• Bio

Lissa Coffey

Last night I’m watching The Apprentice – totally into it, second to last episode, it’s between Sean and Lee. And you know Sean is going to win because I have no clue how Lee got in the top two except by default. He’s a nice kid, but he’s a kid. The show is hilarious because all season we’ve seen these relationships develop and how that it’s down to the wire all the contestants are suddently best buddies trying to get on the last couple of teams. So, Lee picks Lenny, his good buddy of course, and Roxanne, and some guy named Pepe who got fired in episode 2. Sean picks Tammy, the love of his life – if these two don’t get married I’ll be surprised, they’re totally cute together – and Andrea, who proved herself when she hosted the car dealer retreat early on and impressed Sean, and Tarek, the Orlando Bloom look-alike. The teams seem a little unequal to me, but good luck to Lee anyway. Lee decides to run the celebrity hockey game in New York, and Sean gets to run the Bare Naked Ladies concert in Las Vegas. All the typical confusion comes through – but this is what I felt compelled about: Andrea freaks out because she gets a bloody nose! Okay, America – it’s time to learn some basic Ayurveda. Las Vegas is a very dry climate. Andrea and the team took a 5 hour flight from NY, and an airline is a very dry environment. They’re in a hotel, with air conditioning, which creates a cold and dry atmosphere. Andrea is a Vata – tall, skinny, you can see it a mile away. Vatas are very sensitive to dry air. Naturally, after subjecting her nose to all that dryness, it is bound to bleed. She was complaining that she was coughing up blood. What was actually happening is that her nose was bleeding down her throat and that’s the blood she was coughing up. Then she noticed it was coming out of her nose, too. Of course the show ends on this dramatic note – Andrea crying as she leaves the hotel, worried that something is terribly wrong with her. Sean and Tammy wringing their hands that something is terribly wrong with their friend Orlando, I mean, Tarek, the practical one, saying this is a bad time to be down a man with all this stuff they have to do. I can just see this turning into an epidemic – all the noses start bleeding and Andrea fears she’s contagious! This could have been such a simple fix! If I were there I would have calmed everyone down and given them some super simple solutions. To avoid all this drama, use a saline nasal spray on the plane. And use a mister on your skin to help keep you hydrated. At the hotel, fill up the bathtub in your room with water to humidify the room. Drink lots of water. Sniff sesame oil and even rub it in the nostrils to further lubricate the membranes. I would run down to the local drug store and get a cool air humidifier for the office they’re all working in. I’d also pick up some saline nasal spray and sesame oil. I’d have Andrea use both the spray and the sesame oil in her nostrils. A cotton swab helps apply the oil, and sniff up so the oil gets in higher up. If there were a health food store around you might be able to find some ayurvedic nasal spray which has oil in it and it much easier to reach up in those passages where the bleeding is. I’d also get her into a bathroom and run the shower with the hot water on to steam up the room and let her breathe in the warm, moist air. And there’s another technique where you see which side the nose is bleeding from, raise the opposite hand above the head and spread the fingers, that helps to stop the bleeding. Andrea should also take some of the sesame oil and rub it on her skin to help balance her Vata. And drinking some warm Vata tea would help, too. In about 15 or 20 minutes, Andrea would be ready to go back to work like nothing happened – wiser because she knows how to take care of herself.