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!
