Cold and flu season happens every year. It truly kicks off when all of the kids go back to school and does not let up until spring. Without taking preventative action, these viruses can be passed around your workplace, home, or school throughout the rest of the winter and even into spring.
First, we need to identify what we are dealing with. The common cold and the influenza viruses have similar symptoms but should be treated differently for faster results. Mostly these colds start with a virus (some sort of “itis”). If your body is slow to move the infected mucus out, only then a secondary infection which is bacterial can develop.
STEP 1: Prevention
- If you hear a cough or sneeze, take action to protect yourself.
⁃ Do not touch your face, food, phone, or pencil until you wash your hands.
⁃ Carry a small container of coconut oil with anti-viral essential oils in it. Use that on the fly to wash your hands.
⁃ Raw garlic, cut up a clove, let sit 10 minutes, take like a pill.
⁃ Supplement with zinc for Immune support.
⁃ Eat lots of fresh vitamin C rich foods.
STEP 2: Put a name on it.
COLDS come on slow; dominating symptoms are located in the chest, neck, and head.
- With a cold, you will be able to get away with going about your regular day with some rest needed in between. Eat regularly, adding in organic pineapple, chicken bone broth, and mushrooms. Remove coffee, cheese, milk, pork, eggs, and nuts.
The FLU hits fast and hard; Symptoms will dominate your whole body, with tender muscles, fever, and even bone pain.
- If you have the flu, clear your schedule and go to bed. Do not pass go, do not collect $100 dollars. Go directly to bed. If it is hard to rest take hot showers and bundle yourself up after to hold in the heat. Drink lots of warm beverages and broths to induce sweating. Your body will create a fever to help cook the virus out. You can assist in the process by inducing a good sweat. If you wake up wet, get another hot shower and change into dry clothes, drink more hot beverages, and bundle back up. If your face is flushed and you feel too hot, then eat some pineapple to cool off.
Secondary Bacterial Infection: Hit some all natural antibiotics. Try doubling your probiotic dosage, or add in echinacea (purchase flower, stem, and root ingredients), Blow your nose, spit out stuff, keep the mucus moving. There will probably be a lot more symptoms unique to you, or unique to the strain of virus going around. I usually get stomach aches from all of the mucus running down my throat into the digestive tract. The key is to pinpoint the dominating factors, decide cold or flu, and treat appropriately. It is easy to figure out what you have, just by paying attention.
If you are chronically catching a cold or the flu, then it is time for some serious action. This means your immune system is either not supported and worn out, or that it is working very hard on an underlying disease. If this is you, reach out to us at Fast Track to Health.
STEP 3: Rest.
- Lighten up your schedule until you feel better. Go ahead, let the laundry pile up, let the house be messy, and let yourself off the hook.
STEP 4: Kill it.
- Bromelain:
◦ The magic of chicken broth. Find the highest quality chicken broth in the store and drink up. OR find a person that loves you to make some homemade broth from the carcass of a roasted chicken.
◦ PINEAPPLE! Bromelain is also in pineapple, If you are hot or have a cough this stuff is amazing. Plus it is full of Vitamin C, a potent virus assassin.
- Vitamin C
◦ This vitamin penetrates the cell walls of viruses and neutralizes their ability to replicate. Thus the population can no longer reproduce and the illness ceases when those cells die.
◦ Eat foods high in Vitamin C. Lemons, guava, currants, fresh oranges, grapefruits, kiwis, peaches, clementines, pineapple, bell peppers, and elderberries.
◦ Rose hip tea is also very high in vitamin C.
- Mushrooms:
◦ These guys are truly powerful medicine. Shiitake mushrooms are easily found in most grocery stores. They work with your Killer T cells to more potently kill viruses and even dominate tumors. Immensely powerful for immune support.
- Anti-Viral, anti-microbial, and anti-bacterial herbs to add to your broth or tea
◦ Star Anise, fenugreek, sage, thyme, honey, licorice root.
◦ Raw Garlic. Chop up 1 clove and allow it to sit 10 minutes. Then swallow like a pill. Easy peasy.
- Diffuse essential oils and/or rub those swollen lymph nodes.
◦ Eucalyptus, Thyme, Lemon, Pine