I’m beginning to think this post might be a bit late… like I should
have posted it back in early December… or November… with as rampant as every
virus and cold and illness we can possibly catch have been, I’m sure there are
a LOT of you who could have used this post a long time ago! Well, in my defense, this is something I only
recently learned about, otherwise I WOULD have posted it a long time ago!
About a month and a half or so ago I got hit hard with a pretty nasty
cold. Started with a sore throat, next
day was a runny nose, next day was congestion, that lasted a few days and then
a cough that would NOT let up. Oils and
herbal remedies would suppress it or ease it, but wouldn’t completely get rid
of it. Finally it let up on its own and
for a few days I felt fairly okay. Until
the sore throat came back. Then the next
day a runny nose. Ugh not this
again! What the heck?? I started loading up on vitamin C and D and Echinacea and using peppermint and
lavender and Thieves oils and anything else I could do to keep that horrible
cough from attacking in a few days.
Well, the cough never came, or if it did it was very mild. But instead the stuffy nose turned into
horrible congestion. I may have had a
sinus infection… I’m not prone to them so I don’t exactly know what to expect,
but it felt like someone had pumped lead into every sinus cavity in my
skull. Not very comfortable. I couldn’t breathe, I sounded horrible when I
talked – I couldn’t say the letters B or M clearly… it was bad. Then like on day 4 of that mess I got up in
the morning and said to whoever was listening, “Okay, send me a sign,
apparently I need some new material because what I’ve tried is not working this
time!” I was desperate! So off to work I went, hoping none of my clients
would be completely grossed out by my head (but I was functioning just fine and
felt certain I wasn’t contagious so I felt like cancelling everyone would just
create more of a mess for me than I needed).
Of course my first one that day commented on what a cold I had, and I
said not to worry, I was a week into it and any contagious part of it was
surely passed by now, but yes my nose won’t give me a break! She asked what I’d been doing for it so I
rattled off my list of natural remedies, herbs, homeopathics, and oils, and she
said, “What about olive leaf extract?”
Hmm, that sounded familiar to me, but I didn’t have enough details on
it, so I said, “I’ve heard of it but never tried it, tell me more!” So she said she’s used it for herself and her
family and it has always worked to help relieve or reverse any sicknesses they’ve
dealt with, and she highly recommends I try it.
So I thought, ya know, I woke up this morning asking for a sign or some
divine intervention, maybe this is it.
And it was a Tuesday and the local health store, The Healthy Nut, sells
supplements 10% on Tuesdays. Win! So at my first break I went straight to The
Healthy Nut and bought a bottle of olive leaf extract capsules, along with an
extra bottle of an Echinacea/Goldenseal blend, and started taking them
immediately. I think I doubled the
suggested dosage. And I swear I felt a
difference that very day. The pressure
in my head finally started to ease, and my breathing became a bit clearer and
easier. The next day was a little better
yet – less congestion, less snot, less misery.
And the next day better yet, and even better again the day after
that! I was so excited! I started telling everyone about it! My mom wound up with a similar head full like
I had, and she started taking it and said the same thing, she noticed a
difference immediately and each day was progressively better than the
last. It’s been at least a month, maybe
more, since I stopped taking it because my symptoms were gone, and I have not
had any major issues since.
So, naturally, I had to look into WHY this works so well. And now I’m finally sharing with you! First off, a fun fact I learned is that the
olive tree is pretty resilient to disease.
Scientists in the early 1900s decided to look into what makes it so
resilient, and isolated oleuropein in the olive leaf. Later it was discovered that oleuropein has
the ability to dilate blood vessels so that blood can flow more easily, which
then lowers blood pressure. Years later
elenolic acid was discovered in oleuropein, which was found to kill off
bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites and has capabilities to prevent further
growth.
You may have heard of some bacteria becoming resistant to
pharmaceutical antibiotics (another reason I dislike antibiotics, but that’s an
entirely different story you can read here!) and therefore rendering those
antibiotics useless (or more harmful than beneficial), but the oleuropein in
the olive leaf has the ability to dissolve the outer lining of microbes and
also inhibit replication and growth of viruses by interfering with and stopping
the natural processes they need in order to replicate.
Not only is it a natural antibiotic, but it’s a fantastic immune system
booster as well. Olive leaf extract has
been shown to have an antioxidant
capacity almost double green tea extract and 400% higher than vitamin C!
It’s safe too, as clinical studies have shown no toxic effects even
when taken in doses several hundred times the recommended amount, too! There are also no known issues, problems, or
side effects if taken while pregnant, unlike Echinacea which can cause
photosensitivity to light, so it’s awesome for pregnant women (and women who
are nursing!) who are dealing with a bad cold or any other kind of sickness and
don’t want to risk harming their baby by taking antibiotics or pharmaceutical
medicines.
I hope this helps anyone who has been dealing with all the junk going
around this winter, which is probably most of you from the way it sounds! Olive leaf extract is definitely going to be
a staple in my house from now on!
Happy New Year to all of you, I hope those of you who were well had a
safe and fun holiday celebration, and those of you who were too sick to go out
and celebrate, I again apologize for not posting this sooner… :-S
Cheers to a healthy, happy 2013!
If anyone as any suggestions for future posts such as requests for more information about things they have heard of or questions about what they can try for certain ailments, let me know! Leave a comment on this post or send me an email or a Facebook message!
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