Snot, Snot, and More Snot...

It’s everywhere.  Everyone is congested or drippy or goopy or hacking or some form of pleasantry in that category.  So what are some good ways to boost the immune system naturally and help fight off all this gunk, or prevent it all together?

I read somewhere that a cold left untreated lasts 2 weeks, but treated with medicine lasts 14 days… Yeah pretty much.  So basically all we can do is relieve symptoms and keep it from snowballing into something much worse, and just ride it out.  I’m still on a quest to learn more about the common cold, but in the meantime I have learned ways to relieve it.  I’ve also found ways to stave it off, but, alas, sometimes there’s just no avoiding those pesky germs!

I’ve already shared my love of essential oils with you, so you probably have some ideas of what those can do, but to recap along the lines of today’s theme, Peppermint and Eucalyptus are wonderful for the common cold.  Some ways to use it are:

• Dripping a couple of drops into a pot of boiling water, tenting a towel over your head and the pot, and creating your own mini-sauna as you breathe in the oil-infused steam.  Aaaahhhh hello open sinuses!
• Rubbing the oils on your feet before you go to sleep at night is great too, as your feet have larger pores and absorb the oils’ healing properties quickly.
• Mixing it with coconut or olive oil and rubbing it on your chest, like homemade Vick’s (only without the petroleum jelly!  Score!).
• Drip a drop of [therapeutic grade!!] peppermint oil in hot tea and breathe in the steam and sip away – the peppermint is wonderfully soothing on the throat.  Mix a little raw honey in that tea for added benefits (which I'm getting to in a moment!)
• Drip a few drops of each into your bath water and soak.  I do this for Harlee all the time!  Benefits both of us as I sit with him and breathe it in too.

There are plenty of other ways to help your immune system along too.  Some good tips to prevent a cold for adults that have worked for me are taking a bunch of echinacea, vitamin C, pau d’arco, and garlic.  Goldenseal is another good one, which I need to get more into, but all my friends in the natural community swear by it just as much as echinacea and vitamin C.

Echinacea is pretty commonly used – usually people know what I’m talking about when I mention it whether they try to go the more natural route with their lifestyles or not.  Here’s an excerpt from herbs.org that explains how beneficial Echinacea is:

Echinacea increases the "non-specific" activity of the immune system. In other words, unlike a vaccine which is active only against a specific disease, echinacea stimulates the overall activity of the cells responsible for fighting all kinds of infection. Unlike antibiotics, which are directly lethal to bacteria, echinacea makes our own immune cells more efficient in attacking bacteria, viruses and abnormal cells, including cancer cells.

Echinacea facilitates wound healing, lessens symptoms of and speeds recovery from viruses. Anti-inflammatory effects make it useful externally against inflammatory skin conditions including psoriasis and eczema. It may also increase resistance to candida, bronchitis, herpes, and other infectious conditions.

Wonderful, wonderful stuff :).

Moving along, I’d have to worry if you don’t know anything about Vitamin C, but as a little refresher, among a lot of other health benefits, it’s most important job is boosting your immune system, plain and simple.  It comes naturally from fruits and vegetables, too, yum!

Pau d’Arco, what’s that?  It’s a pretty strong immune system boosting herb that I found out about when I was dealing with my chronic yeast infection issue.  It’s anti-inflammatory, anti-infectious, and a great aid for detoxing.  I wouldn’t recommend this if you’re pregnant or nursing – it’s really really powerful stuff – almost too harsh for baby.  But I’ve recommended it to quite a few people who have reported back that it’s helped them out, especially for avoiding getting sick during cold and flu season.

Garlic is amazing.  Here’s an article about some scientific research done on how and why garlic works so well.  I’ll help sum it up too though.  It’s a powerful antioxidant, and it’s a natural antibiotic.  What’s cool about garlic as an antibiotic, though, is that the bacteria in the body can’t develop a resistance to it like they can against pharmaceutical antibiotics, so it can work over and over again!  That and it’s not killing all your good bacteria, like pharmaceutical antibiotics do, as I explained in a previous post.

But wait, there’s more!  Garlic contains a phytochemical called “allicin” which is released when the garlic is chopped or minced or chewed, and this protects your body against bacterial infections among other ailments.  Allicin is especially effective against enterococci (a strain of strep) and staphylococcus, which can be difficult bacteria to battle!  Oh and get this, a study was done at the National Cancer Institute in the US which showed that garlic can both slow the growth of cancer cells as well as cause abnormal cells to self-destruct.  Wow!  Check out this article to learn more about garlic (oh yes, there is more!).  Surely it can help fight against the common cold.

What I like about garlic is that, obviously, you can cook with it!  Incorporate it into most, if not all, of your meals during cold and flu season for an easy boost to your immune system.  There are other great herbs you can incorporate into dinner too that are also great for your health.  Thyme is antibacterial, antiseptic, anti-inflammatory, and is an antioxidant.  It’s also beneficial for treating bronchitis.  Sage is anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and a great detoxifier for the blood.  Hmm… throw in some chicken broth, veggies, and chicken and we’ve got the ingredients for a great soup for anyone under the weather!

Need something sweet after that soup?  Try honey: it fights colds and respiratory infections, is great for allergies, and according to Dr. Cass Igram, D.O. in The Survivor’s Nutritional Pharmacy, "Raw honey is exceptionally effective internally against bacteria and parasites. Plus, raw honey contains natural antibiotics, which help kill microbes directly. Raw honey, when applied topically, speeds the healing of tissues damaged by infection and/or trauma. It contains vitamins, minerals and enzymes, as well as sugars, all of which aid in the healing of wounds."  Click here for some great honey remedies!

One last suggestion before I wrap this up, and it’s a simple one: fresh air.  One of the biggest reasons we get sick during the winter is being cooped up inside hiding from the cold and breathing in each other’s germs.  Every time we exhale we release toxins from our bodies.  Staying cooped up inside just creates an environment of old, stale air and all the germs and toxins we release from inside.  Oxygen is vital for our bodies – our cells need it to develop and function at a healthy level.  When we stay cooped up inside, we’re depriving our cells and our bodies of that very important element.  One thing I’ve found that helps at home is every morning I open the window wide and let the air in while I go about my morning routine of making the bed, brushing my teeth, etc.  I leave it open for about 10-15 minutes or so, enough to get some good fresh oxygen in, flush out our stale air, but not freeze us out in the winter.  I try to open up the rest of the house in intervals, too, to freshen up all the rooms.  It’s a very simple thing to do, but helps tremendously!

I hope that provided some good tips for cold and flu season.  Feel free to leave a comment to share some of your own home remedies for beating those germs!