fighting off colds and the like

I seem to be sharing this far too often these days, so I thought I would start a thread.

Make sure you stock this stuff ....

fire cider https://amzn.to/3vs4iJ4



Once you get the start of something starting, hit it with a shot of fire cider.  And hit it three times a day if you have to.



ginger juice https://amzn.to/48sqWzA



I make a hot drink that is about a quarter cup of juice combined with hot water and three squirts of stevia https://amzn.to/3SbGrWG





64x elderberry gummies (unsweetened) https://amzn.to/47vUSt6



They made unsweetened elderberry soup and reduced it down to a paste and then made the paste into gummies.

I eat six.  So I guess it is a bit like eating 384 sweetened elderberry gummies.  Tastes okay - and it does not taste like candy.  


Load up on anti-oxidants.  At the top of the list is vitamin C.  Most people just take ascorbic acid, but my understanding is that the ascorbic acid is just part of the full "vitamin C package".  Ascorbic acid is kinda like the suitcase for the real nutrients.  Here is my go to https://amzn.to/3UZOCaA



Freeze dried fruity-bits that are then smashed down into a capsule.


This is the beginning.  There is a lot more to talk about, but I will probably bore the fuck out of you.  The important part is that if you feel like you might be coming down with a bit of something, this is where I suggest starting.

Those are good.  I would add to that:
- a mushroom immune tincture (either homemade or Stamets 7)
- echinacea tincture.  
We take each of those several times per day.  Usually heads off the funk pretty fast.  

I've recently discovered fermented garlic honey. I've been adding that into the fighting off illness rotation.

I made my own fire cider a few weeks ago for the first time. I take half a shot glass in the morning and in the evening. I have a slight cold right now-light cough, plugged on one side, yellow snot, etc. But it doesn't seem to be progressing. It seems to be hanging out at a 2/10 instead of progressing to an 8/10 on the I-feel-like-crap scale. While you can't prove a counterfactual, the stuff seems to be doing it's job by keeping the cold from progressing and getting worse.

Plus, the stuff tastes good.

Thanks Paul.

I really need to make some fire cider - I bet there are really good recipes here in the forums. (Similar threads, I’m coming for you..!)

I’m munching a bunch of my vitamin C in the form of blood oranges at the moment, it’s their season once again and oh how I have waited for them!

Honey is amazing for a sore throat.

The actual cold I’m experiencing at the moment is not too bad (knocking on the wood here) - it’s the fact that my 2,5-year old is sick too and she was waking up constantly last nigh..

Sleep.. I don’t do well without it.

Here's a link to the PEP BB on making fire cider

I just made my first batch, but not enough of the ingredients were home-grown to qualify for the badge. Maybe next time...

This is right up my alley!
I take fire cider and elderberry syrup daily. Lots of homemade chicken broth.
Mullein tea or syrups for the coughs/congestion. Throat comfort tea is great when you get the scratch. Keep the nasals open with saline washes. So many good herbs out there to put to work this season!

I felt like I should contribute to this post as I'm currently in the (hopefully) last few days of a cold/flu-type bout and I seem to be faring a lot better than those around me. I've been:

-Swearing by the ol' lemon and honey hot drink (squeeze 1 fresh lemon into cup/add teaspoon of honey/fill with hot water/drink!)
-Necking this version of Fire Cider: https://www.buchi.com.au/product/buchi-fire-cider/ which uses kombucha as the vinegar base.
-Having ginger in everything (applies to normal life too :) ) and munching on the odd bit of raw garlic.
-I've been eating a ton of red grapes and a bit of super dark chocolate which seems like a  pretty decadent way to be sick but I feel like their antioxi bits and bobs might have helped.  Or maybe this is just a sick person's version of red wine and chocolate indulgence...hmm.

Also, green tea and chamomile tea have both been great for helping with a cough.

I like to take an alternative approach,

Instead of hitting "the bug" with all i've got, and doing my best to stop it, I am now embracing the fact that my body is sending signals that something needs to change.  Instead of focusing too much on treating the symptoms, ive been really trying to figure out what might be the causes.  

Is it possible that by treating the symptoms we might actually, sometimes, be preventing or slowing down the natural detoxification process?

Maybe there is something to the germ theory vs terrain theory? Am I treading on thin ice with this one?  Maybe a topic for the Cider Press?  I have seen how passionate, argumentative, and mean people can get over this.  

I am of the opinion that both are involved, and the trick is in finding the balance.

It has been a major ongoing challenge to figure out what is the best path for me. I am not at all claiming to know the truth.  There are so many nutritional "experts", and a lot of them are steering people towards very harmful directions. This, I think,  is something we can all agree on.  There is so much disinformation to have to sift through, and it has turned into a thick soup of confusion, blocking the view of a healing spring beneath.

Im really starting to believe that, in a certain context,  the body does exactly what it needs to when dealing with stresses and dis-eases.  All too often the store bought "remedies" - even the natural ones - can get in the way of what needs to happen for a recovery, while putting extra stresses on our detoxification organs, such as the liver and kidneys.

So, we look into how to help the liver and kidneys, but then run into all the conflicting information floating around like dross covering the pure spring beneath. But the way to access it is to dive in deep, filter out, and sift through anything blocking the flow.  

Ok, ok, ill stop with the hippy-ish rant, and get to the point.

Here is what I have been doing lately for myself, and this is subject to change based on what my body tells me, and the information ive rejected or accepted.  

- I like to make sure to stay hydrated. But not too much. If my pee is clear I take it as a sign that ive been drinking too much, which is contrary to what most "nutrition experts" say. The cleaner the water the better of course, and what the proper mineral and oxygen levels should be is yet another pool of "it depends."  I think there is also something to what Dr. Gerald Pollack has shown with "Exclusion Zone" water (EZ water), or the 4th phase of water. This can also be associated with "structured water."



- Get enough sleep/rest. Minimizing the stress. I know this is not always possible, especially for somebody like Paul, who is on a relentless mission towards establishing world domination. Sometimes there are more important matters to worry about than a temporary bug, and to get it out of the way ASAP allows the mission to continue without delay. At least in the short term.  But at what long term cost? Maybe the best ROI (return on investment) is to work 60 hrs a week, instead of 100?  At least during the winter, when everything in nature seems to go into a slower and more restful mode?

- Breathing Exercises combined with deliberate Body Movements and Stretches as an (almost) daily morning routine. To help the natural systems in the body flow correctly. The circulatory respiratory, nervous, lymphatic, etc.  To loosen up the increasingly tightening muscles, while strengthening the ones that are heading towards atrophy.  To uncomfortably get to the Core, repeatedly.  

- Minimizing sugar, carbohydrate, caffeine, and alcohol intake. This has been my greatest challenge, especially in the middle of winter when the food options have become so much more scarce.  But I really think that this has a lot to do with why winter time is associated with catching the colds/flu. The body has moved into a vulnerable and imbalanced state because of the lack of one thing, and the over abundance of another.  We aren't getting enough sunshine on our skin, and the bare feet are no longer grounding to the earth. Who the hell wants to put their bare feet onto the frozen ground, anyway? Not me.
Maybe there is opportunity here to design a rocket mass heater powered "earthing station" in a passive greenhouse? A sauna? To help occasionally break out into a sweat, which is in itself a detoxing pathway.

- Addressing Imbalances. This is another controversial topic to tread lightly on.  What helps one person can seriously harm another. What i've been doing for myself is trying to add more Zinc in my diet, and putting on a topical magnesium chloride occasionally.  I like to compare this to a garden. If all the minerals are present in the right balance, then we can create an environment where plants can be completely resistant to pests and diseases.  If there is too much, or too little, of a certain elements, then the diseases and insects that show up can give us a sign of what needs to be changed.  One of my favorite videos about the topic insect and disease resistance comes from one of my favorite Regenerative Ag leaders, John kemp:

Much of this is an echo of what had been said above.   But I will add my two cents.   Ginger is quite astringent and warming.   Cutting up a 1 inch knob and steeping for 15 minutes,  adding lemon and raw honey and optionally a pinch of cayenne is great for sore boggy throats.  Elderberry is great IMO as daily immune support but needs to be hit hot and heavy as soon as you are aware you are sick... like a T every hour or two while awake.   We have a tincture blend with elderberry,  reishi and echinacea for this purpose as well.  Rest, hydration and movement are all important.   Getting outside and getting fresh air perhaps equally so.   Vitamin D, optimally with added vitamin K seems essential during these short days, adding zinc if you are not feeling well.   And,  during the viral onslaught of 2020, we used Sweet Annie (artemesia annua) with excellent effect in the whole family.

+1 for good sleep, no sugar, hydration and grounding.  
Movement is good too, but gosh its hard when you get sluggish.  Getting outside, even if just for a moment, helps everything.

If some diseases go through sneezes, 1) having some appropriate tech for air renewal (so many changes per hour) that keeps the heat indoors would help. Also, 2) do rocket mass heaters give out so much heat that you can also ventilate? Thanks, and sorry if this is a bit off-topic-y.

My sister studied eastern/Chinese medicine and gave me this advice:

Within the first day of feeling a cold coming on, drink a big hot mug of tea made with ginger, lemon, honey, and cayenne. Then take a very warm bath. After your lovely bath, wrap yourself in blankets and take a 2-hour nap and sweat it out (this part can feel gross when you wake up, you should be quite damp and overly warm). Seemed to work for me.

Another method I've been using is the Wim Hof Method. To put it simply - it's a breathing exercise combined with a cold shower that boosts your immunity and reduces inflammation in the body. He has done a number of clinical studies that now back up his method. And frankly, it makes you feel energized and awesome. It's great for dealing with the winter blues.

My most recent cold (that I got from my brother who has been dealing with it for weeks), I combined the two methods with some fire cider and the cold was very mild (2/10?) and lasted only 5 days or so. So not total magic, but LOADS better than my past 15 colds.

another cold killer not mentioned is 3% hydrogen peroxide, at start of cold or flue runny nose sneezing etc
spray a bit in each ear  every couple of hours or so, more if needed

has twice stopped a nasty dose of flue for me in last year or so

also can spray a bit into throat, kills all know germs

check out some websites for full instructions

peter

also check out my free living for life webpage

for details

http://thegreenmanhotel.org/vipss/

sunny south of Europe

peter hall wrote:

also check out my free living for life webpage

for details

http://thegreenmanhotel.org/vipss/

sunny south of Europe

Welcome to Permies!

Feel free to post about your project in our Intentional Community forum! People who are looking for and creating intentional communities frequent that space

thanks for the heads up Timothy

appreciated
peter

Highly recommend elecampane tincture. It’s a specific plant well known for for respiratory illness recovery. Just a couple drops in a tablespoon of water, a few times a day will do. As with all remedies and medicines, don’t overdo. It takes a few days to make a big difference, but if you have an upper respiratory or bronchial cold will probably start feeling better right away, especially when paired with using salt water in a Netti pot each morning. A quarter teaspoon salt to a 1 cup netti  pot full of lukewarm water. Feel better everybody!

I second everything Jenni says!
I make my own Elecampane tincture. Excellent for lung issues along with neti potting. Keeps everything fresh, clean & flowing.
A big one for me in staying healthy is getting out of my warm house & out into the cold crisp air for a walk or yard work. Any lung or sinus stuff I’m feeling is so relieved in the cold.
And turn your heat way down at night. Best to sleep in a cool/cold room.

A congestion in the body which ends up being a cold is caused from over production of toxins and mucus due to eating a clogging diet.  Fasting, even intermittent fasting can help the body detox daily so it doesn’t build up.  Staying hydrated with salt water helps with the continual detox process also.  Paul has great ideas in the first blog and all of that is great to end it early on, but if you do the fasting and eat a cleansing diet with not much starches and/or refined sugars, you probably won’t get the cold to begin with.   It doesn’t matter how much remedy you take if you don’t get the hydration going on to flush the toxins not of the body, and you can’t digest or process them well if you are dehydrated anyway.  Lots of fluids, lemon juice, etc.

I'm too lazy to make tinctures or any remedy that require many ingredients.
Shot of Sambuca before going to sleep (spreads warmth and heat from within), feels good, and diy syrup made from infused cooking onions in honey.

Speaking of hydration. Everyone who takes regular or high doses of Vit C be sure to drink lots of water. Drink more than you feel you need. As a nurse I've seen cases of people with acid crystals in their kidneys from being dehydated while supplementing with Vit C. Also, some things (coffee, commercial soda, asperagus, dandelion, perscribed water pills) pull water out of the body. Be sure to drink good old water in addition to all the teas etc.

Beau M. Davidson wrote:Movement is good too, but gosh its hard when you get sluggish.  Getting outside, even if just for a moment, helps everything.

True that!  Especially when it turns into a lifestyle of sitting behind a computer screen for most of the day.  

A daily body-care routine can make a huge difference.  Not just for those who don't use they're bodies enough, but also for those who do excessive physical activity.  

If it wasn't for my wife Id be in a lot worse condition than I am now.  My lower back would hurt every morning, a lot of my muscles were increasingly becoming tighter, and my core was embarrassingly weak.  She really helped me get into a daily early morning practice.  Usually we do about an hour pre-dawn session, but sometimes opt for only 30 minutes, or even just 15. The main thing is to do it (almost) everyday, sluggish feeling or not.  

To turn the practice into a habit.  

It took a good 6 months, but now my daily lower back pain has gone away completely, and the core is way stronger.  

Im enjoying reading a lot of the solutions shared here.  It is nice to be familiar with natural remedies to help ease the suffering. The symptoms can be super sucky.  

A couple points one, likely the best cold prevention is to avoid those nasty, dirty animals most likely to spread a cold to you--other humans. Okay, that doesn't work for you? Well--
People have recommended echinacea, lemon, fire juice, vitamin C, elecampane, garlic, onions, hydrogen peroxide, sweating, stretching, fasting, zinc, ginger--what have I left out? Well here's my theory--nothing is more powerful than the placebo effect. This is why those trying out new medications do double blind studies--because half the people will get better (from whatever) just on the placebo effect (not to mention the body healing itself while you're messing around with curatives, to which you then assign credit)--so the question the study asks is, how many MORE people in the active group got better than those in the control group?
But the way the human mind works, you can't just say, fine, I'll take a placebo three times a day, I'll just state "I am not going to get this cold"--that doesn't work. We need a PEG to hang that belief on. "I am not going to get this cold because I'm taking echinacea three times day." Or "...because I'm drinking fire juice." Or "...because I did this really powerful spell, with all the right words and the correct feathers."
Vitamin C never worked for me but I used garlic for years effectively; then I tried echinacea and that worked better, three times out of four; I grow echinacea for its beauty so I made my own tincture, which worked well for years but I decided I needed a new batch, and the new batch doesn't taste bad so I fear I made it too weak. But maybe,,,what really happened is that when I tried Vitamin C a couple times, I hit the one time out of four it didn't work so then I no longer believed in it; when I tried garlic the first few times I hit the effective times so I continued to believe in it. Same with echinacea. In other words, if it happens that when you try a preventive that the cold you're trying to fight off already has you firmly in its grip, then the placebo effect and whatever actual effect the item has are insufficient and you get the cold. Then there's the element someone above mentioned--maybe you need the cold, to flush out toxins, to get away from your job/school/family, to sleep a lot and symbolically float in the ocean. And...maybe sometimes that's true, and other times the germs are making purchase but you can fend them off and get on with your program.

Hello permies,
   All excellent information listed here. I carry homeopathic ColdCslm with me at all times. When I feel the least bit of a cold coming on I take one tablet, let it dissolve under my tongue. It relieves my symptoms nearly immediately. If they return I repeat. Homeopathic medicine does not interact with any other medication & stimulates the body's own natural healing. Altho it is not something I can make, I'm grateful I can buy it. Nearly all of colds that come along, this relieves before they take hold. If it doesn't relieve my symptoms right away, I begin taking Oreganol. This is wild harvested oregano oil that is already diluted in olive oil, it comes in liquid or capsules. One capsule twice a day wipes out any cold or flu. It's antibiotic, antiviral & anti fungal. It can clear up a urinary tract infection also. I have used the liquid topically for warts & athlete's foot as well.
  Stay well.

Couple years ago I had an upcoming surgery and couldn't take anything for the cold I thought I was getting. I made a tea out of fresh parsley, pine needles (very high in vitamin C) and a little ginger juice. I stayed healthy enough for the surgery and because I really enjoy the way it tastes I still drink it when I think I'm coming down with a cold or worse.

Arthur Wierzchos

IMHO you really nailed it!!

I, too, have come to the realization, nature knows best how to treat what ails us, and the symptoms we experience are the body’s expression of it’s ongoing efforts to ‘take care of business’. Our ‘business’ is to find ways to support the body to better do its thing. I've also come to think seasonal flu (and, perhaps colds, too) may be Nature installing periodic 'system (software) updates' in order to accommodate prevailing environmental conditions, both internal and external

Methinks the things you’ve “been doing lately for myself” are at the top of the list of living a healthy lifestyle. Indeed, what I’ve found to deal with my ‘ailments’ relate mostly to lifestyle issues.

Just a few things to add to the list
- Go on an elimination ‘diet’ (not just food). Get rid of as much toxic gick as we can such as is found in our: food, water, air, earth, chemical laden products (go pooless !), harmful EMF’s, information and entertainment, attitudes, allopathic medicine related to chronic conditions (which largely suppress the body’s ‘symptoms’) - be in loving harmony with life vs. ‘at war’ with so-called invaders
- Engage in joyful creativity, do those things we’re passionate about, take responsibility for our health and well-being (we ARE the prime movers insofar as our healing goes), work up a sweat everyday (so the body’s largest organ - the skin - can better ‘express’ the debris it’s trying to get rid of)

I’d also like to highly recommend Amandha Vollmer (ADV) as a remarkable source of health and well-being information - she’s become my go-to health care advisor - I can safely say I learn something new and valuable every time I watch her videos and read her blog posts
- Check out her Yummy.Doctor website  - https://yummy.doctor
- She has hundreds of freely available “Public Videos” and blog posts as well as offering more services for members of her PMA (private member association)

BE WELL - live long a prosper