My friend has already had a rough winter. What started with a cough in September morphed into bronchitis and then into pneumonia. Even after multiple rounds of antibiotics, here it is almost Thanksgiving and she has puss-filled spots on her tonsils but tests negative for strep, feels worn out, run down, and far from healthy. Another visit to the doctor started her on anti-viral meds but they upset her stomach and gave her constipation.
I told her I thought she needed to nourish, support, and rebuild her body to feel healthy and strong again. She was on the edge of collapse, crying a lot, and generally feeling crappy. I’ve found that sometimes people need to get to the bottom before the wake up and start caring for themselves better. I confess to being there myself at times.
I understand: it’s easy to get depressed when you don’t feel good and haven’t for a long time. Personally, I’ve never found much value in those anti-viral meds, particularly if you don’t start them at the onset of an infection. I wanted to kickstart her off to reclaiming her health naturally, so I gave her the following recommendations:
As an antiviral, prepare and take immediately:
–Garlic tea. Peel and crush several cloves of garlic and place in a mug. Pour in 6-8 oz boiling water and let steep at lest 5 minutes. Squeeze in up to 1/2 fresh lemon juice. Add honey or agave until it tastes pleasing. I like to drink this before bed and let it marinate in my cells overnight. Repeat in the morning, if needed, and as frequently as necessary. I’ve never needed to take it more than 3 times.
To combat the existing viral infection and find some immediate relief from symptoms, I recommended the following protocol to follow several times daily:
–Gargle with warm salt water. Let it bathe and soak sore tonsils. Prepare it as hot as comfortable, but don’t burn yourself.
–Use SinusRinse or a netti pot to rinse your nose with warm salt water at least morning and night, and more if desired. Mix in a little baking soda to make it more comfortable, or just stick with the pre-mixed SinusRinse packets.
For her stuffy nose:
-Homeopathic Sinusin (formerly called Euphorbium) spray as needed
to open nasal passages and reduce swelling (this stuff is like magic!). Use after a sinus cavity rinse.
–Homeopathic hepar sulphur. 4 pills under the tongue before bed and upon rising, if needed.
-Run a humidifier at night.
To nourish her body and rebuild after antibiotics, she should take the following daily:
– Probiotics. We like Good Belly non-dairy probiotic juice, but any probiotics from the refrig case should be fine for daily use. Because she has been on antibiotics, she should take this Primadophilus Intensive course to begin with and rebuild her system.
– Super green nutrients. You can find these as a powder supplement, or as “Supergreen” food or drink. It’s basically a combo of spiralina and other green algae and veggies. 
At our house, we mix some super greens into our Good Belly juice with breakfast every day, especially during this cold and flu season. Our favorite super green liquid is Body Balance, which you must order from an MLM distributor. Odwalla makes a nice Superfood drink, too.
My friend went to the health food store, loaded up, and started taking care of herself that very night. Here is the email she sent me the next morning:
“Just wanted to let you know that i just finished my garlic and lemon tea (and my husband had his), gargling salt water and doing my sinurinse. i can’t believe the difference of today vs. yesterday. thank you so much for all of your advice, it really is working!”
When I spoke to her later that day she emphasized not only that she felt healthier and stronger in less than 24 hours after starting this regimen, but that she felt empowered and optimistic about her health for the first time in months. She continued on to say that her throat, which had pained her for months, already felt better. In fact, she wasn’t sure it was hurting her at all anymore.
“I’ve been waiting around for the antibiotics and the antivirals to work and just getting more and more depressed that I wasn’t getting better. Now I feel like there is something I can do to positively impact my health!”
Excellent! That’s how I started down this path of natural health myself: I wanted to be proactive about my health and know what I could do to help myself have a better life with multiple sclerosis. Being empowered about your health can impact not only how you feel physically, but your mental state, energy level, and positive outlook. Personally, I find it extremely depressing when I feel helpless to effect change, and since my life and body mean the most to me, I choose to take actions that will help me along rather than put all of my faith in an often elusive pharmaceutical “cure.”
We should all take a personal responsibility for our own health, I believe. Power to the people! 🙂
Seafood Watch
for caregivers of flu patients, the most interesting thing I learned was that “some evidence suggests a virus can survive for three days on paper money.”
Wow: a virus can live for 3 days on a piece of paper! I always knew money was dirty, though I think I had assumed it was more coins than bills.
,– on a live video chat. Learn her simple and no fuss ways to create non-toxic holidays – both physically with natural ingredients and mentally with stress reduction tips. 
underneath her tongue. (We actually had to divide it into several doses for her little mouth, but she took them all within 20 minutes.)