The best defense to colds & flu is a strong immune system. If the ‘host’ is strong it will tend to thwart illness, just as a healthy plant actually repels insects. Many of the nutritional and lifestyle recommendations for once you get sick are wise advice for daily living. An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure!
Don’t be fooled into taking flu shots that may actually weaken the immune system and introduce toxins into your body that are proving to have long term ill effects. You can learn about the ever present ‘flu shot’ here: http://undergroundwellness.com/podcasts/the-truth-about-vaccines/
However, once the flu hits, hit it hard in return. Take the time to implement many of these healing modalities and you’ll find the duration of illness will be shortened and your body will return to health more easily. Below are many options, kind of a smorgasbord of helpful ideas, find the ones that work for you. Please comment if you have other ideas that have worked for you as well.
Dr. Mercola hasn’t taken off from work in 30 years for a sick day. Here is a link on what he recommends for what to do when you begin to get sick. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rj_WfitJohU&feature=relmfu
Even when sick, be thankful. ‘A joyful heart is good medicine.’ Count your blessings.
Nutritional
1. Keep liquid intake high to flush toxic by-products out of the body as quickly and efficiently as possible. Drink plenty of water.
Avoid drinks such as diuretic teas, sodas and coffee that have diuretic (fluid-eliminating) properties. Avoid alcoholic drinks. These are dehydrating. They also depletes the body of vitamin C, and puts extra strain on the liver, which has to work extra hard to detoxify the body during illness. Drink 8 cups of water a day minimum (if you are dehydrated viruses and bacteria multiply more efficiently) One of the first signs that you may be dehydrated is a headache, your body will start to feel weak if you aren’t properly hydrated, this can leave you open to infections and diseases. Tension headaches are often brought on when not properly hydrated. Your cells need to be hydrated to eliminate toxins and bring nourishment. It is said that “all dis-ease begins with dehydration”.
2. Eat only nutritious foods that are alive with enzymes and realness. Avoid processed, refined ‘foods’ and fats since they challenge your gastrointestinal tract and, ultimately, compromise your immune system. (Kiva)
3. If you do only one thing to boost your immune system, eliminating sugar will do the trick. Sugar will wreak havoc on your immune system — which needs to be ramped up, not suppressed, in order to combat an emerging infection. This includes fructose from fruit juice, and all types of grains (as they rapidly break down to sugar in your body).
4. Eat Garlic! The immune-building properties of garlic come from its sulfur-containing compounds, which are effective against bacterial, viral, fungal and parasitic infections; enhance the immune system and have anti-tumor and antioxidant features (Kiva Rose)
5. Bone broth! Full of vitamins and minerals. Don’t force yourself to eat so long as you take plenty of fluids. Foods should be as light and easily digestible as possible, with a strong emphasis on vegetable soups, broths, and lightly cooked fish or chicken. Avoid high-fat, indigestible foods such as cheese, red meat and pastries and COLD foods or drinks.
6. Avoid milk. Dairy products encourage mucus production, which can make chest, sinus, and nasal congestion worse. Not sure if this includes healthy RAW milk…
7. Make a home made electrolyte to help replenish lost fluids due to elevated temps. 1 t of vinegar, 1 t of honey, pinch of sea salt in a cup of water.
8. Fermented foods such as raw kefir, kimchee, miso, pickles, sauerkraut and other fermented vegetables are full of good bacteria and should be a part of daily diet in building a healthy gut and immune system. This link will educate you on the overuse of anti biotics resulting in resistant strains of bacteria.. This has become such a serious problem that hospital-acquired resistant infections, by conservative estimates, are the fourth leading cause of death in the United States. Fermented foods will help to offset the dysbiosis in our gut so that the good bacteria can balance the bad.
Great article on the over use of anti biotics and natural anti biotic options: http://www.motherearthliving.com/health-and-wellness/alternatives-to-antibiotics-zm0z12aszdeb.aspx?newsletter=1&utm_content=02.05.13+HW&utm_campaign=2013+ENEWS&utm_source=iPost&utm_medium=email
Lifestyle
1. Rest as much as possible in the early stages of a cold to help your body fight infection effectively. If you keep going, you may end up taking weeks, rather than days to get over the illness. Sleep in the complete dark WITHOUT geopathic stress from computers and other electronics. Go to bed early because the hours of sleep before midnight are the most effective for healing the body. If you aren’t getting enough restorative sleep, you’ll be at increased risk for a hostile viral takeover. Your immune system is also the most effective when you’re not sleep-deprived, so the more rested you are the quicker you’ll recover. You can find 33 secrets for a good night’s sleep here.
2. Exercise even if you don’t feel like it, it gets the oxygen in your blood and moves sickness OUT. Mild exercise such as taking a walk improves your circulation, helping your immune system circulate infection-fighting antibodies. Jump on a gentle rebounder indoors for 15 minutes or take a brisk half-hour walk. Refrain from strenuous exercise, that could wear you out.
3. Get out in the SUN. Most of us spend 90% of our lives indoors, inhaling dubiously filtered air and other people’s germs. Exercising outdoors increases your exposure to natural light. Natural light is important because it makes vitamin D. SUNLIGHT encourages the production of white blood cells, which help to boost your immune system and fight infection.
4. Keep your hands away from your face when in public, wash hands frequently Do not use anti bacterial soap.
5. Increase intake of Vit C. You can do this with Sumac honey, Rose hip honey, Pine
6. Breathe deeply
7. Air out the ‘sick room‘ from staleness, open windows, spray with antiviral herbs
9. Take a steamy shower. It can help clear congestion. Or heat a teakettle or pot of water to boiling on your stove, turn off the flame, drape a towel in a tent over your head and the kettle, and inhale the steam until it subsides. This also relieves your cough by moistening your dry throat. Add Eucalyptus and Lavender essential oils (a drop or two of each) to the steam to kill germs and relax spasms. Do this up to once an hour for an aggressive cough.
10. Keep warm and bundled up against the cold. This way your immune system can focus on fighting your cold infection rather than displacing energy to protect you from the cold.
Herbally
1. Elderberry (anti-viral) syrup elderberry syrup is the best preventative since it makes cells too slippery for viruses to replicate themselves and it disarms the H in H1N1
2. Lots of great anti viral herbs for teas: Linden, Lemonbalm…
3. Peppermint, Rose Hips and Elderflower tea blend
4. Children’s Herbal Antibiotic Formula
2 cups water
½ teaspoon echinacea root
½ teaspoon licorice root and
½ teaspoon barberry bark (or Oregon grape root)
Place water and herbs in a saucepan. Simmer for 2 minutes, then remove from heat and steep for about 20 minutes. Strain out herbs. For a 50-pound child, give 1 cup of tea or half a dropperful (30 drops) of tincture daily. To improve the flavor, the tea can be mixed with an equal amount of juice. In fact, homemade apple and grape juice, unlike bottled juices, contain strong antiviral agents that fight colds and flu.
Vitamins and Minerals
1. Vit C and Zinc (LB)
2. Take Vit D drops 3 x’s a day Vitamin D is an amazingly effective antimicrobial agent, producing 200 to 300 different antimicrobial peptides in your body that kill bacteria, viruses and fungi. So optimizing your levels will not only help send a cold or flu virus packing, it can prevent them from invading your body in the first place. Contrary to flu vaccines, this recommendation has been steadily gaining scientific validation. In fact, there’s compelling evidence suggesting cold and flu may actually be symptoms of vitamin D deficiency. (Mercola’s site)
Household Remedies
1. Hydrogen Peroxide ear treatment. H2O2 food grade diluted to 3%. Put 3 drops in each ear, do one ear at a time, wait 5-10 minutes laying down on your side before draining and putting the H2O2 in the other ear. Here is a video on how to do this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOiGk7GdCS8&sns=fb Here is Mercola talking about the same miraculous treatment for colds and flus along with other wise comments. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0t1K_-YA30&feature=related
2. H202 Breathing Treatment. Fill humidifier completely with diluted H202 (from 35% down to 3%), put right next to bed, inhale directly (close eyes) wipe off face after treatment.
3. 1-2 tbsp of ACV in a glass with 1/4 or more baking soda and a little honey (LB), take cayenne (in a capsule if desired) with it. Do not add boiling water to ACV – you destroy the enzymes by pasteurizing it. This will do wonders with a sore throat and also break up clods of mucus in the chest.
4. Gargle with H2O2
5. ACV tonic: 1 part organic unfiltered apple juice + 1 part water + 1-2 tablespoons ACV (sometimes I add some more liquid minerals to the mixture). May also add a pinch of borax and a pinch of epsom salts to boost minerals (LB)
6. Can of Whoop Ass will send any germs packing: 1 turnip, 1 handsized ginger root, 1 onion, 1 beet, 5 garlic heads, 1/3 cup cayenne, pepper, rosemary, boneset, yarrow, thyme
7. If you have a sore throat, gargle with sea salt in warm water. Snort it into your nasal cavities as well to kill bacteria.
8. Hot and Cold therapy is powerful. Stand in the shower, put whatever part of you is aching (your chest if you have a cold, or a pull muscle) under very hot
(as hot as you can stand it) water for 60 seconds (count them), then turn the water to extremely cold and count for 60 seconds, go back to hot, then cold.
Do this rotation 3 times minimum. This has been very effective in healing for centuries. Google: water therapy. Use Ahhh oil after your shower on your aches and pains.
9. Onion poultice http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-J4mXTyLqk
10. Warm footbaths may ease cold symptoms. Dissolve one tablespoon of mustard powder in 3 1/2 pints (2 liter) hot water. Bathe your feet in this bath for ten minutes twice a day as needed.
11. Make a strong brew of onions or garlic by simmering them in boiling water. Inhale the steam from the mixture through the nose in order to clear nasal passages.
12. Gargle with liquid whey concentrate.
13. Add one teaspoon of salt and vinegar to a cup of home-made barley water. Gargle with this mix to soothe inflamed or painful throats. Do not swallow the mixture.
14. Another old-fashioned remedy is honey, hot water and lemon toddy. This eases a cough and makes you feel better. Mix ingredients to taste. Add a pinch of sea salt to make this tea an electrolyte.
15. Make a soothing remedy by adding honey, cinnamon, cloves, ginger or cayenne and a slice of lemon to 1 pint of water. Bring the liquid to boiling point, simmer for fifteen minutes and strain. Drink every couple of hours, sweetened with honey to taste.
16. Herbal Big Guns: my friend calls this the Three Musketeers. Grapefruit Seed Extract, Oregano Oil (the expensive stuff from Starwest Botanicals), and Colloidal Silver. Using a OO pill capsule fill with 12 drops of GSE, fill the rest of the way with Oregano Oil. Chase down with plenty of water. Next put several tablespoons of Colloidal Silver in your mouth, hold it for a minute and then swallow. My mother has a hard time taking these internally so I paint the Oregano oil on the bottoms of her feet when she is sick. I also add Colloidal Silver to her quart jar of water so it’s easier for her to ingest.
17. Liquid Detox: squirt up nose to clear cavities and kill germs
18. A hot mug of water with a teaspoon of baking soda 3 times a day is what turned my mother’s pneumonia around. She was so amazed she has kept it up since getting better.
Body or Energy work
1. Massage a tablespoon of Magnesium oil, 5 or 6 drops of Oregano oil mixed in Jojoba oil along the spinal chord
2. Thump on the sternum to kick start the immune system. Here is a 5 minute video with Donna Eden teaching energy exercises. These work to improve lymphatic flow and to booster the immune system. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gffKhttrRw4
3. Zip up to protect your immune system. The meridian that runs from the pubic bone to the bottom lip. Trace this meridian from the bottom up to protect from illness and to increase energy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLOPwk8_TGw
4. Muscle test to determine what supplements, foods, herbs would be best to use. This key tool is useful to determine allergies, toxic items, food sensitivities.
More Links
This article by Mercola is entitled: Healthier Alternatives to the Seasonal Flu Vaccine: Garlic, Zinc, and Vitamin D
It is really outstanding and even provides a video explaining why we get sick. Watch and learn 🙂
Disclaimer: Holly Drake is not a medical doctor. All communication is for informational purposes only. Not intended to diagnose or treat any illness. Seek your healthcare provider if you so choose.