopathy

  People with diabetes have a significantly heightened risk of death from heart disease.

  Among them is cardiomyopathy, which inflames and weakens the heart’s muscle tissue. It's a leading cause of death in people with diabetes.

  A recent study in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry found that garlic oil has strong potential for preventing it.

• Gymnema

  When taken in supplement form, gymnema can help lower blood sugar after meals.

  How It Works

  Gymnema leaf is believed to improve insulin release and glucose uptake.

When it comes to weight loss, diet and exercise remain the most effective methods.

However, some dietary supplements can also lend a hand.

Green tea is one of the safest, best researched, and most effective options. 

Green Tea for Weight Loss

Both caffeine and catechins (antioxidant polyphenol compounds including epigallocatechin gallate or EGCG) in green tea have thermogenic properties that increase energy (calorie) expenditure and burn fat.

Studies suggest green tea can lead to modest weight reduction, making it an effective boost to diet and exercise efforts.

In a small study of healthy men, those taking green tea extract burned 17 percent more fat while cycling compared to those taking a placebo. In this study, green tea also improved insulin levels and insulin sensitivity.

In another study, obese patients who took green tea extract while dieting lost three times more pounds and more significantly reduced their body mass index (BMI) compared to those who just dieted.

The Role of Caffeine

While caffeine does help boost exercise performance by about 11 percent, it may not be the most important player.

Black tea, which is higher in caffeine but lower in antioxidants, is not as effective as green tea.

Catechin Antioxidants

Studies show that EGCG aids weight loss in part by increasing the breakdown of fatty acids associated with obesity.

In a study of 40 obese women, those who took a decaffeinated green tea blend after a three-month lifestyle intervention continued to lose weight and decrease fat mass while those who took a placebo gained weight.

Catechins and The Microbiome

The antioxidants in green tea have other perks.

Green tea’s catechins may also impact gut microbes in a way that favors weight loss.

The catechins in green tea decrease the fat and protein absorption in the intestines, which reduces the calorie intake from the food you eat, and improves your body’s ability to use fat and protein as fuel.

Drinking Green Tea

Drinking tea is quite safe; it is the second-most popular drink worldwide after water.

Choosing a Tea

You can reap the most antioxidants from a cup of green tea by purchasing high-quality loose tea, using hotter water, and letting it steep longer (though if you let it steep too long, it gets bitter).

Drinking Enough Tea

To get the best weight-loss results, aim for three to four cups of green tea per day, delivering 600 to 900 milligrams (mg) of catechins.

One cup of green tea usually contains 240 to 320 mg catechins and 45 mg of caffeine.

Storing Green Tea

Green tea may get fishy tasting if stored too long. Green tea should always have a fresh scent, flavor, and color—both dry and brewed.

Store green tea in a tightly sealed container in a cool, dark, dry spot or—especially for long-term storage—the fridge.

Green Tea Supplements

Several cases of liver toxicity related to green tea weight-loss products have surfaced over the years.

The risk appears to be greatest in multi-ingredient weight-loss products and may involve adulteration.

When purchasing green tea supplements, opt for high-quality brands and take with food to reduce risks.

St. John’s wort (Hypericum perforatum) has been used for mental health conditions for more than 2,000 years and is currently prescribed for depression in Europe.

In the United States, it’s a commonly used herbal supplement for seasonal affective disorder (SAD).

What is Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)? 

SAD is a type of depression with a recurring seasonal pattern.

People with SAD experience major depression that coincides with specific seasons—typically when daylight hours decrease from October through March. (Some people experience SAD in the summer.)

What Are the Symptoms of Seasonal Affective Disorder?

For those with winter SAD, symptoms include:

• low energy
• excessive daytime sleepiness
• carb cravings
• overeating
• weight gain
• withdrawing from people to “hibernate”

How Common is Seasonal Affective Disorder?

Approximately 5 percent of the population suffers from seasonal affective disorder (SAD).

What Causes Seasonal Affective Disorder?

• Irregular Serotonin Levels

  Researchers believe people with SAD have trouble regulating serotonin, a neurotransmitter involved in mood.

• High Melatonin

  They may also overproduce melatonin, a hormone that regulates sleep.

• Vitamin D Deficiency

  SAD has also been linked to insufficient vitamin D, which plays a role in serotonin activity.

Natural Remedies for Seasonal Depression

Several strategies have been shown to help alleviate SAD.

• Light Therapy (daily exposure to artificial light)
• Vitamin D Supplementation
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
• Taking St. John's Wort

St. John's Wort for SAD

Clinical trials typically use dosages of 300 milligrams (mg) of St. John’s wort for adults, three times a day.

Precautions for St. John's Wort

If you’re interested in the herb, but are on medication, please take note of these precautions.

• Interaction with Antidepressants

  Combining it with some antidepressants can lead to a potentially life-threatening increase in serotonin.

• Weakening Other Medications

  St. John’s wort can also weaken certain medications, including birth control and blood thinners, as well as some cancer and HIV drugs. Consult with your healthcare practitioner before taking St. John’s wort.