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Flu Stories – How to Survive and Thrive During The 2018 Flu Season
We have all experienced it or know someone who has been fighting off this year’s flu.
Officially called “Influenza A” and/or “Influenza B”, harmless sounding names. Yet, this is by far the worst flu we have ever seen. It reminds me of Dr. Seuss naming “Thing 1” and “Thing 2”. Harmless names, yet they destroy your house in about a minute.
I personally have been spared with a few mild symptoms that I immediately abate using the items on “THE LIST” below.
My patients and family members have not all shared in my fortune. I’ve been taking care of many patients for weeks, and many have lingering symptoms, especially that nasty asthmatic type cough. I now have an entire arsenal of flu fighters in my kitchen. Beyond, the personal experiences, I belong to a number of online groups of various health professionals. The remedies and stories from these posts have broadened my treatments and opened my eyes to everything food and drinks, herbal combinations, essential oils and more. I have to admit, I’ve been a little addicted to reading the stories of ravaged flu patients and what’s working and what isn’t.
I decided to combine the hundreds of postings into “THE LIST” of what’s working in the Alternative & Natural Health care community for this years flu bug.
It helped me and I hope it will help you too.
This post would be a book if I went into all the benefits, actions and studies on each of the remedies below. Suffice to say, they WORK! Some items have references. Everything on “THE LIST” is supported by both research and hundreds of real life use in the past and in the last 6 weeks. These are some of the best remedies for this years flu.
Thank you to all of my fellow practitioners for sharing your stories and natural cures.
Note, you can’t possibly take all of items on THE LIST all at once. However, the foods can and probably should be eaten daily. Choose a couple from the categories and your body will thank you. Remember, when buying any vitamin supplement or herb, quality is key. Iif you’re not getting an immediate benefit, it may be the brand. This is especially important with Echinacea and Elderberry, but true for all.
Do your research and buy the highest quality possible, or don’t buy it.
A quick note on the OTC anti-inflammatory drugs. If you must take, choose ibuprofen over acetaminophen. Here’s why. Please research, it may save a life. The need for either varies depending on patient. I don’t recommend these as the Black Box warnings scare the begeezies out of me. I like to protect both my GI system and liver as much as possible. When you have “THE LIST” below you’ve got all the natural anti-inflammatory relief you’ll ever need and NO Black Box Warnings. (If you’ve never read the Black Box Warnings, please google it.)
OK, let’s dive into THE LIST!
PREVENTATIVE LIST
Let’s start with the preventative list. The old saying; “Prevention is worth a pound of cure”. The foods and herbs listed are definitely ones to take all winter as this flu will morph and will find those with the weakest immunity.
Clean your cell phone. Be a little germaphobe and get some Thieves Oil spray for your hands and phone. Use often.
Garlic – garlic raw – garlic cooked – 4 or more cloves daily. Why skimp?Boil it and make tea, add to every food, shred, dice, chop, chew, shave, just eat it daily.
Kimchi- Sauerkraut – fermented veggies – brined pickles.
Reishi mushroom powder or capsules. Lion’s mane, mitake, shitake are also good but reishi is best. (Read: The Good Gut by Dr.’s Justin & Ericka Sonnenburg)
Goat milk or coconut yogurt or kefir
Cod Liver Oil – approx. 1 Tbls. daily
Vitamin D3 – 5000mg daily
Vitamin A – Vitamin K also necessary to absorb Vit D.
Echinacea tincture– should have a little tongue numbing quality otherwise toss it.
Yu Ping Feng San – Jade Wind Screen Formula or Astragalus/ Huang Qi
Zinc
Stop pretending you should do everything you do in the summer. It’s winter, slow down. Stay warm. Hibernate a little.
Wear a scarf. Most colds/flu start at the base of the neck,occiput.
Vitamin C – 5000 mg or more daily. Lypospheric Vitamin C is a good option.
Puerh tea
Increase carotinoid protection i.e. improve gut absorption add HCI or pancreatic enzymes
Elderberry Tea
Onset of Flu like symptoms (these items can also be used for prevention)
Bed #1 best medicine or comfy couch
Oil of Oregano – mix a few drops in water and drink
Great Tea: turmeric, reishi, ginger, pinch of black pepper and honey to taste.
Garlic, lemon, honey tea. Make yourself real garlic cloves, real lemon, raw honey.
Fire Cider: ginger, turmeric, garlic, onion, thai peppers, horseradish root, peppercorns, citrus and rosemary all infused in apple cider vinegar. Take shots often.
Chicken Soup – homemade is best.
Bone Broth – get a high quality brand
Be conscious of the “Militant Metaphors” as Susan Sontag describes these phrases. Some metaphors make the experience of illness worse. Consider illness as a reset time. It can be a time of reflection and contrast to better appreciate our wellness.
Hot showers or baths daily. Get water hot enough to raise the body temperature and burn the critters. Epson salt in the bath, of course.
Stay warm with extra clothing layers.
Electrolyte drinks or add liquid mineral drops to any drink.
Lingering Cough with Phlegm
Head over steaming water pot with mint essential oils, lavender, or whatever you have that you love.
Elderberry syrup.
Chinese herb cough syrup – Nin Jiom Pei Pa Koa
Qing Qi Hua Tang Wan – Minor Blue Dragon formula
Chinese herbs for cough are tricky and very specific so check with a Licensed Acupuncturist trained in Chinese herbs for the right herbs for your cough.
Pinapple juice for cough and Kiwi’s are excellent
This list is not intended to be ALL inclusive of what may help you. This is simply a list of what my health practitioner community has been finding extremely helpful during this 2018 bout of flu.
What else: The common sense things like wash bed sheets and wipe down surfaces, door knobs and cell phones. Wash your hands a lot and drink a lot of fluids to wash away all the dead viruses you killed using the items on the list above. A little bit of winter sun bathing from a warm car may be a nice reprieve from the bed and the couch. Stay healthy and we will all ride out these pesky viruses getting stronger together.
You may have noticed the flu vaccine is not on The List. The research is profoundly lacking and the virus mutates so quickly. More information in this excellent article.
Looking for a Natural Colon Cleanse?
Is your body is accumulating excess fat? Americans have on average 20 pounds of toxic fecal matter sitting in their colon!
If this sounds like you, consider trying an herbal tea to help you clean out naturally.
You should be having 2-3 bowel movements each day. When your Colon is healthy and working optimally you’ll have a bowel movement within less than an hour after each meal, that’s 2-3 bowel movements per day, depending on how many meals you eat. How many bowel movements do you have now? are your bowel movements after meals?
The problem is, you don’t know what to eat to lose weight and learning about health, nutrition, assimilation, food reactions, hormones and so many other topics is just too overwhelming.
Your colon (otherwise known as the large intestine) is compromised of 5 feet long tubes that are 3 inches in diameter. It is responsible for absorbing nutrients from the food we eat along with the liquids we drink. If your colon is toxic and backed up (constipated to some degree) then your body will not be able to absorb nutrients properly.
If you don’t have consistency in your bowel movements, you have less than 2 bowel movements per day or if you don’t have bowel movements after your meals then your colon is backed up and most likely harboring toxic fecal matter that is causing you to gain even more fat and excess weight.
So if that sounds like you, try Skinny Boost Herb Pack. The herbs in Skinny Boost are a natural way to remove colon waste gently and safely.
Chinese Herbs in Environmentally Friendly Packaging
Chinese herbs for Americans that are convenient, taste great and have less packaging. Less packaging is not just environmentally friendly but extremely important to Pacific Herbs. Small packets are used rather than plastic bottles and boxes, or heavy glass jars. Pacific Herbs packets are friendly to the environment especially compared to plastic bottles that can take 500 years to decompose in a landfill.
“We believe as a product manufacturer it is part of our duty to look for the most environmentally friendly packaging we can find.” said Cathy Margolin, Founder of Pacific Herbs. “We found are large size packets are the perfect size and provide an excellent moisture barrier to contain a months supply of our Chinese Herb granules. Our smaller packets 50g contain about a two week supply.”
Most supplement companies and Chinese herb products package their products in capsules full of fillers and use excessive amounts of packaging such as a bottle inside a box. This is simply not environmentally friendly packaging. Companies that make consumer products today should understand the cost of producing excess packaging materials but also the cost to the environment.
Pacific Herbs does not even use capsules for their concentrated herbal granules. No capsules means no unnecessary fillers! Not just good for the environment but also great for our bodies. Often times the fillers used in supplement products today have detrimental side-effects on the body. Nobody really knows because nobody is testing the fillers and how they effect our body.
Pacific Herbs uses Traditional Chinese herbal formulas (recipes) that were written down hundreds of years ago. These time tested herb combinations have hundreds of years of continual use.
Pacific Herbs makes products for menopause symptom relief, pain relief, a natural herbal sleep aid, PMS relief, a stress relief herbal mix and more. Find all Pacific Herb products here.
Build A Healthy Immune System By Eating These Foods Daily
You can build a healthy immune system, if you know the right foods to eat. Of course vegetables are good for you but have you tried fermented veggies, you know, pickles? Yes raw pickles are a great option (with no sugar added) for building a health immune system. You only need a tablespoon of fermented foods everyday to boost your natural immunity and give you a natural energy boost. Your immune system is located mostly in your gut. If you feed your digestive system, your gut, healthy foods, your gut bacteria in turn grow and thrive. When healthy gut bacteria also known as your microbiome thrive, you thrive. Learn which foods will help you stay healthy and avoid colds and flu’s all year long.
Fermented foods like saurekraut, kimchi, yogurt (without sugar), raw pickles, kefir, are a couple easy options. As little as a tablespoon per day with help feed your gut bacteria exactly what they love to eat. One word of caution, fermented foods are best in the raw form, not pasteurized. Sometimes you have to shop with a discerning eye to find these raw foods. Check the labels carefully. Medicinal mushrooms are also excellent at building a healthy immune system. These mushrooms are high in polysaccharides, the perfect food for your gut microbiome.
For more healthy tips and Chinese herbs to help keep you healthy check out are reishi mushroom, astragalus and another video on how to boost your immune system naturally.
Best Foods To Boost Your Immune System
Boost your immune system naturally with foods. It’s easy and less costly than purchasing a probiotic supplements that is killed by stomach acid before it can work. High fiber foods are a better choice and will also help you lose weight. High fiber foods take more energy to break down and increase bowel movements. One of the best immune boosting foods is BUCKWHEAT!
American’s don’t tend to eat buckwheat very often but it’s extremely popular in Japan, one of the healthiest and oldest societies on the planet. Buckwheat is not a wheat, so don’t worry if you follow a gluten free diet. It’s actually a seed. Buckwheat breads are an easy way to add this high fiber food to your diet. Buckwheat soba noodles are another great immune boosting food option.
Buckwheat, just like reishi mushroom are high in polysaccharides which is the food your gut bacteria like to eat. When you feed your healthy gut bacteria the foods they like, they build your immune system naturally.
Healthy gut bacteria boosts your immune system. Add healthy foods like buckwheat and reishi a couple times a week for a month and you’ll notice the difference.
Are You Drinking Purified Water or Plastic Water?
Let’s talk about the #1 most important substance you need every day, to stay alive and healthy. Clean, filtered drinking water is essential for optimum health and wellness.
What kind of water are your drinking every day? Water with plastic chemicals like BPA & BPS known endocrine disruptors or pure filtered water with natural minerals? Use BPA & BPS free plastic water bottles.
Your body knows the difference between clean water and water with plastic chemicals. Chemicals in our water often cause estrogen dominance which is implicated in the growth of many types of cancer.
Healthy habits make a healthy body. Be a water snob and only drink water that has been filtered today. Be kind to the environment too as individual plastic water bottles are terrible for our oceans and landfills and of course, our bodies.
For more healthy tips and Chinese herbs to help keep you healthy check out How To Balance your Hormones Naturally link and video at https://www.pacherbs.com/balance-hormones-naturally/or visit https://PacHerbs.com
Healthy Air Solutions To Avoid Allergies
Do you suffer from headaches, sinus issues or allergies? Indoor air quality is so important for your health. You don’t know how it is affecting your wellness. Even in new construction the pressed board used during construction and new carpet can release noxious gasses and fumes.
An easy way to improve air quality is to open your windows. Alternative medical supplements will not have to be used if you use the simple tip of opening your window especially when you are sleeping. Your lungs prefer fresh clean air.
Traditional Chinese Medicine is always about prevention. When you learn ways to improve your immune system naturally you avoid allergies and improve you healthy.
For more healthy tips and Chinese herbs to help keep you healthy check out reishi mushroom link and video at https://www.pacherbs.com/boost-your-immune-system-naturally/ or visit https://PacHerbs.com
Are Your Chinese Herbs Full of Fillers? Pacific Herbs Supplements Have No Fillers
Are your supplements full of fillers? Most vitamins, herbs and dietary supplements on the store shelf are made with inert fillers. The reason for adding fillers to vitamin supplements is because to put any substance into a capsule the encapsulation machines will clog if fillers are not used.
Common fillers are starch, magnesium stearate, sugar or titanium dioxide. Fillers have no health benefits; in fact they may be harmful.
Pacific Herbs takes great pride in offering organic Traditional Chinese Herbs with no fillers.
As part of the safety process in producing Pacific Herbs there is a Specie Authentication process that macroscopically examines the raw herbs and a TLC (thin layer chromatography) authentication that is completed. Testing for pesticides, heavy metal and over 200 possible contaminants.
Certificate of Analysis (COA) tracks herbs from raw to finished product. Purified water is our only solvent. We provide the best Chinese herbs and herbal supplements available.
Balance Your Hormones Naturally
Pacific Herbs can help you naturally restore hormonal balance. Suffering from PMS, menopause or peri-menopausal? Traditional Chinese Medicine from Pacific Herbs can help!
A natural alternative for symptoms of hormonal headaches, PMS, hot flashes, night sweats, mood swings, anxiety, mental clarity and other hormonal imbalances.
Asian cultures have used this combination of herbs effectively as a natural alternative for years. Pacific Herbs is a great solution to create hormonal balance for women with natural progesterone.
For more healthy tips and Chinese herbs to help keep you healthy check out reishi mushroom link and video at https://www.pacherbs.com/boost-your-immune-system-naturally/ or visit https://PacHerbs.com
Boost Your Immune System Naturally
Boost your immune system with foods is the easiest way to stay healthy especially during cold and flu season.
Reishi mushroom is one of the best foods to build your immune system.
Pacific Herbs provides herbal products to improve your immune system from the inside out. 80% of your immune system is in your gut. Eating foods that feed your healthy gut bacteria can boost your immune system and help you avoid colds and flu during the fall and winter months. A great way to build your natural immunity with reishi mushroom. Pacific Herbs has a blend of reishi mushrooms with Astragalus (huang qi) in concentrated herbal granules that are easy to add to a cup of coffee or put them right n your mouth and swallow with water or juice.
Pacific Herbs Immune Boost Herb Pack contains only pure, tested and certified Reishi mushroom, which is extremely high in polysaccharides, food for your microbiome. Recent research shows herbs like reishi mushroom can help you increase the healthy colonies of good bacteria creating an internal strong defense and a healthy immune system.
Plants Medicinals vs Prescriptions to Promote Peaceful Sleep.. What’s the difference?
“My 88 year old husband was prescribed Ambien for insomnia. After the first dose, he fell while getting up to go the bathroom, gashed his head and had to go to the emergency room for stitches. A year later, I gave him a half-dose (again prescribed) and within minutes, his legs collapsed on him. I had the hardest time getting him into bed.
“My 88 year old husband was prescribed Ambien for insomnia. After the first dose, he fell while getting up to go the bathroom, gashed his head and had to go to the emergency room for stitches. A year later, I gave him a half-dose (again prescribed) and within minutes, his legs collapsed on him. I had the hardest time getting him into bed. Ambien? Never again!
Your experience reminds us that sleeping pills may pose a serious risk for older people who have to get up at night to go to the bathroom. This is a dilemma, because many seniors suffer from insomnia. Even over-the-counter sleep aids sleep aids that contain the sedating antihistamine diphenhydramine ( advil PM, Nytol, Sominex, Tylenol PM etc.) may also contribute to unsteadiness, urinary retention and similar host of side effects such as rebound next day sleepiness and cognitive impairment. Older people should be careful with sleeping pills like Ambien. Other side effects may include reflux, next-day memory impairment, dry mouth and dizziness.”1
For those among us who experience occasional insomnia, you may have already tried a plethora of sleeping aids. The story above illustrates some of the dangers of the prescriptions on the market. Drugs such as the benzodiazepines approved as sleep aids, estazolam (ProSom), flurazepam (Dalmane), and temazepam (Restoril) have serious side effects. As with all these medications daytime sleepiness, cognitive impairment, dizziness, unsteadiness, sleep-walking, sleep-driving, memory lapses, and hallucinations have all been reported as a result of sleeping pills. If you have only mild insomnia, relying to heavily on sleeping pills can cause dependency and if abused may worsen your sleeping problems.
There are several non-prescription drugs sold over the counter for sleeplessness which contain the antihistamine diphenhydramine. Brands such as Benadryl, Nytol, Tylenol PM, and Sominex, which block the action of acetylcholine (anticholinergic effect) and are used as a sedative because they causes drowsiness. However, these may also contribute to unsteadiness and urinary retention. There’s also a fairly new drug out called zolpide, a sedative, it’s a inexpensive generic version of the drug Ambien. Generally it’s not prescribed for more than 10 days and is usually taken intermittently as needed to avoid problems with addiction or habituation, loss of effectiveness, and rebound phenomena. “The most common side effects of zolpidem are drowsiness, dizziness, and a “drugged” feeling, which probably reflect the action of the drug. Other side effects include confusion, insomnia, euphoria, ataxia (balance problems), and visual changes.” 1
The difference between drugs and taking an herbal medicinal are both the actions and side effects. Addiction is not a concern with natural medicinals.
Plants used in Chinese herbal medicine have been clinically tested and studies throughout Asia for the past 50 plus years. Their usage goes back to 2nd century. One such medicinal known to have a soothing and calming effect on the body and promote sleep is Spiny jujube or (zizyrus spinosae semen). Spiny jujube has been well documented for use when occasional insomnia is an issue. One study on rats showed spinosae significantly increased the rate of sleep onset and exhibited a synergistic effect with 5-HTP.2 “These results suggest that spiny jujube potentiated pentobarbital-induced sleep via a serotonergic mechanism.” Translation, you sleep without being put into a drug induced state. This herb and others are the answer to a peaceful nights sleep, without all the side effects of prescription or OTC drugs.
References:
1. http://www.mdidea.com/products/new/new029research.html
2. Zolpidem http://www.medicinenet.com/zolpidem/article.htm
3. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez
5. WANG LE, BAI YJ, SHI XR, CUI XY, CUI SY, ZHANG F, ZHANG QY, ZHAO YY, ZHANG YH. Pharmacol Biochem Behav 2008;90(3):399-403. Department of Pharmacology, Peking University, School of Basic Medical Science, 38 Xueyuan Lu, Beijing 100083, China
6. http://www.mdidea.com/products/new/new029research.html
