Quick Health Tips: BEE STINGS   by Laura Lamun

With tons of bees and grasshoppers everywhere, I just got my first bee sting of the season - and it hurt like crazy!! I was at the Little Moon Factory, so I reached for what I thought would work the fastest - the Letting Go gingerbath salt and some alcohol - and it was like a miracle cure!  I made a paste of the two, applied it immediately, and within 5 minutes the pain was gone and the swelling was subsiding.  By later that night I didn’t even have a wound to show off to my friends! The analgesic, anti-inflammatory effects of the ginger really helped.  If you don’t have any Letting Go - try baking soda with some ginger from the kitchen cupboard with water or alcohol as a moistener.  Apply the paste a few times as it dries, and expect relief.

Some other quick fixes include:

Feverfew extract normally used for headaches can take the pain and sting away.  It is also thought that feverfew flowers carried with you keeps bees away.  Feverfew may even be growing around your neighborhood - it has ferny leaves and white flowers with yellow centers.

Chamomile tea bags soaked in ice water bring relief, as would one drop of chamomlie or lavender essential oil placed neat on the sting, 3 times a day for 2 days.

Wasp stings are alkaline, so you can treat them with success using cider or wine vinegar, with a drop of lavender or chamomile essential oil for fast-acting relief.

Adolph’s Meat Tenderizer with water, is a mom remedy that really works, too!

Make sure you seek medical assistance immediately if you feel you are having a anything like the beginnings of a strong reaction to a bite or sting - heaviness in the chest, shortness of breath, comstricting of the throat or breathing- getting treatment fast is essential. Go immediately to the emergency room if you feel anything like this.

.