As cold and flu season approaches, it's always advisable to be prepared to combat whatever pathogens you may encounter. For the past 15 years, I've been using and sharing a recipe I came across in a health magazine.

Several years ago, I saw a news clip about a woman who was told she had a brain tumor. The video clip is still available to view on YouTube (www.youtube.com "Brain Worm"). Rosemary Alvarez complained of flu like symptoms and felt tired. She also started to experience numbness. She was evaluated by a few doctors and had CAT scans which were normal. But symptoms worsened and she was once more evaluated, this time with an MRI scan and was told she had a brain tumor. However, when the neurosurgeon was removing the tumor, he showed it wasn't a tumor at all but a worm that had migrated to Rosemary's brain stem. The surgeon said this happens when food such as pork is undercooked or if someone infected does not properly wash their hands after using the bathroom and then handles food and spreads the parasite. He stated that he had 5 such cases of "brain worms" in a few months time frame. Other surgeons stated they had seen a rise in this issue also.