Immune Health

It is the beginning of December and many people are walking around with sniffles, gunk in the throat, and nagging coughs. I thought I would share somethings I have found effective for keeping cold bugs away, and fighting them if the need should arise. I assist in managing a small health and natural supplement store. Daily customers come in asking what they can take to get rid of whatever they or a family member has lurking in their body.

My first line of defense is cut out homogenized and pasteurized dairy, white sugars, artificial sweeteners, juices in a bottle or carton, white flour, white rice, and high fructose corn syrup. Processed dairy will create excess mucous, harms the digestive tract by unbalancing our flora/good bacteria, then weakens our immune defenses. Processed sugars weaken us as well.

 Include lots of fresh raw vegetables, especially dark leafy greens. Hot teas, especially ginger, pau d'arco, turmeric, tulsi, and astragalus are very healing. Sweeten them with raw honey. Eat soups made from real bone broths like free range organic chicken and turkey. Throw all sorts of veggies in the soups, organic meats from animals that ate properly are fine.

Keep fresh garlic and fresh ginger on hand. I'll discuss why more so in the video below. Ginger breaks up the yucky mucous. Chew small pieces of it throughout the day. Garlic has natural antibiotic properties when it is RAW. Cooked garlic doesn't contain it. Chop up a clove into small pieces and swallow it like a pill with water.

As far as supplements I recommend Barleans or Herb Pharm olive leaf extract since it is an anti-viral plus antibacterial and Herb Pharm black elderberry extract. These extracts are also called tinctures. The way you take these is to just put a little bit of water into a glass, put a dropper full of the tincture into the glass, and drink it down. Health Force Nutritionals Truly Vitamin C is also a necessity. This is the ONLY vitamin C I can honestly recommend right now. No, not all are the same. Ascorbic acid runs through the urine, and can deplete our bodies of other needed vitamins. Most supplements contain the ascorbic acid.

 I also suggest making sure you have enough real vitamin D in your body. Get in the sun as much as possible without sunscreen. Note though that this time of year on the East coast we DO NOT get enough D from the sun as we need. You have to supplement. The best supplement I've found is Green Pastures Fermented Cod liver oil. When you ferment cod liver oil it keeps all of the natural properties in tact, especially the vitamin D. Be sure any D supplement you choose that it is D3 and the cholcalciferol version. Bluebonnet has decent D3 drops.

Check out the video below for a hot drink that I make to fight infections going on in the body, especially colds.