December 5 2021 by Caroline Siavichay
As the weather is getting colder, our hearths and homes are getting warmer.
While it’s wonderful to finally see friends and families gathering together for some much-needed seasonal cheer, this togetherness brings with it the risk of exposure to many cold and flu viruses. Dean Blumberg, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at UC Davis Children’s Hospital, told the UC Davis Health Newsroom earlier this fall that “We do expect a return to a more normal influenza season this year. It might be even worse because people have not been exposed to influenza recently.” And according to the CDC, the number of reported flu viruses has been increasing in recent weeks.
So what can you do when Aunt Betty’s holiday hugs leave you sniffling, feverish and duvet-bound with no one to kiss on New Years Eve but your pillow?
Luckily, there are some natural remedies that can greatly ease your viral symptoms and have you back on your feet in no time just by putting together things you probably already have on hand.
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If you or anyone in your home cooks on even a semi-regular basis, chances are that you’ve got relief stored right in your cupboards and you may not even realize it. According to Encyclopedia of Herbal Medicine by Andrew Chevallier, FNIMH, there are many herbal home remedies that can easily combat the most devastating symptoms of cold and flu viruses. In fact, Chevallier says that “Herbal home treatment is especially suitable for these familiar ‘self-limiting’ ailments since it enables us to make life more comfortable, control fever, and improve the body’s recovery rate”. So what exactly are these herbs that can deliver us a comfortable and controlled flu season?
Herbs to Stock Your Shelves With
Next time you hit the grocery store, or the next time you are desperately combing through your pantry between sniffles, here are the herbs to keep in mind:
Garlic: Revered for centuries across many different cultures for it’s healing properties, Chevallier says that garlic is “an ideal herbal medicine, being completely safe for home use and a powerful treatment for a host of health problems”. Garlic is particularly useful when it comes to cold and flu season because of its antibiotic and expectorant properties that work as an excellent remedy for all types of respiratory and digestive infections.
Ginger: Ginger is an herb well-known to most since it has been used since the earliest times, from ancient Asia to medieval Europe. Be sure to stock up on plenty of fresh ginger root as winter approaches since it “has antiviral activity and is a first-rate remedy for coughs, colds, flu and other respiratory problems”(Chevallier, 155). It also stimulates sweating, which can help to cool and control a fever.
Lemon: Familiar as it is versatile, lemon is already well known for it’s high vitamin C content. What most don’t realize, however, is just how many benefits it can offer us. Not only does it do things like strengthen the inner lining of our blood vessels and stimulate liver detoxification, but it’s antiseptic and antibacterial properties make it a great choice to treat colds, flus and chest infections.
Thyme: Herbalist Nicholas Culpepper once praised thyme as “a notable strengthener of the lungs, as notable a one as grows; neither is there a better remedy growing for that disease in children which they commonly call chin-cough (whooping cough)”. So whether you’ve come down with “chin-cough” or just a common cold, the antiseptic and tonic properties of thyme will definitely be a great aid to your immune system during an infection of any kind, but particularly during throat or chest infections.
Boneset: While perhaps a less common herb to keep around the house, you will certainly not regret keeping some stashed away. Regarded by both Native Americans and European settlers as a “virtual cure-all”, boneset stimulates resistance to both viral and bacterial infections and encourages sweating to reduce fever. It also loosens and promotes the removal of phlegm through coughing, which makes an ideal choice to treat cold, flu and fever.
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Now that you’ve got a kitchen full of seemingly magical ingredients, how do you get them to help stop your nose from running or your body temperature from rising? While consuming these herbs in regular meals is helpful, knowing how to unlock the full potential of the active ingredients in these herbs can make them much more medicinally powerful. Luckily, we have two simple yet power-packed recipes to share that you can whip up in minutes. While many variations of these recipes have been used by countries all over the world for centuries, these versions have been compiled and approved by Chevallier who is a Fellow of the National Institute of Medical Herbalists (Exeter, UK).
General Remedy Tea
Herbs: garlic, ginger, lemon
Paris well with: online holiday shopping, rewatching favorite movies and catch-up phone calls with old friends
- Crush a medium-sized garlic clove, grate a similarly sized piece of fresh ginger and squeeze the juice from one lemon
- Mix with 1 tsp honey
- Add ¾ cup of warm water
- Stir and drink up to 1 ⅔ cups a day to ease symptoms
Congestion Tea
Herbs: thyme, boneset
Pairs well with: watching Kleenex origami YouTube videos, wearing in your new footie pajamas and directing your spouse where to put the holiday decorations
- Make an infusion (like making a cup of tea) using ½ tsp of thyme ad ½ tsp of boneset with ¾ cup of water
- Drink 1 ⅔ cups – 2 ⅓ cups a day
Home Remedies: Your Body Will Thank You
While there is no replacement for modern medicine such as antibiotics, all of the products that we put into our bodies have the power to greatly affect the state of our bodies.
Imagine you are in a cabin on a cold and snowy night, and you need a strong, blazing fire to keep you warm and safe until sunrise. You have two choices of materials to build that fire with: some hearty wooden logs harvested from the nature around you, or some strips of newspaper you happen to have in the trunk of your car.
If you choose to feed the flames you need to survive with only strips of newspaper, they may burn brightly for a moment, but will just as soon die out in a wisp of smoke and leave you cold, uncomfortable, and stressed about your ability to make it through the night.
However, if you choose to feed your fire with the hearty and substantial logs, you can kindle flames strong enough to outlast the dark hours and see you through howling winds of the night.
Just as you had a choice of how to build your fire when the darkness of night fell, you have a choice of how to fuel your body when the darkness of winter appears, bringing with it the threat of cold and virus.
Just like you could choose to build your fire with the newspaper you happened to have in your trunk, you can choose to feed your body with cans of processed soup and bland, nutritionless crackers you happen to have in your cabinets.
Or, just like you could choose to build that fire with robust natural materials, this year you can choose to fuel your body with nourishing and wholesome natural materials that will keep your fire burning bright all through the long night of winter.
Make the strongest choice. Throw another log on the fire, pour an herbal remedy in your cup and get back to enjoying this holiday season as your most naturally healthy self.
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