Good day to you, dear reader! This post is a sort of continuation of my post about all my tips and tricks for aging, again, in hopes it helps someone else. Apologies in advance for the length, maybe grab a beverage.

This first bit is very exciting! I know I’ve mentioned my gallbladder being pretty much useless for the majority of my life and very dead upon her swift excision several years ago. I had sincerely hoped it would relieve me permanently of my nightly belch fest, and I was lucky for the better part of two years, but my displeasure, rather unfortunately, returned.

What do do? Ask the interwebs! So I did some poking around and found a Polish study where they gave patients manuka honey three times a day, and largely remedied the problem after a month. Their protocol was obviously more precise, but I had high hopes and a jar in the pantry for wound care (for which it does a most excellent job!), so there was no barrier to entry, so to speak.

Upon waking, I take a teaspoon before consuming anything else, and that’s it, just the one time. After three months with the brand pictured, and the UMF and MGO relatively high (no cheap substitutes), I would say I’m 99% cured! The only time I have problems is when I go heavy on the gluten, like the other day when I ate hummus with tortillas and made some really good sugar cookies. Belch, belch, belch.

And in true infomercial style, I’ve got a “but wait, there’s more” for you moment for the tortilla and cookie days. I have homemade Eno’s Fruit Salts, pictured at right. I stumbled upon them in a not particularly enjoyable book of fiction. The main character mentions their evergreen presence on her mother’s night stand. The only Eno I know is the musical genius Brian, so of course, I did a little searching. They are basically Alka-Seltzer in a jar and are pretty darn effective! Pictured below is their wonderful effervescence. They don’t taste half bad, either. Greg would drink them without any sort of tummy upset, truth be told. If you’d like to try your hand at them, the recipe is below the photo.

Eno’s Fruit Salts: 40g citric acid, 55g baking soda, 5g Himalayan salt. Mix in an airtight jar, and keep in a cool, dry place. Put one teaspoon in a cup of water, leaving room for roiling bubbles! Please wait until the bubbles diminish, or they’ll go right up your nose. Ask me how I know! Sorry I don’t have a teaspoon conversion, but if you’re any good at math and the internet, I believe you can work it out.

Next up, a bummer and lesson learned. I had my first DEXA scan for a bone density baseline, and despite all my hormones, weight lifting, jump roping, protein consuming, and a calcium rich diet with boron supplementation (it helps guide calcium to the bones), I still have osteopenia. VERY sad face!

Again, I turned to the interwebs to find out what could be going wrong. The answer? Oxalates! These buggers are found in many plant based foods, and bond with calcium, robbing it from the bones. My homemade almond milk; near daily serving of gigante, navy, or great northern beans; handful of peanuts or cashews or pistachios; favorite vegetable snack of celery and carrots? All high in them! I was unknowingly taking away my bones resiliency and strength.

So, now I’m drastically cutting back and replacing them with low oxalate legumes, fewer nuts, and bell peppers, and will be adding a calcium citrate supplement, too.

Now to the rest! I mix the magnesium CALM with a powdered (for optimal absorption – pills, especially tablets don’t digest as well) magnesium malate and magnesium glycinate, for a well rounded profile, all just before bed, with my progesterone, so I have every chance at very good rest. It works.

Creatine monohydrate helps build strong muscles and is great for all the weight training I do. It is also very promisingly good for brain health, especially in people my age and older. I mix it with 1/8 teaspoon of potassium citrate powder because coffee robs the body of potassium, and I like coffee(!); manganese, and himalayan salts, right after a workout. The salts provide electrolytes, and the manganese helps me not have these weird shooting nerve pains in my arms and legs.

Glutathione and molybdenum: I have the MTHFR gentetic mutation, which is the likely cause for some of my digestive woes, as it makes the liver less efficient, and glutathione (a master antioxidant which, when decreased causes all kinds of poor health outcomes) decreases with age, so I take the liposomal form of it, as it is the most bioavailable.

If you decide you’d like to try it, do the pulse method, starting very small, increasing minimally over time, then decrease when you see positive effects, ramping up slowly again. Additionally, when you first start, please do it when you know you will be home, as it can be very powerful. I did the pulse method, took my usual before heading out on errands, and thank God for the public toilet at the grocery. I also take it with molybdenum because it can make for very smelly farts!

More on molybdenum: If you like red wine, but not the headache, take some with it, and see how you do. Molybdenum converts the awful sulfites to sulfates which may help ease the headache. Don’t overdo it though, too much molybdenum can cause a copper deficiency. So much to consider!

Zoiks! The final photo, which looked so much better in the camera, but I don’t feel like retaking it. Sigh. Anyhoo, this is my section for making, which is always fun.

A long time ago, I tried making my own deodorant, and it worked marvelously until we got a rash from the baking soda in it. So we stopped using deodorant, which wasn’t terrible if we kept on it. Unfortunately, another b.s. accompaniment with aging is the increase in body odors, at least in our household.

More internet searching and looking at ingredients in non-aluminum deodorants/antiperspirants. In a very odd turn, I landed on milk of magnesia, the stuff for tummy upset. I put it in a refillable roll-on bottle with a few drops of bergamot essential oil, and the stuff is magic. We do not smell, at ALL (unless we forget to apply, doh!), even though there aren’t daily bathings around here, and we work out hard. The only pitfall is the very white color, but I don’t do sleeveless terribly often, and when I do, I’m just more conscious of my rolling.

Another not-so-pleasant odor is 2-nonenal or “old people” smell. It is basically a result of slower cell turnover, again, due to aging (dammit!) and is the equivalent of your skin cells turning to rust. You cannot generally smell it on yourself (womp-womp), but others can, and it can show up as early as 40, which is a real bummer. One day, maybe a year ago, when going in for a big kiss on Greg, I smelled it, straight up Grandpa Marv, and not his nice cologne.

More zooming about the web! Some people treat it by eating a lot of shitaki mushrooms, but they are expensive, and we don’t wanna. But, but, but persimmon soap works like a dream, so they say. We bought some, so I didn’t waste my time tinkering with an ineffective product. It worked, and it is also expensive, so for the price of two bars, I bought a package of persimmon powder from Japan (also great for dying fabric a beautiful rust color – the irony is not lost here), and got to work. I looked at the ingredients of various highly rated soaps, did some infusing, and made a small batch.

Success! Greg uses it morning and evening, and goes to town on his neck and behind the ears in the shower, and, only occasionally is there a hint of Grandpa Marv. I use it, too, but we have no clue about the effect on me, as Greg does not have a great sense of smell. I will say, as it is also high in tannins from green tea, that my skin feels soft and lovely and tight immediately after. Winning!

Finally, as I am well versed in the benefits of zinc oxide on skin, I decided to make a toner with it. I added hyaluronic acid powder (just a little, as it goes a very long way), and essential oils of jasmine, immortelle, sweet thyme, and blue tansy, which are all supposed to be great for skin health. I use it morning and evening, and really like how it feels and smells.

That’s it, that’s all, maybe even too much. Be well!