I LOVE the Summer. I love to be outside in my garden, playing with kids, going for long walks and just enjoying nature.  Some days I swear I'm solar powered, I love the sun. However I have very fair skin and get burned and overheated easily.

Staying hydrated is vital while you are on the go and in the heat. But before you reach for a sports drink- take a look at the ingredients: artifical flavours and colours, soy, and all kinds of different sugars: glucose, sucrose, frutose, corn syrup and artifical potassium and sodium. I don't know about you but those neon coloured sugar drinks just really make me cringe. There is an easy healthy alternative of course!

Water is your best friend in the summer, and often all you need to rehydrate quickly and easily.

However if you are doing strenuous activity, sweating lots or easily over heated, you may benefit from a little extra in your water to help keep your body hydrated. There are so many different options to choose from, I'll go over a few.

The quickest method is to add a pinch of coloured sea salt, a teaspoon of honey and a couple ounces of juice to your glass of water. The sea salt will provide trace minerals and sodium - the electrolytes your body needs; and the juice will not only flavour your water, it adds frutose that your body can use to quickly replenish your glucose stores.

If you are exercising heavily, working for an extended period in the heat or sweating profusly, you would benefit from some extra electrolytes in your drink. I like to use homeopathic mineral salts- they are inexpensive and bioavailable immediately unpon ingestion- that means your body can absorb the minerals right away. I will crush a couple Natrum sulph 6x and Kali phos 12x mineral salts into my water bottle before I head to my dance class. The Natrum sulph is a sodium compound that is great for when overheated and helps combat mental and physical exustion. The Kali phos is a potassium salt that helps balance the fluid levels in the body due to sweating.

Coconut water is a great convienient electrolyte drink if you are on the go and need to buy something. However it can be expensive and watch for those added ingredients and artifical flavours.

Fermented drinks such as Kombucha, Water kefir or Gingerbug are great options for replenishing electrolyte drinks. They are already flavoured, full of probiotics and electrolytes and so very good for your gut. We keep water kefir and kombucha on hand at all times and we go through a lot in the summer. If you are new to fermented drinks I would recommend you take it slowly, only drink about a 1/4 cup per day at first and slowly increase. Too much too soon can cause a detoxifying effect- and that's not something you want when you are trying to rehydrate! Check out my Pinterest page for more info on these great drinks.

Recipes

My kids love a pitcher of homemade Lemonade to keep them hydrated:

• 4 cups of water

• juice of 4-6 lemons (depending on the size)

• 1/2 tsp coloured sea salt

• 1 cup of water kefir or 1/4 cup of gingerbug liquid or whey (optional) 

• 1/2 cup (or to your preferred sweetness) of organic cane sugar, raw honey (use warmer water to dissolve this), coconut sugar or maple syrup

• several tablets of Natrum sulph and Kali phos

Mix this all up and adjust to your taste. We will go through a pitcher of this every day or two!

For myself I like a little more variety in my drinks. This Mint Mojito Iced Tea is probably my favourite:

• 3 cups boiling water

• fresh mint leaves and juice of 4 limes or 3 tea bags of Mint Mojito Green tea

• 1/3 cup of raw local honey

• 1/2 tsp coloured sea salt

• 1 cup kombucha (optional)

• 3 tablets each of Natrum sulph and Kali phos

Brew the tea using teabags or mint and limes and allow to cool. Add honey and sea salt while the tea is slightly warm. Once it is room temperature add the kombucha and mineral salts and refridgerate. Enjoy!

Sunburns

One nasty side effect of enjoying the great outdoors can be sunburns. While everyone knows it's best to avoid the sun during peak hours (11am to 2pm), stay in the shade when possible, keep covered and wear a good sunscreen (check out EWG's list here), sunburns still happen.

I have very fair skin and have had more than myshare of sunburns, so when it comes to home remedies, I have tried them all!

Here are my top suggestions to help you heal and get relief after a sunburn:

• Stay hydrated! I can't stress this enough, your body needs water to repair the damage to your skin, plus you are likely over heated from the heat of the burn. Drink more water and electrolyte drinks (see above).

• Apply vinegar to the burn. A thin wash of white vinegar or raw apple cider vinegar will help ease the pain of the burn and start to cool your skin. Witch hazel is great too.

• Cool cloths or a tepid shower can do wonders to cool the skin.

• Apply aloe vera gel to the burn to help it heal.

• Calendula cream, coconut oil and tea tree oils are very healing and nourishing but should only be applied once the heat phase of the burn is done (when the skin still feels hot). If you apply oil based creams while the skin is still hot, it traps the heat inside the body and prolongs and deepens the burn. Please wait.

• Homeopathic

• *all removed to comply with the government’s censorship of promoting natural health products. Demand a repeal of Bill 47 sections 500-504. see www.nhppa.org for more information

I hope that helps you and your family have a safe and enjoyable summer. Go enjoy that free vitamin D!

Lisa

All of the homeopathic remedies mentioned are available by request at our clinic at Market Mall Family Chiropractic in Saskatoon.

I also have a Spring and Summer Homeopathic First Aid kit available which contains 6 remedies (arnica, apis mel, allium cepa, cantharis, ledum and urtica urens) and a booklet on how to use them for $45. These remedies are great for burns, stings, bug bites, puncture wounds, tick bites, hayfever, hives, bruises, pain and swelling. All great remedies to have on hand.

Copyright Lisa Paul The Natural Path 2016