Mosquito repellents are essential on holiday, but many of us have concerns about the effects of putting strong concoctions, such as the pesticide DEET, on our skin. Try these natural alternatives to stay bite and bug free this summer:

• Mosi-guard Natural is a natural and effective repellent spray available from health foods shops and chemists. The active ingredient used is a naturally occurring extract of lemon eucalyptus oil. It protects for up to ten hours against sand flies, ticks, midges and mosquitoes.
• Mix citronella oil (citronella oil is available from most health food shops) extracted from the plant cymbopogon nardus, with a carrier oil and rub into the skin. Also try rubbing wild mint leaves, which contain the natural repellent pulegone on your skin.
• Combining the following essential oils to make a natural insect repellent:
  • 1/2 ounce citronella oil
  • 1/4 ounce lavender oil
  • 1/8 ounce pennyroyal oil
  • 1/8 ounce tea tree oil
  • 1/8 ounce jojoba oil

Do not use this blend undiluted on your skin. Follow these instructions for diluting:

• To make an insect repellent oil that can be used on your body, add 16 ounces of jojoba or almond oil to the base oil mixture and blend thoroughly.

• For an insect repellent spray, add 16 ounces of vodka to the base oil mixture, pour into a spray bottle, and shake before using.

• Arnywear sarongs, kaftans, stroller covers and soft toys are available from chemists and off the web. Arnywear is a new fabric impregnated with a natural mosquito repellent that is totally safe for children. It gives a no bite zone of around 50cm for thousands of different types of insects.

The food you eat doesn’t just provide you with energy it can have a powerful impact on your body’s ability to fight off heart disease, cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, and weak bones. Study after study has shown that a diet high in plant-based foods — fruits, vegetables, beans and grains — is the body’s best form of defence against poor health. Here’s a round up of what research has to tell us about the disease-fighting power of food.

The cancer fighters

Study after study has consistently shown that approximately 30 to 40 percent of all cancers could be avoided if people ate more fruits, vegetables, and plant-based foods and minimized high-fat, high-calorie foods with little or no nutritional value. Although researchers are still not completely sure they’re beginning to focus their attention in particular on two components –antioxidants and phytochemicals.

The antioxidants (carotenoids, such as beta carotene and lycopene, and vitamins C and E) found in fruits, vegetables, and other plant-based foods fight free radicals, which are compounds in the body that attack and destroy cell membranes. The uncontrolled activity of free radicals is believed to cause many cancers. The carotenoids, in particular, which give fruits and vegetables their bright yellow, orange, and red colours, are now gaining recognition as cancer fighting super stars and numerous studies have also extolled the virtues of lycopene (the carotenoid that makes tomatoes red and also found in such foods as watermelon and red grapefruit) in preventing cancer.

The phytochemicals present in fruits and vegetables protect the body by stunting the growth of malignant cells. Phytochemicals, naturally occurring substances, include indoles in cabbage or cauliflower, saponins in peas and beans, and isoflavones in soy milk and tofu. Investigators aren’t really sure how phytochemicals work but they do believe that you can get enough anti-cancer nutrients by eating at least five servings a day of fruits and vegetables with seven or more starchy or protein-rich plant foods such as grains, peas and beans.

Note: Supplements can help you get some of the benefits of these substances, but they are no replacement for real food. This is because when you take a supplement, you’re getting specific vitamins and minerals, but not the thousands of potentially life saving phytochemicals that might be present in fruits and vegetables.

Heart savers

What you eat, and choose not to eat, can have a dramatic effect on your risk for high cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke. Saturated fat, found mostly in meat and full-fat dairy products, is the major culprit in raising blood cholesterol, the main ingredient of artery-clogging plaque. Overindulging in these foods raises the risk of developing heart disease. But you can lower this risk by shifting the emphasis so that nutrient- and fibre rich foods such as fruits, vegetables, and grains make up approximately two-thirds of what you eat each day.

Plant-based foods contain very little fat and provide complex carbohydrates as well as vitamins and minerals. Because they’re rich in indigestible fibre, they take up space in the intestines, which can help you control your appetite, your weight and, most important of all, your risk of heart disease.

Fibre comes in two forms, soluble and insoluble. Soluble fibre, found in fruits, vegetables, brown rice, oats, and barley, lowers blood cholesterol levels (and your risk of heart disease) and slows the entry of glucose into the bloodstream, an important factor in preventing or controlling diabetes.

Insoluble fibre, found mainly in whole grains, fruit and vegetable peels, keeps your digestive tract in order by soaking up water and adding the bulk that pushes possible cancer-causing substances (carcinogens) out of the intestine.

Studies show that simply adding two servings a day of oats or other cereals high in soluble fibre can reduce cholesterol levels by almost 3 to 4 percent. Although the reasons aren’t entirely clear, it may be that soluble fibre combines with intestinal fluids to form a gel that binds to fat or prevents it from being absorbed into the bloodstream.

The bone builders

Research has shown that a diet low in calcium can increase the risk of osteoporosis. Leafy green vegetables and seeds like sesame are excellent sources of calcium, the mineral that keeps your bones strong. Your body uses calcium for more than keeping your bones strong. Calcium permits cells to divide, regulates muscle contraction and relaxation, and plays an important role in the movement of protein and nutrients inside cells.

If you have a more acidic diet, your body’s demand for calcium will be high as your body will have to take calcium from your bones to neutralise the acid. So by eating a more alkaline diet with fruit and vegetables and less animal protein, especially red meat and cheese, you are not only giving yourself more antioxidants but also protecting your bones. (For more information on acid/alkaline balance for bone health see my book ‘Osteoporosis — the silent epidemic’).

If you do succumb to a cold or flu don’t beat yourself up, most adults get 2 or 3 a year and even the fittest, healthiest, happiest and most chilled out person will succumb now and again. And, according to the hygiene hypothesis, your immune system actually benefits from a work out every now and again.

In other words, just as muscles need to be flexed if you want to stay fit, you need to get sick once in a while to keep your immune system in peak condition.

But feeling ill is never fun, so here are 10 quick, simple and natural ways to help with the symptoms and get you back on your feet as soon as possible:

1. Know which symptoms to treat: Your unpleasant and uncomfortable symptoms are, believe it or not, a part of the natural healing process – evidence that your immune system is battling illness. For instance, a fever is your body’s way of trying to kill viruses in a hotter-than-normal environment. Also, a fever’s hot environment makes germ-killing proteins in your blood circulate more quickly and effectively. Thus, if you endure a moderate fever for a day or two, you may actually get well faster. Coughing and sneezing is another productive symptom; it clears your breathing passages of thick mucus that can carry germs to your lungs and the rest of your body. Even that stuffy nose is best treated mildly or not at all. A decongestant would restrict flow to the blood vessels in your nose and throat. But often you want the increase blood flow because it warms the infected area and helps secretions carry germs out of your body.
2. Blow your nose often and in the right way: It’s important to blow your nose regularly when you have a cold, rather than sniffling mucus back into your head. But when you blow hard, pressure can carry germ-carrying phlegm back into your ear passages, causing earache. The best way to blow your nose: press a finger over one nostril while you blow gently to clear the other.
3. Treat stuffy noses with warm salt water: Salt-water rinsing helps break nasal congestion, while also removing virus particles and bacteria from your nose. Here’s a popular recipe:
• Mix 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon baking soda in 8 ounces of warm water. Use a bulb syringe to squirt water into the nose. Hold one nostril closed by applying light finger pressure while squirting the salt mixture into the other nostril. Let it drain. Repeat 2-3 times, and then treat the other nostril.
4. Gargle: Gargling can moisten a sore throat and bring temporary relief. Try a teaspoon of salt dissolved in warm water, four times daily. To reduce the tickle in your throat, try an astringent gargle — such as tea that contains tannin — to tighten the membranes. Or use a thick, viscous gargle made with honey, popular in folk medicine. Seep one tablespoon of raspberry leaves or lemon juice in two cups of hot water; mix with one teaspoon of honey. Let the mixture cool to room temperature before gargling.
5. Drink Hot Liquids: Hot liquids relieve nasal congestion, prevent dehydration, and soothe the uncomfortably inflamed membranes that line your nose and throat. If you’re so congested you can’t sleep at night, try a hot toddy, an age-old remedy. Make a cup of hot herbal tea. Add one teaspoon of honey and 1 small shot (about 1 ounce) of whiskey. Limit yourself to one. Too much alcohol inflames those membranes and is counterproductive.
6. Take a Steamy Shower: Steamy showers moisturise your nasal passages and relax you. If you’re dizzy from the flu, run a steamy shower while you sit on a chair nearby and take a sponge bath.
7. Apply Hot or Cold Packs Around Your Congested Sinuses: Either temperature works. You can buy reusable hot or cold packs at the chemists. Or you can use a hot cloth or a small bag of frozen peas to use as a cold pack.
8. Sleep With an Extra Pillow Under Your Head: This will help relieve any congested nasal passages. If the angle is too awkward, try placing the pillows between the mattress and the springs to create a more gradual slope.
9. Extra vitamin C: Vitamin C is an incredible anti viral agent and research has shown that vitamin C supplements can ease the symptoms of colds and flu. Viruses cannot survive in a bloodstream saturated with vitamin C so take 2-3g of vitamin C three times a day. Alternatively mix 6g of vitamin C powder in fruit juice diluted with water and drink throughout the day. You may also want to supplement with another important immune boosting nutrient, zinc. For sore throats you can suck a zinc tablet rather than swallowing it straight away. If you think you are feeling better wait a day before reducing your vitamin C supplement to 1g three times a day. Once you have been well for a few days go back to your normal eating and supplement programme. (Use an alkaline form of vitamin C e.g. magnesium ascorbate as this is less acidic than ascorbic acid).
10. Take probiotic supplements: Probiotic supplements can be a good alternative to antibiotics because they promote health. The purpose of antibiotic drugs is to destroy pathogenic bacteria but in the process they also destroy beneficial bacteria. A single course of antibiotics can wipe out beneficial bacteria for several months and overuse over several years can actually make you more vulnerable to viruses and infection. Probiotics on the other hand are not a drug to wipe out the enemy but specific strains of beneficial bacteria that can reinforce the body’s natural defences. They can be used to restore health in the digestive tract — for example during a stomach bug — and can also be used all year round to build up beneficial bacteria. An excellent probiotic I use in the clinic is BioKult.

Note: As a rule make sure you see your doctor if an infection has not responded to natural therapies and has persisted for more than a week. In such cases antibiotics may be necessary but they should only be used as a last resort if the illness could lead to more serious conditions if left unchecked.

In the great majority of cases you do not need to take antibiotics to treat a cold or flu; but if your symptoms are so severe your doctor recommends antibiotics take a course of probiotics for a month afterwards to restore healthy gut bacteria.