No Flu For You! 3 Natural Remedies You Can Do From Home
If you’re anything like me, you despise being sick. I try everything in my power to keep my immune system up and ready to battle bugs that come my way, but at times they can get the best of me. I’m sure you can relate.
If this ends up happening to you this year — especially during these winter months — here are some natural ways to get you back to health as soon as possible!
Echinacea
This flowering plant has been used for centuries as medicine. The roots, stems, leaves, and flowers are used to make supplements, liquid extracts, and teas. This flowering plant has a wide range of benefits for your body - research even shows it increases the number of white blood cells, which helps your body fight infection!
Note that there are different species of echinacea, such as Echinacea purpurea, Echinacea pallida, and Echinacea angustifolia etc. Echinacea purpurea has the best supporting evidence to help with cold/flus, and studies show that echinacea angustifolia and any echinacea “root” have had weakest results. Research shows that liquid forms of echinacea may be prove more effective than capsules.
Echinacea increases the number of white blood cells, which helps your body fight infection!
Also, many say since echinacea stimulates the immune system (which may be helpful when we ARE sick), we should avoid taking it as a precaution because we don’t want to be constantly stimulating our immune system. I believe it's best to stick to this helpful remedy when we are sick to fight it faster.
Herbalists recommend taking echinacea every two to three hours at the first sign of symptoms, and after several days the dose is usually reduced and continued for the following week.
Suggestions:
Or if you’re a DIY kind of girl, here’s an awesome remedy by the Medical Medium himself.
Elderberry
Another flowering plant with various species that has been used for centuries as medicine is elderberry. At sites in Switzerland and Italy, researchers have uncovered evidence that it has been cultivated by prehistoric man. There are also recipes for elderberry-based medications in records dating as far back as Ancient Egypt, where some even had the tincture buried with them. But historians generally trace the recognition of the amazing healing powers of elderberry back to Hippocrates, the ancient Greek known as the “father of medicine,” who described it as his “medicine chest” for the wide variety of ailments it seemed to cure. During the 1995 Panama flu epidemic, the government actually employed the use of elderberry to fight the flu.
Elderberry is most widely used as a delicious tea or syrup, and when it's used within the first 48 hours of onset of symptoms, the extract has actually been found to reduce the duration of the flu with symptoms being relieved on an average of four days earlier.
Suggestions:
Garden Of Life Elderberry Gummies
Or if you’re a DIY kind of girl, here’s an awesome remedy by the Medical Medium himself
Ginger
Ginger is one of my favorite flowering plants, whose rhizome (rootstalk) is widely used as a spice and a folk medicine. It's also one of the oldest cultivated plants currently in existence. Throughout history, it has been prescribed by healers and herbalists to help their patients alleviate a variety of conditions. It's especially helpful for upset stomachs, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, and cold sweats. Some of my favorite ways to consume ginger are drinking ginger tea and fresh ginger juice shots (which is much more potent).
Suggestions:
Traditional Medicinals - Ginger tea
Closing Thoughts
Being sick is NO fun, but I hope these plants help you recover as fast as they’ve helped me! Here’s to a happy and healthy 2019 - let’s make it our best year yet!